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I am replacing my home theater tv with a new LG CX (which is eARC compatible). Currently I have a 10 year old Yamaha with regular front, center, rear ceiling and sub driving everything (no Sonos). Looking at potentially upgrading, and the way it appears I have 5 options:

  1. Leave as is and just plug in. Cost $0. No sound enhancement, no Sonos & lots of clutter.
  2. Sonos Arc, Sub & Amp for rear ceiling. Cost $1500 or so using 2 trade up credits. 
  3. Sonos Arc, Sub & Rear. Cost $1300 or so using 1 trade up credit. Plus would probably buy stands to put behind and not hang because of cord so another $200+.
  4. 2 Amps, one to drive the current front speakers and current sub and 1 to drive the current rear speakers. Lose center channel I believe? Cost $900 or so using 2 trade up credits.
  5. Use 2 configuration as above, lose the Amp for rear ceiling and repurpose either two Play 1s or Play 3s for rear. Uses only 1 trade up credit but would have to buy stands so about $1100 + $200+ for stands.

If money is not the issue (been budgeting for this) and keeping in mind this is probably a 5 year solution; what would you recommend and why? Any true benefit between 1 and 4? Are the Ones going to be better or worse than Play 1s or 3s or the ceiling speakers with Amp?

Hi @Jeffrey_35, thanks for reaching out here and the interest in the Sonos products. Let me help you with this and confirm if you have any existing Sonos products as you have said about trade up credits. In my opinion, this will all be based on which set up you would love to proceed. This will all work and okay depending on your preference. You can use the Sonos Amp as TV front speakers or as TV surround speakers when asked “How do you want to use Sonos Amp?” during the setup process. Note that Amp’s SUB output and line input are disabled when Amp is used as TV surround speakers. If you’ll get two Sonos Amps, you can have the two set up possible with the Sonos Amp to replace your Yamaha receiver. Having the Sonos Arc, you’ll need one Sonos Amp to use the third party speakers as surround. Play:1s and Sonos Ones are quite the same, the only difference is the AirPlay capability of Ones and microphone for voice services. 

We can wait here with other user’s suggestions and feedback based on their experience and set up. You can also reach out to our Sales team

Let us know if this helps. We and the community are always here to help.