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dangodin
Trending Lyricist I
September 9, 2018

Changing "Music Playback" from Full to Ambient in 5.1 setup

Sonos makes a fantastic 5.1 setup which, in my case, is actually 5.0: a Sonos Beam and two Sonos Ones for the surrounds.

I just wish the surround Music Playback mode is easier to change.

Sometimes, I listen to music while sitting on the sofa with the surrounds behind me. In this case, I set Music Playback to "Ambient" mode so the Beam plays the loudest and the Ones, about 2 feet from my ears, aren't overwhelming. When I'm not sitting on the sofa, I set Music Playback to "Full" mode so it plays delightfully throughout my suite.

Here's how you currently change this setting, which I do about 3-5 times a day.
1. Open Sonos app
2. Press Settings
3. Press Room Settings
4. Open your Room (Sonos +LS+RS in my case)
5. Scroll down to Advanced Audio
6. Press Surround Settings
7. Press Music Playback
8. Set the Music Playback mode

That's eight steps just to change the mode. I'm not here to prescribe a specific solution, although I'll happily suggest ideas, but I wish Sonos made this easier.

Note: if you're an owner of the Sonos Beam and Ones in a 5.1 configuration, and you don't like how Sonos disables Alexa on the Ones when used as surrounds, add your comments to these threads. It's another big area where I think Sonos could improve the surround functionality.
https://en.community.sonos.com/amazon-alexa-and-sonos-229102/how-to-activate-alexa-mics-on-sonos-one-surrounds-6810000.
https://en.community.sonos.com/amazon-alexa-and-sonos-229102/how-to-activate-alexa-mics-on-sonos-one-surrounds-6810000



-Thanks
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12 replies

Lyricist II
December 10, 2019

Reinvigorating this thread as I want the same as the last poster (Blodsbro)... But from info on another thread it would appear one needs to completely reconfigure the system via the app each time you switch, as having a stereo group and a surround group need the involved speakers to act in a very different way in terms of the signal flow between them.

Just checking that's right.

Lyricist II
December 10, 2019

However…

If I only had Beam, Sub and Amp (powering 2 passives), I could easily switch between these two setups just by using the 'remove sub' and ' add sub' button if they are set up as individual 'Rooms' (even though they are in the same physical room) :

Beam and Sub in 3.1 surround (for films)

Amp and Sub in 2.1 stereo (for music)

That way I wouldn't need to reapply Trueplay each time as the Beam settings wouldn't change and it would just be a 3-4 button press operation to switch, which would only be when we watch a film once or twice a week (for normal TV I'd leave the Beam disconnected).

Is that right?