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Two pairs of surround

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Hi all,

I have a Arc soundbar, two Era 300 and a Sub Gen 3, I feel missing something in front like no power or big sound, is it a good idea add one or two Sonos Five in front and is it possible ? Thanks for your advice.

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R

RhonnyAnswer

Prodigy III

No, you can’t add two lots of surrounds, the function doesn’t exist. The only additional speaker you can add to the home theatre setup would be another sub.

You could add two paired speakers at the front, and group them with your home theatre setup, but that will completely ruin any surround sound work your other speakers are doing, as those two extra speakers will just play all your TV’s sound in stereo - plus they will add a 75ms delay to the sound, creating an echo. (Correctly-added surrounds are bonded to the soundbar via its own 5ghz network to keep the surrounds in sync - adding extra speakers will be outside of that, creating a lack of sync.)

So in short - no.

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MoPac

Headliner III

Schlumpf:

I was confused at first. If I’m reading this correctly you were trying to use 300s as fronts with the Arc also being used, right? Never tried that as my 300s are rears so Trueplay works for my setup. I do like the idea of having 300s as front for music, but I think I would separate them and use them for music only. Wish Sonos would someday allow 300s to be used as front LR, center & rear LR. Can you imagine Atmos played through that setup. Right now I think the Arc is the weak link when playing Atmos music.

Schlumpf

Virtuoso

@MoPac

Ähm… no, I didn’t tried to use any stere pair in the front with grouping. I just tried that with a single Play5 Gen2 and in a different test with a single Era300, each in its test placed directly beneath the soundbar. But for me that setup had no advantage. Channel seperation suffered from that and without the grouped room the home theater setup also played quite well.

Ralf

buzz

Grand Maestro

For me, Grouping a stereo pair with a soundbar while watching TV is a disaster. I can imagine some listeners perceiving the delay as an expansion of the room and therefore a great benefit. Only you know what sounds “best” (to you).

jnelly

Enthusiast I

Schlumpf:

I was confused at first. If I’m reading this correctly you were trying to use 300s as fronts with the Arc also being used, right? Never tried that as my 300s are rears so Trueplay works for my setup. I do like the idea of having 300s as front for music, but I think I would separate them and use them for music only. Wish Sonos would someday allow 300s to be used as front LR, center & rear LR. Can you imagine Atmos played through that setup. Right now I think the Arc is the weak link when playing Atmos music.

You are correct in your understanding of my set up. For music, grouping the two “rooms” sounds great (with the 300s as duplicate fronts), thet little I’ve tested it. So far, with a PCM 2.0 audio signal watching TV, not at all. Just louder and mudier.

As far as Atmos goes, I think the whole thing is hype, unless one has downward facing speakers. Yeah, there are some objects in the horizontal space, depending on the mix, but nothing mind blowing (and that is with the 300s as surrounds, then creating .4 channels of atmos with my arc).

Now that I”ve had my pair OneSLs as my surrounds (instead of the 300s). I’m thinking of returning the 300s, they just don’t add that much. I think this is the 4th pair of 300s I’ve bought, having returned the previous 3 for the same reason. I thought they would add something to my new room, which is MUCH larger than my previous space. But, alas...I’m starting to think not.

Stanley_4

Grand Maestro

Sonos have limits on how big a space they can fill well and requirements for the room and seating positions that have to be met or at least come close to if you expect good sound.

My media room is a horrible one, L shaped with my Arc at the inside point, angled ceiling with the high point, about 15 feet almost over the Arc. I sit back about 15 feet from the Arc. With that configuration Stereo and Surround is decent, height is pretty iffy, even set to plus 4. However if I move to about 10 feet away from the Arc the height audio is much more apparent. Not perfect by any means but for my ears, budget and tolerance for intruding on my space Sonos is the way I went when I was replacing an older generation AVR setup.

If I had to fill a really big room well, then I’d not hesitate to go with a very good AVR unit and dedicated speakers for each channel it can power. So at least 9 speakers and likely 2 subs to keep the low frequency room modes somewhat under control.

Not recommending these but as a beginning something like them would be my plan. I’d add a second sub and rear height channels at a minimum.

https://www.klipsch.com/products/r-820f-7-1-home-theater-system

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_033AVX6800/Denon-AVR-X6800H.html?tp=179

Way out of the Sonos price range and likely to need a good contractor to do the electrical work. Maybe a good audio tech to do the initial setup and training if you aren’t up to that.

MoPac

Headliner III

jnelly:

I would agree with your feelings about Atmos if you listen to Rock, Jazz, Pop etc. if you listen to orchestral music in Atmos then it’s worth the effort. I have KEF LS50 WII speakers which sound great and if I’m listening to anything other than orchestral music it’s the KEF. If it’s orchestral in Atmos it’s the Arc-Sub3-300s.

Listen to John Williams: A Gathering of Friends on Apple Music or Amazon Music Unlimited if you have either one of those services. It blew me away.

jnelly

Enthusiast I

Sonos have limits on how big a space they can fill well and requirements for the room and seating positions that have to be met or at least come close to if you expect good sound.

My media room is a horrible one, L shaped with my Arc at the inside point, angled ceiling with the high point, about 15 feet almost over the Arc. I sit back about 15 feet from the Arc. With that configuration Stereo and Surround is decent, height is pretty iffy, even set to plus 4. However if I move to about 10 feet away from the Arc the height audio is much more apparent. Not perfect by any means but for my ears, budget and tolerance for intruding on my space Sonos is the way I went when I was replacing an older generation AVR setup.

If I had to fill a really big room well, then I’d not hesitate to go with a very good AVR unit and dedicated speakers for each channel it can power. So at least 9 speakers and likely 2 subs to keep the low frequency room modes somewhat under control.

Not recommending these but as a beginning something like them would be my plan. I’d add a second sub and rear height channels at a minimum.

https://www.klipsch.com/products/r-820f-7-1-home-theater-system

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_033AVX6800/Denon-AVR-X6800H.html?tp=179

Way out of the Sonos price range and likely to need a good contractor to do the electrical work. Maybe a good audio tech to do the initial setup and training if you aren’t up to that.

I have my height on 10 always, and don’t hear a big difference if I take it down to minus 10, lol. I hear you on proper HT, just not in the cards for me - effort wise. Just dialed up my return for the 300s and the stands. We’ll see if I do it. Thanks, Stanley!

jnelly

Enthusiast I

Sonos have limits on how big a space they can fill well and requirements for the room and seating positions that have to be met or at least come close to if you expect good sound.

My media room is a horrible one, L shaped with my Arc at the inside point, angled ceiling with the high point, about 15 feet almost over the Arc. I sit back about 15 feet from the Arc. With that configuration Stereo and Surround is decent, height is pretty iffy, even set to plus 4. However if I move to about 10 feet away from the Arc the height audio is much more apparent. Not perfect by any means but for my ears, budget and tolerance for intruding on my space Sonos is the way I went when I was replacing an older generation AVR setup.

If I had to fill a really big room well, then I’d not hesitate to go with a very good AVR unit and dedicated speakers for each channel it can power. So at least 9 speakers and likely 2 subs to keep the low frequency room modes somewhat under control.

Not recommending these but as a beginning something like them would be my plan. I’d add a second sub and rear height channels at a minimum.

https://www.klipsch.com/products/r-820f-7-1-home-theater-system

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_033AVX6800/Denon-AVR-X6800H.html?tp=179

Way out of the Sonos price range and likely to need a good contractor to do the electrical work. Maybe a good audio tech to do the initial setup and training if you aren’t up to that.

I put the 300s back in the HT surround position with the Arc and Sub3. Probably going to keep them and put the OneSLs back, with the sub-mini in the kitchen again. I’m too lazy to pack up the 300s and the Stands (Sanus, adjustable for E300) for Amazon as I don’t have the shipping boxes, lol.

300s do sound good in the HT!

jnelly

Enthusiast I

@Stanley_4, @Schlumpf or anyone else… -forgive the thread hijack…

Can you recommend how to test my 7.1.4 channels, without having a blueray player? I realize it depends on the mix, but I don’t hear seperate tracks, in the 300s used as surrounds. Just a muffled track on the surround inside, and a much brighter track on the surround outside and atmos channels.

Every “test” that I do over YouTube, is 5.1.x. Thanks.

R

Rhonny

Prodigy III

@Stanley_4, @Schlumpf or anyone else… -forgive the thread hijack…

Can you recommend how to test my 7.1.4 channels, without having a blueray player? I realize it depends on the mix, but I don’t hear seperate tracks, in the 300s used as surrounds. Just a muffled track on the surround inside, and a much brighter track on the surround outside and atmos channels.

Every “test” that I do over YouTube, is 5.1.x. Thanks.

Search on the Sonos App (within your music streaming service*) for Dolby Labs, and a couple of those ‘albums’ have 7.1.4 test tracks.

*not Spotify or other services that don’t stream Dolby Atmos/Spacial to Sonos; you’ll need Apple Music or Amazon Music.

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