I'm considering buying a Sonos Beam and at least two Sonos Ones (possibly four). My aim is to get the best set up for TV viewing and be able to also have a stereo setup for music.



Is it possible to have a setup where the beam is only used for TV and the Ones for Music?



Yes. You'd essentially be setting up 2 different virtual rooms in the same physical room.





Is it possible to have a setup where the beam does the center channel and the ones do the left and right for TV viewing?





No.





Is it possible to have a setup where the beam does the center channel and the ones do the left and right front and rear for TV viewing?





No. You can use the Ones for rear surrounds only,for a home theatre setup. Also, the mics on the Sonos Ones are automatically turned off when used as surround speakers with a Beam. So other then aesthetic looks, there is no advantage in using Sonos Ones instead of Play:1s for surround speakers with a Beam.





Is it possible to have the above options setup and be able to switch to a stereo configuration for music e.g. Spotify?

Can you easily (automatically) switch between configurations?





When you have a beam setup with surrounds speakers, you can set it so that the rear speakers play full stereo when using a music source. When the source is tv audio, the rear speakers will always act as surround.





Is there any value to having a beam with two play ones along side at the front? Is it better or worse then two play ones for a music biased setup?





That's debatable. You can't use those 2 front speakers when playing tv audio (it will have a slight delay, creating an echo effect), only with music. You would get better stereo separation, but you already get a lot when using the rear speakers as stereo. Plus there is Trueplay tuning to consider. Since you essentially have 2 virtual rooms, you can't tune it all as one. And again, having 2 virtual rooms in one physical room means it's a little more complicated to manage.





Essentially I'm looking for a TV mode and a Music mode if that makes any sense?



My opinion, forget about the 2 front Sonos Ones. Your money is better spent in either adding a sub or switching out the Beam for a playbar or playbase. Or just try out a Beam + 2 play:1s for 45 days and return if you don't like it.

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Thanks for your answers they are really helpful. I have considered the playbar however it's size and the fact that it doesn't have HDMI ARC were factors that were discouraging me.

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I seem off the beaten path but I would like my Sonos ones to play the same sound, not background ambient sounds, as my Beam. Is there a way to do this. Yes, it is currently set up as surround?

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For music, yes, for TV, no.

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