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Sonos Beam with 2 x Sonos One SL - Surround Sound

  • 16 February 2020
  • 3 replies
  • 2299 views
J

Set Beam up in December 2019 added 2 x One SL’s yesterday. All three units successfully grouped together as ‘Lounge’. Beam has been brilliant, Have introducing left and right hand One SL’s placed on floor behind each end of settee. Can operate system volume from any of the units, however when Beam is at acceptable volume, we can not hear the 2 x One SL’s, although they are working when you get your ear very close to them.

Also once I get volume working correctly, can I expect to get true surround sound, such as helicopter buzzing around the room etc.

This is my very first post, look forward to some helpful replies - Thanks

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Best answer by robinm0 16 February 2020, 17:21

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3 replies

robinm0
Userlevel 4
Badge +1

I have a Beam set up with 2 x Ones on stands . I found the following works for me (details are for iOS app); ours is mostly used with a Samsung curved TV (2016 model):

  1. The TV is connected from its optical port using the suppled adapter to the Beam’s HDMI port. The Beam is wired to the router;
  2. TV sound is set to output Dolby Digital 5.1 by default; the same is true for the boxes connected (Sky Q, Freesat, Sony Blu-ray, Toshiba DVD). Not all TV programmes (Freeview) are broadcast in 5.1. You should be able to see this via the programme info details (i on most TV remotes). There are some occasional issues with lip-sync & you may need to play with individual device settings (often hidden in sub-menus) to resolve them;
  3. In the surround group, you should have the Beam and SLs (Left) and (Right). Trueplay should’ve been rerun for the whole group from the ‘Sound’ menu;
  4. In the ‘Surround Audio’ menu, Surrounds should be on, TV and Music levels are set above 0%, with TV 2 x higher than Music - this is down to taste and the room’s ambience. I suggest that you play with these to get the levels you prefer;
  5. ‘Music Ambient’ is set to ‘Ambient’, but this is again just a preference;
  6. Alexa is ‘off’ on the Beam. It is just irritating when watching Amazon adverts!

Hope this helps.

N
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

In Settings, System, <roomname> scroll down to Surround Audio and set to Music Playback: Full and you should here stereo music sources better. You can boost (or drop) the volume further using the slider.

As long as the Beam is receiving a Dolby Digital 5.x signal (not DD+ or DTS as Beam won’t handle them) you will get the relevant audio from each channel.

 

When you’ve done that and checked it all out, add the sub! :wink:

106rallye
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

Since the Beam is dependent on your TV to receive Dolby Digital be sure to check your TV is sending DD to the Beam, that all your sources are sending DD to your TV and your TV is passing DD on to the Beam.

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