There is not a way to do what you are suggesting. Once setup as a surround sound system, and changes will require you to unpair the surrounds then re-pair for surrounds again.

You could try setting the Surround Audio to Full instead of ambient for music. This will not work for music played from the TV though.

It’s not clear to me what setup you are trying to get to? When you say you have disconnected your sound base, do you mean you aren’t using it at all now? Or do you use that with the TV? Is it a Sonos sound bar? 

I know you’re using the term surround, but do you have Sonos speakers setup as surrounds in the Sonos App or do you just have two pairs of speakers in the same room? 

Hi Ian,

Thanks for replying.

Yes I have disconnected the Sound Base.

I have the Amp connected to the TV via HDMI Arc

I have two passive speakers connected to the Amp

I have two Sonos One in the same room.

I have set up TVroom with the Amp (incl passive speakers) and the two Sonos One as Surround, which works fine, it switches on promptly when I turn on the TV, the Sonos App shows 5.1.

I just want to be able to shooce the Amp only with the passive speakers when I listen to music (i.e. not the TV).

It just seems that ones the two Sonos One are paired with the AMP for surround then you cant pick them for anythin else, and you cant pick the Amp without them.
 

Hi Dane,
it's not as strict and consistent as you'd like. But with the settings below, the rear speakers are pushed into the background in music mode. I still have the old 16.1 app / 16.1.1 FW (thank God) - I hope the new app has the same options for you.

Dirk

Here’s what this screen looks like in ten new app:

My system is set to my native language, Dutch. I have the rear speakers set to “Full”. The setting that will make the surrounds more quiet now would translate to English as “Transparency mode”. Not sure if a system set to English would actually say that, but it would be something like it.

The English app would say “Ambient”.

Is this a Sonos software issue? 

The reason I say that is if you had an AV amp which had a 5.1 setup, but play a stereo source, it’s quite easy to select a stereo only mode, in fact it’s usually the default. To turn stereo into fake surround, you have to select something like a Dolby or DTS music mode. 

So, should Sonos also allow stereo playback with a fake surround option for music playback in a HT setup? This obviously makes more sense in an Amp configuration than perhaps a Sonos soundbar, but would seem like a reasonable feature request? Not everyone wants software to turn stereo to surround all the time… @Corry P ??

The AMP plays stereo music as "real" cleanly separated stereo to the passive speakers (the only Sonos device that can do that, by the way). The only thing is that the rears always play along a little (also in stereo). But with the settings above, they do it so restrainedly that I can live with it. But I understand your wish. You should have the choice and be able to completely ignore the rears.
Dirk

Hi @Ian_S 

There is a switch to disable the surround speakers entirely - if you want the surround speakers to be completely quiet regardless of the source, turning them off would be the thing to do (the switch at the top of the Surround Audio settings page for that room.

If you don’t want to do this, then the best way to get music playing largely only out of the front speakers, is by setting Music Playback to Ambient and Music Level to -15.

I hope this helps.

Thank you all,

All very workable and much appreciated answers.

I have accepted, that when I want the pure stereo only on the good HiFi speakers listening to the NAS, then I just spend the extra minute and switch off Suround while enjoying the good quality.