Avid Contributor I

Home Setup Advice - have lots of Sonos, also looking at Sonance!

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
June 14, 2023
13 replies
463 views

Good evening all,

I have spent the last two days searching through the web hoping to nail down the best way forward, but find myself more confused than when I started 😂

We currently have a Playbar, 2x One’s and a Sub set up as a 5.1.

We are doing a renovation and have the opportunity to wire in ceiling and/or wall speakers, and wanted to work out the best way of doing so, with a nod to not breaking the bank completely!

Kitchen

We will have a large kitchen space, probably 12m x 5m for round numbers. Kitchen & island at one end, TV and sofa at the other.

Thinking here is 1x Sonos Amp and 6x Sonance ceiling speakers. That would deliver good sound everywhere in the kitchen (although no 5.1 etc) especially for music, but also would work for the TV. Concern is that if the kids were watching TV and the adults were around the island, we’d have the TV blaring down on us. Would an option here be to add an extra Amp and have that drive 2 ceiling (or wall?) Sonance speakers by the TV, and then have the other Amp drive the 4 middle / island end Sonance speakers? I assume you could group them all together as a 6 if we wanted music, but could also just have the 2 on for the TV (or even 2 on with the TV and 4 on for music!)?

Lounge

The other question is the lounge where we will have another TV, probably more for dedicated TV watching whereas the kitchen would be both music & TV. So I’d be looking to achieve more 5.1-like sound here. We could just replicate what we have with the Playbar, One’s & Sub, but with everything being redone we can introduce wall/ceiling speakers.

What is the best way to do this, I understand wall speakers are better for TV as the sound should come out at that level rather than from above. Sonos Amp and 2 speakers next to the TV and 2 rear speakers...with a Playbar & Sub? Would we be able to achieve 5.1 (or even 7.1) this way, I am confused with what the Sonos Amp can deliver as I don’t think you can connect it to a Playbar?

EDIT - I think actually that the 2 front wall speakers would be redundant here as the Playbar provides centre & front L/R. So would Playbar, Sub and 2x rear wall speakers (replacing the 2x Ones) be a worthy 5.1 setup? Or are we best just sticking with what we have and putting the 2x Ones either side of the sofa like we did before?

Master Bedroom

We are unlikely to do this as its unlikely budget would stretch that far, but I think a single Amp with 2x ceiling speakers would give us good TV sound in this room (I don’t think we’d want wall speakers in the bedroom) and we could even add a stereo single into the ensuite to listen to music in the bath (my wife’s request!).

I’d be extremely grateful for any recommendations, especially around the best way to tackle the lounge/TV.

Sonance

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K

KDUKAuthor

Avid Contributor I

Thanks John, really helpful.

Lounge - yes, if we go wall speakers that will need a Sonos Amp. If we stick with the One’s (or upgrade to Era 300’s) we don’t need that. Wondering where the best investment is there, perhaps rather than an Amp, two new Era 300’s might be a wiser use of scarce funds!

Kitchen - your probably right, that is not the room for a proper surround sound experience, but we’d like good sound. It’s main use case will probably be watching sport with a larger group, or end of day TV with the kids or having it on while eating dinner in the middle of the room etc. So perhaps the 6 ceiling speakers for music, and a soundbar for TV sound only is the best approach here. That means 1 Sonos Amp with Sonance speakers (you can run 6 Sonance, 4 non-Sonance I believe).

Upstairs it feels like a soundbar, or even standard TV sound is the way to go, with a Roam/Move in the bathroom for the decadent bathtime music experience!

Really appreciate the guidance here.

Ken_Griffiths

In the kitchen, I’ve had another thought. What if we went for a soundbar under the TV, and then 6 ceiling speakers spread 2/2/2 by the island, middle of the room, and by the TV seating area. Could we get a Sonos Amp for the 4 island/middle speakers, and another Sonos Amp (or cheaper second hand Connect) to break up those 6, and then use them in a 5.0 setup for the TV (soundbar & 2 ceiling) and then group the 6 ceiling speakers into a music zone to have music across the whole room…?

You mention using a second hand ‘Connect’ here instead of a Sonos Amp - note if you do that, then the ‘Connect’ and Soundbar need to be wired together back to the same switch/router, or wired to each other… that’s not required for the newer Sonos Amp, all can operate using wireless with the newer Amp - just thought I should highlight that difference to you …and always keep the Amp (for rear TV channels) in the same physical room as the Soundbar so they can communicate over a 5Ghz ad-hoc wireless connection.

Hope that helps too.

J

John B

The predecessor of the Sonos Amp is the Connect:Amp, not the Connect. The Connect has no role in Sonos HT systems. And the Amp is so superior to the Connect:Amp that I don't think the C:A would be a good choice.

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