Hey everyone,
I recently moved into a "luxury" apartment that came pre-wired with a Sonos Amp inside the utility closet, powering two passive ceiling speakers in the living room.
I just bought a Sonos Arc Ultra for the TV. Because of the layout, I managed to hardwire both the Arc and the Amp via Ethernet.
Here is my issue:
The "Default / Surround" Method (Sounds Terrible): If I set my Apple TV to default "Receiver Speakers" (so audio goes through the HDMI eARC port to the Arc) and use the Sonos app to bond the Amp/Ceiling speakers as Surrounds, the audio completely dies. The system sounds incredibly flat, dull, and completely neutered.
The "AirPlay" Method (Sounds Great, but a hassle): If I go into my Apple TV settings and manually route the audio via AirPlay to both the Arc Ultra and the Amp at the same time, the room fills with sound and it sounds incredible and punchy. (Note: In this AirPlay setup, the Sonos Arc and the Amp are kept as two completely separate systems/rooms in the Sonos app, not connected through surround sound). But doing this means the Apple TV remote won't control the volume properly, and it drops the connection every time the TV turns off.
My Current Setup: Right now, my best workaround is just using the Sonos Arc Ultra alone via HDMI as the default receiver speakers. It sounds good by itself, but it feels like a massive waste that I can't actually utilize the pre-installed ceiling speakers with the Amp without ruining the soundstage or dealing with AirPlay bugs.
I know ceiling speakers aren't "ideal" rear surrounds, but why does bonding them make the whole system sound so quiet compared to just grouping them?
Is there a hidden setting to make the Surround configuration sound as full and loud as the AirPlay group, or should I just keep them as two separate rooms in the app and group them manually?
Appreciate any advice from anyone who has dealt with these pre-wired apartment setups!
