Speakers not Airplay compatible

I’m afraid you’ve confused me. Sonos doesn’t make in ceiling speakers. Did someone insert Sonos PLAY:1s inside their ceiling, or are these speakers by some other company being powered by a Sonos Amp/CONNECT:AMP, or some other amp that is connected to a CONECT, which feeds the amp the Sonos signal?

in terms of AirPlay 2, if you have any Sonos speaker that can receive an AirPlay 2 signal, that speaker’s room can be grouped with any other room in you Sonos system.

Bruce. Thanks for your help. So it sounds like I have random speakers in the ceiling! Any ideas if I can get an amp to control 8 rooms with airplay?

With regard to to the other point of having one AirPlay 2 compatible device but that still mean each Sonos will still be standalone in terms of name and location but they will simply funnel through the compatible device?

Do you have any wall mounted volume controls for the ceiling speakers? Do all of the speakers seem to be wired back to the same point? (A set of wires for each room)

There are ways of safely connecting multiple pairs of speakers to a single AMP, but all will play the same music. If you want to play different music in an area, it will require its own AMP.

Each Sonos "room" or "zone" has it's own name (and as buzz said, its own Amp, if it's a non-Sonos speaker).

Any number of "rooms" can be grouped with any other "room" in order to have the same music played in sync, including a "room" that is receiving an AirPlay 2 signal.

Buzz
All the speakers go back to the same point in a utility area. Does an amp exist that can have 8 locations? Or do you literally need 8 amps?

would the pioneer vsx934 work? It has airplay 2

Before we go crazy with names and terminology: an "amplifier" is a generic product and each channel normally drives one speaker. Typical products usually contain two channels -- a "stereo amplifier" and we (unfortunately) usually call this box an "amplifier" or "amp". There are multi-channel products designed for installations that may contain as many as 16 individual channels (organized as eight stereo pairs). Unfortunately, we often refer to these items as "amplifier" too. In the professional installer world this sort of product might be referred to as a "multi-channel amplifier" or "multi-room amplifier". Usually, a "multi-room" product assumes stereo rooms.

There is a current SONOS product with the model designation of "AMP" which is a two channel amplifier. An earlier SONOS product with similar function has the model designation of "CONNECT:AMP". If one digs back into SONOS history there are "ZP100" and "ZP120" products with similar function -- stereo amplifiers.

Within the SONOS controller application each SONOS amplifier or powered speaker appears in a list of "Rooms". (A "powered speaker" includes its own amplifier inside the box) Obviously, the label that we attach to an amplifier is arbitrary, but it is usually convenient if this label corresponds to an area in the home, such as "Kitchen".

Are we confused yet? Hang in, because it gets worse.

Each speaker places a burden on the amplifier. We often refer to this as a "load". In many respects this is similar to a truck and a pile of bricks. We keep adding bricks until the truck reaches its capacity. Most speakers that you will encounter in the home audio world will be referred to as an "8-Ohm" or a "4-Ohm" load. I will not go into exactly what this means, but a typical amplifier can support one or two 8-Ohm loads or a single "4-Ohm" load. We shouldn't carry this analogy too far, but we can think of a 4-Ohm load as being a heavier brick. Two 8-Ohm loads wired to an amplifier channel will appear to the amplifier as a 4-Ohm burden.

Sorry, but the above is the simple stuff.

At this point the takeaway should be that, if your ceiling speakers are each 8-Ohms, then you could connect two pairs directly to a SONOS AMP. Obviously, both pairs would play the same music and would be referred to as the same "Room" in the SONOS control application.

In my previous post I asked if there were Volume controls for each set of speakers out in the rooms. It is possible, not guaranteed, that these controls can each perform a bit of alchemy allowing us to amend the amplifier loading rules. Nothing is free in Mother Nature's world, but at the cost of reducing the power allocated to each speaker, one could attach up to eight pairs of speakers to a stereo amplifier. Obviously, all of these speakers would play the same music. It is imperative that each control supports this feature and each control must be configured to match the exact speaker count at hand.

Yes, there are boxes that can be located near the amplifier and provide the alchemy. Some boxes will include Volume controls. In my opinion using Volume controls is mandatory and they should be located in the rooms. Without individual Volume controls the speakers will all run at the same level and if the overall Volume is adjusted for comfortable listening in a large livingroom, listeners in a small bathroom will be uncomfortable. And Granny attempting to sleep in the guest room will be irate. Of course, the SONOS control application can individually adjust Volume for each of its rooms.

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In your situation you don't necessarily need eight AMP's because there are obvious areas, such as a bedroom with an attached bathroom, that can be paired. (don't forget the individual Volume controls)

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It is possible that the previous home owner used an installer product that included a 16-channel amplifier and a dedicated control system. This could provide similar function as a SONOS system, possibly at a similar total cost after one accounts for programming the dedicated control system.

When evaluating alternative approaches, always compare final costs that will include any wiring changes (possibly requiring some painting), hardware, and programming of a control system. And, for any modern system, there will be network considerations too.

One could integrate a SONOS system and an installer product by using a SONOS CONNECT as a source for the installer system. And you could use multiple CONNECT's if you want to play different music in the areas. In this arrangement you will be dealing with two control applications -- SONOS and whatever is required for the installer product.