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I would like to see a feature in the sonos app that allows to more easily temporarily play different audio within a room without having to remove speakers from the room and then re-add them as their own room to start and then when finished, re-pair them.



For example:

I have the standard home theater setup: Playbar, Sub, 2x Sonos One. However, sometimes when using the TV I do not care about the audio so much as the video (i.e. YouTube video or Twitch stream). I would like to un-pair the rear surround speakers (2x Sonos Ones) and play music as if they were their own stereo pair instead while the TV plays through the sound bar and sub. But then be able to easily transition into the full surround setup if I wanted to.



There are a few ways to accomplish this but the best way, in my opinion, would be something to the effect of:

When clicking the group button and activating a room, the source audio will play on all speakers by default when a room is checked. But if desired, I can drill down into the room and selectively manipulate each individual speaker included in this session's audio and any unused speakers would be available to be grouped in a second simultaneous audio session group.
In the example you give you seem to be saying you want TV sound through your Playbar and sub, with the rear speakers playing music from a different source simultaneously. If that is the case, would that not create rather chaotic sounds in the room? It certainly wouldn’t be something I want to do.



If you mean play play music through “just” the rears, I’m sure (my Surrounds are being deployed elsewhere whilst I do some decorating so I can’t check it just now) there’s volume control for both music and for movies, such that you can make the rears the main players for music if you so wish.



If you mean mean something different to that, perhaps someone will be along with other ideas.

I was looking for the same. When playing video games, the playbar provides more than enough sound. I'd like to play music on the rears without having to go through the process of setting up 5.1 when I want to watch movies.

I agree. It would be great to easily use surround speakers to play music and join to the Theatre/TV/Soundbar on demand. Most theatre setups are unwanted until you are watching a movie or a source that will take advantage of 5.1 or 7.1 surround coding. Using rear channels to listen to music and not the TV SPDIF output until asked would be a nice touch.  

I do understand that it would complicate the UI, but I think if zones had a Boolean setting of Advanced On/Off, you could keep things simple unless asked for.

If Sonos does allow that concept, I’d really love the ability to group zones semi-permanently so they can be controlled as one zone always. It would keep the zone list, and group volume controls simpler.  I have a group of zones that are always connected. It’d be nice to not have to reconnect them or adjust their relative volumes when a device needs a reboot.

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