different music on different speakers - do i need 2 amps or two ports?

Question

i have an open concept floorplan with kitchen and living room separated by a staircase. I plan on putting 2 ceiling speakers in each area and would like to be able to play different music at different volumes in each area while being able to link them if were having a get together. I want to avoid a wall switch if possible.

Should I just get two Sonos amps or should I get one amp and two ports? I do plan on rigging up the living room set of ceiling speakers with a beam for the tv.

Stanley_4 · Accepted Answer

I’d lean to the Sonos Amps as the simpler solution, both install and use, in your situation.

If you aren’t going to use the Sonos Amps you won’t be using the special features built into the Sonos/Sonance speakers so you might find others that offer you a better fit to your needs.

I can’t recommend a specific amp to go with a pair of Ports but there are a lot of good ones, and some junk, out there.

I’d start shopping here and go from there.

Amps: https://www.crutchfield.com/shopsearch/multi_channel_amp.html?fa=1#&nvpair=FFNumber_of_Channels|[rank5]5&nvpair=FFNumber_of_Channels|[rank6]6&nvpair=FFNumber_of_Channels|[rank8]8

Speakers: https://www.crutchfield.com/shopsearch/ceiling_speakers_for_home_audio.html

Airgetlam · Answer

How are you powering these two pairs of speakers?

If they have their own amplification, you’d want to use two Sonos Ports, to get two separate ‘streams’ at the same time, each Port connected to the amplifier for each pair of speakers.

If you’re wanting Sonos to power both pairs, you’d need two Amps, so that you could have two streams going, no Ports or other amplifiers needed.

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