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From what I’ve been reading to achieve 5.1 surround sound all I need is a Sonos ARC, 2 in ceiling speakers with a Sonos AMP, and a sub...Is that correct? Sonos ARC right under the TV, sub close by, & the in ceiling speakers should be placed a few feet back from the main sitting area in the living room is that correct?

 

That is my setup, works very well.  Others might say that the surrounds should not be in the ceiling, but our room does not allow me to place surrounds at ear level behind our seating area.

Hi @sn9086.

Welcome to the Sonos community and thanks for reaching out to us.

Yes I would like to confirm. That is one way of getting a full 5.1 Home theater set up having the Sonos Arc as your main front speaker connected to the TV making it 3.0.2, Adding the Sonos Sub makes it 3.1.2 and then adding the Sonos Amp with 2pcs connected in-ceiling speakers making it a complete 5.1.2 speakers. #5 means front left, front right, front center, rear left and read right. #1 means Subwoofer and #2 means 2 speakers blasting upwards for Atmos.

I hope this details helps.

Please let us know if you still have further questions or concerns. We are always here to help.

Thanks,

Hi there, this is really useful. Can the Real R/L Ceiling Speakers be non Sonos, for example monitor audio? Also my ceiling is high (2700), will the sound still be good?

Hi @User170808.

Welcome to the Sonos community and thanks for reaching out to us. I understand your inquiry and would want to help you out.

If you are going to use the Sonos Amp as your surrounds, yes you can add the Sonos Amp as surrounds to your Sonos Main home theater speaker and connect the non-Sonos speaker to your Sonos Amp that fits the power capacity of the Sonos Amp which is 125 Watts per channel @ 8Ohms. Let me share with you the Sonos Amp specifications, functionalities, limitations, and guidelines to better understand how the Sonos Amp works.

I hope this helps.

Please let us know if you still have further questions or concerns. We are always here to help.

Thanks,

 

Hi, I have a similar question, but a little different.  I already have a non-Sonos subwoofer and I’m hoping I can use it rather than having to purchase a Sonos subwoofer at this time (mostly due to budget constraints).  My current non-Sonos surround sound setup includes:

  • 5.1 home theater receiver, wired to
    • 3 bookshelf speakers for front left, center, and front right channels
    • 2 in-ceiling speakers for rear left and rear right
    • 1 subwoofer
    • TV through HDMI
    • 3 other HDMI devices (Blu-Ray, Apple TV, and XBox)
    • Ethernet

My receiver is failing and rather than replace it, I’m wondering if I can switch to Sonos 5.1.2 as follows:

  • New Sonos Arc connected to existing TV via HDMI ARC (for 3.0.2), then
  • New Sonos Amp connected to 2 existing in-ceiling speakers AND existing subwoofer (for 5.1.2)
  • Existing other HDMI devices connected directly to existing TV via other HDMI ports (feeding audio back to the Arc via the HDMI ARC cable)
  • I can run ethernet to one or both of the Sonos products

I know from the Amp documentation that there is a subwoofer out on it, but I want to be 100% sure that it’ll work in the configuration above.  If it makes any difference, this is my TV:

That page indicates that it supports both HDMI ARC and HDMI-CEC.

Any guidance here would be very much appreciated!

 

Sorry, but the subwoofer connection is disabled when using the Amp for surround.

Take a look here: https://support.sonos.com/s/article/4717?language=en_US

“Note that Amp’s SUB output and line input are disabled when Amp is used as TV surround speakers.”

Hello-  I’ve got an Arc, and Sub gen 3 currently getting signal through ARC HDMI from TV to Arc soundbar.

 

I have two sonos sonance in ceiling speakers that I’d like to use as rear surrounds. 

 

At the moment I only have a gen 1 amp that I can’t use with Sonos2 app to tie the whole system together for 5.1.  

My question is, if I get a gen 2 amp, and wire it to the ceiling speakers to be used as surrounds, does it get the audio signal from the TV wirelessly from the Arc (like the sub)?  Thank you!

Sorry, but the subwoofer connection is disabled when using the Amp for surround.

Take a look here: https://support.sonos.com/s/article/4717?language=en_US

“Note that Amp’s SUB output and line input are disabled when Amp is used as TV surround speakers.”

Well, nuts.  Thanks for taking the time to respond - I hadn’t seen that article but it’s pretty clear…  Makes me wonder why though - if it’s a technical limitation or if it’s just to sell more subwoofers.  Sucks either way for my use case.

So my deployment would now require me to spend an extra $700 on the sub on top of the $800 on the Arc and $650 for the Amp, for a total of $2150.  On the other hand, the Sonos surround set with the Arc, Sub, and pair of One SLs is $1856.  So I’d have to pay $300 more than that just to be able to use my in-ceiling speakers (which I have to use because of the room configuration and aesthetic factor), and I wouldn't get the 2 One SLs..

Frustrating - I may have to revisit just replacing the existing receiver at this point.

Thanks for the response!

HI @speed96.

Welcome to the Sonos community and thanks for reaching out to us. I understand that you wanted to know if the Amp set up as surrounds, get the signal from the Arc like the Sonos Sub. Let me help you with that.

Yes, if you add your Sonos Amp as surrounds to your Sonos Arc, the Sonos Amp would get the signal from the Sonos Arc directly via satellite 5 GHz connection just like the Sonos Sub. If you can DM or send me a private message, the serial number, or serial numbers of your Sonos Connect Amp (the gen 1) I can check with it our for you if they are compatible with the Sonos S2 app or not. Not all of the Sonos Connect Amps are S1 compatible only as indicated in the S2 compatibility guide.

Please let me know if you still have further questions or concerns. We are always here to help.

Thanks,

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