Can you create preset groupings?

Hi @melvimbe 

Well spotted, but it still doesn’t mention Bluetooth. In addition, anyone viewing that page must expand a section before they see that info - the disclaimers at the bottom of the page need no such action.

It’s for the web team to ponder at this point. 😁

 Bluetooth is a different section in the faq.  I didn’t screenshot it because...lazy.

Hi @tnprime 

I understand your initial request, though as it would require on-the-fly reconfiguration of said speakers from moment to moment, I don’t see it being implemented. As mentioned, it has been requested quite a few times - I don’t know the exact reasoning behind the lack of change to date, but I can guess that it has been solidly rejected due to technical considerations. As I said before, however, it could already be in the pipeline - I’m just not privy to all that.

@melvimbe 

That’ll teach me to skim-read! 😂 

I would challenge that on the grounds that presumably all those combinations are still tested today, manually (perhaps) to ensure the basic functionality of adding and removing supported surround speakers still works. Automating it potentially makes the testing more reliable, less person intensive and easier to execute. 

If all you are doing is using the exact same routine that is called either from a button press or different code, you don’t necessarily need to test all additional combinations else re-using code within applications would end up with exponential testing requirements as you add more functions that re-use. 

As re-use is an essential part of software development, and exponential testing requirements are not, I think the nett increase in test requirements here would not be that huge.

However Sonos are not interested, see above. 

I do think Sonos need to think a bit more about the dual needs a lot of people have for a surround system though. Needing different combinations/setups of speakers for movies and music is not uncommon and finding a way to do that with perhaps some more inputs on soundbars would be a very useful thing. 

People buy wireless surround systems for convenience (although needing power isn’t always that convenient) and looks as they prefer no cables (power again!) and then find that these systems are not as convenient or easy to add to functionally as the more traditional AV setup. That’s the bit I don’t think Sonos have cracked with their sound bars yet. They have the bits in various places but haven't brought it together. 

@tnprime: A 2nd generation Connect (post circa March 2015) is probably the cheapest way to acquire a line-in.

While I can understand your not realising that the line-in is non-functional on a speaker used in a HT setup, it is a shame that you are still apparently sure that this could be rectified by a “simple” software development.  I and other contributors to this topic have tried to explain that the very nature of a Sonos speaker, and its relationship to the rest of a Sonos system, are fundamentally different when used as a surround speaker rather than as a primary speaker.

One consequence of this is that a line-in cannot be used to feed music data packets into s Sonos system.  It is not, as @Ian_S seems to believe, the result of sheer stupidity and business incompetence on Sonos’ part, or a sadistic desire to frustrate customers.  What other possibilities are there?

It shouldnt be a “shame” I get it, perhaps it didnt seem clear.  I am going to leave this topic. Thanks for the heads up on the connect Gen2 they go for 100 and under on ebay looks like. 

I see this as partially true. In regards to breaking apart an existing HT setup, the process really woudln’t be that different.  The creation of the secondary room, or recreating the HT setup, would be a bit different.  I would assume that commands to do these changes come from the app making the request currently.  The same goes for treuplay tuning, as the app does the calculation and sends the results to soundbar (or directly to speakers).  In this automated world, the app would be minimally involved as most of the heavy lifting woud be done by the soundbar.  It would store the archived settings and trueplay tuning etc.

If that’s the case, then you would not need to test for all surround speakers and sub, but just each unique soundbar, if all three soundbars even support the hypothetical feature.

Or maybe heavy lifting for this transaction is all on the app.  That may be a better approach tech wise, depending on how it’s currently done, but would have it’s limitations.  For one thing, Sonos generally doesn’t store settings on the app.

I would argue that it is uncommon.  Most people who use a soundbar for TV are content to use the soudbar for music as well.  Most people don’t face forward for TV audio and backwards for music audio. There are those that want separate font speakers for music, but that has nothing to do with this feature request.  I don’t care if the feature happens or not, but I don’t think it’s a feature a lot of people  are looking for.

Personally, I have a home theatre setup where a desk is on the right side of the room.  I would lilke a feature to have the surround speakers play nothing but left channel audio, the soundbar playing the right channel, all tuned to the desk location.  That’s not common though that’s just my niche scenario.  

I’m not aware of a wired setup that allows you to play the rear speakers with the front speakers muted.  Maybe that exists, don’t know.  Sonos focuses on getting the setups that people most commonly will use, and where the speakers will perform optimally, more than whatever combination of speakers that a customer may come up with.  Again, I don’t care if Sonos wants to provide additional setup options.  I just have a hard time believing that there is this large untapped market of people who want use their wireless surrounds as the primary stereo speaker.

Wired setups don’t have to as they almost always have a dedicated L+R at the front in the correct place for listening to stereo. 

I think the underlying issue here is people buy a Sonos surround setup and then realise that their surround speakers are better for music than the soundbar, only it’s less than easy to use them for that. 

Personally I think the better option is to allow the addition of front L+R and additional inputs on the soundbar (line-in, more than one HDMI…), however, it may get even more tricky to keep 6 discrete speakers and lip-sync over ARC in the same planet. 

The Amp gets closest to this, but your chances of speaker matching are slim to non-existent (seeing as you can attach almost any speakers you like) and I doubt that all the supported combinations of Sonos Surrounds and soundbars use matched drivers either. Given the levels of pedentry round here, you’d have thought that would be issue no.1 for a balanced surround system, but apparently not. 

clearly we are getting too far from the original request by introducing tangential examples and use cases.