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I currently have a “traditional” home theater setup.  I have an AppleTV that sends both video and audio to my TV via HDMI.  I have the TV send out the audio to my A/V receiver.  The A/V receiver then sends out the audio to my 5.1 speaker setup (wired Front, Center, Left, rears, subwoofer). 

Since my A/V receiver is basically acting only as a amp to drive the speakers (and controlling the 5.1 output), I was wondering if I can replace the A/V receiver with a Sonos amp or the like?  From what I have read, it does not seem to be.  If I connect the surround sound speakers, the subwoofer won’t work.  Along with a bunch of other reasons, correct?

Basically, is there anyway to keep my set up of wired 5.1 home theater system and connect it to my sonos system (which is currently just a Sonos Move, but will expand)? 

There a couple different options.  Yes, you can replace your existing amp with the Sonos Amp, but by itself, the Amp will only play front left and right with phantom center channel.  Nothing to connect your center speaker to.  You can connect your sub, or use a Sonos sub.  For the rear speakers, you can use a 2nd Amp, or a pair of Sonos speakers.

 

The alternative is to keep your existing AVR and add a Sonos Port as an input, and output if your receiver is capable.  That will allow you to streaming audio to the Port and into your AVR.  If your AVR can output it’s TV audio to the Port, then the audio can be played on your Move or other speakers, although it will be slightly delayed for buffering.

I am interested in your “alternative” suggestion in regards to the Port.  I do not ever see the need to stream what I am watching on my TV to other Sonos speakers.  However, I would like to stream what I am listening to on my AVR system to other Sonos speakers.  

To make sure that I understand, I would take the digital audio output from the tv and plug into Port’s audio in and then Port’s audio out into the AVR audio in.   

Therefore, I could stream music to the Port (which would play over my wired speakers) and to any other Sonos speaker, correct?  

And, if I am watching TV, the audio would “pass through” the Port and into my AVR, correct?  

However, if I wanted to listen to the TV’s audio output on other Sono’s speakers, then I would require my AVR to have a “TV audio” output connect to the Port’s “Audio In”.  

Is that all correct?

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