Sonos Five Surround Sound

  • 21 August 2020
  • 12 replies
  • 5852 views

Hi All,

 

I have a pair of Sonos Five in stereo mode and a Sub,  I also have a pair of SL One.

Right now I have the setup in 2 “rooms” on teh APP and not “linked” as one system

My question is should i be able to add the 2 x SL One to the Sonos Five and sub and make them surround speakers? Right now I have the speakers physically in the same room as i used to have  a playbar.  When i had the playbar it was easy to “Add surrounds” but i dont have that option with the Fives?


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12 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +18

You need a home theatre device (Arc or Beam) to “add surrounds”. 

You can group the Play:5’s with the Ones.

@nik9669a nik9669a… I’ve got them grouped now but i find that they are a little out of sync and the vocals aren’t where i expected them to be when listening to all the speakers. I think It actually sounded better with the playbar instead of the 2 x Fives. 

 

The Stereo fives and the sub sound amazing but i like it when the surround sound fills the room from all angles.

Userlevel 7
Badge +18

If you’re using the Aux input for audio from the TV to a Five, there will be a 70 msec delay in the sound being sent to the Ones as the audio is buffered before being transmitted/played. 
it’s still not surround sound you’re listening to as the Five doesn’t have any way to receive or process a 5.1 signal. You’re getting stereo from each of the stereo pairs.

As I already said, you’ll need to use a Beam or other Home Theatre device to get back to a 5.1 surround system, using the Ones as your rear/effects speakers. Then you’ll have vocal dialogue from the Centre channel where you’re expecting it. You can then use the Fives elsewhere in the home. 

Got it nik9669a, thankyou for the feedback!!

Userlevel 6
Badge +17

Hi @mwilburn5980.

Welcome to the Sonos community and thanks for reaching out to us.

I agree with @nik9669a and thanks for the input. You would need to have a Sonos Home theater speaker that would be able to decode and distribute a 5.1 home theater with surround and Sub set up. This setup is not possible even if you have a stereo paired Sonos Five as they are not part and designed to be a home theater speaker. When in stereo mode even if you have a TV lined-in to the Sonos Five via RCA to 3.5 MM headphone jack converter is still being treated in stereo mode since the Sonos Five is not designed to be a home theater speaker which does not have the capabilities to decode and translate a 5.1 surround sound set up. I would suggest connecting any Home theater speaker to your TV (Sonos Beam, Playbar, Arc, or Playbase) and then add the Sub and add the surrounds. Only by then would you have a complete and functioning 5.1 surrounds sound setup.

I hope this also helped.

Please let us know if you still have further questions or concerns. WE are always here to help.

Thanks,

 

If you’re using the Aux input for audio from the TV to a Five, there will be a 70 msec delay in the sound being sent to the Ones as the audio is buffered before being transmitted/played. 
it’s still not surround sound you’re listening to as the Five doesn’t have any way to receive or process a 5.1 signal. You’re getting stereo from each of the stereo pairs.

As I already said, you’ll need to use a Beam or other Home Theatre device to get back to a 5.1 surround system, using the Ones as your rear/effects speakers. Then you’ll have vocal dialogue from the Centre channel where you’re expecting it. You can then use the Fives elsewhere in the home. 

Im wanting to connect my Five stereo pair as surrounds to my home theater (beam plus sub) and having issues. When I go to add the surrounds on home theater room, I do not get the stereo fives as an option. It only shows ones and moves I have elsewhere in the house. Is this because I can not add the fives white paired to play in stereo?

 

I only want to add them so I can use the sub when listening to music from my fives in stereo and when watching movies using the beam. Right now I have to keep moving the sub everytime I switch from music to movies and it's annoying. 

 

 

If you’re using the Aux input for audio from the TV to a Five, there will be a 70 msec delay in the sound being sent to the Ones as the audio is buffered before being transmitted/played. 
it’s still not surround sound you’re listening to as the Five doesn’t have any way to receive or process a 5.1 signal. You’re getting stereo from each of the stereo pairs.

As I already said, you’ll need to use a Beam or other Home Theatre device to get back to a 5.1 surround system, using the Ones as your rear/effects speakers. Then you’ll have vocal dialogue from the Centre channel where you’re expecting it. You can then use the Fives elsewhere in the home. 

Im wanting to connect my Five stereo pair as surrounds to my home theater (beam plus sub) and having issues. When I go to add the surrounds on home theater room, I do not get the stereo fives as an option. It only shows ones and moves I have elsewhere in the house. Is this because I can not add the fives white paired to play in stereo?

 

I only want to add them so I can use the sub when listening to music from my fives in stereo and when watching movies using the beam. Right now I have to keep moving the sub everytime I switch from music to movies and it's annoying. 

The Sonos Fives should bond to the Beam as surrounds, have you ‘swiped the dialog box page’ right and left when the speaker option pops up to select the speakers to bond to the Beam?

If you’re using the Aux input for audio from the TV to a Five, there will be a 70 msec delay in the sound being sent to the Ones as the audio is buffered before being transmitted/played. 
it’s still not surround sound you’re listening to as the Five doesn’t have any way to receive or process a 5.1 signal. You’re getting stereo from each of the stereo pairs.

As I already said, you’ll need to use a Beam or other Home Theatre device to get back to a 5.1 surround system, using the Ones as your rear/effects speakers. Then you’ll have vocal dialogue from the Centre channel where you’re expecting it. You can then use the Fives elsewhere in the home. 

Im wanting to connect my Five stereo pair as surrounds to my home theater (beam plus sub) and having issues. When I go to add the surrounds on home theater room, I do not get the stereo fives as an option. It only shows ones and moves I have elsewhere in the house. Is this because I can not add the fives white paired to play in stereo?

 

I only want to add them so I can use the sub when listening to music from my fives in stereo and when watching movies using the beam. Right now I have to keep moving the sub everytime I switch from music to movies and it's annoying. 

The Sonos Fives should bond to the Beam as surrounds, have you ‘swiped the dialog box page’ right and left when the speaker option pops up to select the speakers to bond to the Beam?

Yes, it does not list the fives, just my other Ones and Beams in other rooms. Can't get the Fives listed as an option. They are powered on and connected to the Sonos network. The entire house system is only a few weeks old so latest generations for all speakers.

nrgcreator,

My next thought is to perhaps break apart the Fives, so they are no longer ‘stereo paired’ and just standalone in the app and then see if they appear for you to bond.

The step after that is to maybe reset the App itself in ‘Settings/App Preferences” and then reopen the App and connect to the ‘existing’ Sonos system (do not create a new one) - ensure all speakers are present and correct and then give it another try.

Hope that gets it sorted for you. 

 

nrgcreator,

I’ve just tried this with my own setup for you here and it looks like you first have to break apart the stereo pair and then the Fives will add as surrounds. I hope you can easily sort that.

 

nrgcreator,

I’ve just tried this with my own setup for you here and it looks like you first have to break apart the stereo pair and then the Fives will add as surrounds. I hope you can easily sort that.

 

Wow! Thanks for taking the time to try that out! I'll do that tonight when I get home. 

Badge +1

nrgcreator,

I’ve just tried this with my own setup for you here and it looks like you first have to break apart the stereo pair and then the Fives will add as surrounds. I hope you can easily sort that.

 

Wow! Thanks for taking the time to try that out! I'll do that tonight when I get home. 

Yes, you need to break them apart and add the Five individually as surround speakers. But then when all is set up, you will face another situation where the Fives may not give you the sound you might be expecting (when listening as stereo pair) as it is only serving you ambient surround sound while the Beam is doing all the talking. Worse is if you are watching news or MTV channel, FIVEs is almost quiet. But if you airplay Spotify to this “Beam + Five pair - Room”, all the speakers will sound perfectly. i found the possible issue might be that there is this Surround/Music setting (Ambient / Full) in Sonos app but there is no such setting for TV.