Answered

Passive speaker set up with Beam

  • 4 June 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 147 views

Hello! I moved into a new house that has passive  speakers already installed: front left/right, back left/right. I’m trying to determine how I could use them with my existing Beam. From my research it seems like my options might be

  1. Buy a Sonos Amp for passive speakers and set up passive speakers as surround for Beam (I think only 2 passive speakers can be used because Beam is already a 2.1 device?)
  2. Buy a receiver and Sonos Port for passive speakers (I’m not sure if this would allow for surround sound with Beam?)
  3. Don’t use passive speakers and just use Beam.

Thanks for any advice!

icon

Best answer by Ken_Griffiths 4 June 2023, 00:45

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.

2 replies

If your intention is to use them as surrounds, your only option would be to drive them with a Sonos Amp, bonded to your Beam. The Sonos Port can not be used as a surround device. 

You could add a Sonos Amp and link that to two rear surround speakers and ‘bond’ that to your Beam - that’s assuming the two rear speakers are in an appropriate place for your TV viewing.

Another Sonos Amp could be added for the two front speakers, but this would only be ideal for music audio purposes, as they would likely play out of sync with the TV/Beam audio when all the devices are grouped… or you could use them with the secind Amp for the TV front channels in place of the Beam and utilise the Beam in another room instead. Effectively that means using two Amps (one for the TV front channels wired to the TV …and a second amp for the two rear TV channels) - the two Amps are bonded (not grouped) together using the Sonos App.

So you have plenty of options there to perhaps consider. Note too a Sonos Sub/Sub-Mini could be added to the TV surround sound setup too.