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Speaker setup, compatibility, arrangement, etc…

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I want to buy a Sonos Arc for my TV and a sub (maybe rear speakers, undecided) to create a home theater situation… also want to put a record player in the same room, would like to share that sub with it somehow and play through Sonos speakers in stereo. Originally I was thinking about getting 2 Fives to hook to the record player (in stereo) but if i link to the arc system to use the sub I’m afraid there might be issues like delay? Furthermore, I would like to install Fives in my garage and be able to play music from either the turn table or TV setup through them. How do I go about all this?

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nik9669aAnswer

Senior Virtuoso

A Sub can only be bonded to one speaker/speaker pair at a time so I you have it bonded to the Arc it’s a tedious process of unbonding from the Arc and bonding to the paired Fives, and then the same in reverse to use it again in the home theatre setup. But with two Subs you’re set…

The Fives have a line-in so a turntable with preamp can easily be connected to your system.

The only “delay” you might experience is if you group a tv input to your Arc with other rooms. Those other rooms will have a 70msec delay, but if you can’t see the tv from those rooms you won’t know of the delay.

Sonos speakers have a capability called grouping. Any rooms can be grouped to play a source in sync across all of those rooms (unless it’s audio from the tv, as described above).

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Dan06lemAuthor

It seems you can’t use the stereo function with any “rooms” with an ARC? And if I can’t play in stereo then the record player needs it own designated speakers that can’t be shared with the tv while watching tv because of lag… Maybe i could still group the “tv room” with the “record player room” to take advantage of the sub in the “tv room” when playing music but I would loose the surround speakers in the “tv room”… Having difficulty sorting out how to do exactly what I’m after without having to sacrifice something…

I like the Sonos because I can play music in mainly 2 areas using their system (garage and living room) while tying the tv stuff and everything together… But if I have to build 3 different rooms (even though it’s really only 2) to be able to do that, I’m not sure it’s as convenient as I originally thought anymore…

Airgetlam

Huh? Where did you come up with this idea about not being able to use stereo? I play on my Arc in stereo fairly often. Tagging along are the surrounds, which I’ve set to ‘full’ for when I’m streaming music. I can the use the relative adjustment between the two sets of speakers to emphasize, or de-emphasize one set or the other.

Bruce

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Dan06lemAuthor

Huh? Where did you come up with this idea about not being able to use stereo? I play on my Arc in stereo fairly often. Tagging along are the surrounds, which I’ve set to ‘full’ for when I’m streaming music. I can the use the relative adjustment between the two sets of speakers to emphasize, or de-emphasize one set or the other.

Read that the Arc does all stereo functions and any surrounds would just be there basically… Ideally, i would want the Fives to handle the stereo. Maybe i misread though?

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nik9669a

Senior Virtuoso

The room name is just a label to identify a speaker or a set of speakers. An Arc on its own could be called Lounge, it could be labelled Home Theatre, or even Fred. A stereo-paired set of two Fives could be labelled Living Room, or Music, or Ginger. The Arc and the Fives can physically reside in the same room of your home; it’s just a label to identify them. A guest on your wifi may want to play music in the Lounge and it’s (probably) obvious which room that is. Playing music on Ginger is less obvious, though it’s a cute idea to have Fred and Ginger playing together, in sync, as a group!

The Arc has a left, centre and right speaker in the single enclosure to fulfill its function as a soundbar in a home theatre setup. So, it will play stereo because it has those left and right channels. Technically a Five is also stereo, but the channel separation is nowhere near what you get if you stereo-pair and designate one of them as left channel and the other as right channel.

If you have surrounds bonded to the Arc, you can have a stereo music source play from both Arc (in stereo) and from the surrounds (egg ether a pair of Fives, Ones or Eras) also playing as a stereo pair. The Sonos app lets you adjust the relative volume between the fronts and rears, and the volume control for the room sets the overall volume. The music is, of course, in sync. Additional rooms can then also be grouped to play the same music elsewhere, also in sync.

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nik9669a

Senior Virtuoso

Since your original post started, “I want to buy a Sonos Arc…”, maybe it’s time to proceed. Buy it from Sonos and you’ll get a home trial period (in most regions - your profile doesn’t say where you are). Set it up, add the surrounds and try them out as surrounds. Unbond them from the Arc and set them up as a stereo pair in another room and try out the grouping. The flexibility and reconfiguration capability with them is great, and that may help steer you to what will suit you best - and if it’s all no good, return them within the trial period for a refund. But all will become clearer to you once you start using it.

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