Pair Sonos Soundbar with Sonos AMP for Surround Sound

  • 22 November 2023
  • 3 replies
  • 419 views
J

Hello, I am looking to upgrade to Sonos in my living room and use some existing hardwire speakers. Currently I have a hard wired center speaker, SUB and Rear R and L In Wall Speakers, all traditional wired. All of this speaker wiring goes back to a network rack in another room of the house. What I would like to do is get a Sonos ARC or Beam Soundbar to replace the center speaker and connect it to my TV with HDMI/ARC port. Then I’d like to pair it with a Sonos AMP to drive the existing SUB and R/L Rear Speakers.Can this be done where the Soundbar will use the AMP to drive the REAR R/L and SUB channels? Any links to KB articles or how-to?

 

I read another post where this is supposed to be possible but it says the AMP and Soundbar have to be line of sight in the same room which has me concerned and confused. If the to Sonos products are on the same LAN, why do they need to be in the same room. Due to the construction of the room and the fact that the wiring is already run to another room, locating the AMP in the same room as everything else is not feasible. Thanks!!

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3 replies

Airgetlam

Some data to fold in to your thinking.

Sonos doesn’t make a device that is a center speaker. All of its soundbars contain right, center, and left channels that can’t be split out into different chassis/ speakers. Each of those soundbars does have separate speakers in the enclosure for each channel, but you can’t combine them into one channel for a ‘center’. 

When driving surround speakers, the Sub output on a Sonos Amp is turned off. You wouldn’t be able to drive a third party Sub from that Amp. When using a Sonos soundbar, you must use a Sonos Sub. It’s only when using a Sonos Amp to drive two ‘front’ speakers that the Sub output is active. In that case, the ‘center’ channel is interpolated from the right and left speakers, there is no physical center speaker opportunity…but you can then use a third party Sub.

Finally, in general, the Sonos device controlling the ‘front’ of a home theater room uses a hidden 5Ghz channel to connect to the device powering the surround speakers. 5Ghz tends to be both shorter in distance, but also absorbed by things like walls much more than other, lower frequencies, but is faster, and allows lower delay issues. It’s conceivable that you could connect a Sonos soundbar via an Ethernet cable to your router, and a second cable to the Amp driving the surrounds…but I generally don’t recommend that, I consider it a fallback to the original design, and may not be fully in sync (although it should be). 

Hopefully some of this information will help you revise some of your thinking. 

Bruce
J

Some data to fold in to your thinking.

Sonos doesn’t make a device that is a center speaker. All of its soundbars contain right, center, and left channels that can’t be split out into different chassis/ speakers. Each of those soundbars does have separate speakers in the enclosure for each channel, but you can’t combine them into one channel for a ‘center’. 

When driving surround speakers, the Sub output on a Sonos Amp is turned off. You wouldn’t be able to drive a third party Sub from that Amp. When using a Sonos soundbar, you must use a Sonos Sub. It’s only when using a Sonos Amp to drive two ‘front’ speakers that the Sub output is active. In that case, the ‘center’ channel is interpolated from the right and left speakers, there is no physical center speaker opportunity…but you can then use a third party Sub.

Finally, in general, the Sonos device controlling the ‘front’ of a home theater room uses a hidden 5Ghz channel to connect to the device powering the surround speakers. 5Ghz tends to be both shorter in distance, but also absorbed by things like walls much more than other, lower frequencies, but is faster, and allows lower delay issues. It’s conceivable that you could connect a Sonos soundbar via an Ethernet cable to your router, and a second cable to the Amp driving the surrounds…but I generally don’t recommend that, I consider it a fallback to the original design, and may not be fully in sync (although it should be). 

Hopefully some of this information will help you revise some of your thinking. 

 

 

Bruce, thank you for the very detailed reply! I do understand what you have said about the Sonos soundbar being Front Center/R/L combined in to a single unit. Do you have any other hardware recommendations based on the room and layout I have described?

If I were to purchase an Arc or Beam2 and a Sonos SUB, would I be able to just drive the rear 2 speakers with a paired AMP? There is a tall vaulted ceiling in the room so there is no practical way to get the AMP in the same room with everything else. I would be able to connect AMP and Soundbar to wired GbE ports. The biggest challenge I have at the 2 rear in wall speakers are what they are and no way to change those without walls being worked on to accommodate a different footprint not to mention I only have speaker wire in those locations and no power for Sonos In Wall Rear Speakers.

Airgetlam

Yes, a paired Amp would drive surround speakers when ‘bonded’ (the Sonos term) with a Sonos soundbar in the front. I can’t guaranty that a 5Ghz channel will permeate the walls…but it’s possible.  I can’t guarantee against it, either. If you find out they won’t ‘bond’ via WiFi, I do ‘think’ they’ll work by both being wired back to an unmanaged switch or a router. 

Bruce
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