why sonos move 1st gen can’t be used for surround setup

Because the feature requires them to have ultra-sonic location capabilities, specifically in the hardware of the microphone array, that weren’t thought of at the time they were designed. 

Probably more than you wanted to know…

https://tech-blog.sonos.com/posts/the-magic-behind-portable-surrounds/

Sonos Positioning Technology is only available with Sonos Play and Move 2.

Thank kdownling,

This is very interesting reading, and the technology sounds (easy one) really great ! 

But nowhere is indicating that we have technical limitations to use these technologies on 1st gen Move… And that’s a shame because my Move works perfectly…

I  thought I mentioned the technical limitation. Sonos Positioning Technology (SPT) is the name of the technology sonos developed to enable the auto configuration of the portables used as surrounds. That technology doesn’t exist in any other portables but Play and Move 2. They send an ultra-sonic sound to a supported soundbar that detects those devices and their location and automatically configures them as surrounds. The Move doesn’t include the hardware needed to do that.

This is based on all the reading I’ve done on this technology. I have no first hand knowledge of sonos development. I understand your disappointment, though. I have a Move 1st gen too. Great speaker.

I asked ChatGPT to investigate Move2 being used as a surround and not the original Move. The gist of the findings were that the Move 2 and Era 100 share some of the same architecture that allows them to act as surrounds to which the original Move does not. However, one has to make a few inferences as Sonos has not publicly stated what makes the Move incapable of being used as surrounds. So take what you will from the information below.

I don’t think the fact that Move 2 & Era 100 might have hardware in common is meaningful. I mean, after all, the One is a perfectly good surround speaker, works with all sonos soundbars and is quite a bit older than the Move.

I do think that portable surrounds is all about auto-detection and configuration. If a portable isn’t capable of that, it probably wasn’t even considered.

Not sure. I could see the hardware being similar/the same could offer the same functionality, whereas the older electronics/hardware in the first Move wouldn’t offer the possibility. Essentially, I agree with your first post, ​@kdowling ;)