Volume Control Options with this potential setup

  • 1 July 2018
  • 2 replies
  • 1105 views

I will have 2 semi connected rooms to spread music through. If room 1 includes 6 Sonos 1's and 2 8 Ohm wired speakers, and room 2 contained 4 8 Ohm wired speakers it seems that I would also purchase 2 Connect Amps (for the 6 wired speakers.
I am trying to envision how the volume control would be handled through the app. The music source would always be the same in both rooms, but at times I "may":
1) need the volume of room 1 different from room 2. I think that is done by "grouping" or assigning "rooms" (2) which may give me 2 volume slider bars???
2) I am curious if I would be able to adjust the volume of either individual speakers or pairs of speakers? I would imagine so at least with the most basic setups, but I don't know if throwing in the wired speakers and 2 groups or rooms limits my volume control options (for question 1 and/or 2).
thanks, without ever using the system it is difficult for me to envision the functionality.

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2 replies

The Sonos One can be setup as a single zone or paired with another sonos one in a single zone. That zone will then have it's own separate volume control. The connect:amp will be setup as one zone. Each zone can play it's own music source or grouped with other zones to play music in sync. When you group zones together, you can change the volume of each zone individually or other the entire group as a whole.

In your scenario above, room 1 would probably be setup as 3 zones (3 pairs of Sonos Ones) + a connect:amp zone...4 zones altogether. Room 2 would just be the one connect:amp zone with the 4 speakers (2 stereo pairs) connected to it. You would not be able to change the volume of the 2 pairs independently without additional volume controls added to the wiring.

Why this choose of equipment? It seems like an odd choose of speakers. Are the 8 ohm speakers existing equipment? Perhaps in-ceiling speakers? Not knowing the purpose of the rooms or what else your working with, here's some other suggestions.

Your current cost for 6 pairs of Sonos Ones and 2 connect:amps would be around $1000 for the Ones and a $1000 of for the amps. $2000. That's not counting your non-Sonos speakers and wiring.

- Go with all Sonos Ones. Instead of 6, get 10 of them. That will be around $1730 and would give you more uniform sound, greater volume control, no wiring and ease of use.

- Go with Play:1s. Not sure how important voice control is, but for 2 rooms, you don't need 6 or more voice assistants. 10 play:1s will be $1500.

- Play:1 and Sonos One mix. 6 play:1s and 4 Sonos Ones so you have a pair of Ones in each room for voice control. $1630

- Go with Play:3s. I would guess you can 8 of these for both rooms. That's $2000. Bigger sound and less zones to deal with.

- Go with Play 5s. Probably go with 6 of these. $2700. Will be an improvement on sound and only 3 zones to deal with.

- Use connect:amps only. If you run 4 speakers off each amp, That would be 3 altogether for $1500.

- Use connect + non-Sonos amp(s). You only have 2 rooms, so you could get the Connect for each and using a propererly sized amp for each room. The Sonos cost would be $700, non-Sonos cost depends on the amp and speakers you go with. Volume control would depend on the amp as well. May end up costing more, but I would think you could do it for cheaper then using connect:amps.

Again, not sure what you're scenario is, so some of these scenarios might not make too much sense.
You asked: "Why this choose of equipment? It seems like an odd choose of speakers. Are the 8 ohm speakers existing equipment? Perhaps in-ceiling speakers? Not knowing the purpose of the rooms or what else your working with, here's some other suggestions." Yeah I didn't want to add to much for you to have to read but here it is. I'm glad you asked, perhaps it will be beneficial.

This if for a fitness studio. We are addressing acoustics so as not to bother adjacent and above tenants. A small part of the strategy is to have numerous small speakers throughout vs. a few big speakers so that the volume doesn't need to be very loud but music will still be present throughout. The landlord is donating up to 6 existing JBL 8 ohm pendant speakers from a previous tenant (not currently installed, also an Amp Crown 1160MA). Her (and her architect's) logic regarding the hanging pendant speakers is the sound from them will be more confined and directional than standard speakers. I'd rather not use them in an effort to keep it simple, but I need to at least consider using them to appease the landlord. So I thought I would consider using them above the exercise station in room 1 that has a neighbor behind that wall rather than mounting speakers on that wall in case the wall mounted speakers transfer through the attachment wall (see below for description).
Room 1 will have 4 separate exercise stations (each along 1 of the four walls) with up to 3 people each station. So I was planning on 2 Sonos 1's at each station (mono or stereo????) and the 2 pendant speakers above the shared wall (as mentioned above). This room may need to have the most speakers because the exercise machines produce their own noise to overcome. Room 2 will be more resistance training oriented so music may not need to be as loud. I could probably just use the other 4 pendant speakers for this room. I know that you mentioned I couldn't control those 2 pair independently, but I think I could adjust the 2 pair independently of room 1 correct? I am still confused about how much introducing the wired speakers (with connect amps) would reduce my volume control features etc compared to using 100% Sonos speakers. Would love any and all input. (I am leaning away from using speaker selectors switches, 3rd party amps, etc. because numerous trainers would be accessing the system throughout the day and I need to keep it as simple as possible).
thanks