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I have 4 speakers in the ceiling in a theater room (2 front and 2 rear).  I just got an Arc for the TV.  I have connected the 2 front speakers (left and right) to one connect:amp and the 2 rear speakers (left and right) to another connect:amp.

 

I currently do not have wired ethernet available in that room.

 

2 questions:

  1.  Can I set it up to use the Arc and the 2 front and 2 rear speakers?
  2. I am confused on the ethernet connect need.  The online directions say “The Sonos home theater speaker is wired to the Connect:Amp with an Ethernet cable and another Sonos product is wired to the router.”  Does that mean I can take an ethernet cable from the Arc to  an unmanaged switch and then 2 ethernet cables from the switch (1 to each) to connect:amps.  Then I can take a totally different connect:amp (not associated with the theater room) and connect it to the router by ethernet?

Sorry for the crazy question.  I thought I would just be able to do it all wirelessly when I set it up.

  1. No. The Arc already has front right, front center, and front left speakers in it, those channels can not be separated and sent to any other Sonos device. Essentially, the Arc is not capable of being only a center speaker.
  2. The other challenge you’re having is using the older CONNECT:AMP, rather than a Sonos Amp. The older device has no 5Ghz channel which Sonos uses to communicate surround information, so a wired connection is required. If you were using a Sonos Amp instead, it would indeed connect wirelessly. 
     
  3. Because of 1., you can only have the Arc and one CONNECT:AMP in the home theater ‘room’ (I.e. associated/bonded to the Arc). So the second CONNECT:AMP could be wired or not, it doesn’t make much difference, as it would have to be ‘grouped’ and consequently have a minimum delay of 75 ms, and not be used as front right and front left. 
     
  4. Sonos doesn’t make a system that can be implemented as disparate 5.1 speakers, all of their true 5.1 (or higher) systems involve sound bars. They do offer the option of replacing the sound bar with a Sonos Amp, which gives you the true front right and front left speaker boxes, but then gives you an interpolated center channel.
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