It’s either/or for surrounds vs. separate rooms.  Switching from surrounds to separate rooms requires reconfiguration that is not instantaneous, and you lose all Trueplay settings when you do. 

Thanks jgatie

Ok so if I had separate rooms for the Beam and the Eras 100’s could I have each Era 100 as a separate room? Therefore 3 rooms within the family space? And the Era’s would be mono?

Thank you

Hi

Excuse me if I seem to be reciting basic Sonos 101; but I want to make sure you understand how Sonos can be configured and the versatility therein.

Every Sonos speaker or component can be configured as a separate room. You can even have separate rooms inside the same space. Notice I used the term “same space” which will become clear in the next few lines.

For example I have my Home Theater consisting of Arc, sub and Era 300’s as surrounds named as LG. I have a pair of Fives named as Fives. In addition to those I have an Amp with turntable named as Project. LG, Fives and Project as room names all reside in the same space which I call my Media room for obvious reasons.

Note: As @jgatie mentioned surrounds are not independent as they are part of the Home theater directed by a Sonos soundbar...in my case the Arc.

To your setup if you use the Era 100’s as surrounds with your Beam2 they are no longer independent speakers but are directed by the Beam2. Therefore what ever the source sent to the Beam2 the surrounds will follow suit either for music (in stereo) or as surrounds for movies.

If you decide not to use the Era 100’s as surrounds with the Beam2 you can actually have three (3) independent rooms. For example Beam2 named as TV,  Era 100 named as Kitchen and an Era 100 named as Lounge.

The speakers can all reside in the same space or in separate rooms within your home. You can also send different genres to each speaker (room) simultaneously. Jazz Music/Movie to the Beam2, country music to one Era 100 and rock music to the other Era 100.

You can group all to play the same music genre  3 x 3, 2 x 1, 2 x 0 or 1 x 0. Sonos speakers do not turn off nor can you do so. They are just in a low power state when no signal is received.

Note: Do not send TV audio to a speaker not associated with the Beam2 as a 75ms delay will be experienced to that speaker causing an echo effect.

I hope I’ve made everything as clear as mud . Feel free to comment.

Hi AjTrek1,

Yes I think that answers it thank you very much for all the detail! Sonos 101 is appreciated! I guess if I have the 3 separate rooms TV (Beam 2), Kitchen (Era 100) and Dining (Era 100) then the Beam will be stereo/dolby and the Eras will each be mono but if I group the Era’s they could become stereo? If I needed to increase the volume in the space for a party I could bring the Move in there?

I have another question if you dont mind please? The lounge has a Playbar with 2 Play 3’s as rearsn for surround sound which give off some good bass. Would you say a Sub 3 would improve it further? I wondered about moving the Playbar out and adding an Arc instead which I presume would again improve it even further?

Thank you very much for your help :)

Hi @dextech 

If you are using the term “mono” in the sense that the Era 100’s  would be separate and not a stereo pair that widens the left/right sound stage then you are partially right. The Era 100’s are small stereo speakers as they have dual angled left/right tweeters above a mid-range driver. Granted after a few feet of distance the stereo effect will fade. However, given an exceedingly large space the stereo effect for any pair of speakers will fade and seem as mono after an appropriate distance.

Grouping does not create stereo. It only allows several Sonos speakers to play in unison with no delay. So in that sense no manner the position of a person in a room all would hear the same music but with no separation for left/right based upon the position of the speakers in the room. I hope that makes sense 

With three speakers in the same space I doubt you would need a Move to increase the volume; unless your space is exceeding large and/or you have a slight dead space and you need to increase coverage. However, only you can determine if adding the Move for a gathering is needed.

Yes, a Sub (Gen 2 or 3) will improve the low-end for music and movies. I only mentioned Sub Gen 2 as you may be able to find a used one for less. There’s also the sub-mini you might consider as well.

Actually, the Arc is not designed to improve low-end. In fact many have said the Playbar has a better low-end even though it lacks the tech found in the Arc.

Have to go...my landscape guy just arrived...so please excuse any typo’s 

Since the Playbar already has fine low end, I’s not use the Sub Mini with it and go for the Sub.

Hi AjTrek1,

Thanks very much, that’s again really helpful :)

Sam

Hi 106rallye

Ah great advice cheers :)

Sam