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how to replace traditional home theatre with Sonos

  • 21 February 2022
  • 1 reply
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I have a very basic, traditional surround setup in my basement. My Tv is wall mounted with a single HDMI out from the A/V receiver to the TV hidden in the walls so no wires exposed.  My gear is all sitting in a cabinet beneath the TV. My back speakers no longer work and I’m unclear if it’s a wiring problem or because my old Denon amplifier is failing. Replacing wires is a non-starter, and if I have to replace the amp I’m thinking maybe I just go wireless. I have lots of Sonos speakers all around my house and they’re great, so I understand how Sonos works but I’m confused about what I would need to buy or if it will even work.

Currently, I have 4 components (Cable, Apple TV, Western Digital Media Player, Wii) connected to my home theatre receiver and a universal remote that controls the receiver input to switch the audio and video on the TV.  The amplifier is a Pioneer VSX-1019AH.  TV is an LG NANO86UNA (55 inch) that supports Dolby ATMOS and eArc. 

 

Simple….

Question is: how do I replace my current home theatre amplfier and the connected components with Sonos? Do I keep the A/V receiver to switch inputs? Do the components now need to plug into a Sonos amplifier? It seems every article I read the components are all connected directly to the TV which I do not want because I have no way to hide the wires.

 

 

 

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Best answer by John B 21 February 2022, 18:28

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1 reply

J

Hi.  Just a few pointers:

  1. If you want Dolby Atmos (and you probably should) then you need an Arc or a Beam (gen 2).  These will handle the 3 front chsnnels.  These products require an HDMI-ARC feed and I doubt your AV receiver can output HDMI-ARC (although haven’t checked)
  2. You will have to have an HDMI cable to take audio from your TV (eARC port) to the Arc/Beam.  You would need an HDMI switch to connect all your components to.  The output HDMI from this switch would go to another HDMI input on your TV.
  3. As an alternative to 2, you could get an HDFury Arcana, or a similar device made by Feintech, that would allow you to run the output from the HDMI switch into that device.  One HDMI cable output from this would go to the TV, the other to the Arc/Beam.  
  4. Depending on your TV, you may get lip synch issues in the setup under point 2.  The risk of this is virtually eliminated by the setup in 3, as the audio does not pass through the TV.
  5. If you have a programmable universal remote (sounds like you do) then this should work fine to switch input components.  But it would be best if this had a WiFi hub rather than rely on a line of sight IR.
  6. I would suggest One SLs for surrounds and a Sonos Sub, either initially or in due course.  No wires, but you do need to think about power source.

Hope that helps a bit.

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