arc and five

We need more information, please. Are the two One SLs set up as surround speakers bonded to the Arc, or do you have them set up as a second room? If they’re surrounds, are you using the ‘full’ setting, rather than the ‘ambient’ setting in the controller for while they’re playing music? Is it your intention to use the Five as surround speaker(s), in which you would need two, not just one?

My setup is an Arc with a pair of Ones as surrounds, then a pair of Fives, set up as a separate ‘room’ flanking my TV. The Arc and Ones are for TV, the pair of Fives is for music. 

All in my living room.The ones are set up as surrounds. I do have the settings on full. I am with the Arc alone for television. So if I return the ones ( I just bought them a few days ago)) and order a five or a pair of fives for music, can I control the volume separate on the five speaker, using it a higher level for music primarily but at a much lower level for a surround. Your answer suggests I will have to set them up as a separate room as you did. I was hoping to get the benefit of the larger five speaker for both TV and music along with the Arc. How is the sound of a single five place horizontal instead of vertical? Sonos suggests that for one speaker. This gets expensive!

Should say I am happy with the Arc alone for television.

Just for clarification, with your current Arc setup - is it shown as "Lounge (+LS+RS)” in the Sonos App System Settings? (Where Lounge is obviously just an ‘example’ room name for the Arc).

The reason I ask, is I’m surprised you are not happy when the playback for ‘music only’ audio is switched from ‘Ambient’ over to the ‘Full’ output setting. I’m also wondering if what you need is a Sub, rather than the Fives? - you will lose some aspects of TV Dolby/Dolby Atmos surround audio by removing the SL surrounds aswell.. that’s assuming you are currently using a ‘bonded’ HT setup, rather than a ‘grouped’ setup.

Yes, that’s my setup. Possibly I should set the volume at max in addition to the full setting? I have it set at roughly 80%. One more question, again the Sonos system is brand new to me, I find the EQ sliders have minimal impact on the sound. Do you agree? My lack of satisfaction for music with the ones may have to do with the size of my room.

@JMROK,

I do (quite) clearly notice EQ adjustments, perhaps moreso than yourself, as I have the Sonos Sub included in the Arc/Ones setup here and that makes a huge difference. The Treble slider is noticeable too, but to a lesser extent …at least to my ears …but all these things do often depend on the quality of the actual audio source aswell. 

In my own case, I don’t particularly like the music soundstage coming from behind my listening position, so I have put two ‘Fives’ (set vertical) out in front, but I’ve also added another Sub to that setup aswell. It’s probably a bit of overkill for the room, but it all sounds ’epic’ to my ears… it’s just not neighbour friendly, so I have to wait until they’ve gone out to work, before cranking up the volume and shaking the furniture.

Nice! So basically you have two separate music and television audio systems set up in the same room, and set them up as different locations on the  Sonos app. Correct? 

Yes, I have the TV HT Setup - Arc/Ones/Sub - called ‘Living Room’ and in the same physical room, I have the two Fives/Sub - called ‘Fireplace’ .. er… because they’re near to a ‘Fireplace’.

The Sub from each setup, I’ve just positioned at each end of the room to my left/right of where I sit. I have opted to set the two Fives in front to their ‘vertical’ orientation, with the tweeters positioned on the outer edge, just for a slightly wider/diffuse soundstage equidistant from my listening spot.

… if pushed, a little, I would perhaps say that it’s the Sub in each setup that really makes everything work so well for how I like to listen to the different types of audio. It’s really just a case of the neighbours just need to go out more often, and for longer…ha ha

Very nice setup. Thank you very much for your help.

What I’d like to do is use the Sonos Five speakers for music as well as surrounds without sacrificing the full functionality of the Five as a music speaker. I understand that I can set up as different      rooms and then group together for music but that might involve changing the settings going from one to the other. Surely this can’t be too difficult. Don’t want to spend the $$ on both Ones and Fives. Any more thoughts or experience would be appreciated. Thanks.