Skip to main content

Hi all. Question about surround with Arc and Play 1.  Current setup:

1. Pioneer plasma tv from about 2005- this is getting replaced soon even though it’s still going strong after all these years. . 
2. Play 1 we’ve had several for years Around the house

  1. Arc- newly acquired this week

my main limitation is the TV. No ARC or eARC obviously. It has an optical out but that can’t be engaged using the hdmi inputs on the tv. 
I connected the ARC to the optical out of my Xfinity cable box and it seems to work ok.
For fun I added 1 x Play 1 that is already at the back of the room as a surround. 
Am I getting a true surround image doing that? We still hear dialogue from the Play 1 and didn’t think we should as a surround. 
Also, what is feeding that speaker? Right now when I turn the tv off audio still comes thru the arc so I have to hit mute on the remote. That’s no big deal but audio is still coming thru the play 1 and I have to mute it from the app. 

Going thru the add surround they the app, I can’t tell if it actually adds it. I had to group it with the ARC just like making any other group of speakers.

Will all line up better when I upgrade to a TV from this decade? LOL 
Any thoughts or suggestions are greatly appreciated. 

Not sure how you added a single PLAY:1 as a surround, it requires two. If you’re hearing dialog from it, that suggests you’ve just grouped it with the Arc, rather than actually setting a pair up as surrounds by going in to the room settings for the Arc and clicking on ‘add surrounds’. 

For what it’s worth, ARC stands for Audio Return Channel, the speaker’s name is the Arc.

You would be able to get Dolby Digital through an optical connection from your TV, assuming the TV can pass a Dolby Digital signal out through the optical port. That means a 5.1 signal is possible, but not Dolby Atmos. 

Thank you Bruce! 
That makes total sense so I’ll add another play 1 and see what happens. 

I’m using the optical out of my cable box because the optical out of my old tv is disabled when using the HDMI input. Weird but it’s true. 
Still not sure why audio is coming out of the Play 1 when I mute the audio on my remote as it does mute the ARC. 

You’ll find that when the speakers are set up as surrounds, the mute will work on all speakers in that Sonos ‘room’. Right now, Sonos considers it a separate room than the Arc (again, not ARC) and consequently the mute won’t affect any grouped rooms. 
 

And yes, if your TV doesn’t pass a Dolby Digital signal coming in from an HDMI source out through the optical out port, I’d consider a new TV, or even an HDMI switch with an optical port. I’ve a similar situation with my TV, it won’t pass a Dolby Digital Plus signal from an HDMI input out through an ARC connection, only a Dolby Digital signal, so no Dolby Atmos until I get an external device such as the HD Fury Arcana. Might be worth checking the threads about the Arcana out for your TV. Cheaper solution than replacing the whole TV. 

Gotcha and all that makes sense. A new TV is in the plan shortly. 
I got surround working pretty well but can’t seem to control volume of the rear Play 1’s individually from the app 

should I be able to do that? 
Thank you!! 

Kind of, yes. In the room settings for the Arc, click on Surround Audio.

I guess it’s currently not possible to have 2 Play 1 speakers set as surrounds for tv then as a stereo pair for music right? I set them up as a stereo pair then to watch tv with them as surrounds I had to reconfigure them for that, then back again for music. Seems like there should be a better way. 

When setup as surrounds you have the  option to set them to full for music playback.

Terms & ConditionsCookie settings