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Amp plus wired speakers or 2 * One's for surrounds??

  • June 13, 2022
  • 6 replies
  • 203 views
A
  • Anonymous

I’ve started a move to Sonos with a Beam Gen 2 for the family room. I think I’m about to find myself on a slippery slope 😃

Next room is our lounge. I have a new 55 inch LG C1 TV which is connected to my Yamaha AV receiver through eARC. The Yamaha is wired to 2 tower speakers for the fronts and 2 bookshelf speakers for the rears. The Yamaha produces an excellent centre phantom and I don’t need a sub.

I’m looking to replace the Yamaha with a Sonos Amp, which will be wired to the two tower fronts. For the rears I’m torn between a second Amp wired to my existing bookshelf speakers, or to get 2 One’s. Access to power is not an issue for either option.

Has anyone grappled with this decision and which way did you go and why?

Also, is there anything else I need to be aware of with all of my proposed changes? Some questions that come to mind:

  • dos the Amp produce a strong phantom centre channel?
  • can the volume be set independantly for the fronts and the rears, so I can balance the front/back volume as needed?
  • can the volume for each speaker be adjusted if needed, to get the left/right balance right for the fronts and the rears?
  • I assume by using the sound output selector on the TV, I can choose whether to run audio through TV speakers or the Amp (via eARC)?

Thanks in advance.

Best answer by Corry P

Hi @Darren.Hastings 

Welcome to the Sonos Community, and to the Sonos ecosystem!

Personally, I have an Amp powering my Home Theatre setup, with two Play:1s (the older version of Sonos Ones, acoustically identical) as my surrounds, and it sounds great! However, the decision to get Ones or a second Amp is really something you need to base on what you want from the system, and the aesthetics of the room.

If you would like to have a Voice Assistant in that room, then using a second Amp would not give you that option. I would recommend you get 1x One and 1x One SL (the SL stands for SpeechLess, and it has no microphone). If you would like two Voice Assistants, however, and if one would be Google Assistant, then the extra ~10% for a second One over a One SL would be worth it. Alexa and Sonos Voice can run concurrently on one speaker, whereas Google Assistant will not share a speaker with another Voice Assistant.

The wiring to your bookshelf speakers obviously already exists, so that’s not going to be a factor, but if you’d like to be rid of it, that’s another reason to get wireless speakers. If you are concerned about the audio quality from the Ones, don’t be - the sound from them is surprisingly, uh, meaty. 😁

The best thing for you to do if you are still unsure might be to choose both options - at least for a little while. With a generous 100 day Money Back Guarantee period available, you could either get both Ones and an Amp and compare directly, then return the option that isn’t your favourite, or get only the Ones and return them to then get an Amp if you’re not impressed - though I doubt this will be the case - or vice versa.

  • does the Amp produce a strong phantom centre channel?

“Strong” might be subjective, but the Amp does downmix the centre channel to the front left and right channels. There is also Night Mode to compress the dynamic range and Speech Enhancement mode to emphasise dialogue.

  • can the volume be set independantly for the fronts and the rears, so I can balance the front/back volume as needed?

You can set the surrounds to be +/- a chosen offset from the main volume, so yes. Separately, music playback can be set to off, ambient or full volume playback from the surrounds.

  • can the volume for each speaker be adjusted if needed, to get the left/right balance right for the fronts and the rears?

Yes - balance controls are available for the front channels as well as the back.

  • I assume by using the sound output selector on the TV, I can choose whether to run audio through TV speakers or the Amp (via eARC)?

Most TV’s will automatically detect an audio device connected and switch to it regardless of the option you choose in their menus. It’s assumed that if you have audio equipment, then you don’t want to listen to (usually) tinny TV speakers. You may need to disable CEC (LG call it SimpLink) in the TV’s settings to use the TV speakers while Amp is connected.

Please note that you will likely need to disable eARC mode and use normal ARC for the Amp. If you are used to higher-quality audio streams than standard Dolby Digital and standard DTS, you may want to opt for a Sonos Arc instead of an Amp for the front of the system, as the Arc supports Dolby Digital Plus (Atmos), Dolby MAT Atmos and Multi-Channel LPCM as well as DD and DTS. You would still have the same dilemma for the rears, however.

I hope this helps.

 

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6 replies

Corry P
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  • Corry P
  • Sonos Staff
  • Answer
  • June 14, 2022

Hi @Darren.Hastings 

Welcome to the Sonos Community, and to the Sonos ecosystem!

Personally, I have an Amp powering my Home Theatre setup, with two Play:1s (the older version of Sonos Ones, acoustically identical) as my surrounds, and it sounds great! However, the decision to get Ones or a second Amp is really something you need to base on what you want from the system, and the aesthetics of the room.

If you would like to have a Voice Assistant in that room, then using a second Amp would not give you that option. I would recommend you get 1x One and 1x One SL (the SL stands for SpeechLess, and it has no microphone). If you would like two Voice Assistants, however, and if one would be Google Assistant, then the extra ~10% for a second One over a One SL would be worth it. Alexa and Sonos Voice can run concurrently on one speaker, whereas Google Assistant will not share a speaker with another Voice Assistant.

The wiring to your bookshelf speakers obviously already exists, so that’s not going to be a factor, but if you’d like to be rid of it, that’s another reason to get wireless speakers. If you are concerned about the audio quality from the Ones, don’t be - the sound from them is surprisingly, uh, meaty. 😁

The best thing for you to do if you are still unsure might be to choose both options - at least for a little while. With a generous 100 day Money Back Guarantee period available, you could either get both Ones and an Amp and compare directly, then return the option that isn’t your favourite, or get only the Ones and return them to then get an Amp if you’re not impressed - though I doubt this will be the case - or vice versa.

  • does the Amp produce a strong phantom centre channel?

“Strong” might be subjective, but the Amp does downmix the centre channel to the front left and right channels. There is also Night Mode to compress the dynamic range and Speech Enhancement mode to emphasise dialogue.

  • can the volume be set independantly for the fronts and the rears, so I can balance the front/back volume as needed?

You can set the surrounds to be +/- a chosen offset from the main volume, so yes. Separately, music playback can be set to off, ambient or full volume playback from the surrounds.

  • can the volume for each speaker be adjusted if needed, to get the left/right balance right for the fronts and the rears?

Yes - balance controls are available for the front channels as well as the back.

  • I assume by using the sound output selector on the TV, I can choose whether to run audio through TV speakers or the Amp (via eARC)?

Most TV’s will automatically detect an audio device connected and switch to it regardless of the option you choose in their menus. It’s assumed that if you have audio equipment, then you don’t want to listen to (usually) tinny TV speakers. You may need to disable CEC (LG call it SimpLink) in the TV’s settings to use the TV speakers while Amp is connected.

Please note that you will likely need to disable eARC mode and use normal ARC for the Amp. If you are used to higher-quality audio streams than standard Dolby Digital and standard DTS, you may want to opt for a Sonos Arc instead of an Amp for the front of the system, as the Arc supports Dolby Digital Plus (Atmos), Dolby MAT Atmos and Multi-Channel LPCM as well as DD and DTS. You would still have the same dilemma for the rears, however.

I hope this helps.

 

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
A
  • Anonymous
  • June 14, 2022

That was very helpful. Thanks.


I’m not sure an Arc would work. There is a part-wall to the left of the TV and I think the left channel sound would get trapped by that. This can be seen in the attached photo.

 

 

To the left of the wall is the second tower speaker. I can adjust the left/right balance to allow for the location of each speaker. If I can do that with an Amp I think that’s the way I’ll go.

Thanks again, Darren.

Corry P
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  • Corry P
  • Sonos Staff
  • June 14, 2022

Hi @Darren.Hastings 

I think you might be right about the Arc, though with surrounds active the side speakers on the Arc are no longer trying to reproduce the surround effect and so operate differently. But yes, you can definitely adjust the front Left/Right balance on the Amp - in fact, just yesterday I realised I had forgotten to readjust mine after moving my speakers and TV the other week.

If your plan was to put both Amps in the TV cabinet (as the speaker wires are running there already), I’d look into getting an ethernet connection to both, as they’ll be rather too close to communicate effectively over WiFi. Or just use wireless surrounds, of course. That might even be the clincher for your surround options - if you can’t get ethernet to the cabinet, I recommend you go for a One + One SL (or 2x Ones, if you prefer) for the surrounds rather than an Amp.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
A
  • Anonymous
  • June 14, 2022

I didn’t know that the side-firing speakers in the Arc don’t fire if surrounds are used. Does that effect the size of the projected sound stage?

I’m not sure an Arc could produce the width I get with my towers, with the wall in the way.

If I used an Amp for my rears, it would be behind the sofa as there is power there, and within about a meter of each surround. 2 x One’s do sound a lot cleaner though.
 

Thanks again.

Corry P
Forum|alt.badge.img+19
  • Corry P
  • Sonos Staff
  • June 14, 2022

@Darren.Hastings 

The Arc’s side-facing speakers do fire when surrounds are added, but mathematical models aren’t applied to make them sound like the source is behind you and they then form part of the Front Left/Right reproduction, rather than operate independently to simulate rears. Trueplay Tuning is an option if you possess an iPhone or iPad, which does apply spatial correction algorithms, but I think you are correct regarding getting the soundstage beyond that part-wall - a physical speaker on the other side of it simply can’t be beaten.

The amount of times I have heard of people choosing Sonos simply because their wives didn’t want speaker cables around the sitting room is, um, plethoric. Which is, apparently, a word. 😁

You are very welcome!

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
A
  • Anonymous
  • June 14, 2022

As clear as day, thanks Cory.

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