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Connecting AMP with 4 Ceiling Speakers, Sub & 2 One SLs

  • 7 October 2022
  • 3 replies
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Hi! I’m trying to figure out if this setup would work or not & make a purchase accordingly. My primary goal is to have the SONOS surround experience for TV/Movie viewing as well as retaining my in ceiling speakers for music listening (or) adding the depth dimension for TV Viewing

 

I have 4 in ceiling speakers in 2 rooms & a Sonos Amp. I plan on purchasing the ARC, 2X One SLs & a SUB. Wanting to make sure this would work:

 

  1. Connect 4 Ceiling Speakers to the amp (2 in parallel)- they are passive thus driving through amp
  2. Connect the 2X One SLs, SUB & ARC (Sound Bar) to the AMP (Wirelessly, I’m assuming)
     
  3. That way the ceiling speakers give me the depth/height, sound-bar does the job of front center/L/R and the 2X One SLs act as the surround. 
     
  4. This setup also doubles up when I want to listen to music in either rooms through the app
     

Trying to make sure this runs before I drop $2K on all this.  

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Best answer by Ken_Griffiths 7 October 2022, 20:20

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3 replies

Not in the way you’re perhaps hoping for.

The Arc, Sub and 2 x One SL’s will be a Sonos 5.1.2 HT setup for your main room and the only additional ‘bonded’ device you can add to that setup, is another Sub for use with the TV audio.

You can however ‘group’ (not bond) the mentioned HT setup to the Amp and all speakers will play music audio in sync, but TV audio will be delayed across the ‘group’ link and so if the ceiling speakers are in the same room as the TV speakers, you will likely experience an ‘echo’ effect from those, due to the delay. 

There are tools in the Sonos App to try to bring the TV audio into sync across the group, but that then usually results in lip-sync issues with the video on the TV screen. 

Setup is ideal though when it comes to music audio playback.

Hope that assists.

@Ken_Griffiths thanks for the response!

so if I do not use the ONE SLs would that solve the problem? The ceiling speakers are driven from the AMP, the ARC & Sub Connect wirelessly to the AMP. In this setup I will connect the ARC Sound Bar to the TV and that Should wirelessly connect with the AMP & SUB. Thanks for your help!

 

If you ‘bond’ the Amp to the Arc, then all the connected ceiling speakers will output the TV’s rear channel audio. Both TV and music audio will play in sync with the Arc output, but the question is, do you want the TV rear channel audio from the ceiling speakers?

Also if you plan to connect two pair of speakers to one Amp, you ideally need to introduce a switch into the setup too, to switch off the ‘other room’ ceiling speakers (presumably), as the Amp will play its audio to both connected pairs otherwise.

Note too that the ports on the Amp (line-in etc.) are disabled when the Amp is bonded as a slave to the Arc, so some of its functionality is lost in that type of setup.

Personally speaking I’m not sure I would want TV rear-channel audio from above my head, but that’s a matter for you to consider… All connected speakers though would be able to output music audio, but again there is a setting you will need to charge in the Arc’s surrounds settings in the App, so that music playback/output is set to ‘full’ rather than ‘Ambient’ - note this App setting-change is ignored when playing Atmos music audio, so perhaps bear that fact in mind too.