Playbar and hdmi rumor. (late 2018 / early 2019)

It is possible but makes zero sense for movies and TV shows and even less sense for audio.

It ruins the stereo image and I don't know what benefit it provides other than making sound come out of all speakers just because you can.

As I stated before, I sometimes would prefer to stream music through the tv (firetv) because of the added visuals, possibly lyrics, on the tv. In those cases, stereo would be preferable to 5.1. It might help to understand that the room I'm referring to is both family room and kitchen, with the 2 rears located in the kitchen area. If I'm standing in the kitchen, I'd rather hear stereo than a surround image. It really isn't any different in that scenario than if I was streaming amazon music directly through sonos.

It really isn't just a 'because you can' situation. It's far from a deal breaker, but it absolutely has it's benefits.

I believe you are trying to use your sons for both HT and Stereo Audio. Instead of looking into a method for audio to come from all speakers, Sonos should implement an easy way to uncouple and re-couple the primary stereo pair from the 5.1 setup.

I believe you are trying to use your sons for both HT and Stereo Audio.


Yes, but that doesn't really tell the whole story. I would like the option to be able to quickly switch to full audio even when playing audio for the tv, and back again. Right now, you can only set to full audio when playing from non-tv sources...and it's not exactly a quick switch.


Instead of looking into a method for audio to come from all speakers, Sonos should implement an easy way to uncouple and re-couple the primary stereo pair from the 5.1 setup.

If that's what you want. Great. I'm not interested though. I just want the option to play full audio (stereo) for tv sources (optical input). I would think that would be a lot easier to implement then reassigning the speaker bonds quickly.

It isn't possible to transcode TV sound on-the-fly.

The more I think about it, the more I realize it would be better to release a AVR instead of a new soundbar

Releasing a soundbar, it would just become outdated again in the future and require a new revision - but releasing a hugely upgraded AVR instead (SUPERCONNECT) would make more sense.

Would be great if you had a SUPERCONNECT and then you could just buy your Play 1/3/5 and use those to create a 5.1 or 7.1 surround system - benefit of this is you get better channel separation and more options for how you position and setup your home theater - I would hope that the SUPERCONNECT also allowed 5.1.2/5.1.4 or 7.1.2/7.1.4 and then SONOS sold the Upfiring Atmos speakers that would be cool

Of course either way my playbar would become redundant, not that I currently have the space to setup a 5.1.2 system with Play 3 speakers, lack of space is the reason I bought the Playbar and Play 1s in the first place, but having that upgrade path for the future would be nice

If a SUPERCONNECT is realeased, then once I have the space I would sell my Playbar and Play 1's and then buy the SUPERCONNECT and 8 PLAY 3's, keeping the SUB to create that 7.1 system. Of course by the same token, once I get more space, if at that time doing this was not possible with Sonos I would sell my entire Sonos system and then buy a high end AVR from Yamaha/Denon and just buy all the speakers and create that setup myself

I believe you are trying to use your sons for both HT and Stereo Audio.


Yes, but that doesn't really tell the whole story. I would like the option to be able to quickly switch to full audio even when playing audio for the tv, and back again. Right now, you can only set to full audio when playing from non-tv sources...and it's not exactly a quick switch.


Instead of looking into a method for audio to come from all speakers, Sonos should implement an easy way to uncouple and re-couple the primary stereo pair from the 5.1 setup.

If that's what you want. Great. I'm not interested though. I just want the option to play full audio (stereo) for tv sources (optical input). I would think that would be a lot easier to implement then reassigning the speaker bonds quickly.

That is not at all what I want. Faux-stereo sound is a terrible idea.

What you are looking for is a feature a very, very small number of people would use because there is no real-world, practical application for it. If there were unlimited development resources; maybe its a nice-to-have at best.

The uncoupling method gives you what you are looking for (the right way) and is do-able from a technology standpoint. If I were looking for a solution, that's where I would focus my efforts.

Weird. I keep telling you want and you keep telling me I want something else. Pointless conversation.

I believe you are trying to use your sons for both HT and Stereo Audio.


Yes, but that doesn't really tell the whole story. I would like the option to be able to quickly switch to full audio even when playing audio for the tv, and back again. Right now, you can only set to full audio when playing from non-tv sources...and it's not exactly a quick switch.


Instead of looking into a method for audio to come from all speakers, Sonos should implement an easy way to uncouple and re-couple the primary stereo pair from the 5.1 setup.

If that's what you want. Great. I'm not interested though. I just want the option to play full audio (stereo) for tv sources (optical input). I would think that would be a lot easier to implement then reassigning the speaker bonds quickly.

That is not at all what I want. Faux-stereo sound is a terrible idea.

What you are looking for is a feature a very, very small number of people would use because there is no real-world, practical application for it. If there were unlimited development resources; maybe its a nice-to-have at best.

The uncoupling method gives you what you are looking for (the right way) and is do-able from a technology standpoint. If I were looking for a solution, that's where I would focus my efforts.

This is definitely NOT "Faux-stereo sound".

This is "full channel stereo" when you have got "stereo" sound.
Super easy as that.

The uncoupling and grouping method does not keep all the audio in sync with the video so not really a viable option. +1 for full channel audio from stereo TV sources for me 😉

I believe you are trying to use your sons for both HT and Stereo Audio.


Yes, but that doesn't really tell the whole story. I would like the option to be able to quickly switch to full audio even when playing audio for the tv, and back again. Right now, you can only set to full audio when playing from non-tv sources...and it's not exactly a quick switch.


Instead of looking into a method for audio to come from all speakers, Sonos should implement an easy way to uncouple and re-couple the primary stereo pair from the 5.1 setup.

If that's what you want. Great. I'm not interested though. I just want the option to play full audio (stereo) for tv sources (optical input). I would think that would be a lot easier to implement then reassigning the speaker bonds quickly.

That is not at all what I want. Faux-stereo sound is a terrible idea.

What you are looking for is a feature a very, very small number of people would use because there is no real-world, practical application for it. If there were unlimited development resources; maybe its a nice-to-have at best.

The uncoupling method gives you what you are looking for (the right way) and is do-able from a technology standpoint. If I were looking for a solution, that's where I would focus my efforts.

This is definitely NOT "Faux-stereo sound".

This is "full channel stereo" when you have got "stereo" sound.
Super easy as that.

Yes it is faux-stereo. Stereo sound comes from 2 speakers - not 4. 4 speakers with sound waves crashing into one another in a small/medium size room creates a giant mess.

The audio source is also in stereo - not like it was mixed for quad or 5.1. So again, what is the use case outside of having sound come from all speakers?

The audio source is also in stereo - not like it was mixed for quad or 5.1. So again, what is the use case outside of having sound come from all speakers?

Regardless the wrongs or rights or looking in at it from a purist point of view, Sonos already support full audio across 5.1 speakers for stereo music sources so Sonos themselves see a use case for that. All that is being asked to do the exact same for TV sources e.g playing a music TV channel from satellite/cable service where (in the UK at least), not many are broadcast in 5.1