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This is probably quite a basic question, so thanks for help in advance.

Set up

I currently have two Era 100s in stereo. I’m considering getting a Beam (gen 2) and a mini sub, and also an extra Era 100 for a different room.

 

Questions

1) What set up do in need if I want to use the Era 100s as rear speakers for TV, but have a stereo set up for listening to music? How exactly will music through Apple Music work in this set up? 
 

2) I presume it is easy to then have a Era 100 in a separate room so that the living room set up (era 100 x2, Beam and mini Sub) and the separate room Era 100 as a separate speaker such that the same music plays in both rooms, but either system can be switched off. 
 

3) In the living room I want the Era 100 as rear speakers. However, one of those is currently connected via a line-in to a record player so its location is fixed and not in a good position to be a rear speaker. I can’t really move the record player. Any suggested solutions to this?

 

thanks for any help/suggestions.

  1. You’d need two sets of Era 100s. Not sure what you’re asking about Apple Music. Alternately, you could listen to music on the home theater setup, using both the soundbar and one set of Era 100s, setting the system up as ‘full’ rather than ‘ambient’ for the surround settings, so you get stereo out of both the soundbar and the surrounds.
  2. Correct, that is the way Sonos’ grouping function works.
  3. You’ll need to connect the record player to a Sonos device that isn’t being used as a surround speaker. Any Sonos speaker with a line in, or a Sonos Port would be fine. The line in function is turned off when the speaker is being used as a surround. 

Thanks, that’s very helpful.

To clarify:

1) if I use the “full” setup, it will use all speakers in stereo whether I’m playing through the TV, or via some kind of music app? This sounds fine.

3) if the line-in is connected to an Era 100, it won’t work if this Era is part of a surround system (like the home theatre on “full”)? Currently I have the line-in to one Era which is then linked with another Era 100 in stereo. If I have interpreted you correctly then I would need two Era 100s for the line-in stereo, and then a further two for the surround system, and have two separate systems? Or is there a way of switching easily between the two, so that when using the line-in I can use the two Era 100s in stereo, and then switch into surround mode for the TV (eg by just unplugging the line-in)?

 

thank you for your help. 

  1. Not quite. When you set up the system, you’ll see that TV input is handled separately, with different settings from streaming. ‘Full’ and ‘Ambient’ settings only apply to the streaming content, there’s no way to ‘activate’ those speakers differently when using the TV input. 
     
  2. When used as surrounds, the line in on any Sonos device is turned off. So, essentially, yes, two different pairs of Era 100s, if you choose, although they’d be considered ‘rooms’ in your system, not two different ‘systems’. We’re arguing semantics, though 😉. But no, due to the nature of the connection between surround speakers (the child) and the soundbar (the parent),  it isn’t easy to switch to a peer type of connection, which you currently have, which allows the line in to function. Sure, it can be done each time you want to switch back and forth, but it’s both a time consuming and multiple key press operation, essentially setting up those speakers as ‘new’ devices each change, and quickly becomes tiresome. 
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