Sonos ARC + Sonos SUB + Ikea SYMFONISK(x2) - Movie vs Music

Not with the SYMFONISK but with Play 1s and a Beam, but no Sub.

I set them up as a home theater set in the standard positions for TV watching.

Set the streaming/music mode to Full rather than Ambient and they filled the room nicely but the stereo image did suffer.

Moved the Play 1s up front to flank the Beam and got a very nice stereo image.

Thanks Stanley. So this means that the bar will never be as good for stereo as two separate speakers. And was there a big difference between the two set ups while watching a movie? I mean if the Play 1s made a big difference in the home theater set up, while they were in the back?

For the record… no soundbar will do 2.0 Stereo justice if you are a TRUE listener of stereo music designed for Left/Right speaker configuration and adding a sub if desired.

The needs for stereo and TV sound reproduction  differ enough that I don't think a soundbar is a great option, the much wider Arc is better than the smaller ones though. The sound is good  just the localization seems to suffer a bit.

I really do like having surrounds, for 5.1 or better content they add a lot. An Arc and 300s sound amazing, if you can get the 300s to a reasonable location.

Hello Gents,

Thanks for your feedback and opinion.

It looks that I will need to keep the current set up and in case I would like to watch a movie I will move the SYMF to the back

Look at it as an excuse to get a pair of Era-300s and a full sized Sub for the front of the room.

I liked stereo from my pairs of Play 5s, 3s, 1s or, One SLs but Atmos from the 300s has me spoiled. 

And this was my thought, and I still agree but…..

I bought an Arc Ultra for TV exclusively sounds.  As kept my two Era 300s and a Sub, set as another room name, for music. 

Loved this set up. But one day, curiosity, and an Ultra HD Atmos copy of Top Gun Maverick(other better Atmos movies are available), got the better of me.  I set up the system to have the Eras and Sub as a full surround system with the ARC ultra, then pranced around the room in the now familiar Trueplay dance.

The results were outstanding for the movie. 

However.. What I was not expecting was how good this set up was for listening to my Music library.  Takes a while to get used, with sounds coming from behind, in front and above, but I now choose this over other standard stereo set ups and will be sticking with it.  

What I have also being collecting is Atmos mixes of Music on Blueray, and there are loads on both Amazon and Apple Music.  These are amazing, especially the latest release of Genesis “Lamb Lies Down on Broadway” but Bohemian Rhapsody Atmos mix is a music feast.

But whatever the format of the music i love the sound.

Maybe not for everyone’s taste but worth checking to see how you find it.

My setup is Arc for front, SYMFONISK for rears, and Sub-Mini. I use the Soro app to create shortcuts for quickly switching between tunings for TV and Music. I’ve found settings for each that maximizes sound for both applications, including what someone mentioned above, which is setting surrounds to “Full” for music, vice Ambient. Soro is only available for iOS, but it’s a total game changer. And shame on Sonos for not having this capability native to it’s (horrible) app. 

How is setting the surrounds to “Full” for music using the Soro app any different from setting the surrounds to Full for music in the Sonos app?  

You’ll notice I said “including,” which infers other changes. The TV and Music shortcuts I created are vastly different from each other. Between the two “modes”, I’m changing pretty much everything that can be changed, which is obviously easier done with a single button-press than going into the Sonos app to do it all manually.