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4.1 Sonos with rear hardwired ceiling speakers

  • 9 November 2020
  • 4 replies
  • 303 views
J

Hi folks, I’ve been reading a bit and i’m seeing mixed messages.  Here’s my situation:  I have a current hard-wried 4.1 system in my living room.  My home is an open floor plan with the living room, kitchen, eat-in and formal dining all “open” on the main floor.  I want to add some sonos 1’s around these auxiliary areas to have music spread across the space.  I first tried a Port to my existing AVR, but had sync issues (grossss)….  So now I’m wondering how to solve for my TV/Living area… options I’m considering:

  • 2x AMPs with my existing bookshelf speakers & in-ceiling speakers/sub to run a 4.1 setup in the living room
  • If possible, could I replace my existing bookshelves with 5’s and use 1 AMP to power the in-ceilings for a 4.1 setup… (not sure if this would work.)
  • Some other idea?  I don’t like the idea of wasting/not utilizing my built in ceiling speakers… 

To cut this off at the pass, I can’t / wife won’t do any form of sound bar, so that’s out of the question here. Open to ideas.

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Best answer by Ken_Griffiths 9 November 2020, 20:34

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4 replies

Ken_Griffiths

Hi folks, I’ve been reading a bit and i’m seeing mixed messages.  Here’s my situation:  I have a current hard-wried 4.1 system in my living room.  My home is an open floor plan with the living room, kitchen, eat-in and formal dining all “open” on the main floor.  I want to add some sonos 1’s around these auxiliary areas to have music spread across the space.  I first tried a Port to my existing AVR, but had sync issues (grossss)….  So now I’m wondering how to solve for my TV/Living area… options I’m considering:

  • 2x AMPs with my existing bookshelf speakers & in-ceiling speakers/sub to run a 4.1 setup in the living room

Yes the two Sonos Amps would work fine, the one Amp driving the front bookshelf speakers  and the other Amp for the rear ceiling surround speakers.

  • If possible, could I replace my existing bookshelves with 5’s and use 1 AMP to power the in-ceilings for a 4.1 setup… (not sure if this would work.)

Two Sonos Fives unfortunately cannot be used as the front speakers with the Amp for TV Audio.

  • Some other idea?  I don’t like the idea of wasting/not utilizing my built in ceiling speakers… 

To cut this off at the pass, I can’t / wife won’t do any form of sound bar, so that’s out of the question here. Open to ideas.

So the two Sonos Amps seem to be the best (only) option here.

melvimbe

To add to the above, not surprising that a port did not work out for you. It’s not designed for TV audio, but soley for multroom music audio.  And this the audio is delayed to accommodate. 

You’re going to experience the same for any other Sonos speakers you add that are not part of the 4.1 setup you put in place.  You mentioned wanting to put sonos ones in aux areas in the open space.  That will be fine when streaming music, but you’re always going to have the sync issues on these aux speakers for TV audio.

So if you’re whole point of dumping your existing setup for 2 sonos amps is to get the aux speakers to play TV audio is sync, then don’t do it.  You might want to just keep your current system, and use the port to get your system playing sonos streamed services in sync with sonos ones...for music only.

Danny
J

@Danny - I experienced the issue while streaming music.  (i.e. the 4.1 setup was delayed vs. the music being played through the 1s)… In reading this seems to be a common issue caused by the AVR processing time.  

To clarify, I’m only trying to stream music to all sonos speakers (in sync)… when wathcing TV/Movies, I’d just use the 4.1 in the living room.

J

To add to the above, not surprising that a port did not work out for you. It’s not designed for TV audio, but soley for multroom music audio.  And this the audio is delayed to accommodate. 

You’re going to experience the same for any other Sonos speakers you add that are not part of the 4.1 setup you put in place.  You mentioned wanting to put sonos ones in aux areas in the open space.  That will be fine when streaming music, but you’re always going to have the sync issues on these aux speakers for TV audio.

So if you’re whole point of dumping your existing setup for 2 sonos amps is to get the aux speakers to play TV audio is sync, then don’t do it.  You might want to just keep your current system, and use the port to get your system playing sonos streamed services in sync with sonos ones...for music only.

@Danny - I experienced the issue while streaming music.  (i.e. the 4.1 setup was delayed vs. the music being played through the 1s)… In reading this seems to be a common issue caused by the AVR processing time.  

To clarify, I’m only trying to stream music to all sonos speakers (in sync)… when wathcing TV/Movies, I’d just use the 4.1 in the living room.

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