home theatre advice needed

For TV sources, an Era-100 will be sufficient.  But note that when grouped for TV sources, the grouped speakers is going to have a 75ms delay due to buffering.  Depending on how far away the kitchen is from the TV, it may not be noticeable, but the lag will be there.

You can Group in any Sonos speaker to play the full sound, there will be a slight delay, probably not objectionable.

Personally I like a Five or 300 sitting on the cabinet tops.

A smaller speaker on the counter or an outlet shelf is also excellent. A 100 or Play would be my choice there. A cover / splash shield would be good for a counter placement.

I used to group a pair of PLAY:1s (or Sonos Ones? It was a while ago) to play the football output in my kitchen with what was going on on my TV’s PLAYBAR. The delay didn’t bother me, as they were two separate rooms, and unless I stood in the doorways, I couldn’t hear both sets. Now that my kitchen is completely open to my living room, I just turn up the Arc, and don’t bother grouping any extra speakers, as that 75ms delay would bother me. I do have a pair of PLAY:1s and PLAY:5s in both the living room and the kitchen, grouped for music purposes only. 

It ultimately depends on your wife’s (and your!) tolerance/ability to hear both sets of speakers. And different ‘open concepts’ work differently, so I’d play with it, and see how it works for you both. As previously suggested, any Sonos speaker (room) can be grouped with any other Sonos speaker (room). 

I have an additional pair of Sonos Ones in our living room, just for music listening. I think that sounds better than using the home theater setup for stereo music. And I didn’t get any complaints when I set it up!

Nice insight! It does get a little loud when I am in the living room and she is In the kitchen. It would probably be softer and more pleasant if I had something else. If I got the one could she just turn it off and on as she needs? She doesn’t have the app and isn’t great with technology so I wondered if it would automatically connect and disconnect as she turned it on and off. Clearly we wouldn’t use this for cinematic events. Just the news and such like.

Not worth any discussion that a separate room or grouped room in music mode is the better solution. But hey… if the wife wants to hear the tv audio of the news she is watching, there is no other way than grouping a separate room in tv mode. 

As suggested above, an Era 100 would work great for that. And can be stopped, muted, or the volume adjusted with the physical controls on it. She wouldn’t need to use the app.

As suggested, you can always group or ungroup a room, as desired. The only time I grouped my kitchen with the TV’s room was during football, the rest of the time they were playing music while I cooked. 

Personally, if the objective is to have occasional up-close audio in the kitchen I’d opt for a Play portable  or Move 2 portable. The difference being more robust sound and increased price with Move 2. The advantage of both is as the name implies they are portable. IMO portability in a kitchen is a plus.

Both speakers are WiFi and Bluetooth compatible. They can be charged on their stands or via USB-C cable. Both have a replaceable battery for years of enjoyment. The Play is water-proof whereas the Move 2 is water resistant. Think submerge in water vs spraying with a hose respectiviely.

I own both and honestly unless both are side by side the difference in audio after 10 minutes when doing my A/B comparison test was negligible to my ear (with only a slight advantage to the Move 2).

An inexpensive Android tablet makes a great Sonos controller.