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Hi all, just moved in a month ago so forgive the barew alls. Long story short, the beam 2 doesn't do a great jobo f filling the space (unsurprisingly) in the living room. Theo ther issue is that while you are standing in the kitchen, you're pretty far away from the TV (and the soundbar), sou nless you really crank it up it's tough to hear. I thoughta bout the Arc sound bar being better for the situation buth ave a few other thoughts.

The ceiling in the living room has two junction boxesw here speaker wire has already been pulled (see pics).

1. it seems most people suggest having passives peakers in the ceiling and using that only for music -  Is this the best option here or should I look to have the passive speakers bonded with an Arc soundbar for a lackluster surround setup? I realize it's not ideal but if it keeps the look clean I'm open to it.

2. l'm fine with passive speakers for music only in the ceiling and surround setup elsewhere. Trying to achieve a clean look and don't want to mount Era 300s on the wall in the middle of the room. Can possibly mount one behind the plant on one side and on the wicker hutch on the other side. I'm not sure this solves the issue of trying to hear the TV while in the kitchen

3. would I be better off just putting era 100s in the kitchen somewhere on the counters? I'm not sure that would help with the center channel dialogue volume

4. do I just scrap the idea of trying to hear a movie while in the kitchen and just crank up the volume lol?

 

Hi ​@GeauxTigahs 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

Lovely new space you have there! It is a bit too big for Beam (Gen 2) to fill though, yes.

  1. Using those locations for music-only speakers would be fine, but if you can use whatever Home Theatre solution you decide upon instead, then it’s unnecessary. If you do go for them, I would recommend more than two speakers for that space, however - I’d add two more in the Kitchen.
  2. I would not recommend the use of ceiling speakers for Home Theatre, no. First, surround audio should be coming from behind the listener, not above, but more importantly, it needs to come from behind you, and those locations are in front of your sofa. Era 300s would be a much better option, but I do understand your concerns about the cleaner look. I’d recommend having them a bit higher then the table that the plant is on, however. Another option (depending on whether you can get power to them, while keeping the cables hidden) would be to have 300s on stands behind the sofa. It looks surprisingly cool, but your other half may not agree, even if you do. You also have the option of mounting them near the ceiling in an inverted orientation. There are no ceiling mounts available, however - only wall mounts - but there might be enough space on the ceiling beams for the wall mounts to attach. I don’t know if there would be room to squeeze the speakers in as well though - I recommend careful planning if you think about opting for this.
  3. Yes. I’d recommend this for the Kitchen. Having a voice assistant in the Kitchen is so handy, and with Sonos Voice Control, one command you can give is “group in with Arc (or whatever the rom gets named)” to get the TV audio playing in the Kitchen. Please note, however, that there will likely be a small delay when sharing TV audio to other rooms - if there are people on the sofa, I’d keep the Kitchen volume down when grouping for TV audio.
  4. That’s an option, but not needed - see 3. No need to worry about channels - when you share TV audio to other rooms, all channels are downmixed to stereo (but not in the original room!).
  5. Bonus round! If you get an Arc (I recommend Arc Ultra instead though - it’s a big improvement) you’ll have a spare Beam - you could then put this in the Kitchen. It does not have to be connected to a TV and is a good speaker all by itself (in a smaller space). You could do with it all you could do with Era 100s, apart from have the wider stereo separation you get from having two discrete speakers, and you’d save some pennies.

If you have follow-up questions, please don’t hesitate.

I hope this helps.

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