Beam with Play1's stereo music playback

Hi willyroyale

First your setup is incorrect. The Play1's as surrounds need to be placed in the rear as left/right. Then in the Sonos app for the room select "Full" for the surrounds. That way when you play music it will be stereo. You can control the level via the Sonos app for the Beam and surrounds separately when playing music. Sonos will automatically switch the surrounds back to "ambient" when viewing a movie and vise vesa (to Full) for music.

Click the link for proper setup of the Play 1's as surrounds and other features I mentioned: https://support.sonos.com/s/article/2927?language=en_US

Cheers!

Hi thanks for reply. So I’m a little confused, the sonos app not very intuitive. I want Beam as centre speaker and the 2 Play1s as front left and right for cinema and those alone for stereo. How do I do this in the sonos app?

Cheers.

Hi willyroyale

The short answer is "you can't setup Sonos as you'd like to".

Sonos allows you to use a Beam, Playbar or Playbase as front LCR speaker. It's no different from any soundbar in that respect_just better sound (IMO). You must "bond" the Play1's, Sonos One's, Play 3's or Play 5's to the Beam, Playbar or Playbase as surrounds_setup in the rear. However, IMO using Play 5's as surrounds is a bit of overkill. You can also "bond" a sub to a Beam, Playbar or Playbase to handle the low-end for movies and music. The final setup with no sub is DD5.0_with sub it's DD5.1

Here's another link on setting up a Home Theater: https://www.sonos.com/en-gb/support/home-theater.

Pease read the link I posted in this response and the one in my previous response.

Cheers!

As background to my post/ I have had several home cinema systems, Amps, speakers, woofer, 5.1, etc. I wanted to go wireless with a new tv. The draw of 5.1 is the music in films that envelope the watcher in surround, the dialogue comes from front centre speaker.

So having had the sonos system set up for a few days I’m finding it lacking a great deal. The implication (or my inferral) is that you can buy a ‘kit’ from sonos -beam plus two play 1s and get surround. You don’t and can’t as I’m lead to believe. All the front sound comes from the beam, very narrow sound no delivery to the play 1s, they do next to nothing with cinema/tv. Ok with music I can tweak to make stereo but it appears to be there’s no way to power the play 1s as front L and R home cinema wiich I believe is implicit in the selling.

Is there a solution within the sonos ecosystem?

I’m going to return this and try something else, back to the old amp maybe. Really disappointing when it could be so good.

I’m so far very underwhelmed.

I’d like to add that the sound is no better, I’m not particularly impressed by the beam. Play 1s pretty good. I have Kef centre speaker which is far superior as it’s not trying to deliver L and R channels.

Hi willyroyale

Sorry to hear you are disappointed with the Beam. It may very well be that your space is too overwhelming for the Beam to cover properly. That is why it is marketed for smaller spaces. You might consider the Sonos Playbar in the same setup as I have described (i.e. Playbar front (LCR) and surrounds in the rear.)

In either setup using the Beam or Playbar a sub (IMO) is a must for DD5.1

Cheers!

Willyroyale,

What 5.1 audio source did you actually play, that left you underwhelmed with its sound? My LG TV's in-built Netflix App, sounds incredible with just 5.0 surround sound using the Beam and two Play:1’s as the two rears. That’s in a 15'x20' Dining Room. Are you sure you have the Beam setup correctly and playing a surround sound source?

The music playback is also very good when the two surrounds are set to 'Full’. Have you gone through the trueplay process too for the room setup?

ajtrek ive ordered the sub so might help. my room is quite large but i just dont get the enveloping sound of previous systems

ken - ive tried various. neflix 4k. apple movie, prime. i feel the Beam is super narrow and no option to change the balance to feed the play 1s as front. so your set up (as sonos advises) would put your stereo music out of the rear - the question i have (amongst many) is why would i want stereo music coming out of the rear speakers (play 1s) when i play a music source. ken have you tried conventional 5.1?

my previous system(s) was pioneer amp, 5.1 speakers. im very far from feeling the audio is ‘incredible’ with sonos. its a good start at wireless easy connection with the HDMI ARC but im starting to think ive gone down the wrong road and conventional amp plus speakers is much better. btw my room is approx 8mx8m.

i did the sonos setup but found music (not from movie/film/cinema/tv) comes mostly from the beam. ive turned that down to make more a classic stereo feed ie front speakers x2 facing audience, but cinema doesnt respond and beam does it all.
cheers

Incidentally Ken, and I don’t mean this critically, but have you experienced true 5.1 with wide set front speakers and dedicated centre? This is what I thought I was buying but alas no, and the experience is a poor second place.

Great that you are ordering the sub. If your wallet will permit get the Playbar as well. I have both the Beam and Playbar. The Playbar will come closer to the wide front stage you are seeking. The sub will really complete the experience. I highly recommend as KG mentioned using the TruPlay tuning feature in the Sonos App. It does require an iOS device. FYI, stay within the return window?

Cheers!