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. 

How do you know this isn’t difficult?

One wouldn’t think….

JMROK,

In order to use the FIVE’s as a separate music Room, you would need to “Remove Surrounds” from ARC, then setup the FIVE’s as a pair. For surround, you would need to “Add Surrounds” to ARC.

This is not “difficult”, but it is likely to become tedious over time.

And you'd lose Trueplay settings with every change. I think @JMROK means it wouldn't be difficult for Sonos to make a setting for this. I would not be sure of that because of the way surrounds are driven - as a slave to the master soundbar, so very differently to stand alomne speakers.

Actually I meant it doesn’t seem as if it would be difficult, at $1000 for two bookshelf size speakers, to have them perform comparably well for music and tv/movie audio. Might just return the surrounds, keep the Arc and buy some Klipsch speakers for music. Still undecided. Thanks very much for your response.

They work extraordinarily well as music speakers, if you set them in the Sonos controller, in the area for surrounds, to “Full” for music playback. They’re not as awe inspiring when set to “ambient”, IMHO.

I usually adjust the relative volume for music playback, to de-emphasize the sound bar (Arc or Beam) and emphasize the rear speakers.

OTOH, some people don’t particularly like stereo coming from “behind” them, either. There’s no such thing as perfection. Which is why I’ve got PLAY:1s as surrounds, and Sonos Fives on either side of my TV and Arc for music purposes.

Do you also have the sub, or do the Fives compensate?

The two rear surrounds do work exactly the same as any ‘stereo pair’ anyway for music audio, that’s if they are set/switched to their ‘Full’ setting for Music audio, rather than ‘Ambient’ in the main HT Room Settings (drop-down selection). It’s just a case they are often set/positioned behind the listener. Although some may have their listening position perhaps up against a rear wall, in which case the speakers are then usually positioned in-line to the left & right hand side of the listener, but not normally out in front, as they are used for TV surround audio too.

I’m not sure what you’re looking to do with the Klipsch speakers that you can’t do already with the Sonos One speakers? - nothing stopping you setting them to ‘full’ audio, or unbonding them from the Arc and using them as a separate stereo-pair (that’s if you perhaps prefer them out front?) …Maybe just try them on each side of your listening position instead?

My SUB stays with the Arc for TV use. The Fives do a pretty good job for the music I listen to, although if you were to gift me a SUB for the Fives, I’d not say no to it. But I prefer the SUB action on the movies that I play on the TV set. 

All Sonos speakers function just fine without the SUB. I had a PLAYBAR for months and months before being able to afford the SUB. Sounded just great. Adding the SUB just took it further. And yes, when you bond a SUB to a room, the software recognizes that there’s a SUB, and modifies the sound profile slightly, so the regular speakers don’t need to go as low, and the SUB picks up the lifting for those frequencies. Depending on your music style, your ears, it can make a difference, or not so much of one, which is why it’s so hard to give definitive answers, only opinions. Some people love it, some people can live either way. For me, the Arc acts much better with a SUB, and it makes a bigger difference there. But if I had another one, sure, I’d bond it to the Fives.

OTOH, in my opinion, it isn’t worth the cost for the difference between Fives with and without a SUB. The Fives sound outstanding all by themselves.