Answered

New house with Multi-Room Ceiling Speakers

  • 18 May 2021
  • 3 replies
  • 1192 views
M

Hi all,

I’m after a bit of guidance here, I’m buying a house that has two wired ceiling speakers in each of 4 rooms that I would like to make use of. I believe they are Sonos speakers, they may be a good few years old, but I see no reason why I cant install an up-to-date setup that enables these four separate zones to be used. What would I need to buy to do this?

I’ve done some research, but struggling to get my head around this. Do I need a multi-channel amp? Do Sonos even make one? Or do I simply need to buy 4 x Sonos Amp’s (one for each room/zone) and stack them? I think it might be as simple as that, I buy 4 x Amps, connect them to the internet and name them appropriately for each room/zone, control them from Sonos app on my phone?

Is that it? Or is there something better I can do?

icon

Best answer by melvimbe 18 May 2021, 15:25

View original
This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

3 replies

G
Userlevel 7

If you want each pair of speakers in each room to act as an individual zone, you need to get four Amps.

You can connect up to four speakers to each Amp (up to six speakers if you are using Sonos Architectural by Sonance speakers).

 

I buy 4 x Amps, connect them to the internet and name them appropriately for each room/zone, control them from Sonos app on my phone

This is correct.

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi
melvimbe

First, Sonos doesn’t make ceiling speakers.  They might be Sonance speakers that are made to work with Sonos, but the speakers could be used with virtually any amp.

If you do want to use Sonos, you’re correct that 4 amps would be the ideal way to go.  Sonos doesn’t make a multizone Amp.  You can connect 2 pair of speakers (3 if they are the Sonance speakers I spoke of earlier), but it is still only one zone (same audio source, same volume).  Some do this if they have a budget concern or actually have 2 pairs of speakers in the same zone/room.

Danny
airforceteacher
Userlevel 6
Badge +15

The very simplest is exactly as you suggest - 4 Amps, so each room is its own zone.

If you can find a deal on an 8 channel amp, you could use 4 ports with it and possibly save money, at the cost of space and probably heat. Ports provide one advantage over the Amp for future flexibility: they have line-level outputs, both analog and coaxial digital.

 

But if you’re not a tinkerer, the very simplest way is to just get 4 Amps.  Presumably all of the speaker wires go back to the same location?

Terms & ConditionsCookie settings