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We have a Sonos beam in the lounge, more than pleased with it, but we also have a spare Sonos One and Sonos SL, i see you can connect tem to the beam, but the placment seems to say they need to be behind yor listening/viewing position. Is this definate, as we cant get them into that position, the only way its possible is on brackets high on the rear wall, unfortunatley that is ruled out by the Mrs. it seems a shame to keep the speakers in the cupboard, what would happen with them in front of the viewing point, not near the beam about 4ft away on each side. If this is not possible i will get rid of them. Last question is re a Sonos Sub, is it worth getting a Sub just to use with the Beam. I missed out on getting one from the Sonos Refurbished, they only have white in,im waiting for them to get the black  refurbs in. 

Any advice appreciated

I use speaker stands for my two Play:1s as surround speakers. They might work in your setup. See how the Ones on speaker stands are placed in this photo:

See speaker stand options here:

https://www.sonos.com/en-us/shop/accessories/speaker-stands

 

Placing the One and One SL in the front will not work because they are designed to act as REAR surround speakers. You don’t want sound effects that are supposed to be behind you coming from the front of the room.

The Sub is definitely worth it if you want to get that deep bass when watching movies. Most users would recommend adding the Sub before adding the surround speakers.


What’s missing is the intended use of these extra speakers?

If you want to ‘bond’ them as surround speakers, then yes, it would be recommended that they’re behind the seating position, and ideally at or close to head height. 

However, if you want to use them just for playing music, and not the TV sound, then you can set them up as a different ‘room’ in the Sonos software, and place them anywhere you want, including in other rooms, as desired. When ‘grouped’ with the Beam while playing the TV input, there would be a slight delay, but when streaming music, they’d be in complete sync. 
 

To my knowledge, most people who ‘trial purchase’ a sub do end up keeping it. While I don’t have a Beam, I do have Arcs, and the Sub adds substantially to the situation, especially when playing movies on the TV. 


hi @bluesman I use my Beams combined with a Play:5 in one place and One/One SLs in another place - I do not use them for surround since we mostly listen to radio or music - just to say it would be a waste not to use them - keep in mind that TruePlay will help you to optimise the sound despite a less convenient or optimal placement of the speaker

 

hi @bluesman I use my Beams combined with a Play:5 in one place and One/One SLs in another place - I do not use them for surround since we mostly listen to radio or music - just to say it would be a waste not to use them - keep in mind that TruePlay will help you to optimise the sound despite a less convenient or optimal placement of the speaker

 

 

Your first statement is confusing.  You can’t combine a Beam with a Play:5, unless you’re referring to two rooms grouped together.  You can trueplay tune each room, but they will not take the other speaker into account in the tuning. 

In your other place, I assume you mean a second beam with a pair of Ones is this also setup as two separate Sonos rooms that happen to be in the same physical room?


hi @bluesman I use my Beams combined with a Play:5 in one place and One/One SLs in another place - I do not use them for surround since we mostly listen to radio or music - just to say it would be a waste not to use them - keep in mind that TruePlay will help you to optimise the sound despite a less convenient or optimal placement of the speaker

 

 

Your first statement is confusing.  You can’t combine a Beam with a Play:5, unless you’re referring to two rooms grouped together.  You can trueplay tune each room, but they will not take the other speaker into account in the tuning. 

In your other place, I assume you mean a second beam with a pair of Ones is this also setup as two separate Sonos rooms that happen to be in the same physical room?

indeed, I have one location where I have a Beam and a Play:5 grouped in a room and another location where I have a Beam and Ones grouped in a room - I hope this clarifies

 

In the Sonos lingo you only “group” Sonos “rooms” (a "room”is a speaker or a defined stereo or surround set of speakers). I think you group speakers in a physical room, do you not?


In the Sonos lingo you only “group” Sonos “rooms” (a "room”is a speaker or a defined stereo or surround set of speakers). I think you group speakers in a physical room, do you not?

indeed, in my statement ‘room’ refers to a physical place in the premise and for completeness sake, ‘location’ refers to a premise in a particular country - I hope this clarifies