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Sonos amp vs Arc for home theatre and music listening duties (no sub / no surrounds)

  • 8 December 2020
  • 6 replies
  • 1315 views
Y

I am thinking of migrating from my marantz 1610 receiver + Dali oberon 1 speakers to a sonos solution for the living room. I do not intend to get the sub as I live in an apartment and I like to avoid disturbing neighbours. I may add two sonos ones for surround but I am going to start simple. I would be grateful for some info /  feedback on a few questions.

Comparing

  1. Sonos amp + a pair of stereo speakers (e.g. Dali oberon 1)

vs

  1. Arc on its own

1) Is (a) significantly better for music listening (I use Tidal & Apple music)?

2) Does the sonos amp offer the same sound customisations as the Arc when used with TV: Night mode, speech enhancement?

3) When using the Amp with TV (no sub or surrounds), is the dialogue clear and easy to listen to?

4) Is there a way to set different EQ settings for TV and Music listening (Arc and Amp)? I am not sure this is needed but I have this option on the Marantz and find it useful to adjust the bass down for TV watching and switch over to a different eq setting (treble down) for music listening.

 

Many thanks in advance for any help / feedback.

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Best answer by Paul A 11 December 2020, 19:31

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6 replies

Paul A
Userlevel 6
Badge +17

Hi @Yiannis74.

Welcome to the Sonos community and thanks for reaching out to us. Allow me to share some information to help you out.

The Sonos Amp is a Sonos product that was designed and manufactured to integrate third-party traditional speakers and third-party music sources into your Sonos ecosystem with the addition of being a part of the Sonos Home theater family.

The Sonos Arc Is the latest Sonos Product that is a part of the Sonos Home Theatre family that supports Multi-Channel LPCM and uncompressed Dolby Atmos. However, this can only be achieved as long as the TV where the Sonos Arc will be connected supports HDMI eARC port connection. If HDMI-ARC is used, Dolby Digital + (Atmos) is supported, as well as standard Dolby Digital and PCM.

Each of the devices has its own unique characteristics and advantages.

 

Sonos Amp

Sonos Arc

  1. Has a port for third-party sub

  2. Can use third-party traditional speakers.

  3. Can only use HDMI ARC connection

  4. Does not support Dolby Atmos and Dolby Digital+. (for excellent movie experience)

  5. Not Voice-enabled.

  6. Will only support Trueplay if used with the Sonance In-wall or in-ceiling speakers.

  7. On it’s own, supports 2.0 digital codec. (Ghost center) only front left and front right.

  8. Airplay capable

  9. Can support third-party music sources such as cd-player, turntable, via Line-in

  1. On it’s own supports 5.0.2 codec. (front left, front center, front right, virtual surround and upwards firing speakers)

  2. Supports Trueplay using apple mobile controller.

  3. Can support both HDMI eARC and HDMI ARC port.

  4. Voice-enabled.

  5. Airplay capable

  6. Is not capable of integrating third-party sub

  7. Does not have a line-in feature.

 

I hope this helps.

Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns. We can also try to reach out to other members of the community for their recommendations and feedback. We will be more than happy to help out.

Thanks,

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J
Badge +1

Hi Yiannis74 and happy nameday!

I put together the same setup as you describe, my passive speakers are B&W807s2. I also have two Ones as surround speakers.

I did some test listening before I went all in, and this is my personal impression. YMMV of course.

The Arc (as all other soundbars I have listened to) does not provide a good enough separation and feeling of volume for me. I guess it’s a matter of physical distance between the speakers in the end. I know that the Arc is supposed to perform some mojo reflecting sound of the walls and such, but I was not able to get that impression in any test I did. My living room is fairly open anyway. So I doubt it would work in my place anyway.

While I really like the Ones and Sonos speakers in general, the B&W blow them out of the water anyway. With the Amp you have a free choice of speakers and can stay compatible to the wonderful Sonos architecture while recycling the Ones.

Speech quality is perfect for me, I have no issues with  comprehension, in fact it’s a clear step up from the two Ones in Stereo mode. Of course the 707 are extremely detailed.

The only issue I have with this setup is that the Amp does not support eArc and therefore any HD audio format. This is bad for HT purposes, but I cant say that it’s a dealbreaker for me at the moment. Overall ease of use is more important.

To answer your questions:

  1. Yes for sure
  2. No, but it’s not an issue for me. It sounds like you could miss Night Mode though.
  3. Yes, it’s great
  4. Dont think so

Good luck!

F
Userlevel 4
Badge +4

To answer your questions:

2. No, but it’s not an issue for me. It sounds like you could miss Night Mode though.

This is incorrect, Amp does have speech enhancement and night mode options

AjTrek1
Userlevel 7

Hi @Yiannis74 

The comparison provided by @Paul A is accurate but with one correction:

  • The Arc and Amp will connect to a TV via optical using the Sonos HDMI-Optical adapter.  

Both @flyingpadrejr and @jgf3 make good points as well.

IMO if you are more interested in stereo separation for music and TV/movies are secondary the Amp is the way to go. If you are interested in TV/Movies as the primary source and music is secondary the Arc is the way to go.

However, for overall versatility/flexibility for TV/Movies and Music the Amp is the choice hands down. As has been mentioned the Amp is configurable with 3rd party speakers and sub.

 

Together Everyone Achieves More = T.E.A.M.
Y

Thank you all for the great feedback and insight. Much appreciated :-)

Best wishes

Mkp

Hi Yiannis74 and happy nameday!

I put together the same setup as you describe, my passive speakers are B&W807s2. I also have two Ones as surround speakers.

Hi jg83,

Could you kindly help me understand something of your setup - when you listen to music in hifi stereo with this Sonos room setup, using your Amp + B&Ws and the Ones as surrounds, do the Ones play a music source in addition to the stereo image from the B&Ws? My understanding was that you would have proper stereophony with the Amp + 807s alone, so what are the surrounds doing?
Is it better music listening to change the config to just the Amp with stereo pair?

My downstairs tv setup is a Beam, Ones and a Sub. I've just started a new room with an Amp and a pair of Ampheon Heliums. I might add a sub but I don't know about the surrounds.

Thanks.

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