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TV Room "Sub and Ray" GROUPED WITH Recreation Room "HiFi Set of Fives"

  • 28 January 2023
  • 8 replies
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Suppose I have 2 “Rooms” set up.

Room 1: Hi Fi Set of Fives

Room 2: Ray soundbar and a Subwoofer

For listening to music from my music library in stereo, I want to group “Room 1” with “Room 2”. Physically rooms 1 and 2 are actually the same room. 

Assuming I can do this and I’m not at all sure I can given I’m grouping rooms with multiple speakers in each: 

Question 1: Will the stereo paired fives (Room 1) maintain their stereo status when grouped with the soundbar and subwoofer (Room 2)?

Question 2: Will the sub act as a proper subwoofer, i.e. will the Sonos designed crossover still work?

Question 3: Will the”Ray” play in stereo?

Question 4: Could I reverse the process when i want to use the TV i.e. start with the “Ray and Subwoofer” (Room 2) and group with the “Hi Fi set of Fives” (Room 1) to use for TV sound?

Thank You Sonophiles, much appreciated.

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Best answer by Mr. T 28 January 2023, 23:34

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8 replies

Mr. T
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Question 1: Will the stereo paired fives (Room 1) maintain their stereo status when grouped with the soundbar and subwoofer (Room 2)?

Question 2: Will the sub act as a proper subwoofer, i.e. will the Sonos designed crossover still work?

Question 3: Will the”Ray” play in stereo?

Question 4: Could I reverse the process when i want to use the TV i.e. start with the “Ray and Subwoofer” (Room 2) and group with the “Hi Fi set of Fives” (Room 1) to use for TV sound?

Thank You Sonophiles, much appreciated.

  1. Yes
  2. Only with the Ray. The Sub has no effect on the Fives which are a separate room, even when grouped.
  3. Yes
  4. Grouping additional rooms for tv audio introduces a minimum 75ms delay in the grouped room(s). As your Fives are in the same physical room, you will likely hear an echo. Music however plays in perfect sync when grouping.
buzz

In SONOS lingo the stereo pair of FIVE’s are a “Room” and the RAY/SUB are another Room. There will be two Room’s in your system. The FIVE’s will remain paired unless you explicitly “Remove Stereo Pair”.

RAY and FIVE’s can be Grouped, however, there will be a slight delay for the FIVE’s when RAY is delivering TV audio. Music will be time aligned when the two Rooms are Grouped. To some extent you can adjust “TV Dialog Sync” to compensate for the FIVE’s Group delay while watching TV, but this might compromise TV lip sync somewhat.

SUB can be integrated into either Room. Yes, it is possible to remove SUB from one Room, then add it to the other Room, but I think that you will become bored with this chore in the second day.

S
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Thank you so much Mr. T and Buzz!

You’ve clearly pointed out the potential and actual pitfalls of grouping Room 1 and Room 2 depending on whether I’m grouping for TV or for Stereo music. Very clearly stated, thanks again.

 Okay, I think what I’ll do is run the Ray, the HiFi Set (Fives) and the Subwoofer as a 5.1 group . . . BUT  . . . and that’s a big but, I won’t set them up for surround sound, I’ll have the two Fives facing the same direction as the sound bar i.e facing the listener. I know this isn’t true surround sound.

I’ll set the Music Playback to “Ambient” for TV and “Full” for listening to stereo music  . . . again the speakers will be facing me.

Two more questions:

  1. Has anyone had the experience of listening to a sound bar like the “Ray” and the “HiFi Set of Fives” facing the listener with a Subwoofer when playing music, and if so what was the sound quality like?
  2. With a setup as in question 1 above, could I control the volume of the sound bar, the Ray in this case, separately from the HiFi Set and the subwoofer?

By the way I’ve had a Play: 5 1st generation for many years and a 1st generation subwoofer for many years. I’m asking these questions because I’m thinking about buying 2 Fives and the Ray sound bar.

thanks yet again, I’m Canadian we are definitely too polite . . .

buzz

Note that there will be a time offset between the RAY and other Grouped Rooms when playing TV through RAY. You’ll have individual Volume control for each Room in a Group.

In your proposed setup RAY and the FIVE’s will be separate Rooms and this is not 5.1. “Ambient” is not defined for this configuration. Ambient is an adjustment for the rear speakers when configured in a surround Room.

S
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Hi buzz, no, my intention is now to use the HiFi set with the Ray and the subwoofer all together in one “room” so no groups. All speakers will be facing me, no ambient speakers behind me. When playing music I’ll have the surround set to “full” not “ambient” and I wonder if anyone knows if I can control the”Ray” volume separately from the “Five HiFi pair” volume or separate from the subwoofer? and how this 5.1 setup sounds for stereo?

 

Airgetlam

This can’t be done in the Sonos software. When setting up a Home Theater 5.1 room, two of the speakers must be defined as surround speakers. You can place them up front if you’d like, but it would sound odd. The Sonos sound bar, the Ray in your system, is already the right, center, and left speaker, there is no option to make it only a center speaker, and use other speakers as right and left front speakers. 

Bruce
buzz

This cannot work as you imagine. You’ll have a 3.1 Room with RAY and a Stereo Room with the FIVE’s. The two Rooms can be Grouped, but there will be a time offset between the two Rooms when watching TV.

Airgetlam

 

Bruce
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