One SUB for Two Rooms

I agree... I'd really like to use a sub in two zones which are right next to each other... So if I'm using either zone on its own the sub automatically kicks in.. Plus 1 from me... Come on Sonos... How about a comment from you on this awesome idea?

What happens if two different people in each room start playing different music?

Yes, it really irks me that I bought two play:5's and was only offered the option of setting these up as surrounds, not lefts and rights. So they sit there dormant while I'm watching films.

Then when I'm playing music, my sub is sitting dormant as I don't want the Playbar muddying up the sound of the two Play:5's!

This is craziness! Why can't we create our own groups of individual peakers without making them mutually exclusive and why can't the playbar operate as a center?

This is a real bummer that we can’t bind a sub to 2 different “zone” for 2 different use. I don’t want to use my Playbar for music neither I want to use my connect for movies. And I will definitely not purchase a second sub! This is something that should be allow and addressed in a new software release.

Please Sonos, can't you make a way I can set my new SUB to play in both zones so I can have it for both use?

Option still not available? Come on Sonos... This really holds me back buying a sub.

I received my Sub today and I can't believe that it's not possible to link it to different zones. This makes the Sub useless for my room situation, so it'll probably go back. Come on Sonos, this discussion is going on for more than two years now. The sub is quite expensive, so please make it as flexible as possible!

Hey guys, thanks for all the feedback. Just a note because this thread is getting a bit long, it is possible to bond the SUB with multiple rooms in the house, just not at the same time. So this request is largely to make it easier to set up the SUB to play with multiple rooms as if it were a player on its own and it could be grouped with other zones easily.

As you know, the SUB setup process does take a little time because you have to pick a few options so the crossover frequency of the SUB gets set right. So there would be the need to save multiple configuration profiles in the SUB along with a few other things too.

Anyway, I'll make sure to pass on your feedback and requests to the team. Again, thanks for sharing!

Good to hear it's being looked at. This is a nr 1 priority update for me as well!

Hey guys, thanks for all the feedback. Just a note because this thread is getting a bit long, it is possible to bond the SUB with multiple rooms in the house, just not at the same time. So this request is largely to make it easier to set up the SUB to play with multiple rooms as if it were a player on its own and it could be grouped with other zones easily.

As you know, the SUB setup process does take a little time because you have to pick a few options so the crossover frequency of the SUB gets set right. So there would be the need to save multiple configuration profiles in the SUB along with a few other things too.

Anyway, I'll make sure to pass on your feedback and requests to the team. Again, thanks for sharing!

Thank you for the response. So you say you can bond the sub with multiple rooms in the house. What does that mean? I have Zone 1 running a connect amp and zone 2 running a connect amp. they are almost always playing the same source. However, there are times when Zone 2 may be on and Zone 1 is not. Will the sub power EITHER Zone 1 OR Zone 2?

Hey guys, thanks for all the feedback. Just a note because this thread is getting a bit long, it is possible to bond the SUB with multiple rooms in the house, just not at the same time. So this request is largely to make it easier to set up the SUB to play with multiple rooms as if it were a player on its own and it could be grouped with other zones easily.

As you know, the SUB setup process does take a little time because you have to pick a few options so the crossover frequency of the SUB gets set right. So there would be the need to save multiple configuration profiles in the SUB along with a few other things too.

Anyway, I'll make sure to pass on your feedback and requests to the team. Again, thanks for sharing!

Great! hope too see this in the Beta soon!

Hey guys, thanks for all the feedback. Just a note because this thread is getting a bit long, it is possible to bond the SUB with multiple rooms in the house, just not at the same time. So this request is largely to make it easier to set up the SUB to play with multiple rooms as if it were a player on its own and it could be grouped with other zones easily.

As you know, the SUB setup process does take a little time because you have to pick a few options so the crossover frequency of the SUB gets set right. So there would be the need to save multiple configuration profiles in the SUB along with a few other things too.

Anyway, I'll make sure to pass on your feedback and requests to the team. Again, thanks for sharing!

Thank you for the response. So you say you can bond the sub with multiple rooms in the house. What does that mean? I have Zone 1 running a connect amp and zone 2 running a connect amp. they are almost always playing the same source. However, there are times when Zone 2 may be on and Zone 1 is not. Will the sub power EITHER Zone 1 OR Zone 2?

A Sub is BONDED to a Play unit, or a Stereo pair of Play units or a Playbar.

They are the ONLY configurations possible.

So if the Sub is bonded to your Living Room pair of Play1s and you then want to listen to your Play 3 in the next room with THAT SUB you have to un-bond it from Living Room and then Bond it with the other room

I have same problem. I have two Sonos play 5's in my living room that I pair with a SUB. I buy a Playbar and two play 1's for home theater room (also living room) and then add the SUB to that new configuration. When I switch to the Play 5's for streaming music, the SUB is no longer connected. It should remember the previous configuration and ask if you want to disconnect the SUB from the home theater room (which is, again, same physical room for me). Better yet, you configure it to automatically switch to the room that is receiving a stream, or always automatically switch to the most recent stream in case of two current streams.

I'm blown away this isn't a feature....seems so obvious that I don't see how it was released without the ability to bind to two rooms. Sonos needs to find new talent testing and designing their products. Or is it that Sonos just wants more money!?

I'm blown away this isn't a feature....seems so obvious that I don't see how it was released without the ability to bind to two rooms. Sonos needs to find new talent testing and designing their products.
Unwarranted indignation. IMHO if Sonos added such complexity to cater for the tiny minority who (a) insist on running two Sonos 'rooms' in one physical room and (b) refuse to group them to enable the SUB to support both when needed, then they would need their business heads examined.

Don't foresee a response as don't believe this is on Sonos Radar. You have to go into room settings add add the sub to it to switch. Other than grouping two zones that is only method and don't foresee that changing.

A lot of logistical issues with pairing to two rooms. What happens if playing in one room and then someone turns on the other room. Where does the bass come from.

Not at all unwarranted as the many users who have the same issue would attest. Minority or not, this issue has been posted for years and should be added. It doesn't appear this would be an overly complex programming issue.

Not at all unwarranted as the many users who have the same issue would attest. Minority or not, this issue has been posted for years and should be added. It doesn't appear this would be an overly complex programming issue.

This thread is 3+ years old, with under 2 pages of posts, a quarter or so of which are explanatory or disagreeing. Not exactly beating the doors down.

As to it not being an "overly complex programming issue"? As a Software Engineer, if I had a nickel for every time someone without intimate knowledge of my software claimed something shouldn't be an "overly complex programming issue", I wouldn't have to be a Software Engineer anymore. 😉

Minority or not, this issue has been posted for years
This thread is 3 years old. It's just on page 2. That doesn't exactly count as overwhelming support.

and should be added.

Why? What makes a feature of interest to a tiny minority more important than, say, Spotify direct streaming? I don't think you quite grasp how finite resources are allocated, based on coherently justified business plans.

It doesn't appear this would be an overly complex programming issue.

To make that statement with any confidence you'd need to be (a) an engineer with experience of a professional product delivery environment and (b) a Sonos employee with inside knowledge of the software. I've lost track of the number of times we've heard the assertion that some feature or other was 'just a few lines of code'...

I work in IT on servers and routers but not in software development. I'm sure there are many other features that are missing too, streaming from Youtube, but that could be a licensing issue. Very disappointing that Sonos hasn't addressed this needed feature after 2+ years.

Business 101: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opportunity_cost

I can't think of any reason why Sonos would want to spend valuable development hours to make it easier for one to multi-purpose a single Sub instead of buying another.

Hi all, just wanted to jump in and say that I'll make sure to pass the suggestion on for you. There's a lot that goes into pairing a SUB with any configuration, as I mentioned above, which would mean that for you to have a couple "profiles" saved all of those configuration details would need to be saved on the players and ready to be swapped at a moments notice. I'm not saying it's impossible, just that there would be a lot that actually goes on in the background for a feature like this.

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

Yes I'm sure there is a lot to most programming changes Ryan. But in the broadest sense, this is what's needed correct?

Step 1 is to add a feature to allow a SUB in more than 1 room.
Step 2 would be to add a feature (a simple Pop-up message perhaps) indicating that another room is currently using the SUB. The user is presented with a prompt that says "Do you want to use the SUB for this room". User selects yes. The SUB is then made active for that room (and thus deactivated for another room).

Thanks for anything you can do to save me from purchasing another Sonos $650! (currently) SUB 🙂

But in the broadest sense, this is what's needed correct?
Commercially? No.

Thanks for anything you can do to save me from purchasing another Sonos $650! (currently) SUB :)

Dream on. 😉

Always the pragmatist, ratty!

Not having this is quite a dissappointment. Have a loft with 2 zones 😞