7.1 surround sound

Isn't that what a soundbar does? Combine channels in one speaker? 

yes but that wasn't my question

Actually, the Arc is 5 channels, left, right, center, Atmos left and right.  Bond it with surrounds and 2 Subs gives you 5.2.2.  

And who is the "all" you speak for?

But it is an answer.  Arc is a soundbar, which by definition combines channels into one device.  

@futurecrnawebb

What you are asking for is two additional surround channels (speaker). Where do you propose to position those speakers?

One on either side of a room in the middle of the left and right wall. 

Four (includes current surrounds) positioned in an arc pattern across the rear

Should those speakers (4 total) be wall or stand mounted or a combination of both.

My choice would be for Sonos to develop a speaker (similar to the One SL) with an upward firing driver. Maybe call it the Sonos One SL Plus. It would be an upgrade for the Arc and Beam to complete the Dolby Atmos feature (more so for the Arc).

IMO there’s no need to incorporate a voice assistant feature to supplement the Playbar or Playbase.  Additionally, no need to make them capable of being used as a stereo pair. The Sonos One fills that need.

Eliminating the aforementioned features should also help keep the price point at an affordable level. In short the speakers would only be sold as a pair. A one-trick-pony 🎠 LOL
 

I currently have Arc + Sub + Five (LR/RR Surrounds). I recently upgraded my Ones as surrounds to the Fives. It would be nice to be able to utilize the Ones as either Front L/R (to take some of the load off the Arc and use the Arc as Center+Height) or an extra L/R surround (to be placed laterally from viewing/listening position). I have read that bandwidth may be an issue with this kind of setup, but am hopeful that future updates may be able to work this in. 
Using them in any other capacity, as in desktop stereo setup for the MacBook Pro, is still slightly dissatisfying as there is a definite syncing issue when using AirPlay. 
The Ones are powerful speakers and I would hate to see them sit unused. Sony has recently figured out how to use 4 speaker pillars to provide a total surround effect, so I know it’s possible. 

Thank you so much for your reply. It gives me hope. I love sonos. The ease of use and the quality of the products. I have the same set up as you but went straight to the 5's. The ones used as you suggest sounds like a great way to round out the Soundstage. Hope Sonos makes it happen. 

I would also like to request this feature. We own 4 Sonos ones with a beam on the way and going to get a sub in the future, being able to combine everything for a 7.1 setup would be awesome.

Why do you claim to speak for all of us? It won’t make me happy to have 7.1 surround; I’m quite content with 5.1. 

Never say never, but a soundbar is a soundbar.  It’s not a center speaker, and I highly doubt Sonos will (or even can) enable it to be a center speaker.

Where will it end, was just looking at 13 channel receivers.

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_033AVRA110/Denon-AVR-A110-110th-Anniversary-Edition.html

I thought the request was to keep the beam playing LCR, but have 2 rear surrounds AND 2 side surrounds.  Even if the additional ones were for wide front speakers, that wouldn’t mean turning off the Beam’s L & R, as you would not have a 7.1 setup.

Stanley_4 wrote:

Where will it end, was just looking at 13 channel receivers.

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_033AVRA110/Denon-AVR-A110-110th-Anniversary-Edition.html

 

 

Not sure why they call it 13.2, since there are 15 speaker ports.

The last two are for “Front Wide” speakers, I think that they just play what the front R/L channels play but on a second set of speakers set further apart than desirable for Stereo imaging.

i hope it is coming soon! dts was finally added so now let us add more speakers to the home theater setup, please Sonos!

Add me to the list of folks who can’t wait for this type of added functionality.

Imagine the front soundstage w Arc working in tandem w 2 Fives!

The point of going to 7.1 isn’t the front, it is splitting of the surround channel into discrete side and rear channels.   I would be fine with a soundbar handling all 3 front channels of a 7.1 soundstage.  I’m more interested in having separate surround and rear channels, particularly for gaming, but also for better movie surround sound.  I’d totally buy another pair of Ones if they enabled that.   

To clarify, because it sounds like some folks are a bit confused, a potential 7.1  setup would be Arc for FL, FR, C, and overhead Atmos effects; Sub; 2 Ones for SR&L (to the side of listener) and a pair of Ones for SBR&L, behind the listener.

They only did half a job with DTS, no DTS-X support iirc.

Probably quite a licensing (and development) cost to add those other codecs to both the existing and new Sonos products, for something used by a minority, but maybe one day we will see the option to purchase (or lease) such codecs on Sonos, but I’m not sure Sonos would recoup the money spent. It’s a difficult one. How much would you pay to have the other DTS codecs added?

I’d love to be able to add One’s as Front Wide Left/Right’ish. I love my Arc, but it’s sitting a bit low on 80+ screens. Suplementing/repeating R+L One’s to raise the center of the sound a bit would be nice.

Has anyone tried the Arc,Sub, and connecting 2 pairs 8ohm In-Ceiling Surrounds to the Sonos Amp. I know the Amp can handle the load,but wonder how it would respond during the Trueplay setup of the room. Just curious if anyone has tried this. We have not as of yet,but just came up last week in conversation.

The Amp would only carry the surround channels in that setup so more than one pair of speakers would be unnecessary.

If you bought the surround speakers from Sonos they might work for TruePlay, not sure how happy that would be for four of them. I’d call Sonos and discuss it before I bought the speakers and cut mounting holes.

It would be nice if Sonos gave you the capability to configure your Ones, SL, Eras, etc as nodes in a 7.x.x. environment.  I have to think it’s coming.  Disclaimer (“...may need to hardwire for latency issues, etc..”)

Sonos states that Arc + Sub + 2 Era 300s gives you 7.1.4 .  Obviously that’s with many channels bouncing audio of walls/ceilings to give you that effect.

If you’re expecting Sonos to come up with a setup that has more discrete physical speakers, and less reliance on bouncing...I wouldn’t be too optimistic.  That obviously comes with cost to develop and test such a development.  It would sell more speakers, sure, but how many, and how many of those customers would just go with a traditional wired passive speaker setup at that point?  And does it send an unintended message that bouncing audio off walls really isn’t good enough?  Maybe.

That said, I would not be too surprised if Sonos comes out with a setup where the front speakers are separate.   It seems likely there will be an atmos capable Era 500 eventually.  And if so, seems like they would be well suited for front speakers with phantom center (or real center) in a home theatre.  I just don’t think they are going to ever change the setup for rear speakers or have speakers in the ceiling for atmos. 

I hear ya.  Some rooms are easier to bounce wall sounds in than others.  if you’re going to put in ceiling speakers certainly seems fitting to use them as atmos surrounds 🤷🏼‍♂️

Absolutely.  I would love for Sonos to offer a lot more options for home theatre. I just don't think they will.