I think I would be better off with with a beam instead of sound bar if I went that route. But I would prefer to use my existing front wall speakers L C R vs a bar 

The Beam is a sound bar, it contains L, C and R in a single enclosure, the same as the Other Sonos sound bars.

Sonos does not provide a solution that allows you to have a discreet third party speaker as center. The sound bars, as previously explained, have all three, but if you choose to use a Sonos Amp to drive the Right and Left channels, it creates a ‘phantom’ center channel, as you’ve indicated.

Nor does Sonos support a home theater system with 7.1 speakers at all. The best they do is 5.1, which requires the use of a sound bar.

I suspect for your specific needs, Sonos is not your solution. 

Sorry, let me address your questions specifically.

1. Many people have had great success with the ‘phantom’ center channel provided by the Amp.
2. Up to you.
3. No, any extra ‘rooms’ grouped with the home theater will incur an additional delay of around 75 ms.
4. I would certainly consider this route. My favorite remains the oldest sound bar in the lineup, the PLAYBAR, due to its wider soundstage, in my ears. Your mileage may vary.
5. Depends on what network you want to set up. Is everything on the SonosNet network, or will everything hang odd your own Wi-Fi signal?  It also depends on the distances involved, absorption profiles of your walls, etc. There isn’t a hard answer to this, there’s only ‘it depends’.
6. Hard to know. We know even less about your setup than you do. If it’s overly complex, it may be worth hiring an installer to help work through the issues with you. 

DelawareDawg,

1&2): If your L/R speakers are close to the TV and image well, a Center channel speaker is redundant. As Airgetlam notes, SONOS does not support 7.1.

3): If you have one of the bars or use AMP in surround mode, the latency is shorter and you can force the other rooms to be time aligned with the bar or AMP by adjusting its lip sync -- at the potential cost of less than optimal lip sync with the video. Note, however, that sound is pokey and only travels at about one foot per millisecond. This means that a more distant speaker always seems delayed relative to a nearby speaker. Further, an observer standing next to the distant speaker will claim that your speaker is delayed -- and you will both be correct. The SONOS Line-In latency is usually not an issue unless you can hear multiple rooms from a single location. If you Group SONOS rooms, they will be time aligned within 2ms (two feet).

4): If you want 7.1 or Dolby Atmos, SONOS is not the solution for you. You can use PORT to tie the SONOS system into the A/V receiver. Using PORT as input to the receiver will result in time aligned output relative to the SONOS rooms -- unless the receiver adds processing delays.

5): If all of the SONOS units are piled together in the basement, wire them to a network switch. You will not need any wireless coverage for the SONOS players. Your WiFi will support the SONOS controller APPs. If you are still using CR200 controllers, you would need SonosNet, but I doubt if CR200 will be viable much longer.

6): Why do you want to dump the receiver in the basement? If it is because of your difficulty understanding the dialog, I suspect that the center channel speaker is not good enough or the receiver dialog channel is mis-configured or cannot be configured for “dialog lift”.

Thank you for your answers, the follow-up question is interesting.  I ONLY had the receiver in the basement because 10 years ago, that was the only way I could set up my Contol4 with HDMI input, while the rest of my house was on analog to the 12 zones.  I was NOT able to sinc my family  room (which has the surround sound) so they were always independant.    

I can live without the 7.1    I really want to make Sonos work, because I do not want to be hostage to a computer programmer for another Contol4 system.   I could keep going on the receiver option for the TV and hook up another Sonos Port to my receiver and use that as an input when I want whole-house music to include the family room.

And thank you for your time to respond to me, it is greatly appreciated.  I know what I’m asking is not a slam dunk solution.  

Are you currently using SONOS CONNECT(s) as input(s) to the Control4 system? If so, adding PORT as an input to the receiver would be a quick way to add SONOS to the Living Room. Actually, a simple analog Y-cable or a digital to digital connection from a CONNECT output as input to the receiver might be appropriate.

Check your receiver configuration options for a “Dialog Lift” or equalizer options. You might be able to improve the center channel with some adjustments.

Adding another input to the receiver will impact the Control4 program, however, replacing an input formerly used by a CD or DVD player might be an option.

Before long that receiver and the HDMI cable between it and the TV will become anchors due to evolving HDMI and TV technologies.

I am using a connect right now in my house and I change which rooms it plays in like the old fachion telphone operators, I unplug and plug into whichever zone I want from my 12 zone amp.  I suppose I could do a Y from it into my receiver then set up my Harmony report to flip to that when I want to listen to music.  That’s a good option.   My Control4 is dead, what I have is what I have been living with for awhile since it died.  I’ve been playing around trying to figure out the next best option which keeps me in control.  Control4 is such a horrible name, because you have no control over it...always have to have a service call to do anything to it.   Once again, thanks for the input…. Y-Input that is.

I assume that your Control4 amplifier is a six room stereo unit. It would be a grand spider’s nest of Y-cables, but you could send CONNECT to all of the Control4 inputs. (This is pushing CONNECT a bit, but they are hardy units.) Unless you have some means of individual room Volume controls, this is not a great scheme.

Obviously, you could use one CONNECT or PORT per room and have full control of each room.

There is also a device called a “distribution amplifier” that would be much neater than a mess of Y-cables. A Rane DA216S would do the job, but Volume control would be manual. And this unit would likely be a puzzle for you get your head around. Here is an easier to understand and connect unit, but it only has five stereo outputs and no gain controls.

My Control4 is dead…. RIP Control4   My future solution will be either only Sonos or Sonos + Receiver.