Question

Connecting Sonos Amp to 4 speakers- will it reduce quality of sound?

  • 27 November 2016
  • 0 replies
  • 938 views

Hello Everyone,

I am new to Sonos. I just purchased a Sonos Connect music streaming device yesterday and connected it to my 28 year old Sony GX60ES Receiver and I am thrilled with being able to stream all my music from my iPhone! It works extremely well!

However, I have a few questions about my speaker set up with 4 speakers and whether or not I should keep the Sony GX60ES receiver or switch to a Sonos Connect AMP.

Below are the details:

I just purchased 2 Bowers and Wilkins ceiling speakers to put into the kitchen ceiling. Here are the specs for the speakers:

Bowers & Wilkins - CCM 683 8" 2-Way In-Ceiling Speakers (Pair)
RMS Power 130 Watts
impedance8 ohms
Peak Power Handling130 watts
Minimum Frequency Response35 hertz
Maximum Frequency Response50 kilohertz
Sensitivity88 decibels


My plan is to have these 2 ceiling speakers hard wired to my 28 year old Sony GX60ES Receiver that has power output 100 watts per channel into 8 ohms and frequency response 5-50 hz, (speaker load impedance 4-16 ohms).

I also have 2 small bookshelf Polk speakers (8 ohms) that I plan to hard wire to the Sony GX60ES Receiver, which will give me a total of 4 speakers hard wired to the Sony GX60ES Receiver, all connected to the Sonos Connect music streaming device.

However, I have a few issues with the Sony GX60ES Receiver. When it is on, it has a low hum that comes through the speakers. The hum does not get louder when you increase the volume, nor does the hum go away when you disconnect all inputs from the back of the receiver. The hum has been there for over a decade and has been present in different houses in different cities and many different settings. The receiver also has an on/off switch that is a little finicky, because sometimes you have to push the switch 5-10 times for it to turn on. But I think I can live with these two problems if the Sony GX60ES is going to be equally as good or better than the Sonos Connect Amp for my 4 speakers.

So my first question is whether or not I keep this Sony receiver or get a Sonos AMP? The Sony GX60ES was an expensive receiver 28 years ago and I assume it adequately handles the power requirements of my 2 new ceiling speakers and 2 older bookshelf speakers?

I like the Sonos Streaming device so much that I am now thinking about replacing the Sony GX60ES receiver with a Sonos Connect Amp, which is a 110 Watt Class D Amplifier. From what I understand, the Sonos Connect Amps are generally for only 2 speakers, but some people say you can connect four speakers to it in parallel as shown in the diagram below. But I am concerned the quality of sound will not be as good as the Sony or some other amplifier that is specifically designed to handle four speakers.

Question 1: Keep the Sony GX60ES and attach all 4 speakers because sound quality will be equal to or better than the Sonos Amp connected to 4 speakers?
Question 2: Buy the Sonos Connect Amp and attach all four speakers in parallel as shown below because sound quality will be better than the Sony GX60ES?
Question 3: Replace the Sony GX60ES with a new receiver specifically designed to handle 4 speakers? If so, can you recommend one?
Question 4: Buy 2 Sonos Connect Amps so I will have 2 speakers to each AMP? Will that be sound than 4 speakers to only one Sonos AMP? But I do not need different volumes for the speakers nor do I need different zones for the 4 speakers.

https://www.sonos.com/graphics/rn/FAQ269/connect_amp-4_speakers.png

Thanks,

Vivaldi

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