Port or Amp for Surround Sound setup

In this financial situation, or even if more comfortable, it is a good idea to be clear about what you want to achieve and not try to do too much. 

A decent HiFi system does not include sound for TV, and does not include surround sound which remains a movie thing. Almost all music is recorded and played in 2 channel stereo, for which the best solution is a speaker pair is aimed towards the listening area.

So the first question is - do you want to play both speaker pairs together in the same room? If so, why?

Ok let’s rephrase that a little. Just change decent hi-fi to home theater.

I am not a HT fan and don’t use Sonos HT products, but someone else that does will hopefully stop by and be able to help you.

I use an Amp to power two Paradigm floor standing speakers together with a Sub and two Play 1’s for my surround sound and it works and sounds good to my ears. 
 

I’d be very interested to know if a Port could be incorporated with a HT AV Receiver to similar effect but I suspect it would not work with the Play 1’s and probably not the Sub either. 

To do what you want, you need the Amp instead of the Port. The Ones can’t act as surrounds with an AV receiver with a connected Port. With bookshelf speakers a sub (either Sonos or a sub from another vendor) is nice to have. The Amp can be used in either case. Also, the turntable preamp can be connected to the Amp, so you can listen to records through all the speakers if desired. Personally, I’d prefer to hear the records with the stereo setup without the surrounds.

Hi.  There is no way to incorporate your powered bookshelf speakers into a Sonos HT system.  There is no role for the Port either.  (Those two points really go together.)

You could use an Amp to power two passive front speakers, and the Sonos software will create a ‘phantom’ centre.  As already mentioned on this thread, a Sonos Sub or a third party subwoofer could be incorporated if desired.

Your two Ones could then act as surround speakers.

Given that you currently own neither an Amp nor passive speakers, you should at least consider the possibility  of getting a Beam or an Arc instead.  (These would not give you the means to use a turntable though.)

I recently swapped out my Playbar from my Sonos surround ‘system’ and replaced it with the Amp (which I was using with my old school hifi 2 channel system) and passive speakers as per my previous message. This was just prior to the release of the Arc but even so I wanted more oomph from my TV/Blu Ray play back, especially if the output is only in stereo.

It’s debatable whether I even need a Sub but it certainly seems more than acceptable to me for movies. It’s probably not ideal for music playback but I use my old school hifi for that. I will most likely add a Port to this system at some stage as a trade in purchase after my old Play 5’s were bricked.

@Jaolchhu4 .  Sounds like a sensible approach in your situation.  

One thing I would consider (because I think the Port is very expensive for what it does) is buy a 3rd generation Echo Dot to add streaming to your hifi right now.  They are quite cheap at the moment because the 4th gen is out, but for this purpose the 3rd gen is fine.  If you don’t want to group the hifi with anything else, you may find this is sufficient, either temporarily or permanently.

Or even the 2nd - there has been no change in the nature of the line out signal.

Thanks @John B 

I have an old Google Chromecast that I am contemplating trying but for the moment I am streaming via a wired connection from my MacBook through a separate DAC. I’ve been trialling Roon and Qobuz but have decided not to take them up having got an amazing price for Deezer Hifi (less than £85 for 12 months). 

I’m also on a SACD/DVD-A kick currently having picked up a couple of really cheap players for less than £5. The quality of the SACDs (2 channel only) has been particularly good in general. I’m tempted to look to find a multi-speaker solution that can handle SACDs as Sonos does not seem to do so (unless someone knows differently) but the outlay will probably not be worth it and I will stick with Blu Ray Audio on my AMP set up.