I have messed with the app and searched the forum and can’t find a clear answer. I see a lot of talk of Zones but in the app I don’t see any option for zones. I am using the new app. My normal setup is all speakers, Arc, Sub and Play 1’s as home theater surround sound. However when we are outside I would like to unplug the Play 1’s and have them just be a stereo pair for music. I have found I can remove them from the room, then create a separate stereo pair but this is very conversion. Each step takes a while for the app to update so you can do the next. Is there a better way? How do Insetup zones in the new app?
use Play 1’s as surrond sound speakers and outdoor speakers
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When you “Remove Surrounds” in the Sonos app, the app will automatically put the two Play:1s in separate rooms or zones. When you set them up outside, you just need to set them up as a stereo pair by following these instructions:
https://support.sonos.com/s/article/1066?language=en_US
As I said in my post I have already successfully done that very thing. It is very cumbersome. When I removed them from the room I had to wait a long time before the app assigned them to their own separate rooms. At that point I was able to join them.
It sounds like there isn’t a better way. I am wandering if this was actually better in the old app? In previous posts they said don’t use rooms use “zones”. Your posts says rooms or zones as if they are one and the same. The other posts describe having separate zones within the same room. Can someone clear up the mystery of Rooms vs Zones? Are they the same thing? In the past version was there something we no longer have? The way it has been described would be very convenient.
Zones and rooms are the same thing. Sonos used to refer to zones, but switched to rooms several years back. A lot of other multiroom systems refer to zones as well.
As to the original question. There is no other way to remove and add your surround speakers to your home theatre room. There never has been a different way to do this. Really Sonos products (except for portables) are not designed to be plugged/unplugged and moved around the house. You set them up to bond with other speakers (for home theatre or a pair), trueplay tune them to the room, and then leave them only. The ability to break apart paired/bonded speakers is there so you can reuse the speakers in a different room on a more permanent basis, not for temporary use.
You may want to look into a Move or pair of Roams for use outdoors. They are ideal for that.
One more question. What about grouping rooms? Is that no longer a thing? I found the instructions on the sonos site. It says from the setting tab hit the group button from the room. I don’t have a group button. Currently I have 3 rooms. Arc + sub in one. Each play 1 in its own room. I separated them just to see if I could play with the group feature but I don’t see the option. I was debating about getting the Roam but the one thing I don’t like is that they don’t have a Bluetooth stereo option when you have 2 and are away from home. I even researched use a mobile hotspot but you can’t control the network from the device creating the hotspot so it takes 2 phones to pull it off. It’s amazing how audio has changed. With portable Bluetooth taking over Stereo sound has kind of gone away. Other similar portable products do offer stereo Bluetooth pairing however.
I know $ is always a factor -
But if you’re moving your speakers from your living room to your outside all the time, not only are you risking damaging them, but you end up having to configure them every time.
If you want to zone your house out, you will want to buy additional speakers for outdoors. Then add them as a stereo pair (or a single if you can only buy 1). Once you’ve integrated additional speakers into your home; you can play music over your home theater setup - but also group your outdoor speakers to play the same music or choose to only play on the outdoor speakers.
I may misunderstand what you are communicating - but within the app and within iOS devices. When you choose to play on a room, there is a small icon in either platform that lets you select what to play on. Zones may be the wrong way to phrase it, but what ever you name your pairing(s) is your zone.
So you could have -
Home Theater
Outdoors
When you’re outside you open the app, click the small icon in the lower right and choose “Outdoors” - when you’re inside listening to music you can choose “Home Theater”. If you want to cover both, you just select both.
Grouping is still a feature. Not sure what controller you’re using so I’ll just reference the support document on it.
https://support.sonos.com/s/article/3391?language=en_US
In case it wasn’t clear, grouping won’t allow your 2 play:1s to due surround sound as a separate room. They would just play normal stereo, for music and for TV. For TV audio though, they would play slightly behind your Arc, creating an unwanted echo. Really only useful if the speakers are in different physical rooms of the house.
That’s the exact article I am looking at. Where is this icon that it describes? I’m tapping the settings cog on the bottom right, then system. From the article I should see a square icon with an arrow in the button middle of it. Here is a screen shot. I don’t see it. It says by where you select the rooms. Am I in the wrong place?
You’re looking in the setup tab...the one that looks a cog on the far right. Click the system tab...the one in the middle. Tabs are on the bottom of the screen.
Also note that if you click on the room that currently playing, the darker boxes on the bottom that is currently set to family room 2, you will see that same icon to group rooms.
edit: I can see why this is a little confusing. The support document says to click on the Systems tab, and your current screen is titled system...so you think you’re already there. You’re not tough since you’re in the systems sub-section of setup.
Finally. Thanks. I realize this won’t do what I was hoping. However if I am ever rich enough to to buy separate speakers for each room it is a cool feature to group them.
If new isn’t an option there are some decent deals on older S1 Sonos that might work for places you don’t need to group with your newer S2 stuff.
If you find S1 gear that hasn’t been used to Trade-Up it will also get you a 30% discount on new Sonos gear.
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