Advice on home theater setup with in-wall speakers, amps, and sub mini

  • 29 November 2023
  • 1 reply
  • 85 views

Hello,

I just bought a new house that has in-wall speakers and a mount for a TV, but nothing else and I am new to Sonos. I’m looking for some advice on how to set up a home theater system.

Here is the setup: there are a total of 8 in-wall speakers throughout the house that are all wired to one spot in a mechanical closet. The first 2 speakers flank a fireplace in the center of the living room, and the TV mount is off to the right side (i.e., not centered on the main 2 speakers). The TV mount is wired with power, HDMI, and ethernet. There are 2 more speakers behind the living room in the kitchen, which is open to the living room (so could be used a rears). There are 2 more speakers in an elevated loft space to the left of the living room which is open to the living room, so could be used with the TV theater setup but might throw the acoustics off since they are on the left and there is not a matching pair on the right. There are also 2 more speakers in a separate bedroom.

One option I was considering was to wire the 2 speakers in the living room and the 2 speakers in the kitchen to 1 amp and using it with the TV theater setup (along with a Sonos sub mini I bought). Then wire the other 2 pairs of speakers to a separate amp that I can use for whole house music. But since the speakers in the loft and bedroom would be wired to one amp, I could not use them independently. Not the end of the world, but some loss of control there.

The second option would be to wire the loft speakers to the same amp as the one used for the TV. It might throw the acoustics off a bit, but oh well. Then, the other amp only controls the bedroom speakers.

The third option would be to get 3 amps - 1 for the TV setup/living room and kitchen speakers, 1 for the loft speakers, and 1 for the bedroom speakers. That comes with the additional cost of a third amp. But I’d also get more control over what plays where and when.

Thoughts? Thank you in advance!!!


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1 reply

Userlevel 7
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Reading your setup, I’d suggest an Arc mounted below the TV as the beginning of your system. Add a Sub or Sub-Mini to that if you need more low end.

Grab an Amp and try your various speakers, both as surrounds and for directly streaming (not from the TV) music.

You may find the sound for surround use less than optimal, a pair of Era 300s or even 100s would likely sound better.

Re-purpose the Amp from surround duty to powering your built-in speakers. It will power two pair directly or more with an impedance matching speaker selector. If you want more than the two audio streams (Arc/Sub/Surrounds and Amp) you could add additional Amps as needed.