Hi Sonos Community,
Moving to a new house and looking at what’s possible in our great room for surround sound. My wife is open to the idea of adding speakers to the walls in our casual dining, but I don’t want to do anything hideous that would ruin the aesthetic in the room that’s supposed to be for enjoying time with family.
I have the following components:
- Arc SL
- Sonos Sub (Gen 2)
I am evaluating purchasing either of these options for surrounds:
- Architectural Speakers (QTY 2) with Sonos AMP
- Era 300s (QTY 2)
Problem Statement:
The ceiling in the room will be high at almost 20 feet and the room is very open. My first thought was to go with adding two Sonos architectural speakers on the back wall in casual dining, but my chat with Magnolia at Best Buy yielded a negative response as my estimation is that primary viewing would happen roughly 14 feet away from the speakers on the back wall in casual dining, which would be too far for those speakers.
We could also do (2) white Sonos Era 300s and raise them up a bit further (8-10 ft up the wall) and direct them at the couch. Best Buy liked this idea, but I am not crazy about two giant speakers hanging off the wall in a family room. Aesthetically, the white versions could blend better with the surrounding wall and we’d have an electrician hide the wiring.
Questions:
- Does the Sonos Architecturals really not make it that distance to the couch? Side note: I’d be surprised if that’s true. I have Sonos Play:1s as surrounds in my current living room and they can crank up quite well about 6 feet away from the listener.
- Would the Era 300s be ugly if we had to go that approach? We are not interested in speaker stands with dogs and kids running around -- these would be mounted and up the wall.
Here is the great room layout + pictures for reference:
