Information about sonos arc, amp sub and surround speakers

  • 26 December 2023
  • 7 replies
  • 126 views
L

I am thinking of getting myself a Sonos Arc along with Sub G3 and an Amp. For surround sound, I already have speaker cables running in my wall and I am thinking of getting a pair of Dali Oberon on wall speakers (passive). I have the following questions:

  1. Would it be possible for me to connect these speakers to the Amp? The specs for the speakers mention that they have a 6 Ohms impedance and recommended amplifier power is 25-100 Watts. Considering that the Amp outputs 125 Watts per channel at 8 Ohms, would it be ok to connect the speakers to the Amp?
  2. Given that the passive speakers can be connected to the Amp (or in case they cannot another pair of passive speakers can do the job), I want to have the following scenarios for listening:
    • When watching TV, or streaming music from network or other app, I want to have a 7.1.4 system, i.e. the Arc, Sub and the two passive speakers as surrounds.
    • When connecting my record player to the line-in of the Amp I want to have only the two passive speakers and the sub.

For all cases, I can connect all the sonos devices to my local network via ethernet cables. Also, I will connect the Arc to the TV (eARC). Would it be possible to switch between the two scenarios through the Sonos app? (i.e. switching the Amp between “surround” and “line-in”, creating different rooms in the app, etc?). Do I have to setup the Amp and Sub every time that I want to switch? Or is there another way, e.g. with an additional amp or a Port that connects with my turntable and its output is fed to the Amp?

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7 replies

Stanley_4
Userlevel 7
Badge +22

The speakers should be fine on the Amp, it will work down to 4 Ohms. The additional power the Amp has will not be an issue unless someone intentionally cranks the Amp volume up way past where the sound is badly distorted.

You can reconfigure your Sonos to work both ways but almost everyone that tries that decides it is too many steps and too much aggravation.

The usual solutions are to set the streaming sound mode to Full rather than Ambient or adding additional stereo only speakers.

L

The speakers should be fine on the Amp, it will work down to 4 Ohms. The additional power the Amp has will not be an issue unless someone intentionally cranks the Amp volume up way past where the sound is badly distorted.

You can reconfigure your Sonos to work both ways but almost everyone that tries that decides it is too many steps and too much aggravation.

The usual solutions are to set the streaming sound mode to Full rather than Ambient or adding additional stereo only speakers.

Could you please elaborate further regarding the usual solutions? I think that in order to change the Amp to line-in i need to unbond the Amp and the Sub from the Arc. With that solution you’re saying how can I overcome that? Also, regarding the obvious solution to bond/un-bond each time, considering that i won’t have any additional settings for the sub (e.g. Trueplay) or the amp (passive speakers are non-sonos) how many steps are there to follow in the app?

Stanley_4
Userlevel 7
Badge +22

I missed the “use the Amps line in” in my response. Sorry.

You are correct, Bond and unBond to change the setup and then rerun Trueplay only on the Arc if you are going to be using it.

I can’t recall how many steps but you have to remove the Sub and Amp from the Arc’s Room. Then add the Amp as a new Room and add the Sub to it.

You do have to unBond the Amp to use the line in connection.

When / if you get tired of the reconfiguration you could add a Port as the cleanest (not cheapest) solution or another Sonos speaker that supports  a line in connection to connect to the turntable.

 

L

I missed the “use the Amps line in” in my response. Sorry.

You are correct, Bond and unBond to change the setup and then rerun Trueplay only on the Arc if you are going to be using it.

I can’t recall how many steps but you have to remove the Sub and Amp from the Arc’s Room. Then add the Amp as a new Room and add the Sub to it.

You do have to unBond the Amp to use the line in connection.

When / if you get tired of the reconfiguration you could add a Port as the cleanest (not cheapest) solution or another Sonos speaker that supports  a line in connection to connect to the turntable.

 

The common part that can be used with Trueplay is the Sub but if no Trueplay config exists then no reconfig would be needed. So, to sum up:

1 room for the Arc: bond the sub and the amp when TV/Stream from the app, etc.

When turntable: unbond sub and amp from the arc, create new room and bond together sub and amp.

If a port is used to connect turntable to the amp what would the difference be in the procedure? I guess in that case I would also have to enable the line in from the Amp and thus unbond it from the Arc room?

jgatie

The common part that can be used with Trueplay is the Sub but if no Trueplay config exists then no reconfig would be needed. So, to sum up:

1 room for the Arc: bond the sub and the amp when TV/Stream from the app, etc.

When turntable: unbond sub and amp from the arc, create new room and bond together sub and amp.

If a port is used to connect turntable to the amp what would the difference be in the procedure? I guess in that case I would also have to enable the line in from the Amp and thus unbond it from the Arc room?

 

If you used a Port, the Port’s Line-In would be available as a source to the Arc/Sub/Surrounds with no need to reconfigure any rooms.  

L

The common part that can be used with Trueplay is the Sub but if no Trueplay config exists then no reconfig would be needed. So, to sum up:

1 room for the Arc: bond the sub and the amp when TV/Stream from the app, etc.

When turntable: unbond sub and amp from the arc, create new room and bond together sub and amp.

If a port is used to connect turntable to the amp what would the difference be in the procedure? I guess in that case I would also have to enable the line in from the Amp and thus unbond it from the Arc room?

 

If you used a Port, the Port’s Line-In would be available as a source to the Arc/Sub/Surrounds with no need to reconfigure any rooms.  

So a connection scheme in that case would be:

Arc: HDMI to TV and ethernet to local network

Sub: Ethernet to local network

Amp: two passive speakers and ethernet to local network

Port: turntable in and line out to Amp and also ethernet to local network

The thing I don’t understand is how the line input in that case would work for the Amp. Or do you mean that the Port would just stream the turntable music over network and listen in that case through Arc, Sub and passive speakers?

jgatie

It is not recommended to connect a Sub or surrounds via Ethernet.  There is no need to connect the Port Line-Out to the Amp Line-In.  To play the turntable, simply choose the Port’s Line-In as a source in the Sonos app.  

See this link for more details: https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/listen-to-your-turntable-on-sonos

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