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Answered

New house being built

  • August 14, 2017
  • 4 replies
  • 6523 views
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Hi guys,

I've been following Sonos for a while, and ever since I experienced a Sonos setup in a vacation home 2 years ago, I always wanted to have my own setup. Since I'm currently still living at home with my parents, I don't actually have any of them installed (since they don't want me to thinker with too many tech stuff 😛 ), but I'm planning to start building my own house next year. We're already in the floorpan drawing phase.

In this stage I want to start planning outlets and network cabling etc already, so I can be prepared for all this stuff.
Enough with the talk around, my first question is: Based on my floorpan, what do you recommend me to get for the entire open space (being kitchen, living room and TV corner). I was planning for the TV corner to be equipped with a PlayBar later on (or playbase, depending on how we actually plan the cabling etc there). For the kitchen and living room I would think 2 PLAY:3s would be good, 1 at each side of the room, or should I rather get multiple PLAY:1s and place them in the corners?
Also, is it actually recommended that they are placed at around the seating height of users, or hanging from the wall, facing slightly downwards?

I will provide ethernet and power cables to anywhere I can see them fit, so also to all my Sonos speakers.
I might plan to get a PLAY:1 later on in the office as well, so upgrading later on would probably not be a waste of speakers (as well as placing upstairs in bedroom/bathroom)

Any insights would be greatly appreciated 🙂

Just a quick sidenote: This layout is not final yet, it is still subject to change, but we've got a pretty good feeling about this, apart from some small issues ;)

Best answer by melvimbe

I'm having a little trouble seeing your room dimensions, but I probably would go with 1 or 2 P1s in the kitchen, 2 P3s in the living room, and 1 P1 in the office. If you can placing them at seating height, then great. If you want them on the ceiling, ok, but that won't be better sound and probably won't blend in with the décor as well.

For the kitchen and office, maybe start off with 1 speaker, but place outlets so that you can switch to a stereo pair later on if you want. I wouldn't worry about Ethernet for you sonos gear. They should be fine without it. That said though, it's wise to have a hard connection for your tv setup and office.

You didn't ask this, but I got to say, I don't like where your tv is located. I'd look to have that the tv can be seen from the living room area and possibly the kitchen if possible. So can you just rotate the tv corner around so that the tv is on the outside wall? Also, that's going to be better for 5.1 sound as the P3s you get in the living room become surround when the tv is on. Really, you do that, and I don't think you need to bother when any speakers in the kitchen area.
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    4 replies

    melvimbe
    • melvimbe
    • Answer
    • August 14, 2017
    I'm having a little trouble seeing your room dimensions, but I probably would go with 1 or 2 P1s in the kitchen, 2 P3s in the living room, and 1 P1 in the office. If you can placing them at seating height, then great. If you want them on the ceiling, ok, but that won't be better sound and probably won't blend in with the décor as well.

    For the kitchen and office, maybe start off with 1 speaker, but place outlets so that you can switch to a stereo pair later on if you want. I wouldn't worry about Ethernet for you sonos gear. They should be fine without it. That said though, it's wise to have a hard connection for your tv setup and office.

    You didn't ask this, but I got to say, I don't like where your tv is located. I'd look to have that the tv can be seen from the living room area and possibly the kitchen if possible. So can you just rotate the tv corner around so that the tv is on the outside wall? Also, that's going to be better for 5.1 sound as the P3s you get in the living room become surround when the tv is on. Really, you do that, and I don't think you need to bother when any speakers in the kitchen area.
    Danny
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    • tmatheussen
    • Author
    • Contributor I
    • August 16, 2017
    Thanks for the insights,

    All the measurements are in mm, so that might make it a bit hard to actually get a good overview.
    Basically the kitchen is about 4 x 3.5m, the living room 4 x 4.5 and the tv corner 2.7 x 5 (partially used by the stairs, so more like 2.7 x 3)). I was also thinking about turning the TV like you mentioned, I just was wondering about the practical implementation of the speakers, do they need to be paired together for them to work as the surround speakers (P3s in the living room), and can they also work independently (whenever the TV is not on, I'd still like sound in the living room, which will not be that evenly spread then maybe? )

    As for the cabling, since I'm planning on getting some home automation, I will install my own switch and server needed for the configuration (and other stuff I'm running), so I might as well directly cable them all in if possible.
    melvimbe
    • melvimbe
    • August 16, 2017
    To your answer regarding living room surround speakers, yes, you would need 2 of either P1s, 3, or 5s bonded with the playbar or playbase. Well, it may let you set it up with one, but I doubt it would sound correctly. That setup of the 3 speakers would be considered 1 zone, and you can tv audio or any music source you have setup in sonos. You an configure it so that when you are not listening to the tv, the 2 surround sound speakers play in stereo. That's how I have it setup and am rather happy with it.
    Danny
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    • tmatheussen
    • Author
    • Contributor I
    • August 17, 2017
    Awesome thanks, that was basically what I was looking for 🙂 I was under the impression that you needed to ungroup them and then group them back together when you wanted them to be play independently from the TV.
    If anything changes in my plans, or if I need more info, I will make sure to ask again 😃
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