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Amp + Soundbar for Tv only; Amp only for music?

  • 25 November 2023
  • 1 reply
  • 95 views

Hi, I’ve looked around previous discussions and haven’t quite gotten confirmation on whether this is possible or not.

(1) I have a Sonos Amp connected to two nice passive speakers next to my TV. I had previously just used these two for the TV, relying on the phantom front channel. It worked well, but I felt like the vocals might be too muddled.

(2) Therefore, I got a Sonos Ray to see if I can use this as the center channel alongside the two passive speakers. This was an easy setup to add the Amp as the surrounds for the Ray, on the app. 

(So far, fwiw, it seems to work okay for the TV. The sound is different, but I can’t quite tell why yet, or if it’s better or worse — perhaps because it’s relying more on the center channel than the two passive speakers.)

=

My main question is: is there any way to get rid of the center channel during music playback? Currently, I just turn up the music volume to +8 for the two surrounds, in the app. It’s not a huge deal, but perhaps just my OCD would like it to just be stereo. (Also, if I did +15, the volume difference between TV and music playback would be quite drastic in an apartment building.)

Secondary question: any other tips from the community for those in this situation?

 

Thanks!

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1 reply

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @zed123 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

If you mean to have only the surrounds playing music, that is not possible - when surrounds are bonded to the Ray, the Ray is in charge of what is played and the surrounds cannot operate independently.

The current configuration will indeed sound quite different from the previous configuration - before, the passive speakers were playing Front Left, Front Right and Centre (phantom) channels, whereas now they are only playing Rear Left and Rear Right - those channels are typically sent much less to play, and what is sent is typically lower in volume than what goes to the front, as is fitting for Home Theatre. In fact, if you are not watching an action movie, you might not hear much from surrounds at all, other than general atmospherics. If these passive speakers are physically larger than your Ray, it stands to reason that things will sound a bit different.

Personally, I have Amp connected to my TV much like your previous configuration, but I have 2x Play:1s acting as my surrounds, and I’m happy with the results - I don’t really have any issues with dialogue. I do have a separate speaker in the room for music, however, as I sometimes play games with my own music playing on this other speaker (Era 300). Perhaps replacing the Ray (if you bought it direct from us, you’ll have 100 days in which to return it) with your Amp once more and getting surrounds to add to that instead will suit your purposes more, though you would have the same feeling of muddled dialogue, presumably - have you tried Speech Enhancement or Night modes (selectable in the Now Playing screen)? 

Please note that if you don’t have your passive, Amp-connected speakers behind you in your current configuration, you’re not getting surround sound - you’re basically getting the same effect as if you had no Amp at all (all 5.1 channels coming from in front of you).

I hope this helps.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
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