Sonos Fives as Surrounds or Stereo Pair

That’s what I was hoping to hear, GuitarSuperstar. Thanks very much for your fast response.  Brad

Thanks again for the sage advice on setting up my Fives. It all installed without a hitch but, I wanted to run something past you guys for your opinion:  As advised, I’ve set them up as Surrounds and Music Playback is set to Full.  We were watching a Prime video last night and I noticed that the Fives were not emitting sound. Afterwards, I tested it out on another Prime movie they worked.  I tested it out on a Pluto news channel and... no sound.  I’m assuming that’s because I have the Fives set as Surrounds and some program audio may not broadcast the same, there’s no signal going to the speakers. Is that correct?  My Play 1s had sound coming from them at all times but, I may have had them set to Stereo Pair.  I’d appreciate some advice/thoughts regarding this issue.  Thanks very much.   Brad

You are correct.  If  speakers are setup for surround sound duty, they won’t play any audio (except ambient) when the source material is just stereo.  You’ll only hear audio from them when the source is recorded in surround sound.

Thanks, Danny.  Good to know.  Have you set your rear speakers to Stereo Pair and, for movies, do you find that acceptable? I suppose this is all subjective but I’m curious to find out what others think.

@SlamDesi

Just want to clear-up your last statement….It reads as though your Play 1’s were always giving you audio regardless of the content, but now your Five’s do not. You could not have had them (Play 1’s) setup as a stereo pair when being used as surrounds. When setup as surrounds the stereo pair was broken by design.

The only way you could have continually heard sound via the the Play 1’s would have been that they were in fact setup as a stereo pair and you were “Grouping” them to your Play Bar. However, that should have been an annoying sound (echo) due to the delay (75ms) created by Grouping.

The only way your statement makes sense is that the Play 1’s required less energy to push the drivers therefore the constant sound. Alternatively, the Five’s require more energy to provide an audible sound. I can’t verify the last statement regarding “required energy” but it’s the best explanation I can phathom assuming the Play 1’s were properly set as surrounds. 

Thanks, AjTrek… Making sense is optional for me at times. I appreciate your patience and the thorough answer. It’s very possible that I’d set the Play 1s up as a Stereo Pair and didn’t notice a delay. Regardless, not having sound coursing through them all the time will definitely add life expectancy to the Fives. 😊

I doubt this. Electronics are not like a mechanical device that wears out after a certain number of revolutions. Unless you are constantly operating at the maximum safe temperature, deep temperature cycles are more destructive than absolute temperature. If you constantly mute or power OFF a unit there are multiple cycles. After a fixed number of cycles of xx degrees a unit will fail. If you turn a unit ON and operate it at a constant output for weeks or months, this is only one cycle. A “cycle” is defined as starting at ambient, rising to operating, then back to ambient temperature after the unit is shut down.