hey friends,
I'm setting up a 5.1 in my living room with a Playbar as the primary in the front of the room with the TV. for my rear lefts and rights, I was going to get Play3s, but have heard that it's overkill, and better value to do Play1s since the rear speakers are more for ambient nose.
would love to hear everybody's thoughts.
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hi asy
just finished setting up my 5.1 with the help of the great people here. there are a few things i'd like to share from my recent setup experience.
1 - in order to get true 5.1 sound make sure your television can output DD5.1 from the optical output. if not you'll only get stereo sound. if your television doesn't have this capability there are workarounds with using decoders, switches and whatnot. if you need more information on this, you'll find several threads here discussing it.
2 - i chose to go with the sonos ones for my rears. to my ears the ones sound better than the play1's and i didn't care for the look of the play3's on stands. and you're right for 5.1 the rears are only used for ambient sounds.
3 - i upgraded from a old Bose wired system. there is a difference to my ears between 5 separate speakers and a soundbar and rears, but again for my needs the Sonos system works as i didn't want to have to run wires and my number one priority is listening to music whole house so Sonos more than fits the bill for that. so while i had to make some compromises in my expectations of the 5.1 sound, i'm very happy i chose Sonos and i'd do it again.
lastly, notice that i was careful to personalize my experience. while others opinions are helpful ultimately you will be happiest with the listening experience that works for you and your needs.
just finished setting up my 5.1 with the help of the great people here. there are a few things i'd like to share from my recent setup experience.
1 - in order to get true 5.1 sound make sure your television can output DD5.1 from the optical output. if not you'll only get stereo sound. if your television doesn't have this capability there are workarounds with using decoders, switches and whatnot. if you need more information on this, you'll find several threads here discussing it.
2 - i chose to go with the sonos ones for my rears. to my ears the ones sound better than the play1's and i didn't care for the look of the play3's on stands. and you're right for 5.1 the rears are only used for ambient sounds.
3 - i upgraded from a old Bose wired system. there is a difference to my ears between 5 separate speakers and a soundbar and rears, but again for my needs the Sonos system works as i didn't want to have to run wires and my number one priority is listening to music whole house so Sonos more than fits the bill for that. so while i had to make some compromises in my expectations of the 5.1 sound, i'm very happy i chose Sonos and i'd do it again.
lastly, notice that i was careful to personalize my experience. while others opinions are helpful ultimately you will be happiest with the listening experience that works for you and your needs.
It seems the general consensus is that Play:1s or Ones suffice for surrounds. I personally have Play:1s and they sound great both as ambient surrounds and at full volume for music. The living room really rocks. The wife and I cranked some tunes the other night and shook a clock off the shelf.
awesome – thanks guys for the help here.
Same here I have the Playbar 5.1 using Play1's as surrounds and they sound excellent with both TV and Music.
The Play 1s sound great as surrounds. I have read that some people think the Play 3s are "20% better" as surrounds and one guy posted on here once that he had Play 5s as surrounds and that it sounded incredible. You have to decide if you want to spend a little bit more money to get better surround sound. Personally, if I were to do it again I would get the Play 3s instead of the Play 1s. I like to watch a lot of action movies (Marvel movies, war movies etc....) and the surrounds are pretty active in this type of movie.
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