Contributor I

Manage Home Theater and Hifi quality in one system?

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Dear Community,

I’ve to admit that I’m now struggling deeply about a decision to take, and I hope your advices will help me to go forward.

I’m trying for years to combine a good HT sound system with a beamer, and simultaneously have a good Hifi system. The reality is that it is very difficult to mix 2 types of systems together:

- a good « classical Hifi system (preamp/streaming, amp, 2 LR speakers, cabled)

- A HT sound system with surround, etc

- A beamer, and not a TV.

It seems obvious to use a AV amp for the HT system and beamer, but it has to be connected to the Hifi system to use the speakers, and it doesn’t offer the surround sound, without cabling rear speakers, which isn’t a solution in my context.

BUT… if you take profit of the very good quality of the hifi system, you need to manage the volume separately, and to have decent HT system, you need to provide a center speaker. Not counting the remotes for the amp, the preamp, the AV amp, the TV and ATV, the BD player, etc. A nightmare, at least for my wife.

Not really perfect for HT, but good for music.

After a deep study, I hoped to solve my dilemma in buying a Sonos Arc, with Sub and 2 Ones for surround.

And the result for HT is absolutely great! Surround sound is perfect, Atmos is more and more available in series (even if it’s compressed), and the sub gives great bass. OK, I had to cheat a little, and I bought also a (HDFury) Vertex2 (to replace the AV amp and accept multiple entries) and Arcana (for the Arc compatibility with a beamer). Not simple, but it works.

So great for HT, but what about the music? Sonos has the best entertainment system, with all possibilities to connect to great music providers. And now most of them propose Hi-res music.

Here, I was disappointed by the Arc, and my full Sonos system. The quality is « OK » for « contemporary » music, but it’s clearly not sufficient for classical and jazz music. This is even more clear with Hi-res files. The sound is dull, with little treble, flat without relief, even bland. It’s pretty frustrating, because I’ve the feeling that the full Sonos System is probably able to deliver much better sound for Classical and Jazz music, with all the « medium » speakers available. BTW, I calibrated it with trueplay, so I should have extracted the quintessence of the system.

OK, my reference Hifi system is built with a tubes amplifier, a high quality DAC/streamer, and 2 very capable speakers, so I wasn’t expecting the same result, and would have been happy despite a reduction of quality, I even expected it. But not so much.

After having noted the situation, I read almost all posts on that subject on Sonos Community website, and discovered that the Sonos Amp seems to deliver a much better sound for Classical and Jazz music than the Arc, but also with a bunch of limitations.

Long introduction to request your opinion…

What I wish is a unique Sonos system (no more hifi components apart my cabled speakers), which is great for HT and decent for all types of music.

4 scenarios (as much as I can imagine) :

I keep the ARC+Ones+Sub, buy a Sonos Amp, plug my speakers, connect it to Sonos System in another « Room », and use it in merging the rooms (room ARC + room Amp). Pro: one volume only to manage, better sound for music. cons: 70 ms delay with video (unacceptable). Does it exist a way to delay video?
I keep the ARC+Ones+Sub, buy a Sonos Amp, plug my speakers, connect it to Sonos System in another « Room », and use it alternatively, Arc for HT, Amp for Music. Pro: good system in both configuration. Cons: Amp can’t manage the Sub and the Ones (connected to ARC), Music doesn’t take profit of the ARC sound system, Selection of system has to be done each time in Sonos app (not good for WAF).
I keep the ARC+Ones+Sub, buy a Sonos Amp, plug my speakers, and merge it in the ARC system (bond). The Amp won’t give me 2 additional front speakers but surround. Pro: no delay in sound, Cons: having Surround sound for HT in front isn’t probably perfect, and not really useful…, for music I don’t know how the speakers connected to the Amp will react, but probably like surround speakers too, which isn’t what I want (to confirm).
I send back the ARC, buy an Amp, connect my 2 wired speakers, keep the Ones for Surround, and the sub. Pro: one system, good for music, OK for HT. Cons: loss of real center channel, Dolby Atmos, quality of HT.

Now, this is what I can imagine, and no solution is perfect neither obtain my full agreement.

What do you think?

Thank you very very much in advance for your advice. I have to decide now quickly.

My best regards.

Pierre

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melvimbe

Which sound is ‘real’? Which version should be presented to a home listener?

Ideally, various options, and by that I don't mean the ones available on cheap equalisers today. And ones that don’t need more wired/wireless speakers.

One way to start would be for a bar to use this object based tech to accurately replicate the sound of two front speakers and thereby create the stereo image for music that will satisfy those that are used to the sound stage from smallish live gigs.

I suspect that rather than the sound signature from bars as such, it is this lack that people perceive as loss of quality when they use Sonos and other bar based solutions for listening to music. I know I do.

But it is high time that the home audio scene that has been largely stagnant on the sound quality front for almost half a century, made some real and meaningful advances.

I find it a little difficult to blame the audio industry for not making significant increases in audio quality, because that’s not exactly what the market has been calling for. It’s well known that audio quality too a big hit when people started opting for the digital convenience of mp3s and ipods over quality. And then further went for streaming and voice control on puck speakers, again for convenience and ease of use, as well as costs, over audio quality. And neither of these trends were really pushed through the traditional audio speaker industry, but by outside big tech.

Of course now, the focus seems to be on Hi Res audio, which many see as snake oil rather than improved quality (without getting into that debate). You can blame traditional audio for that in part, but it’s again big tech that’s pushing that through streaming services.

Besides all that, there is only so much that a speaker maker can do considering the acoustic environment, aesthetic requirements, and other limiting factors in a home environment. I mean, we all know that soundbars were never an improvement on audio quality, but they are popular with customers due to cost, ease of use, an aesthetic value over other options available.

Danny

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