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Disable Beam from home theatre when playing music?

  • February 20, 2021
  • 5 replies
  • 388 views
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I have two play:3’s paired with a sub at the rear of my living room, which has been providing great stereo audio for music playback - we use it all the time.

I just added a Beam so that we could get great TV audio also - setting it up paired with the sub and the two play:3’s as surrounds.

Now, however, when I play music, there is audio coming out the Beam - and I can’t find a way to stop that. It seems there are only three options:

  1. Ambient Mode - Subtle, low volume audio from surrounds with a limited frequency range. This is the default setting for surround speakers during music playback.
  2. Full Mode - Full range audio for surrounds at the same volume as the home theater speaker
  3. Main Home Theatre device only (Arc/Beam etc.) - No audio from surrounds, which you may toggle ‘off’ in room settings .

Where is the 4th option - No audio from the home theater speaker, full range from the “surrounds”? Surely I am not going to need to reconfigure the entire system every time I switch from Music to TV and back?

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5 replies

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  • nik9669a
  • Senior Virtuoso
  • February 20, 2021

Have you tried increasing the surrounds’ volume in music mode - the Music Level slider? It won’t silence the Beam but the balance should effectively “drown them out”. 

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  • cleishm
  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • February 20, 2021

I have, but it’s still very noticeable and annoying. It also substantially changes the volume sensitivity - music ends up way too loud when switching from TV.

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@cleishm The 4th option doesn’t exist. If you want full audio from your Play:3s and no audio from your Beam, you have to disconnect your Play:3s as surrounds.

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi
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  • cleishm
  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • February 21, 2021

@GuitarSuperstar Yes, that is kind of my point - why doesn’t that option exist? It seems far more likely that one would want to disable the beam when playing music than disable the (stereo) surrounds.

Corry P
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  • Corry P
  • Sonos Staff
  • March 9, 2021

Hi @cleishm 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

Being able to disable the sound from a Home Theatre product while playing music does seem like a good idea - I’m sure you’re not the first to suggest it. I will pass your idea on as a Feature Request.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
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