Music playback with Beam and 2 play 5 gen 2

It's a matter of taste, really. There's no right or wrong. What I would suggest, if you haven't, is going into the advanced settings for the room and setting the PLAY:5s as "full" during music play.

On a more general note, there are many of us who feel that PLAY:1s or Sonos Ones are more than sufficient as surround speakers. If you wanted to use the PLAY:5s separately, you could pick up a pair of the smaller speakers, and use the PLAY:5s as strictly music speakers, which they are extremely well suited for.

Thanks .Yes had a play around and the paired 5 for music are stunning .Will have to set up as surround when watching TV movies etc then swap back to paired stereo when I wanted full blooded window shaking music ,,or when wife has gone out !
Cheers for help.

Most welcome. I did that whole "switching" thing for a couple of days, and to save my sanity, just ended up getting another pair of speakers. My guess is that is why it's not a simple switch in the controller app....marketing won't let them cut in to sales of other speakers 🙂

Yep agree . unfortunately not buying anymore speakers as don't want lounge looking like Richer sounds .Maybe sonos should listen to customers a simple switch between paired and surround would create goodwill .2 play 5 gen 2 and a beam aren't cheap and I for one won't add anymore speakers.

Or simply add a function to let you turn off or mute the bar, base or beam in a 5.1 setup...you can already rurn off the sub and i think the sorrounds without unbonding!
Sonos, any chance this is on your radar?

Yep agree . unfortunately not buying anymore speakers as don't want lounge looking like Richer sounds .Maybe sonos should listen to customers a simple switch between paired and surround would create goodwill .2 play 5 gen 2 and a beam aren't cheap and I for one won't add anymore speakers.

It appears the "switch" is not trivial. I say this because there is a third party app called Sonosequencr that does many of the oft requested functions like permanent groups, pairing One/Play:1, using unlike pairs for surrounds, preset groups, etc. The one thing it cannot do is a quick switch from surrounds to stereo pair.
Since the makers of Sonosequencr certainly aren't shy about bucking the Sonos orthodoxy for the other functions, it seems that one is not a trivial matter.

I think the real question is what streams are being sent ro each speaker in a 5.1 setup, provided the stereo left and right are been sent to the rears and the approach low frequencies been set to the sub then muting the bar should not be impossible, but as you said, i cant speak to the difficulty level, but one lives in hope.