Sonos AMP/ Beam/ Wired Rear Speakers/3rd Party Subwoofer

No, the third party sub would be an issue. When you use the Amp with a Beam to power the rear speakers, the signal sent to the Amp is only the surround signal, and does not include the LFE signal. Other than that, your plan is solid.

Thanks Airgetlam I read that the older Sonos Connect:AMP cannot be used to power rear speakers to achieve tv surround sound because the timing will be out of sync with the Beam (can only be used to power wired fronts). Has this issue been resolved with the new AMP ~ no sync issues with Beam when using it to power rear speakers? Could I add my existing Sonos connect to the configuration to provide a dedicated signal to the third party sub-woofer?

Thanks Airgetlam I read that the older Sonos Connect:AMP cannot be used to power rear speakers to achieve tv surround sound because the timing will be out of sync with the Beam (can only be used to power wired fronts). Has this issue been resolved with the new AMP ~ no sync issues with Beam when using it to power rear speakers? Could I add my existing Sonos connect to the configuration to provide a dedicated signal to the third party sub-woofer?
Not sure about the subwoofer part, but Connect Amp as the rear/surround speakers with a Beam is fine - I have this set up to use ceiling speakers as rears and it sounds great. You will need to connect the Beam to the Connect Amp with an ethernet cable though.

I read that the older Sonos Connect:AMP cannot be used to power rear speakers to achieve tv surround sound because the timing will be out of sync with the Beam (can only be used to power wired fronts).

This would be incorrect. When both the Beam and the CONNECT:AMP are connected to your router with ethernet cables, they'd all be in sync. The Sonos Amp, on the other hand, has a 5Ghz wifi card that can connect to carry the surround signal, so it doesn't have to be wired to carry the surround portion of the signal.

The timing issue has only to do with the analog line-in on all Sonos devices. It's there to do two things. First, to cover the amount of time it takes to convert an analog signal to digital (probably very small) and secondly, to buffer enough of a signal for Sonos to be able to safely play that input in sync across all of the speakers that Sonos has. It's built in as part of the Sonos software, and there's no way to change that at this point.

Could I add my existing Sonos connect to the configuration to provide a dedicated signal to the third party sub-woofer?

No, if you're using a Beam and either a Sonos Amp or a CONNECT:AMP to power your surrounds, you can't add another device to that zone/room to carry the sub's LFE signal.

For better or worse, Sonos wants you to use a Sonos sub if you're using a Sonos soundbar. The only setup in which you can use a third party sub with a TV setup is if you're using the Sonos Amp (with the HDMI-ARC input) as the front part of your system, and it is only front right, and front left, with no provision for a center channel, which Sonos makes as a "phantom" speaker.

Hope that all makes sense.

Hi achalkley

Yours may come down to cost if you are willing to forego the in-celling speakers for surrounds and use Sonos Play 1's provided you have a set of passive speakers that were paired with the sub you own.

1. Your cost as you had intended for the Sonos Amp and Beam would have been $998 (USD) even though as Airgetlam stated was not a viable setup.

OR

2. Providing you have two speakers that were paired with your sub your cost of a Sonos Amp and two Play 1's as surrounds would be $897. The speakers connected to the Sonos Amp would produce a "phantom" center channel for movies. You'd have full stereo for music and even be able to connect a turntable (with preamp 😉 or CD player to the Sonos AMP via RCA input. Your sub would be connected via line-level and would be used for both movies and music. The Sonos Amp would set the crossover point .

Just an idea :8

* If the turntable is not pre-amped you'd have to purchase one to go between it and the Sonos Amp.

Hi I'm in a very similar situation, I have a Sonos Beam connected to my tv and would like to add some surround speakers and a sub. I already have a very good quality powered sub and do not really want to purchase a Sonos Sub just for this purpose. I have 2 rear speakers already fitted but I could replace these with Sonos 1's if I had to.
Can anybody suggest the best method (please dont say buy all Sonos) for getting 5.1 using the Beam even if I have to buy some inexspenive 5.1 decoders just to sepearte the rear and sub
thanks
John

Hi I'm in a very similar situation, I have a Sonos Beam connected to my tv and would like to add some surround speakers and a sub. I already have a very good quality powered sub and do not really want to purchase a Sonos Sub just for this purpose. I have 2 rear speakers already fitted but I could replace these with Sonos 1's if I had to.
Can anybody suggest the best method (please dont say buy all Sonos) for getting 5.1 using the Beam even if I have to buy some inexspenive 5.1 decoders just to sepearte the rear and sub
thanks
John
Splitting the (optical) signal in some fashion, separately decoding the rear/sub channels, and feeding it to third party kit is unlikely to work satisfactorily at all. Clearly the Beam will continue to downmix the 5.1 into its own speakers, but the main problems are going to be (a) differential delays, between the Beam and the external speakers, and (b) controlling the volume of each individually. There would be no master volume control.

If you really want to use a third party sub you should consider replacing the Beam with an Amp and getting a pair of front speakers.

Thanks ratty,
Yes wish i hadn't bought the Beam now, do you know, if I bought a connect amp and just used it to drive my sub using the sub output and I beleive i can "group" it to my beam would that work (accepting the 70ms delay that people have mentioned) would that work, I would then just have to buy a pair of play 1's for my rears.
thanks for your help, it would be nice if the amp could drive rear speakers and sub - problem would be solved

regards
John

You could use a Connect:Amp (which by the way is now discontinued) grouped with the Beam but it's an expensive solution, its speaker level outputs would remain unused, and to be honest I think you'd notice the 70ms delay, on bass transients.

Note that using a Connect:Amp to drive your existing rear speakers, bonded to the Beam, would overcome the delay problem but would preclude the use of the subwoofer, since the sub output is disabled in this configuration.

Depending on how and when you bought the Beam you may have the option of returning it for refund.

Cheers ratty,
i may invest in a 2nd hand connect amp for my surrounds and have a play to see what the sub output is like in grouped mode first and then use it for my rears, My beams is about 6 months old so would have to Ebay it or trade it in -

Enabling the subwoofer output on CONNECT:AMP or AMP when used to support surround channels would not be a satisfactory solution for the subwoofer connection because in this configuration the subwoofer would respond only to bass that is part of the surround channels. The likely result is that there would be occasional thumps and booms associated with surround channel activity, not an overall uniform bass experience.

I realize that there is a certain sticker shock associated with the price of SUB, but (in my opinion) it is a bargain because it will out perform subwoofers that are much more expensive. SUB injects quite a bit of low frequency energy into the room. One will often discover items inside the walls or nearby cabinets that will become excited. In my own case, I had to subdue the window glass a bit to eliminate some buzzing. Prior to SUB I had been using an impressively large, more expensive subwoofer that did not cause any such issues and SUB sounded better. In an average living room using PLAYBAR, SUB and surrounds, one can achieve levels that one experiences in an IMAX theater. An IMAX theater will use more speakers and might achieve a more immersive experience, but there is no difference in level.

Hi - I have a similar query for my home theatre 4.1 setup... Except instead of the Beam, I already have two Play:1s, in addition to a wired Sub, and wired in-ceiling rear speakers (from my old wired setup). I'm considering the new Sonos Amp to help pull it all together... Most of the product description I read about the Amp suggests using the passive speakers in front, and the Play:1s (or other Sonos wireless) in the rear. However, since I already have my wired speakers in the rear (and they're ceiling mounted), I would prefer to leave them there, and use my Play:1s in FRONT. Will this arrangement work?

PLAY:1's cannot be used as front speakers in a surround setup. In the SONOS scheme PLAYBAR/BEAM/PLAYBASE would replace the wired L-C-R speakers and SUB would replace the subwoofer. AMP would support the rear wired speakers.

Another arrangement could use AMP in the front, wired L-R speakers, and a 3rd party powered subwoofer. Rear speakers could be the PLAY:1's or speakers wired to another AMP.

PLAY:1's cannot be used as front speakers in a surround setup. In the SONOS scheme PLAYBAR/BEAM/PLAYBASE would replace the wired L-C-R speakers and SUB would replace the subwoofer. AMP would support the rear wired speakers.

I currently only have a Playbar. My house was built with cutouts for two rear 8" overhead L-R wired speakers and two front 6.5" L-R wired wall speakers, with wires terminating near the Playbar. To make use of this I am considering installing two overhead rear speakers, and connecting them to a Sonos Amp, with an Amp to Playbar Ethernet connection.

I'd like to clarify that this arrangement work for a surround system. And if I understand correctly from above the Playbar would function as the L-C-R speakers?

Any recommendations for the wired speakers?

Yes, this will work, although with the new Sonos Amp, there isn’t a need to wire the Sonos Amp to the PLAYBAR, since the Sonos Amp has the requisite 5ghz antenna to handle being bonded to the PLAYBAR. That’s assuming the location is in range, of course.

Yes, the PLAYBAR has right, center, and left speakers in it.

I have have no recommendations for in ceiling speakers. The Sonance ones that Sonos is a reseller of seem good, allowing you to TruePlay them, but I’m not sure, having never shopped for ceiling speakers, if they are a tad expensive.

And I’d be tempted to add another Sonos Amp and a pair of speakers to drive those front ceiling holes with just music, and leave them
out of the 5.1 room consideration kind of like what I have, a 5.1 system flanked by a pair of PLAY:5s for music ;)

Oh, and a SUB for the TV “room”....

@Airgetlam - Thank you much!

Hi all,

I currently have a Sonos Beam connected to the TV, Sonos Sub, and 2 Play 1’s in the rear to complete a home theatre setup.

However, i have a much bigger/better Subwoofer, and 2 Wharfedale floor standing speakers which is just lying around, which i think would be better for music / connected to the TV.

would i be better off with:

Sonos AMP connected o the TV, 3rd party subwoofer connected to the Sonos AMP, Wharfedale floor standing speakers connected to the Sonos AMP, and 2 play 1’s in the rear for surround (wirelessly connected to the Sonos AMP)?

1) would this setup even work ?

2) would the sound with the Amp and the bigger subwoofer be much better than my current setup ?

1) Yes, that would work.

2) That would be up to you. Try it out and see.

@Davewoon Hi....

First, here's some Sonos 101 🙂
The Beam was designed for smaller spaces such as a master bedroom. The Playbar and Playbase are designed for larger spaces. All three provide a Left/Center/Right channel across the front. When Trueplay is used (requires an iOS device) all components are balanced as a unit to the room environment.

To your question
Using your Wharfedale floor standing speakers with a Sonos Amp can be done. However, the dedicated center channel is lost to a Phantom Center channel created by the left and right speaker for HT. Music on the other hand (2 channel stereo) IMO would sound better. IMO (again) the Sonos soundbars and soundbase actually color the music.

Of course you can use a 3rd party sub with the Sonos Amp as well as Sonos Play 1's for surround.

2) would the sound with the Amp and the bigger subwoofer be much better than my current setup ?

As I indicated IMO for music, Yes. For Home Theater it's a matter of taste regarding the center channel effect.

You might try a Playbar or Playbase in place of the Beam for HT. Who knows you may even like the resulting sound for music.

Remember you can set the rears to auto-switch to FULL on speakers in the Sonos app when playing music and auto-switch back to surround mode after the music stops. I hope this helps.

P.S.
If you have more questions on this or another subject I suggest starting your own post.

Cheers!