Hello,

I have this open kitchen/ l living room area, as visualized in this image:
 

Yes… I know... only one simple Sonos One mounted near the ceiling on small piece of wall next to the kitchen wall.

My goal is to upgrade this place, keeping the focus on music listening. The kitchen area is where we are the most while listening. 

Let me take you through the journey in my mind so far

• Era:100 has line in! Ideal for my project-T vinyl record player (that I can connect to the Sonos setup).It will fit perfect on the vinyl table. Maybe better switch my Sonos one with another era:100 as well for some pairing? I hear good things about stereo pairing, they even “challenge” a good pair of era:100 with single devices like era:300s 
• Hmm, the era:300 has line in as well. It is made for larger rooms, and might do the room more justice than the era:100 series. It has enough breathing room when I put it on the vinyl table (see picture). It looks like this thing was made to fill a room with sound, exactly what I need. Dolby atmos seems nice as well (alhtough still not completely mature in different aspects. Will I be doing this exercise again in a few years?) I cannot pair it with the Sonos one I already have though. Only group it. But that means I am losing dolby atmos support. Does it make sense to group it with a Sonos one? Even only for non-atmos music, and use it standalone for atmos support?
• A pair of era:300. I’ll put one on the vinyl table and replace my Sonos one. This means I am more free in my setup. I can group them, not losing any dolby Atmos support. I can even pair them in stereo. The full setup is getting more and more expensive. But hey! quality costs money and I will have this major setup with a pair of era:300s. Maybe add a beam/arc to my TV in the future to add some more power to the full setup. But wait… does this make sense? If I pair them, what is “left” and what is “right” from a stereo perspective. We sit in front and on the side of the island, we cook from behind the island. We use the dining table? No… I should only group them, right? Stereo seems strange in a filling-the-room-with-sound setup. Actually, aside from stereo pairing. does it make sense to have the atmos sound playing from two device on both sides of the room. One of them playing music that intentionally was made for the front in that back of the other and the other way around? Should I consider using two play5’s in group mode? 

I am leaning towards trying out the era:300 on the vinyl table. I can group It with the Sonos one for a little extra punch in the non-atmos tracks. This is feels budget friendly for now. I can always replace my sonos one in the future. I will have dolby atmos support, not only does it bring the “I have something new”-feeling to the setup, but also feels more future proof.

Although a lot of information can be found in setting up a movie/home theater solution. I still find it hard to know what to buy in rooms where there no “cross” marked: “I’ll be sitting over here in the next few hours”. Most of the time, the advice is to fill it up with play5’s, And maybe, in the end, that is more or less the conclusion I came up with.
Still logic keeps me wondering: Given the budget only allows a modest amount of set of speakers in a specific area. Isn’t the “side-way” sound of an era300 able to give a more room filling experience than the “front” sound a Sonos five? 

I will be glad and thankful to hear about your opinion and thoughts about this. Espacially about

• Stereo pairing (or not) or grouping speakers in an open space.
• Is it a good idea grouping 2 era:300s facing each other with atmos enabled?
• Depending on the previous topic. Is grouping some play5’s still the best setup for music in an open space. Or can era:300’s somehow add something to the equation
• (Specific for my use-case) )Does it make sense grouping an era:300 with a Sonos one