7.1 surround sound

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.