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I would like to have both a home theater setup and a music listening setup. Looking over the Sonos products and guides, it seems that a pair of Sonos Five speakers are a good option for music, normal stereo stuff, maybe with a sub. Looking at home theater, though, they recommend beam and arc. I’m not clear on what they recommend for channels behind you in surround sound.

So, would it be reasonable to put the two Sonos Five speakers in the back of the home theater, and the arc in front? Or can the Sonos Five speakers be in the front in place of an Arc or Beam?

Generally I’m trying to avoid redundancy, such that speakers are used for both purposes. I woudk appreciate suggestions, thanks! 

Fives are not designed to be used as front channel speakers in a home theater setup. So your best option for a Sonos home theater and music system would be an Arc or Beam (Gen 2) with a Sub and One SLs as surrounds.

A pair of Fives are usually not recommended as surrounds unless you have a very large room and/or are seated far away from the surround speakers. In a smaller room, a pair of Fives as surrounds can overpower the Arc or Beam when being used in a home theater setup. But the best thing about using Fives as surrounds is music will sound much better since you will get full stereo audio from both sides of the room when streaming music. And as you can imagine, a pair of Fives will sound much better than a pair of One SLs.

Also keep in mind that you need a Sonos device equipped with a line-in port like a Five, Port, or Amp to connect a CD player or turntable to your Sonos system. And when the Five or Amp is being used as surrounds in a home theater setup, the line-in is disabled on those devices.

I have a normal to large space, but not a giant space, so I guess its the Ones that I’ll need. I would prefer better music to surround sound, so I think I’ll focus on that for now. Thanks for your reply. 

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