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Hi all, I’ve been super into the sonos ecosystem and I’ve been getting my dad into the space. He just bought the sonos arc and I have a few questions about integrating it into his older 5.1 Sony system. 
 

old system

sony Av receiver

2 mounted (passive) rear surrounds connected to receiver

Mounted left right and center (passive) speakers that the arc should be able to replace

an active Sony subwoofer

however looking through this forum it seems like our optimal setup of keeping the existing rear surrounds and subwoofer is not very feasible. Do we need to buy an amp to make this setup work? Is there something else that people recommend because I’m sure others have been in this situation. We are really interested in Dolby atmos and haven’t really experienced it before. Would we lose out on atmos keeping aspects of the old surround system? Would the subwoofer be able to connect to the arc or do we need to buy a sonos one? Should we just try to replace the rear surrounds with play 1s? Thanks for any guidance you can offer and I’ll clarify anything.

Yes, it’s unfortunate that you can’t insert Sonos and non-Sonos products into a 5.1 system piecemeal. 

You could use your existing rear speakers with a Sonos Amp, which would bond to the Sonos Arc, but you’re not going to be able to use those three front speakers you have mounted, they would all be replaced by the speakers in the Arc, which contains all three disparate channels. 

And no, the current subwoofer would not connect to the Arc, or the Amp driving the surrounds, you’d need to replace it with a Sonos Sub.

Honestly, I don’t think you’re currently missing out by not having Dolby Atmos, not much at least. And with your current setup, I think you could find more value in replacing your A/V receiver with a newer Atmos capable one and adding a pair of speakers for Atmos effects, instead of essentially replacing everything with Sonos. Probably not what I should be posting on a Sonos sponsored forum, but….

The Sonos Arc isn’t designed to be used together with a traditional 5.1 home theater setup. The only speakers you could use with the Arc are the two rear speakers. You would need to purchase a Sonos Amp to power those speakers and they would connect to the Arc wirelessly. If you want to add a subwoofer, you would need to purchase a Sonos Sub.

Or just start from scratch and get a Sonos Sub and a pair of One SLs as surrounds.

If you are interested in Dolby Atmos, you need to make sure the TV you are using supports Dolby Atmos audio. What specific model TV do you have?

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