Best way to use Sub in both stereo and 5.1 setup

An often-asked question, but still without a really satisfactory answer. 
 

When you bond your Sub and surrounds to your home theatre device, it becomes a single room. The only way to then separate the Sub to use it in a different configuration is to go through the process of unbonding it and then bonding it to the “other” speakers/room. Then repeat in reverse when you want to watch a movie. 

You can just leave them all in a bonded unit and reduce (but not completely mute) the Arc when playing music. But then (presumably) the surrounds are playing music from behind you which is odd, but what many folk do. 
 

Or you could have the Five stereo paired as “room1” -it’s just an identifying label, after all - and have them placed as conventional hifi speakers in front of the listening position. Play with bonding the Sub to them or  to the Arc and decide which you prefer. Leave the Arc without rears or buy a pair of One SLs -the Five is a bit overkill for just surround duty. 

Incidentally, how do you have the no-sub kit configured and positioned at the moment?

I thought when you are watching tv you are using the Arc/Sub/surrounds all together? I don’t have the Arc. I have PlayBase/Sub/Ones at the moment. I will have two Fives (paired) next week to replace my Ones. So my understanding is that the Arc/PlayBase/Bar/Beam along with Sub/surrounds is used only when you are watching tv? When you are listening to music the Arc/PlayBar/etc is not in play. Only the Sub and surrounds. 

No. In settings for your room, turn the surrounds audio to minimum and you will more easily hear music from the Playbase/Arc/etc. All speakers in the room are used when playing audio. (Unless something changed recently? From my listening position I only really hear the surrounds and I’m not in a place to check it until tomorrow.) 

Lol. I guess I’m still learning about my Sonos system. My 5.1 setup is all facing forward to the sofas/recliner. My Ones are in front. I was planning to place the Fives on the top of my Infinity floor speakers (using it as my floor stand for Ones/Fives). But now I’m rethinking my 5.1 setup and purchasing the Flexson floor stands for the Fives and putting it behind my sofa. Maybe that’s why I’m not hearing my PlayBase as much as the Ones and Sub? I am in Hilo at the moment so when I get home on Tuesday I will try setting the surrounds audio to minimum. Thank you for your response. 

Thanks for your detailed answer on the technical side of this, much appreciated, if not disheartening. 

So I got the two fives first to listen to music in stereo (yes they’re overkill as surrounds). Then I got the arc for tv, and combined them with the fives in surround because i happened to have fives already and why not. 

the room is a strange shape that’s almost a triangle for the bulk of it, with fives in the back and the arc&tv in front & center along the diagonal. i don’t mind at all having the 2 fives playing stereo music from where they are, most the time i’m at the desk which is actually sorta facing the fives. 

The thing is if i’m listening to 2.0 or 2.1 music, i don’t want the arc involved, because I have no idea what its algorithms are doing to the soundstage, ie. is it taking a stereo mix and attempting to approximate a surround?  It sounds kinda strange vs the stereo mix. I also have no idea what is happening channel wise when fives and arc are playing music at the same time, eg are the fives in L/R stereo and the arc playing as if the fives aren’t there? Also the arc’s mid range is a little muted and muddy anyway vs the fives (apparently it gets better if you combine it with a sub, because the arc no longer needs to address the low end and can focus on the mid & high range). 

I love the speakers but i don’t understand Sonos’ philosophy on user expereince... eg in addition to the sub issue, sonos won’t play any audio files above 48khz (including the very common 96 khz) despite the fact that any low end bluetooth speaker has no issues doing so. Sure it’s downsampled over bluetooth, but downsampling a song is much preferred from just refusing to play it. 

thanks again

In order to remove the soundbar and move SUB to the FIVE’s, you must tear down and rebuild the system. This will rapidly become a boring chore.

In properly designed peer reviewed blind studies, no one has been able to show that 96/24 sounds better than 48/24. If listeners are first told that “this is 96/24” the 96/24 always sounds better.

Back home from Hilo. So I went in and lowered my audio surrounds. Scrolling down in my TV Room (Surround/PlayBase/Sub) settings there a TV set up and Remote control setup. What are these for and do I need to use it?