Can I group a pair of Fives as front left/front right with an Arc Ultra system Home Theater System?

Interesting. Seems like such a no brainer...I wonder why they are stuck in “Soundbar Centric” world?

I don’t even think of Sonos as “soundbar” I think simplicity, minimal cables, multi-channel audio.

It’s probably not a single line of code, but a complete re-engineering of both the code, and the electronics built inside the devices. 

Not to mention Sonos isn’t a high end company, and probably sees little profit to offset the work necessary, and minimal sales. But that’s mere speculation on my part. 

I’d wager the additional sales in Fives, 300s, 100s would  make up for the investment required…but in terms of customer satisfaction, maybe even greater value.

No data as to the effort involved, so no wager. I’d love for you to be right, as I suspect I was one of the earlier requesters of this…or maybe that’s just what I was thinking, and not posting. Either way, for some of us, it would be a usable feature, for many others, a confusing option. I suspect only the Sonos PMs and programmers know for sure, and they’re unlikely to post in this forum one way or the other. I wouldn’t think the Sonos Forum Moderators would have the details as to why this decision has stood for 12 years. 

Sonos does the market research, so I’m thinking they know the market better than we do.  You could also look to competitors and see that no one else is adding this feature in wireless speakers, which enforces the idea that it’s not as big a market as you might guess. 

I was a 100%  in favor of adding this feature a couple years ago.  Now, I still want it, but not as eagerly as before.  With atmos music coming on, it seems the need for stereo separation in the front is less so.  We shall see though.

That’s not what I’ve seen reading through forums, there’s demand now...and would be new demographic of those with larger rooms who’d never consider a soundbar. It's just software, grouping already does it kinda, just need to figure out the delay issue. It couldn’t cost that much to just add adjustable delay when grouping speakers….this is a no brainer ROI case.

This seems like such a layup to give those that want it an option to buy more Sonos speakers

It’s not just as simple as adding adjustable delay for grouped rooms.  The delay is for buffering in order to allow transport between floors/rooms.  Without the buffer, there is no way to resend bad packets when the inevitable communication error happens.  Even the surrounds/Sub are buffered, it’s just so low that it isn’t noticeable, and it requires a special direct connection, one-way 5 GHz private network to do it.  Whether or not that special network can handle two more discrete channels is something only Sonos knows. 

Also, grouping sends all channels, fronts, rear surrounds, Atmos in a downmix to stereo.  Which is very different from sending a discrete L/R to the fronts and not playing it in the soundbar. 

I’d take full signal to ERA100s or Fives in my setup, in a heartbeat. I’ve got an Arc Ultra middle of a 30’ wall. The center channel is significantly louder than FL/FR. It sounds good but definitely would benefit from separates, especially for music.

I understand what you’re saying...but I’ve read they had this working in Beta at one point and lots of people loved it...but they didn’t release it. maybe they saved it for Pinewood?

Anyway, thanks for all the info. I love my Sonos stuff, I just see the potential here and want Sonos to take advantage. People want all the surround/height channels for moves (Atmos is awesome)...but we want it with as few wires as possible. Even high end stereo is moving to self powered speakers, Sonos should be leading this space.

They cancelled Pinewood.  Why that is, nobody really knows.  But there is the possibility that this type of configuration approached the limits of what the tech can handle, and as such, it was not reliable in adverse conditions. 

Because IMO why take on video and streaming with a $$$ streamer to compete with $25 Firesticks? That was a no brainer cancellation, would have been DOA and is perfect summation of the previous CEO’s strategy. There’d have been some appeal to niche users who wanted HDMI switching and official support for adding fronts...but hardly enough to build significant demand for a new product line.

As for figuring out separates, I hear what you are saying...but reality is adding fronts is no different than adding surrounds, from a technical perspective...matter of fact, surrounds are probably more complicated, given number of channels the ERA300 muxes into the bubble.

Nah, I think fronts was held back for other reasons. If you’re reading Sonos Product People, deploy the feature from Pinewood! PLEASE!