Contributor I

Answered

Multi Channel Stereo

14 replies
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Hello everyone.

I have an ARC Playbar and 2 “Play 1” Speakers and a Sub and I don’t understand why I can’t output Multi Channel Stereo on my system.

For the dev guys at Sonos, here is the logic behind my request. I unplug my speakers and move them through out the house when listening to music. For example, I take my “Left Play 1” outside on my patio, and my “Right Play 1” on the second floor etc.

When watching a movie making the most of Dolby Atmos etc, the system is great. For Music, the fact that I can move my speakers around make Sonos the favored brand. I understand I can make a new room, but then would loose the Arc as a speaker in my main room.

Maybe my limitation is around the PlayBar, which is not designed to output mono or Stereo? I know a lot of people are requesting Multi Channel Stereo, but I think it comes from the fact that its so great that all the speakers are wireless.

Is creating a new room without the PlayBar the way to go here?

Thanks for your help.

-J

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HelloGiantAnswer

Contributor I

Hello Stanley_4,

Thanks for dropping by. Hey that’s a good step in the right direction! Thank you. Definitely more of a full sound yeah. Very nice.

Seems like all speakers are mono at birth, when taken out of the box. So it is an App thing that binds the behavior.

A full channel “Party Mode” seems so easy to implement. And with so many request, I’m surprised its not a thing. Maybe they couldn’t settle on a good name for it. I’m with you here. Just call it “Party Mode”.

Thanks again Stanley_4. Hope this helps other users.

-J

Show previous replies

melvimbe

Ok, this seems to be where I landed as well.

I’m surprised its not in there by default given the wireless nature of the system. I feel the first thing any user would do is move the speakers around to spread the music across the house, but are stuck under this left ambient, or vocals only output…

I wish the App had a flick switch called “Multi Stereo” or what ever. Seems easy enough to code…

Not sure I understand what’s the hold up. Thanks for your input.

-J

There’s two factors you’re not considering. The first is that when a speaker is setup for surround duty, it is specifically bonded to the soundbar in the home theatre setup over 5Ghz wireless. That means that you can’t just unplug it and move it to another room in the house that’s outside the range of your soundbar. For speakers that are setup as their own room, they connect over 2.4 Ghz, or sometime 5 Ghz connected to your router or wireless access point. They are not tied your soundbar, but to the limits of your home wireless setup essentially.

The other factor is that Sonos speakers are designed to work with trueplay tuning to the room their in. If you are unplugging and moving them around, they will not sound correct in the new room. Even when you bring them back to the original location, if they’ve move to a different angle, they could sound off.

I get why you would think all Sonos speakers should be moved around, but that’s not really what they are designed for. They are wireless so you don’t have to hide wires, not for portability.

As already mentioned, Sonos has made the Move and Roam to better fit the functionality you’re talking about. Besides having internal batteries for storage, they also have Auto trueplay tuning, so that they can recognize they are placed in a new location and use the internal mics to retune. They cannot be used as surround speakers, partially because of the 5 Ghz issue I mentioned earlier, and partially because they speakers are designed to fill a room not surround sound duty.

As Stanley said though, a mono mode would be interesting. This already exists with the Sonos amp.

Danny

N

nik9669a

Senior Virtuoso

Seems like all speakers are mono at birth, when taken out of the box. So it is an App thing that binds the behavior.

-J

Not so. Era 100 and 300, Move 2 and Five are all single-enclosure stereo speakers that can be stereo-paired with a second matching speaker for a wider stereo soundstage.

E

Erikkk

Contributor I

With full mode as suggested by Stanley, maybe you could move both your speakers instead of just one, so you will get the full stereo sound.

Must admit it’s less handy and also must keep,track which speaker is left and which is right.

F

fobataller

Contributor I

The system could automatically detect when the source is PCM stereo 2.0 (like most music videos on YouTube) and use the same option for the full mode/ambient mode set in the app. When the source is Atmos or Dolby Digital higher than 2.0, then it would output unchanged. This way we could use the TV to watch music videos in a more immersive way. Maybe there is an impossibility that I am not aware of.

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