Best setup for a powerful home theater

amun wrote:

My two cents worth - if you want a powerful home theater system for a large room with lots of inputs, then buy an AV receiver and associated speakers. A Connect will let you link it with the any other Sonos kit, so you get the best of both worlds.

Thank you very much for your opinion and help. I believe it is the best option indeed.

Sonos doesn't offer high power, the Amp is decent but it uses a phantom center channel which isn't probably what you want for a high end setup. I did as suggested and got a nice AVR with lots of power and seven channels of amplification, new ones offer more. Hooked a Connect to the AVR so I can feed Sonos music into the AVR or whatever the AVR is doing out to my Sonos. Going from the AVR to Sonos works best if the AVR speakers are muted though.

Stanley_4 wrote:

Sonos doesn't offer high power, the Amp is decent but it uses a phantom center channel which isn't probably what you want for a high end setup. I did as suggested and got a nice AVR with lots of power and seven channels of amplification, new ones offer more. Hooked a Connect to the AVR so I can feed Sonos music into the AVR or whatever the AVR is doing out to my Sonos. Going from the AVR to Sonos works best if the AVR speakers are muted though.

Thanks so much for the feedback! I will do a setup with Sonos speakers anyway. Rather, I will learn a little here in the community and decide what is best.

dferretto wrote:

Thanks so much for the feedback! I will do a setup with Sonos speakers anyway. Rather, I will learn a little here in the community and decide what is best.

Sonos is excellent as a multi-room music system, and does a nice job for home theater setups in non-demanding applications. For large rooms, with lots and lots of power you might need to look elsewhere. Depending how much power you need, you might even need to go down the road of seperate components, like an AV pre-amp/processor and standalone multi-channel amp. Look at Yamaha CX-A5200 (pre-amp) and MX-A5200 (amp) set for more details. Even these devices give you power ratings in situations where 1 or 2 channels are driven, not all of them at once. When you drive all the channels at once, expect that you get 50% to 70% of declared wattage per channel. The only company that gives honest all channels driven rating is NAD.

So, think wisely about what you NEED. You came and asked a question for a powerful HT system. Sonos can rumble real good, but powerful relative to stand-alone AVR and separate components it is not.

I was in shopping mode a few years ago and did some research into amplifier power needed to get sound levels I wanted and discovered how much impact speaker efficiency has on that number and the costs (purchase and powering) a big amp.

As you work through your setups try using several speaker efficiency ratings say from 85 to 105 and see what you need for power in the different cases. A few bucks more for a more efficient speaker may be a good investment.

A very general introduction to the amp power versus speaker power and efficiency topic.

https://www.practical-home-theater-guide.com/audio-amplifier.html

Herr_Vlad wrote:

dferretto wrote:

Thanks so much for the feedback! I will do a setup with Sonos speakers anyway. Rather, I will learn a little here in the community and decide what is best.

Sonos is excellent as a multi-room music system, and does a nice job for home theater setups in non-demanding applications. For large rooms, with lots and lots of power you might need to look elsewhere. Depending how much power you need, you might even need to go down the road of seperate components, like an AV pre-amp/processor and standalone multi-channel amp. Look at Yamaha CX-A5200 (pre-amp) and MX-A5200 (amp) set for more details. Even these devices give you power ratings in situations where 1 or 2 channels are driven, not all of them at once. When you drive all the channels at once, expect that you get 50% to 70% of declared wattage per channel. The only company that gives honest all channels driven rating is NAD.

So, think wisely about what you NEED. You came and asked a question for a powerful HT system. Sonos can rumble real good, but powerful relative to stand-alone AVR and separate components it is not.

Thank you @Herr_Vlad for the advice and explanations. I think I will lower my intention and buy a Sonos home theater and put Sonos in the rest of the house. I am convinced that the Sonos experience will be more rewarding than just a power sound.

Stanley_4 wrote:

I was in shopping mode a few years ago and did some research into amplifier power needed to get sound levels I wanted and discovered how much impact speaker efficiency has on that number and the costs (purchase and powering) a big amp.

As you work through your setups try using several speaker efficiency ratings say from 85 to 105 and see what you need for power in the different cases. A few bucks more for a more efficient speaker may be a good investment.

A very general introduction to the amp power versus speaker power and efficiency topic.

https://www.practical-home-theater-guide.com/audio-amplifier.html

Very good, thank you very much @Stanley_4.
I am going to setup with Sonos ceiling surround speakers, connected to a Sonos amp, playbar and sub. I believe it will be more than enough for a nice sound experience during a good fulme.

I had two fairly nice, $2500 and $6000 AVR / speaker setups, got Sonos and gave one away to the grandkids, not sure why I still have the other as it is rarely used while my Sonos is used many hours a day. I think you are making a wise choice.