Skip to main content
Hi Folks,



I'm a real novice on AV but I've done some reading ...



About to get my first Sonos and multi-room audio in a new house. The home has a dedicated Home Theatre room and one (future two) other place(s) with 75" Sony TVs .



My question concerns what Sonos equipment and speaker configurations of Sonos and existing acoustic-speakers and new loud speakers I should plan to achieve my goals. I suggest below the equipment and configurations I think would meet my goals. Do you agree and what Sonos products do I need?



My goals are:




  1. Main goal is very good 5.2.2 surround sound for sports and movies in my small-medium sized HT room; [5.2.2 = 3+2subs+2Atmos]
  2. Next good to very good [but not elite] music/audio elsewhere in the home;
  3. Good 5.1 surround sound in (eventually) two other locations (in Bedroom and in Living Area).

If I get the right Sonos products to support the following I think this would work:




  1. A set of good new 5.2.2 floor standing loud speakers in HT room;
  2. Use a new good quality Amp (e.g. Integra DRX-3.1 Atmos Receiver) in HT room;
  3. Sonos speakers elsewhere in the home for multi-room audio-only and (when required) to act as rear-speakers in the one to two secondary locations for TVs.
  4. Sonos Connect and a Connect Amp to connect existing Boston '3.1' speakers in (initially) the secondary location [bedroom] with the 2nd TV.
  5. Later a 3rd TV later and then a Sonos playbar or playbase for solidly good [not elite] surround sound.

If the above is technically feasible, how many Connect Amps? If not technically feasible and desirable, please tell me what I've missed.



John
Hi. It looks pretty well thought out overall to me. I don't think your number 4 works though - there isn't really and way to achieve that with Sonos (that I can think of). If the speakers are passive speakers and the subwoofer active then the closest you could get would be to use a Sonos Amp with the L & R speakers and sub. Sonos would create a 'phantom' centre.



You could use a Connect to play Sonos music through the main HT set up, if you wished.



Forget Connect:Amps, these have been superseded by the Sonos Amp.



You need to be aware that Sonos HT setups only support DD5.1 and stereo, That may be acceptable for your 'other' TV setups (or it may not).



I hope that is of some help. I am sure others will have different perspectives.
John, thank you. Your advice is very helpful and understandable. Seems my plan is almost technically feasible and will be with the following changes.



I actually have a good home integration firm helping me but wanted to be an informed customer when I finalise the whole-of-house AV plan in 1-2 weeks time. You've helped me get there :-)



A. BOSTON in the Large Living Area

Yes I think I can immediately deploy the Boston 3.1 (passive 3, active sub) into the large living room to provide music and in future provide audio for the extra TV when purchased. That TV will be of least importance and 3.1 using solidly-good older speakers would be fine.



B. Entirely new, active 5.2.2 in HT room - also playing Sonos music (as you suggested) using CONNECT technology.



C. Use a Sonos playbar/base system with Sonos sub in the Master Bedroom in 5.1 configuration.
For C, you probably can use the Beam instead of the playbar/playbase, unless your master bedoorm is very big. Mine is around 180 sqft and I'm perfectly happy with the beam+sub+ 2 play:1s. The Beam has built in voice control, connects through HDM-ARC, and has the more modern hardware of the 3.
Thank you Danny. The smaller size, smarter looks and especially built in voice control are useful advantages for Beam.



John
Terms & ConditionsCookie settings