Last question first. When you’ve “bonded “ the One’s as surrounds to the Beam (they wil form one “room” with the Beam), the only way to get them to act as a stereo set again is by unbonding them and “pairing” them as a stereo set (when the two One’s wil for a “room” and the Beam has it’s own “room”).

For your first question: do you really have both One’s paired as a stereo set - do they form One “room” together? Or do you see two “rooms” that you “group” in the Sonos app?

Thank you for your reply. I am relatively new and inexperienced in setting up SONOS configurations and I admit to struggling a bit with the technicalities.

Eduardo from Sonos support helped me out. I was confused by the need to define a “room” whenever  you add a Sonos device to your system. I appreciate Sonos seems to have started as a means of playing the same audio into different physical locations (i.e. rooms) which is where the App has confused me. All I really want isto use  a group of three *devices* in the same physical room.

Eventually I hope to write up the “Idiot’s Guide” I needed within the forum. Before I try to do that I need to make sure I am more thoroughly versed in the terminology and concepts used in the Sonos App, which I currently find quite confusing.

I’ve now got the two ONEs outputting the seperate stereo channels from the stereo line level signal entering the Connect:Amp (Gen 2) with the line level signals from my DAC, Phono Preamp or tape deck which is what I needed. I can also stream from the cloud to the two ONE’s to get stereo playback with a different channel to each ONE.

I haven’t had to set up a “stereo pair” to avoid getting the same two channel stereo output from each ONE. I don’t understand why that is at this juncture.

I find the volumes of each ONE and the Connect:AMP are linked/tied as one in the App. I’m not sure yet whether this means I cannot control the balance between the two ONEs or not - that would be useful as I have slight hearing loss/tinnitus in one ear. I am also investigating whether the EQ of the two ONEs can be set differently or not in this set-up but that is just out of interest - I can’t forsee a practical use for that..

I have wasted quite a lot of time trying to link an Amazon Echo Sub into this particular Sonos setup to no avail, and I am giving up trying. Supposedly the Alexa App can control Sonos devices but I can’t work out how to link the Echo Sub to the two ONEs in either the Sonos App or the Alexa App. I can do without using a Sub, but as I had an Echo Sub to hand I thought I’d give it a try. The Sonos Sub isn’t a cost effective solution for me.

I expect to waste more time and effort trying to find a way of setting up another Sonos group containing a BEAM (Gen 1) and the two ONEs as linked rear “surround” speakers using the ARC return from my Samsung TV. I’ve had it working as a previous Sonos configuration but I don’t think there is a way to set up two different Sonos configurations as I have detailed and then be able to simply switch between them as required with the Sonos App. Basically I think one would have to take one configuration apart and build the other configuration from scratch every time I wanted to switch purporse, which is a shame.

Of course I guess two Sonos setups could coexist as different “groups” of devices in the same physical room  if I bought two more ONEs or One SLs and so didn’t try to use the same ONE devices in two different configurations. But I don’t want to end up tripping over speakers everywhere!

I am hoping the rumoured new products frrom Sonos will enable an ATMOS compatible soundbar and ATMOS surrounds to be the basis of both a superior Hi-Res capable Hi-Fi and streaming audio system and also an AV ATMOS surround sound system without any complicated switching for purporse being necessary. Whether I would be able to afford it is moot!

David

If you haven't done the setup of a stereo pair, then you aren't getting true stereo, you just have them grouped.  For true stereo, you  need to do this:

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/create-a-stereo-pair

To have real stereo, left and right channels on separate speakers, those speakers need to be paired as a stereo pair - and thus form one “room” in the Sonos app. A “room” in Sonos is a defined set of stereo or surround speakers.

I do share the sentiment that the Sonos concept of “room” is a bit confusing, especially since it is not much like a physical room, where you can just put any speakers you like. The room concept that Google uses is much more like a physical room. You get used to this though!

It's good that you have given up trying to add an Echo Sub to Sonos speakers because that isn't possible. 

Thanks everyone for your replies. I had to take a break for a little while to sort out a new cartridge on my old Optonica RP 7100 record deck, but I’ll be back to trying to add a stereo pair of ONEs to my Connect:Amp group directly, and I’ll report back here with success or failure.

It’s a shame I can’t use the ECHO SUB because I can see the Sonos ONEs in the Alexa App! Still it wasn’t a priority, more like a curiosity. The Sonos SUB is far too expensive for me.

When looking toward potential upgrades I would be drawn toward an upgrade over the BEAM (Gen 1) that I have if the upgraded item could function as a stereo Audio system as well as the basis of a Dolby ATMOS surround sound system with my TV. I really would like to avoid a separate speaker system in the same physical room for the two functions!

Usually a sound bar is not optimal for stereo listening due to the speaker/listener placement issues involved.

Adding a new Sonos “room” to your listening area with a pair of Fives is usually a good solution. Some folks are happy with Ones and a Sub.