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RickardF
Contributor I
December 19, 2018
Answered

New Sonos Amp wired rears and wireless fronts?

  • December 19, 2018
  • 9 replies
  • 747 views
The Sonos Amp will be available in february for me. I am now contemplating the setup for my tv-living room. I would like to hook the Amp to the TV. I have a discreet setup with no cables/wires showing, Ideal for me would be if I can use the wired connections on the amp for the rear speakers and my two planned Play5 gen2 as fronts. Would this be possible with the Amp?
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      Best answer by John B
      Sorry, but no. The Amp is fundamentally designed to work with passive speakers. It's an amplifier. The front channels will be sent to those passive speakers, so it would be weird having that behind you, and the rear channels in front..

      The rear speaker options are then identical to those for other Sonos HT setups, i.e. those based on a Playbar/base or Beam.

      It's generally having wired rear speakers that causes the issue of visible trailing wires, but presumably there is some reason why that is not so for your system.

      9 replies

      John BAnswer
      December 19, 2018
      Sorry, but no. The Amp is fundamentally designed to work with passive speakers. It's an amplifier. The front channels will be sent to those passive speakers, so it would be weird having that behind you, and the rear channels in front..

      The rear speaker options are then identical to those for other Sonos HT setups, i.e. those based on a Playbar/base or Beam.

      It's generally having wired rear speakers that causes the issue of visible trailing wires, but presumably there is some reason why that is not so for your system.
        RickardFAuthor
        Contributor I
        December 19, 2018
        Hi JB, thank you for your swift reply. I have rear in-wall passive speakers and across the room wiring is under the floor. The TV wall has in-wall wiring but I can not have in-wall speakers there. My room actually looks like all those ads where the wires are airbrushed out. If you only had the Playbar in white 😉 Cheers and wish you a merry christmas and a happy new year!
        John B
        December 19, 2018
        If you only had the Playbar in white ;)Just in case there is any doubt, I don't work for Sonos.
        John B
        December 19, 2018
        Happy Christmas to you too.

        You could use a second Sonos Amp to drive those in-wall speakers. And would passives at the front be any more obtrusive than P:5s, given that front wiring is hidden?
        darrenr
        darrenr
        Lyricist II
        February 23, 2019
        I have the exact same requirement, I have in ceiling passive rears and want to use the new amp for that. Two 5G2s would look good as fronts for my setup. Connecting HDMI-ARC to the Amp would get the TV sound to the system with 5s paired as the front channels instead of rears. This would surely be just an easy software tweek to switch around the channel allocations.

        Come on Sonos, please give us some flexibility here!!

        This setup you be cheaper for me and Sonos would sell more Sonos kit with this setup too!!
          John B
          February 23, 2019
          Everything is easy when you don't have to do it and haven't a clue what is involved.
          darrenr
          darrenr
          Lyricist II
          February 23, 2019
          It appears it is easy, and from Ryan S's announcement blog post it is possible, despite the assumptions above.

          See his second comment on his reply here:

          https://en.community.sonos.com/announcements-228985/introducing-sonos-amp-6812069#post16263379

          Has anyone tested and confirm working please?
          Many thanks!
          Ken_Griffiths
          Ken_Griffiths
          February 24, 2019
          It appears it is easy, and from Ryan S's announcement blog post it is possible, despite the assumptions above.

          See his second comment on his reply here:

          https://en.community.sonos.com/announcements-228985/introducing-sonos-amp-6812069#post16263379

          Has anyone tested and confirm working please?
          Many thanks!
          It is possible in a Sonos HT setup to have Sonos speakers at the front in the form of a Playbar, PlayBase, or Beam only. You can also add third party speakers at the front when using the new Sonos Amp. You cannot use Play 5’s for the HT front speakers.

          The rear speakers can be Play 1’s, 3’s or 5’s(gen2) or Sonos Ones, or another Sonos Amp (wired or wireless) or a Connect:Amp (wired only) with 3rd party speakers attached.

          **Note the Play 5 gen 1’s can’t be used for rear surrounds.

          The two rear Sonos speakers must be a matching pair.

          There is no Sonos HT setup which uses their Play 1’s, 3’s or 5’s(gen2) or Sonos Ones as the front surrounds.
            John B
            February 24, 2019
            Has anyone tested and confirm working please?The answer is no, because there is no way to configure this in the app.
            Ken's comprehensive summary sets out the position exactly.
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