arc and five

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.