Contributor I

Feature Request: Multi Channel Stereo

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
April 2, 2023
26 replies
1717 views

Hi. I used to have a Denon/B&W setup, and mostly used “Multi Channel Stereo” setting (stereo output in front and back speakers). I have Arc, 2x One and Sub.

To achieve the same with Sonos, I have to :
1. Setup the two back speakers (One) as stereo pair
2. Start audio output from TV (ARC)
3. Add them to the TV-output

It would have been nice to be able to choose if the setup should be bundled as surround or multi-channel-stereo.

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Ken_Griffiths

Couldn’t you perhaps just use the ‘TV Level’ slider control in the Arc ‘Surround Audio’ settings to shift the playing stereo audio over to the rears by sliding it right between 0 and +15?

S

SB16Author

Contributor I

@Ken_Griffiths : that’s not the problem. The problem is that I have to manually add the “back / rear” speakers every time I turn on the TV, unless I want the “back / rear” speakers to be surround speakers, which I don’t, because I want multi-channel-stereo, not surround.

Ken_Griffiths

@Ken_Griffiths : that’s not the problem. The problem is that I have to manually add the “back / rear” speakers every time I turn on the TV, unless I want the “back / rear” speakers to be surround speakers, which I don’t, because I want multi-channel-stereo, not surround.

Ah okay, well the above works for me and provides me with TV stereo audio on the front and rear channels. So as an example I might play Deezer or Spotify Musuc from their respective Apps built into my TV and get front channel stereo and when I shift the TV level slider right to +15, I get that same audio on the two rear surrounds aswell - it’s a bit like ‘Full’ audio playback for music audio rather than the default ‘ambient’ setting.

N

nik9669a

Senior Virtuoso

Hi. I used to have a Denon/B&W setup, and mostly used “Multi Channel Stereo” setting (stereo output in front and back speakers). I have Arc, 2x One and Sub.

To achieve the same with Sonos, I have to :
1. Setup the two back speakers (One) as stereo pair
2. Start audio output from TV (ARC)
3. Add them to the TV-output

It would have been nice to be able to choose if the setup should be bundled as surround or multi-channel-stereo.

When playing music from the tv it only comes out via the Arc. But if you choose a streaming source the bonded rear surrounds will also play the music, giving stereo from the arc and from the surrounds simultaneously.

melvimbe

@Ken_Griffiths : that’s not the problem. The problem is that I have to manually add the “back / rear” speakers every time I turn on the TV, unless I want the “back / rear” speakers to be surround speakers, which I don’t, because I want multi-channel-stereo, not surround.

Ah okay, well the above works for me and provides me with TV stereo audio on the front and rear channels. So as an example I might play Deezer or Spotify Musuc from their respective Apps built into my TV and get front channel stereo and when I shift the TV level slider right to +15, I get that same audio on the two rear surrounds aswell - it’s a bit like ‘Full’ audio playback for music audio rather than the default ‘ambient’ setting.

It’s like it, but not the same thing. “+15” won’t result in exactly the same playback as “full” for streaming sources, which seems to be what’s asked. As well, it would result in TV audio recorded in surround sound to play in surround sound (which is not wanted) and way too loud in many cases. Yes, it’s a work around, but does not really meet the needs of the feature request as I see it.

While surround sound and atmos setups are great, there plenty of situations where you just want good stereo/mono TV audio coming from some place other than the ‘front stage’. There are cases where hearing is an issue, or a large space just doesn’t lend itself to a home theatre setup. Personally, I would consider this for a backyard area powered by a couple Sonos amps. You typically wouldn’t want surround sound, and quite possibly too big to be covered by a single Sonos amp. Being able to bond 2 amps together to play stereo/mono for music and TV audio all the time, means atleast 2 pair of speakers, 4 pair if they are 8 ohm, and 6 pairs if you use the Sonance/Sonos speakers..

Danny

Ken_Griffiths

@melvimbe,

It’s why I did ask in my first post "couldn’t you just use the TV level slider?” - it may not be the same thing as the feature requested, but it’s okay when wanting to output the TV stereo audio to both the front and rear speakers in a Home Theatre setup. It’s just the ‘full’ playback has been requested before for TV audio on quite a few occasions in the past and acknowledged by Staff, but it has not yet been implemented by Sonos so far and the request had been around for some years.

The TV slider is just a quick workaround that I sometimes (albeit rarely) use when listening to stereo TV music apps. Personally speaking I prefer the soundstage out in front, but accept others like the immersive surround experience instead, but I use Dolby 5.1 or Atmos sources if I’m looking to achieve that with TV audio sources, like using Apple Music from Apple TV etc.

Another option is to use a cheap NVidia Shield TV and set its audio-out advanced settings to upmix stereo streams to 5.1 PCM audio as shown in attached screenshot.

melvimbe

@melvimbe,

It’s why I did ask in my first post "couldn’t you just use the TV level slider?” - it may not be the same thing as the feature requested, but it’s okay when wanting to output the TV stereo audio to both the front and rear speakers in a Home Theatre setup. It’s just the ‘full’ playback has been requested before for TV audio on quite a few occasions in the past and acknowledged by Staff, but it has not yet been implemented by Sonos so far and the request had been around for some years.

Yes, it’s definitely been requested before. I also would like to see the feature implemented rather than resort of work around. That’s all I’m saying.

The TV slider is just a quick workaround that I sometimes (albeit rarely) use when listening to stereo TV music apps. Personally speaking I prefer the soundstage out in front, but accept others like the immersive surround experience instead, but I use Dolby 5.1 or Atmos sources if I’m looking to achieve that with TV audio sources, like using Apple Music from Apple TV etc.

Another option is to use a cheap NVidia Shield TV and set its audio-out advanced settings to upmix stereo streams to 5.1 PCM audio as shown in attached screenshot.

Not sure I was aware of the Shield setting, but from what I can tell, that option does not have the left and right stereo channels play through the surround channels, it just runs the stereo channels through an algorithm to create new surround channels.

Danny

Ken_Griffiths

I tend to mostly use the Nvidia Shield stereo up-mixing feature for YouTube videos. There are many ‘workarounds’ to get the stereo audio out to ‘other’ Sonos speakers/rooms.

A further example is using the ‘TV Dialog Sync’ feature in conjunction with grouped Sonos rooms, which is certainly fine for in-built TV music Apps as the lip-sync issues become somewhat irrelevant, but I find lip-sync is not too bad anyway, if watching video with just a PCM stereo audio soundtrack.

In the longer term, maybe grouped room lip-sync won’t be relevant one day anyway, perhaps when a HT master device is able to operate with multiple 5Ghz/6Ghz wireless adapters to both connect to the local network and to bond with its Surrounds/Sub(s), especially if using WiFi 6 (or 7) mesh hubs for the Home wireless network. The (non-SonosNet) Era-100/300’s seem to be the beginnings ‘perhaps’ partly heading towards a longer-term objective🤔?

Opps, I’ve drifted slightly off topic - but these things are probably somewhat interconnected, I think. It depends what Sonos maybe has in mind, further down the development path, with TV audio.

melvimbe

I tend to mostly use the Nvidia Shield stereo up-mixing feature for YouTube videos. There are many ‘workarounds’ to get the stereo audio out to ‘other’ Sonos speakers/rooms.

A further example is using the ‘TV Dialog Sync’ feature in conjunction with grouped Sonos rooms, which is certainly fine for in-built TV music Apps as the lip-sync issues become somewhat irrelevant, but I find lip-sync is not too bad anyway, if watching video with just a PCM stereo audio soundtrack.

This is pretty much the work around OP is already doing, and isn’t satisfied with.

In the longer term, maybe grouped room lip-sync won’t be relevant one day anyway, perhaps when a HT master device is able to operate with multiple 5Ghz/6Ghz wireless adapters to both connect to the local network and to bond with its Surrounds/Sub(s), especially if using WiFi 6 (or 7) mesh hubs for the Home wireless network. The (non-SonosNet) Era-100/300’s seem to be the beginnings ‘perhaps’ partly heading towards a longer-term objective🤔?

Opps, I’ve drifted slightly off topic - but these things are probably somewhat interconnected, I think. It depends what Sonos maybe has in mind, further down the development path, with TV audio.

Yes, it’s possible that buffering could become a non-issue a couple years from now. However, a request to have a home theatre room play ‘full stereo’ for TV audio as well as streaming sources seems pretty legit to me...in the meantime.

Danny

Corry P

Sonos Staff

Hi @SB16

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

Thank you - I've marked this thread as a feature request and it will be seen by the relevant teams for consideration. Keep the ideas coming!

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein

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