Who pre-ordered the new Sonos AMP and what are your plans for it?


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I'm a little surprised pre-orders opened up and nobody is taking about it 🙂 Delivery by Dec 3rd according to Sonos which is awesome.
I'm currently using a Beam and two Sonos Ones for rears and two stereo HomePods for music in the living room and bedroom as well as smart speakers for Homekit etc.
I was planning on buying a Sonos sub tomorrow since they will be on sale for $599. I'm not sure if I will do that now since I am getting the Amp so soon and can use any sub so there seems to be little advantage to the Sonos sub.
The Elacs are on sale right now so I could get tower speakers and sub from them for $669 from Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07B4WFWZF/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DL7XWBZ/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1
I will continue to use the Sonos Ones as rears.
Any thoughts on any of that? Any advantage to buying a Sonos sub for the app? I can't think of one.
What are other peoples plans for the Amp?

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113 replies

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Out of curiosity, how do you find switching sound between TV and Music? I remember with my playbar (long time ago), Volume levels between music and TV were very different. Switching to TV required volume to be turned up as the audio was much lower than when playing music. Do you find the same with the sonos amp?Cheers


Switching sound between tv and music is the same.
I play a lot of music and I'm a big fan of stereo separation so the Beam or the Playbar/Playbase would have never been good enough for music for me. Most of the time I had the Beam I also had two stereo paired Homepods in the living room for music. I didn't like using the rears Sonos Ones for music.
Once I realized I could easily turn off the rear Sonos Ones in the app I had the perfect combination for music and Home Theater.
As far as TV dialog goes I like stereo separation for that too. These speaker are very precise and detailed and that extends to TV dialog as well. Dialog enhancement works about half as well as it does with the Beam but I rarely have that turned on.
I use Airplay 2 on the Sonos AMP for multi-room music with as mix of Homepods and Sonos Ones and also for Roon/Tidal. I also subscribe to Pandora and Apple Music so have three music services to choose from and they all have Apple TV apps or I can Airplay from their individual apps.



Out of curiosity, how do you find switching sound between TV and Music? I remember with my playbar (long time ago), Volume levels between music and TV were very different. Switching to TV required volume to be turned up as the audio was much lower than when playing music. Do you find the same with the sonos amp?

Cheers
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I play a lot of music and I'm a big fan of stereo separation so the Beam or the Playbar/Playbase would have never been good enough for music for me. Most of the time I had the Beam I also had two stereo paired Homepods in the living room for music. I didn't like using the rears Sonos Ones for music.
Once I realized I could easily turn off the rear Sonos Ones in the app I had the perfect combination for music and Home Theater.
As far as TV dialog goes I like stereo separation for that too. These speaker are very precise and detailed and that extends to TV dialog as well. Dialog enhancement works about half as well as it does with the Beam but I rarely have that turned on.
I use Airplay 2 on the Sonos AMP for multi-room music with as mix of Homepods and Sonos Ones and also for Roon/Tidal. I also subscribe to Pandora and Apple Music so have three music services to choose from and they all have Apple TV apps or I can Airplay from their individual apps.
Userlevel 7
@SOCalistic

I know the music sounds better with your new speakers; but how are you liking the TV audio compared to what you were getting with the Beam? Details please.

You might also think about starting a conversation post relating your experience with the Beam vs your current speaker setup. If you do....be sure to put in a disclaimer regarding your speakers vs the 1000's on the market as everyone's exepreince will not be the same as yours. In that way you possibly negate the noop from replying... "well you said this" :8

Cheers!
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One of the things about these speakers that I liked is they are a semi-glossy black that matches the sub almost perfectly 🙂 Sound quality was first but I do care about how things look too.
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Yes I'm still thinking about that 🙂
Userlevel 7
Here is my final setup. I bought Revel Concerta 2 M16 speakers. $450 each. Great sound.

Hi

Saw your semi-final setup...Awesome! I said semi-final because you mentioned getting a TT? :8

Cheers!
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I Don’t like treble so chose speakers that are known to be warm. Plus I knocked the treble down by about a third in the amp. It sounds great 🙂
Looks fantastic for sure 🙂. Do you find it sounds bright and in need of significant treble reduction? I don't have personal experience but a number of online reviews suggest this. Is it really so?
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Here is my final setup. I bought Revel Concerta 2 M16 speakers. $450 each. Great sound.
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I would be using it with the amp and third party speakers.
Userlevel 7
Yes, you can order the Pro-Ject Carbon Debut from Sonos as an accessory. Compared to the Rega Planar 3 it comes with a built-in pre-amp; not to mention $500 in savings :8 Honestly, I don't think my old ears could discern $500 difference in audio with the Play 5's.
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Really interesting. Can you order the turntable by itself?
I’m thinking of a Rega Planar 3 which is also gloss black.
Userlevel 7
I finally got my Pro-Ject Debut Carbon Sonos Edition (Black) and 2nd Sonos Amp up and running. Now my vinyl collection is back in full swing.🆒 If you are considering doing the same; but not using 3rd party speakers, you'll want to setup the Sonos Amp as follow:

1. Set up Sonos Amp named as a room (I chose Sonos Amp as It's already in a room).
2. Connect your turntable to Sonos Amp RCA Line-in
3. Under room settings for the Sonos Amp go to: Advanced Audio > Line in Source Name and select "Turntable"
4. At Line-in Source Level select "Level 10"
5. At Autoplay Room select a room with a Sonos speaker or stereo pair (I chose Family Room)
6. Turn-on "Use Autoplay Volume" and set level at no more than 25% to right_ so as not to blow your speakers when Turntable starts
7. Click "Done"
8. Place your vinyl on your turntable and enjoy:)
9. In the Sonos App select the room in Step 5 to control Level/Pause/Play/Stop

Note: The level/Pause/Play controls on Sonos Amp will not work in this configuration

I've included pictures of my setup. The Play 5's are the "Autoplay" speakers with white sub. The Playbar and black sub are dedicated to HT with Play 3 surrounds (not shown).

Cheers!




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Yeah I'm feeling pretty satisfied.
Userlevel 7
Cool 🆒
Userlevel 5
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This is my setup for now.
Elac B6 2.0 which I will replace with some tower speakers when I figure out what I want.
Sony X930E 55 inch TV.
Sanus TV stand which I really like.
https://www.sanus.com/en_US/products/furniture/afv48/
Sonos AMP in the center
Apple TV 4K which is my source for all content, no cable.The app recommended putting the sub in this location. It also asked me how far the rears are from my sitting position.
That's useful since one is closer to me than the other.
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I'm a little surprised nobody mentioned it but you can turn off the rears within the app and I don't mind manually going to 2.0 on the Apple TV. This solves my issue of having stereo sounds form the AMP for music. I only turn on the surrounds now when listening to a 5.1 movie.
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[/b]Go ahead and bond the rears to the Sonos Amp. When listening to music all you need do is go into the Sonos app under room settings for the Sonos Amp and do one of two things:
Option 1. Place the rears on ambient for music (although you will still get a phantom sound)
Option 2. Do Option 1 and lower the volume level (push all the way to the left when listening to music)
Option 2 has the advantage of always keeping the rears at the ready for movies 🙂 (i.e. eliminates the vicious cycle of bonding for movies, un-bonding for music and re-bonding for movies and so on and so on…whew :P)


Thanks, that works pretty well. Still not quite what I want but it's the closest i can get.
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I connected the Sonos One rears today and moved things around a little. Sounds great for home theater and music which is just what I wanted but wasn't quite getting with the Beam, Sub, and rear One's.
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One of the reviews says it’s the most flexible product Sonos has made. Pretty fun 🙂
Userlevel 7
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A richer sound for sure. The dacs have always been decent. But your taking 2011 tech to 2018.
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Other than probably some additional volume to the speakers - I don't think outside your going to notice anything from a sound quality perspective.

There must be a better dac in there and also more power equals a fuller richer sound in my experience not just more volume.
That's why this product existed.
https://wyred4sound.com/products/upgrades-and-mods/sonos-connect-modified
I'm sure the new AMP just killed the market for this item though.
Userlevel 7
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Further playing in my smaller bar room it is night and day difference connect:amp to Sonos Amp.
Userlevel 6
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Other than probably some additional volume to the speakers - I don't think outside your going to notice anything from a sound quality perspective.

Yeah. The speakers are 40W RMS, 130W max, I can think of a lot better places in my audio budget for $600