Play 1's for rear surround

Turn the surround spealers up if you want, but on stereo program content there's often very little ambient sound information from which the PLAYBAR can synthesise the surround channels.

DD5.1 has discrete channels, so the surrounds carry tailor-made audio as the director intended.

Ratty, I do have 5.1 DD signal on most programs so all set there.

If I pair the play 1's as surrounds, what will be the "experience" when I play music in this room given that the soundbar, sub, 2 play1's would be grouped (sub and surrounds)? Will the music sound great through the 5.1 set up or do I need to "remove" the play 1's as surrounds and play music through them in stereo to gain the best music listening experience?

Asked another way, how is a 5.1 surround set up (with Play 1's) for listening to music? Does it rival a traditional audio setup given this will be 4 speakers and over $1500?

Go into the PLAYBAR room settings and have a tinker with the surround settings. Music can be set to Ambient or Full, and you can wind the volume up and down. Find a configuration you like.

As for rivalling a traditional 2.0/2.1 audio setup, well it's different. If you wanted something which would replicate a conventional HiFi you wouldn't start with a soundbar.

Ratty, is there a way to configure the play 1's to complement the soundbar as the 2 front channels and/or can I lose the sound bar altogether and get decent home theatre audio with 2 play 1's and a sub? If I set up the 2 play 1's and sub instead of a soundbar, will I have a "delay" problem that I read about?

Besides the above, how would you set up a soundbar, 2 play 1's, and a sub for optimal TV listening as well as music? In other words, should I set the play 1's up as something other than rear surrounds?

Thank you

Ratty, is there a way to configure the play 1's to complement the soundbar as the 2 front channels
No. But see below.

can I lose the sound bar altogether and get decent home theatre audio with 2 play 1's and a sub?

Only if you can get an analog signal into the Sonos system, via CONNECT, CONNECT:AMP or PLAY:5. And it would be delayed by 70ms, so lip-sync would be threatened. It depends on whether you can ignore it.

There'd also be no hope of 5.1. Just stereo.

If I set up the 2 play 1's and sub instead of a soundbar, will I have a "delay" problem that I read about?

Yes. See above.

Besides the above, how would you set up a soundbar, 2 play 1's, and a sub for optimal TV listening as well as music? In other words, should I set the play 1's up as something other than rear surrounds?

Configure the PLAY:1s as surrounds. Set music in Full mode if you want.

The only way to have additional front speakers is to get another PLAY pair, bond them as a stereo pair, and group them with the PLAYBAR. They'll play in sync for music, but would need to be ungrouped for TV due to the lack of sync. Not good economics.

Okay, I will use the play 1's for surround rears. I started with the soundbar and will have now added the sub and rear play 1's. Fingers crossed that it sounds like $$ bucks