Question

Play5(gen2) for surround?

  • 27 November 2016
  • 6 replies
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I have one Play 5 (gen 2) and a new Playbar -- the former for music, the latter for TV -- both in my living room. No SUB.
(As a quick aside -- since I've seen the question elsewhere -- the Play:5 alone sounds WAY better than the Playbar alone for music).

I wish to buy a second Play 5 to create a stereo pair in my living room (for music). This stereo pair will also be grouped with speakers in other rooms (for example, I have a Play 3 in my kitchen). I figure I'll take advantage of the setup to also create a surround experience with the pair of Play 5s.

A couple simple questions:

1) Can I expect the Play:5's s to deliver a better (or at least equal) surround experience than a pair of Play 1's? For example, will the surround setup be able to take advantage of the Play 5's better base for music and action sequences? Or will the Play 5 satellites just act like "little" speakers.

2) Are there any disadvantages or inconveniences associated with using the Play:5s for both surround (TV) and stereo (music), compared to having separated dedicated surround speakers (Play:1's)? For example, do I need to re-establish the "surround" and "stereo" configurations every time I want to move between the setups (several steps), or is there a simple way to sort of toggle between the two configurations (one being the Playbar with Play5's for surround, the other being the Play 5s stereo-paired)?

3) For music, will it be better to include or exclude the Playbar with/from the stereo-paired Play:5s?

Thanks
Jeff

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6 replies

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Oh, and related to question 1: will there be any benefit of eventually adding a SUB to the surround setup? Or will the Play:5s sufficiently perform the bass role? (I guess this depends on how the audio is processed across the speakers).

Thanks again
Jeff
The general consensus is the Play:5s are overkill for surrounds. Plus, the Play:1 is on sale right now in certain areas, you could pick up a pair and a Sub for less than 2 Play:5s.

As to your second question, the Play5s as surrounds would not be getting any bass from the .1 channel, so the Sub would be much better in that setup.
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Thanks jgatie!

Overkill is ok. I want to get the two Play 5s anyway for stereo music. I was hoping they'd be "better" than Play 1s for surround, but as long as they are not worse for some reason, that will be fine.

That being said, the idea of just using a pair of Play 1s + SUB for music instead of a pair of Play 5s is intriguing....
Just wanted to add something to this, I have 2 play 5 2nd gen, playbar and sub, set up in surround sound in a average size living room and I would put the sound quality up against ANY movie theater experience except IMAX. The sound and bass is unbelievable. Watched a war movie and my wife literally got scared when shots were fired. Sounds amazing and if you have the money to spend, skip the play 1 and go with the play 5 for rears, also get the bonus of having an amazing music experience as well. I got on the sonos train late but I'm a fan for life!!!
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I had read in a previous thread that someone thought the Play 1s actually sounded better than Play 5s as surrounds....that said, get the Sub for sure. I was watching Sully the other night and the walls were shaking in the opening scene. The overall volume wasn't even halfway up.
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Just wanted to add something to this, I have 2 play 5 2nd gen, playbar and sub, set up in surround sound in a average size living room and I would put the sound quality up against ANY movie theater experience except IMAX. The sound and bass is unbelievable. Watched a war movie and my wife literally got scared when shots were fired. Sounds amazing and if you have the money to spend, skip the play 1 and go with the play 5 for rears, also get the bonus of having an amazing music experience as well. I got on the sonos train late but I'm a fan for life!!!. I have a question for you...& anyone else that wishes to contribute.

How did you position your PLAY:5’s as surrounds? What’s the best position to place the PLAY:5’s as surrounds for movie watching and music listening in full mode?