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.

I really appreciate all of you. You have been most helpful. Does anyone know if the era (or any other) would auto connect to the tv when turned on?

I can’t test this right now as storms are rolling through the area.  So the TV Room is unplugged.  As I recall, though, I was able to use SVC in the kitchen speakers to group with the TV Room.  The request was “Hey Sonos.  Group with TV Room”.  May also work to un-group.  I’ll test it when we finally get rid of tho front stuck over us.

Only a speaker connected via HDMI which are Sonos soundbars will auto connect to a TV as officially promoted by Sonos. 

A Sonos bluetooth (BT) enabled speaker might auto connect if both the TV and Sonos speaker remain in BT mode. That’s a very BIG maybe. 

I must say that’s an odd request. Can you elaborate more as to why you’d need such functionality?

If the speaker is already grouped with the home theater room you have the option to choose via settings if it will stay grouped and be included by tv autostart or if all grouped rooms will be ungrouped from home theater room. 
If the room isn’t grouped already, you would have to group it manually to tv audio. 

Mainly because my wife does not use the app. I mean she would certainly be capable but she is also not good to keep her phone on her. So I feel like turning the speaker on then manually connecting it to the tv every morning would be something she would be less inclined to deal with if I am not home.

Did she try Sonos Voice Control to ask the kitchen speaker(s) to group with the TV Room?

You can group a speaker using the touch button on the speaker.

Sonos Voice Control can group the speaker (“Hey Sonos, group with the Living Room”) or if you long press on the unit’s Play button, it will group with a speaker/Room that is already playing.  Holding down the Play button will cycle through all playing rooms until you get to the one you wish to group with.

Just to give you another option, I have an open concept space for kitchen, living room as well.  Audio wasn’t really an issue as I could easily hear the TV from the kitchen area, but video was.  I found myself facing away from the TV and constantly turning my head to see what was happening.

My solution was to get an HDMI splitter and sending the same HDMI signal from my streaming box (Shield in my case) through the attic to the kitchen behind with a 20” monitor on the kitchen counter.  That way, I can look at either screen to see what’s going on.  I used a monitor as it automatically turns on with out and internal streaming box that all TVs come with these days.  If you want audio as well, you could get an hdmi extract to optical with a Sonos Ray, that should avoid having to group speakers and get the delay.

The Ray’s cost is comparable to the an Era 100, but there absolutely would be a cost for a small TV/monitor, HDMI splitter, optical extractor, HDMI cables….and that’s if you have the ability to wire it.  I wouldn’t be surprised if the wife doesn’t want counter space taken up by a TV either.  It’s an option though.

I plugged in the TV Room ( exact name of Sonos Room ).  Unfortunately SVC returned “Can’t find that room.  Check the name of the room in the Sonos app”.   Very disappointing.  The hold Play/Pause button does work.

Is there something wrong with naming a Room TV Room?

I actually did not know you could do that with the button/voice.

No, I wouldn’t see why not.