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Looking for advice for updating our home theater and music setup after our AVR recently died. I like Sonos convenience and sound, so I’m thinking about not replacing the AVR and instead going deeper into the Sonos ecosystem with an Arc for the TV room (probably shouldn’t really call this a “home theater!”). The room is open on the left to the kitchen, on the right is a patio door. It's about 13 feet from the 65" TV to the opposite wall. In other rooms in the house, I have a Sonos:Move, two Play:5’s, and two Play:3’s.

Current setup:

  1. Anthem MRX-510 AV receiver that stopped working after nine years and isn’t worth repairing

  2. Klipsch Synergy F-30 towers, Synergy C-10 Center (all bought on Woot, not expensive)

  3. Klipsch SW-350 subwoofer

  4. Two Paradigm CI Elite E65-R in-ceiling speakers over the couch (12 feet from the TV, wall is behind couch). If I bought an Arc, could I use these?

  5. Vizio P65-C1 television (vintage 2016) -- will I need a new TV to leverage the features of the Arc?

Sources:

  1. Sonos Port (I won't need this if I buy an Arc, right?)

  2. Apple TV 4K (1st gen)

  3. TiVo Edge (a 4K source with Dolby Audio)

  4. Blu-ray player

For music, we listen mostly to Apple Music and Pandora.

 

What should I keep and what should I replace? Every idea I’ve looked at is within budget. Would you suggest Arc, an Amp with my ceiling speakers (or maybe Era 100 x 2 for rears), and one of the Sonos subwoofers?

Is it worth trying to link in the ceiling speakers, or just leave them unconnected? Is it worth trying to keep my current subwoofer?

I guess I can sell the Port on eBay.

Removing the large, bulky Klipsch tower speakers will make my wife happy, so the only question about those is, what’s a good way to sell or dispose of them? I’m in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Will I miss having a dedicated center channel speaker, or will the Arc make me forget it?

 

Thanks in advance for advice and clarifying questions!

ARC will not directly drive 3rd party speakers. You would need to add an AMP to drive the ceiling speakers or abandon the ceiling speakers and use SONOS powered speakers in the rear. ERA 100  or 300 would be appropriate.

If you use ARC, you would need to connect your sources to the TV and PORT would become redundant, as long as all of your audio sources are available to ARC through the TV.

In my opinion, soundbars, regardless of brand, are convenient to install, but traditional home theater home theater almost always yields the best results. In your case the wires and speakers are already installed. You could easily replace the current receiver.

You could use two Amps, one for the front Stereo speakers and sub and the other for the surrounds, that would use your center speaker unused. And the front Amp would try to simulate it.

I would agree with @buzz to replace the AVR. The only reason to go with the Arc would be to acquire Dolby Atmos audio output which requires your TV to have eARC capability (that your 2016 model TV does not). 

Going with an Arc would bring a dramatic change as to how you listen to music as it would not be the stereo affect that you are accustomed to. Although non-purists don’t mind the change in music for stereo.

You mentioned that budget is not an issue. Here are six possibilities with the Arc:

  • Arc, Sub x 2, Era 300 surrounds = $3,395
  • Arc, Sub x 2, Sonos Amp for In-Ceiling surrounds = $3,196
  • Arc, Sub x 2, Era 100 surrounds = $2,995
  • Arc, Sub x 1, Era 300 surrounds = $2,596
  • Arc, Sub x 2, Sonos Amp for In-Ceiling surrounds = $$2,397
  • Arc, Sub x 1, Era 100 surrounds = $2,196

Add the cost of a 65 inch 4K TV with eARC to each at approximately $999 for a Vizio (on sale). Prices top out around $2700 to $2,999 for LG, Sony and Samsung.

After all is said and done you have speakers that are unless without an Amp/AVR

Note: Other variations to reduce cost would be to use a Beam 2 ($499) and Sub Mini x 1 ($429) in each of the above. Remove the Arc ($899) and Sub ($799 x 1 or $1,598 x 2) and substitute the cost of the Beam 2 and Sub Mini.

So maybe budget is more of an issue than I thought, now that I see those numbers (thank you, AJTrek1!).

What’s a good AVR to bring into the Sonos ecosystem?

FWIW, my very recent experience. 
 

Re-imagining our entertainment space I decided I’m over components and the associated wiring headaches. I would have had to completely re-wire (holes in walls etc.) my current 7.1 system. Factored into this decision is the fact that the system was used exclusively for home theater, not music. 
 

I combined a newly purchased Arc with a gen1 sub and 2 gen1 Ones. Honestly, I’m quite content with the theater output. Our tv is an older 75” Vizio so I purchased an HDFury Arcana to enable Atmos. The Arc alone is not my ideal for music listening but, combined with the sub and two Ones, quite nice. 
 

I sense a few Era 300’s in the future, love the flexibility in the Sonos ecosystem to swap things around. May also go with an Amp at some point to utilize some of the old system speakers. But, my wife would prefer never to see them again. 😊

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