Contributor I

Answered

Setting up systems

Forum|Forum|9 months ago
January 4, 2026
8 replies
120 views

G’day from Australia,

New to forum here, so apologies if this has been covered elsewhere.

I have recently invested in Sonos Era 1 speakers, Sub Mini to go with existing Beam Gen 1 setup.

I want to use the the setup for both music and home theatre, so currently music utilises the Era 100’s and the Sub, which is fine for my needs at present. However, as the Tv is only connected to the Beam, do I always have to reconfigure the Era speakers and sub, if I want to use them for the Home Theatre set-up.

Or can I just create different rooms, even though they are all part of a 5.1 system in reality?

Hope this makes sense!

Cheers

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Best answer by Airgetlam

No, the Era 100s can be either surround speakers or ‘music’ speakers, but not both at the same time. Essentially, you’ll need to swap them from room to room each time you want to change them. Due to the different ways they connect in each setup, you’ll also lose any TruePlay tuning you do, and will need to redo it each time.

While this is merely keystrokes for you, there are a lot of things going on in the background, and does require a minute or two to accomplish. Most people end up playing music on their soundbar, and setting the surrounds up as ‘full’ rather than ambient, and some even turn down the ‘front’ when using this feature. But there is no way to have speakers exist in two ‘rooms’ at the same time.

AirgetlamAnswer

No, the Era 100s can be either surround speakers or ‘music’ speakers, but not both at the same time. Essentially, you’ll need to swap them from room to room each time you want to change them. Due to the different ways they connect in each setup, you’ll also lose any TruePlay tuning you do, and will need to redo it each time.

While this is merely keystrokes for you, there are a lot of things going on in the background, and does require a minute or two to accomplish. Most people end up playing music on their soundbar, and setting the surrounds up as ‘full’ rather than ambient, and some even turn down the ‘front’ when using this feature. But there is no way to have speakers exist in two ‘rooms’ at the same time.

Bruce

Pools-3015

Prodigy I

Have you tried setting up the speakers as a single home theater room, then setting the surround audio to full for music instead of ambient? This makes the surround speakers play louder to match the Beam.

T

TheGadge67Author

Contributor I

Hey folks,

Thanks for the replies. I had a feeling that was the case, and that you had to reconfigure the system each time, but was hoping there may have been some way to bypass that.

Anyway, I will try those other suggestions as well, and see how it all sounds.

Thanks again for the help

Steve

AjTrek1

One more point…

The Era 100’s must be placed in the rear just slightly behind the seating area (L/R) to create the surround effect.

Together Everyone Achieves More = T.E.A.M.

Pools-3015

Prodigy I

I am fortunate enough to have speakers in different rooms that are just dedicated to playing music. I have a Sub that is paired with my Arc in the living room. I normally only add the living room for whole home audio when hosting parties. Otherwise I just use it for watching TV.

I am not a bass head, so the natural sound of Sonos speakers have been enough for what I use them for.

In my basement though, I have another HT system with an AVR and passive speakers with a powered sub. That system is better for listening to music, but I still need to switch modes to make it sound the way I want it to.

Stanley_4

Grand Maestro

The good solution (not for your credit card) would be to add two more speakers and possibly a Sub.

For stereo listening Fives are the premium choice.

For mixed stereo and Atmos the 300s are very good.

Swap your miniSub around and see where it sounds best or if you want two. That two Sub option is expensive but I ended up with it after frustrating myself swapping one Sub back and forth or missing having it working. I spend a lot of time there and found myself swapping the Sub two or three times a week.

T

TheGadge67Author

Contributor I

Have you tried setting up the speakers as a single home theater room, then setting the surround audio to full for music instead of ambient? This makes the surround speakers play louder to match the Beam.

Yep, have tried this and it works just fine. It's not a huge room, so the Beam and Sub Mini are working well for TV and the Era's switched to full music sounds as good as previous set-up.

New to Sonos, so all a bit of trial and error.

Thanks again

N

nik9669a

Senior Virtuoso

Have you tried setting up the speakers as a single home theater room, then setting the surround audio to full for music instead of ambient? This makes the surround speakers play louder to match the Beam.

Yep, have tried this and it works just fine. It's not a huge room, so the Beam and Sub Mini are working well for TV and the Era's switched to full music sounds as good as previous set-up.

New to Sonos, so all a bit of trial and error.

Thanks again

“Experimentation” rather than “trial and error” 😜

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