I’m currently planning out a Sonos system for my new living area and would love some expert eyes on the layout. It's a very open, airy space with a vaulted ceiling and a massive floor-to-ceiling window wall on one side, which I know can be a nightmare for acoustics.
I’m trying to figure out the best placement for a cohesive soundstage. Here is the current setup/plan:
I’m planning on a soundbar (likely an Arc) under the TV and a subwoofer.
As you can see in the photos, the room is quite deep. The "living" area is carved out by the L-shaped sofa, but it flows directly into the dining area and kitchen.
The Rear Speaker Dilemma: I’m wondering if I actually need two rear speakers for this space to get a true surround feel, or if they’ll get "lost" given the open layout behind the sofa.
Placement: If I do go with rears (like Era 100s or 300s), where on earth do I put them?
Putting them on stands behind the sofa seems like the obvious choice, but would they be too close to the listeners? Also easy to push and destroy.
Wall mounting seems tricky because I would need to put them on the wall in front of the TV, quite high, like 2.5m
Should I stick to a 3.1 setup (Soundbar + Sub), or is it worth the effort to find a home for rears?
Also shall I add additional speaker in the kitchen to have better experience when standing in the kitchen?
Thanks in advance for the help
Best answer by AjTrek1
Below are my recommendations for rear speaker placements (stand and wall mount).
I drew the red lines to extend perspective and approximate where the far side of the sofa would intersect with the rear wall. Not perfect by any stretch of the imagination.
Your puzzle in any mounting or stand situation is how to unobtrusively get power to the surround speakers.
The position of an Arc Ultra (not shown) is the other decision reference wall mounting or resting on the cabinet below the TV. Wall mounting for proper clearance may require a reposition of the TV.
In order to obtain total immersion with Dolby Atmos the rears have to be Era 300’s. Using Era 100’s you would still get Dolby Atmos through the Arc Ultra but not total immersion.
A Sonos Sub (not shown) should be placed where it produces the best low-end to blend properly without being too weak or over-powering. You can experiment with various placements in the space.
You might consider a Sonos Amp to drive the speakers currently flanking the TV for dedicated two-channel stereo listening.
No speakers IMO are needed in the Kitchen area. At best you might consider a Sonos Move2 or Roam2 (both portables) for personal listening when no other speakers are being used (or desired).
Note:Any speakers used as surrounds cannot be used independently. Their line-in and Bluetooth functions are also disabled. However, they can be programed to use Alexa and/or Sonos voice asssitants.
In that room you might consider dual Subs, try one and if needed add the second.
The kitchen doesn't offer a great spot to add a speaker but one would be nice as you wouldn't need to fill the whole room with sound to have a bit of background music while cooking. Maybe an Era-100 tucked into the top-rear corner of the over counter space on a wall bracket, maybe two. If you are a messy cook or want more invisible consider SoundSkins to cover the 100s.
Surrounds are almost always a compromise, Era-300s on stands behind the couch would be my choice, the side-firing drivers will likely spread the sound better than the 100s drivers.
I’m not sure Arc is available any more; you may be looking at an Ultra instead.
What are those speakers, and do you want to use them? If so, an Amp would be an option instead of a soundbar, and it produces a virtual centre speaker.
Two floor standing speakers are shown in the photos. You can’t use them as front speakers along with a SONOS soundbar. Is there an existing subwoofer?
Additional speakers in the kitchen would be appreciated while listening to music, but shouldn’t be used while watching TV.
You could use SONOS AMP’s for front and another for the rears. I don’t know how practical it would be to run wires for wall mount rear speakers. The front AMP could support an existing subwoofer. A SONOS soundbar cannot support an existing 3rd party subwoofer.
Below are my recommendations for rear speaker placements (stand and wall mount).
I drew the red lines to extend perspective and approximate where the far side of the sofa would intersect with the rear wall. Not perfect by any stretch of the imagination.
Your puzzle in any mounting or stand situation is how to unobtrusively get power to the surround speakers.
The position of an Arc Ultra (not shown) is the other decision reference wall mounting or resting on the cabinet below the TV. Wall mounting for proper clearance may require a reposition of the TV.
In order to obtain total immersion with Dolby Atmos the rears have to be Era 300’s. Using Era 100’s you would still get Dolby Atmos through the Arc Ultra but not total immersion.
A Sonos Sub (not shown) should be placed where it produces the best low-end to blend properly without being too weak or over-powering. You can experiment with various placements in the space.
You might consider a Sonos Amp to drive the speakers currently flanking the TV for dedicated two-channel stereo listening.
No speakers IMO are needed in the Kitchen area. At best you might consider a Sonos Move2 or Roam2 (both portables) for personal listening when no other speakers are being used (or desired).
Note:Any speakers used as surrounds cannot be used independently. Their line-in and Bluetooth functions are also disabled. However, they can be programed to use Alexa and/or Sonos voice asssitants.
Hey, this is super helpful. I have some additional context:
I’m currently building this house, still can impact the electricity and cables
The speakers on visualization are just added there by interior architect - they don’t exist :)
My use case is: 70% music, 30% movies - I’m afraid that Era-300s behind the couch would only support movies, I would love to have a great music sound in the whole room
@AjTrek1 I was thinking exactly about this Era-300s setup on the back wall - I can still add a power cable for this
I suppose that in that case I could go with Arc Ultra and Sub 4 under TV, 2x Era 300 on the back wall
For the kitchen, maybe I can add those power cables as backup, test the whole set and check if it’s needed
When music is played through any Sonos soundbar the surrounds will play along as well. In the app the rears can be set to play at full stereo for music and auto reset to movie surround mode when done. Once set…that’s it… you don’t have to make the adjustment each time you play music.
The above is why IMO no extra speakers are needed in the space (above kitchen). However you can still install the electrical receptacles just in case you decide to add them later.
However, you might still consider a Sonos portable speaker as I mentioned in my first post. They can be grouped with the Arc Ultra to play along as well for music.
NOTE: Any speaker not bonded to a Sonos soundbar should not be grouped to it when playing TV audio. There will be a 75ms delay causing an echo effect.
Depending upon how far along you are in construction you might consider reinforcing areas where you would wall mount speakers. You can do it partially or extend the length of the wall. My choice would be the latter.
By doing so you need not be concerned with finding a wall stud (framing) to attach the speaker mount or using anchor screws thru interior wall board. It also allows for the exact placement (centering) to suit your interior.
The 300s when used with the Arc Ultra do an amazing job of playing Atmos music.
For personal listening to stereo music I like to use the Ambient mode, they make some sound to give the music a bit more depth. That does impact the stereo image so for more critical listening you can switch the surrounds off, I rarely bother to do that these days. The other option is Full Mode, for group listening that let's you have a more even volume level around the room and works really well when Grouping in additional speakers.
On that last, I have an open plan room that has the HT set, a 300 Pair, a 100 Pair and a single Play 5. By grouping them I can fill the space with some background music while not having spots near the Arc that are uncomfortably loud for conversation.
