I am setting up a small media room (10’ x 20’) solely for the purpose of watching movies and television, as we already have a separate audio setup for music for other rooms (a few AirPlay Bowers & Wilkens A7s, and a Nakamichi SoundSpace 8 connected to an Apple Airport Express).
I have been considering a Sonos 5.1 setup as we need a 5.1 audio system to pair with our TV, and we do not need any additional music streaming services for this room - simply a decent 5.1 audio system that will work well with our television and streaming devices. My wife would prefer an audio system that could be controlled by our TV or PVR’s IR remote, and can be set to power on/off automatically with the television (Sonos can do this as well).
We have purchased a 75” 4K Sharp Aquos LC-75N8000U (https://www.sharptvusa.com/tvs/4k/lc-75n8000u), and connected devices will include:
Apple TV 4 64GB for streaming 1080p movies from computer, as well as AirPlay Mirroring from iOS devices.
Motorola DCX3400 HD PVR (only capable of 1080p) through Shaw Cable, and are considering switching to Telus Optik TV 4K as we have a new fibre optic line to our house.
We may add a Roku 4 or an Android or Kodi 4K streaming device as well.
Initially the only 4K content sources will be through the Sharp Aquos LC-75N8000U’s integrated YouTube app, and the integrated Netflix app, as the Apple TV is not capable of 4K, and the Sharp Aquos LC-75N8000U does have both Netflix 4k streaming, and the VP9 codec for YouTube’s 4K streaming service. If we switch to Telus’ Optik TV 4K, we will have some 4K content from the STB/PVR to the television, and need the Dolby Digital 5.1 channel signal to pass through the TV to the audio system.
We have an ASUS AC1750 (RT-AC66R) Router with a good WIFI signal to the Sharp Aquos LC-75N8000U (the tv has 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Dual band (2.4/5 GHz) MIMO 2X2), and also have the option of using a PowerLine D-Link AV2 2000 Gigabit (DHP-701AV) if there was an issue with WIFI.
We have considered a Sonos system consisting of a Playbar (left centre and right speaker), a SUB, and two rear speakers (Play:1 or Play:3), however we are concerned about compatibility with the Sharp Aquos LC-75N8000U as many TVs are unable to pass through a 5.1-channel Dolby Digital signal from the source device through the TV and out the fiberoptic port to Sonos.
I don’t know if this problem is specific to Sonos, but as most of our viewing content will come from devices other than the integrated TV tuner (PVR or external streaming device), we would like the rear speakers to work with sources other than YouTube or Netflix.
We also liked the simplicity of a system like the Bose Lifestyle series (again, we are really only looking tor “TV speakers”, not a house music system) but read of concerns about Bose and 4K compatibility, so we began looking at Sonos.
Does anyone else here have a 5.1 Sonos configuration with a Sharp Aquos LC-75N8000U ?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Enter your E-mail address. We'll send you an e-mail with instructions to reset your password.