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I have an open concept living room with Florida concrete block exterior walls so in-wall speakers and rear surround speakers are not an option. My wife doesn’t want speakers out visible in the middle of the room. I want to create a 5.1.4 Dolby Atmos system surround sound system for my home theater using an Onkyo NR7100 receiver with Sonos speakers. I would like to use the Arc, the sub, and 4 Sonos ceiling speakers to do this? Will this work? It seems like it would. What am I missing? I do t think I need to add a Sonos amp anywhere to make it work. Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

Your Onkyo receiver cannot be used in a Sonos home theater setup.

If you want a Sonos 5.1.4 (or better) Sonos home theater setup, your only option is getting an Arc or Beam (Gen 2) and adding a Sub and two surround speakers (either two Era 100s or two Era 300s). The Arc + Sub + Era 300s will be your best option because the Arc and Era 300s have actual upward firing drivers. This is a 7.1.4 setup.

If you want to use in-ceiling speakers, they can only be used for the two surround speakers. Sonos doesn’t support in-ceiling speakers as height channels in a Dolby Atmos setup. Using in-ceiling speakers as surrounds will limit you to a 5.1.2 setup with the Arc or Beam (Gen 2).


Your Onkyo receiver cannot be used in a Sonos home theater setup.

If you want a Sonos 5.1.4 (or better) Sonos home theater setup, your only option is getting an Arc or Beam (Gen 2) and adding a Sub and two surround speakers (either two Era 100s or two Era 300s). The Arc + Sub + Era 300s will be your best option because the Arc and Era 300s have actual upward firing drivers. This is a 7.1.4 setup.

If you want to use in-ceiling speakers, they can only be used for the two surround speakers. Sonos doesn’t support in-ceiling speakers as height channels in a Dolby Atmos setup. Using in-ceiling speakers as surrounds will limit you to a 5.1.2 setup with the Arc or Beam (Gen 2).

That’s what I was afraid of. May have to look at other options as putting surround sound speakers right by or near the couch is not an option. My only option is to use ceiling speakers to achieve this unfortunately. Thanks for your quick reply!