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Help Selecting New System.

  • October 28, 2020
  • 4 replies
  • 246 views
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Hello, looking for help in selecting the perfect setup and after reading everything i could on the Sonos site and in forums, im even more confused. Never had a Sonos system before. My old Yamaha receiver just dies so looking for something i can use throughout the entire house wirelessly.

My needs are for mostly music, but will be playing the music from my TV (connected to Nvidia Shield that streams from various services). I also watch movies from time to time, but music audio is whats most important. Price is not an issue, looking for best quality possible and i do at times like to listen very loud.

I'm trying to decide between:
an Arc, Sub + Play1 x2 (concerned how music will sound with a 5.1 entertainment setup)
Vs
Play5 x2 + Sub (concerned about how to control this through my TV/NVIDIA Shield box?)
Vs
Arc, Sub + Play5 x2 (read online i cant play the Arc and Play 5 together with the sub. Not sure if that is true.)

I also plan on peppering some Play1's around the house here and there and need them to play in synch with whatever i select from above.

Thanks!

Best answer by melvimbe

Danny, thank you for the thoughtful reply.

I mainly want to stream from the Nvidia box, so others in my household have access to the music and not have to rely on my phone. I'm often on the phone being that I work from home so having the Nvidia as the main Hub is really ideal. I wonder if I can control Sonos through the Nvidia via their app / Wi-Fi instead of having to use my phone and not having to connect to the TV directly?

 

 

The Sonos is app is just a controller,  When streaming muisc, the app is telling our speakers what streams to play, the audio isn’t actually going through your phone, then to the speakers via bluetooth or something like that.  And you can use as many phones/tablets you want as controllers, or voice control.  You don’t even have to have a phone turned on.

There isn’t a Sonos app for Nvidia, so you can’t use your TV as a controller like that.  As I suggested before, you can use it as a plex server to store your personal music library if you wish though.

 

Also my main interest was really getting the arc, sub and 2x play5 for the main part of my house (wide open layout kitchen, living room, dining room, family rooms with no walls between). Will all if them play nice together or is it true the system will only work with play5s and sub OR arc with sub? 

Thanks for any additional insight you can provide. 

I’ll answer this is in a round about way.  The basic building block of a Sonos system is a ‘room’ or ‘zone’.   Each room is made up of one or more speakers bonded together.  So a single speaker, pair of speakers, pair + sub, soundbar, soundbar + sub, soundbar + sub +rear surrounds...are all examples of rooms.  They are they typical setups of what most people would want.  You can’t make a 2 Sonos Ones and Five bonded as room, for example.  You can have as many rooms as you want though (up to 32 devices).  And each room can play by itself or grouped to play in sync with other rooms.

So for example, I have a kitchen/dining/family room space similar to you I would guess.  The family room is an Arc/Sub/2 Sonos Ones and the kitchen is 2 play:3s.  I can play each room separately or together, which I often do for music.

The only catch to grouping rooms together, is that if the audio is coming from a TV, the room connected to the TV will play the audio immediately, to stay in sync with the video.  The other rooms will be slightly delayed...in order to properly be wireless synced across longer distances in your home.  So no problem when streaming music, but for TV sourced audio, I would not play my kitchen and Family room together as there will be a bad echo effect.  I can play the TV audio in the bathroom for example, because it’s in a different room and you won’t hear the echo.

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4 replies

melvimbe
  • melvimbe
  • October 28, 2020

So some clarification on things that may not be clear yet.  Sonos can stream most music services directly with the need to use your Shield.    So if you listen to Spotify for example, you would use the Sonos app to specify what tracks from Spotify you want to play in which rooms.  Or you could use the Spotify app and cast to Sonos speakers.  

That isn’t to say your Shield can’t be used with Sonos.  Many Sonos speakers/devices are built to connect to your TV for TV audio, which of course can come from your Shield.  Your Shield can also be a plex media server for your local library, and then you can play music directly on Sonos without using your TV.

The Sonos Five does not connect directly to your TV.  Only the Arc, Beam, and Amp (for current models) connect to TVs.  The Five does have an aux input, but it’s not designed for use with a TV and will have a significant delay.  Meaning that your audio and video will not be sync.  You can use 2 Fives as surround speakers, no delay, but they are generally considered to be overkill for that role.

So, what should you do with the main room?

Option 1 - Arc+ sub+ 2 Sonos Ones - This will give you the best TV and very good direct streaming audio.

Option 2 - 2 Fives + sub - This will give you the best music streaming, but no TV access.  Sounds like not the best option for your case.

Option 3- Amp + 2 passive speakers+ sub  + 2 sonos ONes.   Depending on what passive speakers you get, this is likely to give best of music and good TV (no real center channel and no atmos content). The downside is it’s likely the most expensive and will you have wiring for the front two speakers.  Not sure if this is an issue for your room layout.

Danny
N
  • nrgcreator
  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • October 28, 2020

Danny, thank you for the thoughtful reply.

I mainly want to stream from the Nvidia box, so others in my household have access to the music and not have to rely on my phone. I'm often on the phone being that I work from home so having the Nvidia as the main Hub is really ideal. I wonder if I can control Sonos through the Nvidia via their app / Wi-Fi instead of having to use my phone and not having to connect to the TV directly?

Also my main interest was really getting the arc, sub and 2x play5 for the main part of my house (wide open layout kitchen, living room, dining room, family rooms with no walls between). Will all if them play nice together or is it true the system will only work with play5s and sub OR arc with sub? 

Thanks for any additional insight you can provide. 

melvimbe
  • melvimbe
  • Answer
  • October 28, 2020

Danny, thank you for the thoughtful reply.

I mainly want to stream from the Nvidia box, so others in my household have access to the music and not have to rely on my phone. I'm often on the phone being that I work from home so having the Nvidia as the main Hub is really ideal. I wonder if I can control Sonos through the Nvidia via their app / Wi-Fi instead of having to use my phone and not having to connect to the TV directly?

 

 

The Sonos is app is just a controller,  When streaming muisc, the app is telling our speakers what streams to play, the audio isn’t actually going through your phone, then to the speakers via bluetooth or something like that.  And you can use as many phones/tablets you want as controllers, or voice control.  You don’t even have to have a phone turned on.

There isn’t a Sonos app for Nvidia, so you can’t use your TV as a controller like that.  As I suggested before, you can use it as a plex server to store your personal music library if you wish though.

 

Also my main interest was really getting the arc, sub and 2x play5 for the main part of my house (wide open layout kitchen, living room, dining room, family rooms with no walls between). Will all if them play nice together or is it true the system will only work with play5s and sub OR arc with sub? 

Thanks for any additional insight you can provide. 

I’ll answer this is in a round about way.  The basic building block of a Sonos system is a ‘room’ or ‘zone’.   Each room is made up of one or more speakers bonded together.  So a single speaker, pair of speakers, pair + sub, soundbar, soundbar + sub, soundbar + sub +rear surrounds...are all examples of rooms.  They are they typical setups of what most people would want.  You can’t make a 2 Sonos Ones and Five bonded as room, for example.  You can have as many rooms as you want though (up to 32 devices).  And each room can play by itself or grouped to play in sync with other rooms.

So for example, I have a kitchen/dining/family room space similar to you I would guess.  The family room is an Arc/Sub/2 Sonos Ones and the kitchen is 2 play:3s.  I can play each room separately or together, which I often do for music.

The only catch to grouping rooms together, is that if the audio is coming from a TV, the room connected to the TV will play the audio immediately, to stay in sync with the video.  The other rooms will be slightly delayed...in order to properly be wireless synced across longer distances in your home.  So no problem when streaming music, but for TV sourced audio, I would not play my kitchen and Family room together as there will be a bad echo effect.  I can play the TV audio in the bathroom for example, because it’s in a different room and you won’t hear the echo.

Danny
Airgetlam
N
  • nrgcreator
  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • October 29, 2020

Thanks again for the thorough information.

Your reply created additional questions. 

If the app is just a controller and not actually sending music to the speakers, what is sending the data/audio? If I want to listen to a specific playlist or album from spotify, using the app, how is this being queued? For example, I have spotify on my phone connected to my aount with my phone is not available can someone else que something different from my spotify account from their phone, without their phone connected to my spotify account? 

 

You said "ach room is made up of one or more speakers bonded together.  So a single speaker, pair of speakers, pair + sub, soundbar, soundbar + sub, soundbar + sub +rear surrounds...are all examples of rooms.  They are they typical setups of what most people would want.  You can’t make a 2 Sonos Ones and Five bonded as room, for example.  You can have as many rooms as you want though (up to 32 devices).  And each room can play by itself or grouped to play in sync with other rooms." 

I don't understand why I can't make 2 sonos ones and five bonded but I can all the other examples you listed. What am I missing? Still not understanding what can and can't be bonded outside of 32 units.

Finally, regarding the delay from TV to wireless speakers. Does this include music streaming from Nvidia as well (using plex or spotify) ? The arc bar connected to the TV/Nvidia would be ahead of the rest of the wireless speakers through the rest of the room and house? Also, how does this effect watching a movie with the arc, sub and pair of ones or fives? Are they also delayed? I'm guessing not, but not understanding why if audio from TV is? 

Thanks fir taking the time to school me on all this. With the price of these speakers I need to make sure I get it right and your insight is incredibly helpful.

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