Feature Request: Multi Channel Stereo

Thanks Corry 🙏😊

Hi Corry!
Will this “Multi Channel Stereo” Feature available in the near future?

BR Gunther

Hi @pgunther 

I have no real idea. If I did know, I wouldn’t be allowed to share it with you - we tend not to comment on future products or features in the works.

If you were to force me to give my own, personal opinion, I’d have to say that I doubt the feature will come - if a feature will cause problems for more people than which it will solve problems for, it’s unlikely to be implemented. In this case, what is being asked for is a switch that basically disables true surround sound, which is in itself a major selling point for having speakers external to your TV in the first place. There is already a software switch that disables the rear speakers, so having another that also disables surround sound might be too much. In addition, and as mentioned above, it’s been requested before. That’s just my two cents’ worth, though - the feature request has been forwarded regardless.

I respect your opinion, but I’m not sure how it would cause problems for people.  It would just be a toggle switch in the room settings that would be turned off by default.  It would really only be a problem for people who think “I don’t know what this switch does, but I’m going to turn it on anyway”.

Ok...I see your point.  There probably are more people like that than people who would actually use the feature.  😀

My setup: Playbase and 2 Sonos One SL for rear surround.

The Sonos tries always to make a Surround Sound, that means even if you put the TV setting to Stereo-mode, the rear speaker only give the background sound/noise out. The voice frequencies are filtered (like a Karaoke machine). So you don’t have a multichannel stereo, its’ more an attempt to create a surround sound.

More or less, it would be a nice to have if you can disable this “background surround” feature and instead use the rear speakers as stereo pair of course connected with the playbase. If there is a Dolby Digital Signal comming it will switch to Surround Mode.

This is just one option more in the settings. A lot of people use the TV also to watch music-videos on some video-platforms. There you have also the effect that the rear speaker only give a background noise, which has nothing to do with the real music.

I enjoy multi-channel audio from my Denon and Definitive Tech set up.

I have a Beam (gen 2), Sub (gen 3) and two One SL set up. TV music audio (Spotify) in Dolby Atmos or PCM creates a 5.1 experience, but not stereo multi- channel, where all channels/speakers out full range audio. In the TV mode, while outputting audio through eARC, the output of voice is mainly from the Beam (gen 2), while the One SLs don't output voice much. 

The only way to I get true stereo multi-channel audio is when directly playing music (Spotify) from my phone and not through the TV.

I really wish there was a workaround or a mode which would allow multi-channel via eARC/TV as the output is louder and cleaner, but very Beam (gen 2) / soundbar focussed.

If you go to settings there is an option for Music to set the Surrounds to Ambient of Full so you can have faked surround or the surrounds playing the full L/R channels.

This does not work when you have TV audio playing. It's not full range when playing from TV. You get this benefit of full range only when you play music from your phone. The only issue is that the overall SPL is much lower than the TV SPL.

THEY HAVE TO COME OUT WITH AN UPDATE TO SUPPORT ALL CHANNEL STEREO ON THE ARC 5.1 SETUP.  REARS ARE JUST AMBIENT NOISE MOST OF THE TIME AND NEED VOCALS IN THE BACK PLEASE ASAP.

It can't be that hard to add a all channel stereo switch in the app to allow full range vocals to the back speakers.  Just like the full/Ambient option.  Dolby/All Channel Stereo/Rears off. etc. Come on Sonos.