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Hi

Different topics on this, I’ve read many, but unable to clearly find the answers I’m looking for. Sorry if I should’ve found it somewhere.

Please help me understand the setup and what’s up.

I have a LG tv with HDMIArc, I’ve put AppleTV to a different HDMI, then HDMIArc to Sonos Arc. The Sonos system is a 1 room deal, with two One SL’s and a Sub gen3. I’ve added all products to a group called Livingroom in the Sonos app. Don’t know if it has an impact, but TV and AppleTV is using ethernet cable, all Sonos products on Wifi.

First off, for a few weeks now, I thought something was wrong or that AppleTV vs Sonos is an intense chickfight. We kept on selecting our «Livingroom» through the output selection on the AppleTV, because that was the only time we heard something in the One SLs. But AppleTV kept on switching back to the «AppleTV» output («TV speakers»), so we only heard the Sonos Arc. We kept on switching, and god damn, I was starting to get pissed off.
 

But I just found in the Sonos app, that within the settings of the «surround speaker setup», there is one TV volume setting and one Music volume setting.

When I increased the TV volume setting, I could all of a sudden hear stuff in the One SL’s, even with the «AppleTV output». *facepalm I guess*

BUT, I must say that the two outputs are very different audio wise. With the standard AppleTV output, mono sound (I guess) / dialogue is in large parts heard on the Arc. While if we select the Livingroom group (I suppose over Airplay?), we hear pretty much all dialogue also on the One SL’s, which was something we would like, because the TV/ Arc is setting a bit too far from us, can’t hear it clearly unless we pump up the volume alot (which often is a bad deal for the kid sleeping in the room just behind the TV setup..). So I would say that the «Livingroom» output is better (for us) than through the standard output. WHY is that? What’s really the difference here. Is it switching from a «TV sound setup» to «Music setup»? 

 

Could you help a bit, now that I found that there was actual life in the One SL’s with the standard output, is it possible to do anything with the mono/dialogue part? Unless we can force AppleTV to always select the «Livingroom» output (which I’ve seen tons of posts on seeming not possible)..

 

It appears you are encountering the difference between stereo and surround sound audio.. see if this link perhaps assists:

https://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-stereo-and-vs-surround-sound/

In simple terms Stereo is using some of the Arc speakers and surround sound uses all the speakers including the rear bonded speakers. So it depends on the type of audio you are listening to.

Just to add if you prefer stereo music to play in ‘Full’ to the bonded rear speakers - then goto “Settings/System/sArc Room Name]/Surround Audio” in the S2 Sonos App and switch music playback from ‘Ambient’ to ‘Full’ ...then play music to the room to hear the difference - in the Arc room settings there are also options to increase/decrease the bass/treble and the volume of the sub etc. in addition to adjusting the TV audio between front and rear speakers.

Hope that assists.

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