Dilemma in choosing Sonos components

1. No, there isn’t a way to make this work.
2. i like this option, although Atmos is simulated in the Beam, there are no true upward firing speakers in either the Beam, or the 100s. The optimal setup would be the Arc, which has those upward firing speakers, and the 300s, also with the upward firing speakers built in.
3. Not terrible, just not as optimal as above, and you’d miss the Sub. No, the 300s do not make the Beam redundant, they’d be surrounds, not fronts. 

Best: Arc, 300 Surrounds, Sub or even two.

Downgrade to, 100 Surrounds and/or a mini-Sub or no Sub.

Not bad: Beam, 300 Surrounds, mini-Sub.

Downgrade to, 100 Surrounds or One SL Surrounds

I have Beams and an Arc here and for my main room and music the Arc stands well above the Beam.

Sub or no-Sub for watching TV shows or background music is fine. My music and movies really are better with a Sub. I don’t have a mini-Sub to compare but it would be better than no Sub.

I’m using Play 1s and One SLs as surrounds and they are decent but I’d really like to go to 100s. I don’t do much Atmos and don’t have room for the 300 or they’d be on my list.

Note though that all systems above address your home theatre needs only. When Eras are used for surrounds the line-in is disabled so you have no turntable input to your system yet. 

For best music quality, Sonos themselves say two Fives as a stereo pair is the way to go. They have line-in too but you will need a pre-amp if your turntable doesn’t already provide this output level. 

Thank you Airgetlam, Nik and Stanley.

I realize you folks are not paid audio consultants so I appreciate any attempt to continue this discussion.

Please clarify: I assumed that whatever source sound is coming through the soundbar is also going to come through any and all other Sonos speakers.  But if I now understand correctly, only one speaker can have music coming from a turntable and there is no way to synchronize it to all the speakers(?)  Even if it was just a soundbar and subwoofer, the sub would be silent?  If that's true, I'm afraid Sonos is not the best choice for me. However, could this be an option: Connect the turntable rca plugs to hdmi and connect the hdmi to the tv.  Would that allow me to play records through the whole system?  I'm just not sure the tv would recognize an analog output.

Alternatively, what about a bluetoothe transmitter from turntable to tv?

I’m assuming I would be able to play a dvd or cd through all the speakers as long as it’s connected to the tv, right?

Airgetlam, re: “ Not terrible, just not as optimal as above, and you’d miss the Sub. No, the 300s do not make the Beam redundant, they’d be surrounds, not fronts.”

I asked this question because the 300s are dolby atmos.  Would they be atmos as surround speakers?

Stan, I think the Arc is just too big for my room and tv.  I would HAVE to mount it on the wall because it would cover too much of the screen. Plus it’s expensive.

Nik, Just so I understand how it works, could the turntable play through two Fives at the same time?

Thank you again.

Will

Yes, as surrounds, the 300s would receive an Atmos signal from the Sonos soundbar, and split it to the upward firing speakers. It would not do this (to my knowledge) from the Sonos Amp, although I would be happy to be corrected on that. 

To answer the question directed to me:

You can have one standalone Five, and connect your turntable to it via line-in. If you have two Fives, they can be two independent “rooms” (Sonos’s terminology to identify a speaker or a set of speakers), or you can set them up as a stereo pair.

If they are a stereo pair, the sound from your tt will play through both speakers - ie left channel and right channel. 

If they are two separate rooms, you can use a Sonos feature called grouping. This means the same source - ie your tt - will play to both rooms. Indeed, if the tt is connected to the Five in room1, you can still stream music to room1 and yet have the tt as a source in room2. 

On your other questions:

If you have an Arc, Sub and surrounds set up as a room called, say, Den, then any time you stream music to Den, that music will play through all speakers including Sub. If you have a stereo 2-channel cd as a source, Den will only find a front-left and front-right signal so nothing will play through the rear surround speakers. The Sub will always play the low frequency sounds, with the Arc handling other frequencies. 
If you do have Den and room1, the Den can be grouped as per grouping I mentioned above - ie Den can play the tt as a source. In this scenario, I believe that the Arc and surrounds will all play. 
 

For streaming (and maybe line-in) you can select a setting on a surround system that will get the rear speakers to mirror the stereo signal the front is playing. See Full Mode.

Your eyes may say “too big” but it is rarely something your ears will say.

Instead of wall mounting consider a TV stand like the Sanus I have that lets me raise the TV to clear the Arc. You can also mount the Arc to the stand if you would like it to pivot with the screen instead of sitting on your cabinet.

Stand:  https://www.crutchfield.com/p_051WSTV1/Sanus-WSTV1.html

Arc mount:  https://www.crutchfield.com/p_051SATM1B/Sanus-WSSATM1-B2.html

To my knowledge Era 300’s cannot be bonded as surrounds to an Amp. They need a master that can handle Atmos too, i.e. the Beam (Gen 2) or the Arc.

Strangely though, the Era 300 page does not mention the Amp in the faq section: https://www.sonos.com/en/shop/era-300

I certainly appreciate the thorough response.  Helps a lot.

Those are great ideas and you’ve given me something to think about.  I’m going to go to Best Buy and hear the Arc.  It’s’ not the ideal environment I know but there aren’t any stereo sound rooms around here where you can really compare.  I did hear the Arc at Costco but you can’t really tell much there.