Prospective Sonos Playbase + Play 1 buyer looking for opinions (with crudely drawn diagrams!)

Hi fuzzypickles06

Given your room size and high ceiling I'd consider placing the Play 1's in the positon I've indicated in Red. Any surround source material would be lost to the ear...wall mounted in the rear as shown. I'll also include a link to stands you can purchase for the Play'1's other than those shown on the Sonos site (for comparison).

You might consider the new Sonos One which is identical to the Play 1's size but adds Alexa voice assistant. They're on sale as a pair via Sonos direct.

Also, both the Play 1 and Sonos One automatically switch to full on speakers when playing music. So with the Playbase and Play 1 or Sonos One you'll have room filling sound when music is played. Later you might consider one or two more Sonos speakers placed where you feel the sound degrades.

Hope this helps! Cheers!

Sonos One Stand
https://www.worldwidestereo.com/products/flexson-floor-stand-for-sonos-one-each

Play 1 Stand
https://www.worldwidestereo.com/products/sonos-play-1-all-in-one-wireless-music-system-with-flexson-floorstand-bundle-white-play1wflob

Thanks so much AjTrek! Your response made me go research 5.1 speaker placement -- I had a very wrong conception of how "rear" speakers worked in a 5.1 setup.

Unfortunately, I don't really have a good spot to place the rear speakers, and would like to avoid free floating stands to put them in the spot you have indicated, so I think I'm going to stick for a setup with just the playbase for now.

One last question if you don't mind: I still would like to someday place a couple speakers on by dining room wall (as shown in my original diagram) for music/podcasts in the kitchen area. It would be nice to have these speakers outputting stereo sound from the TV as well for football games and the like (basically not acting as rear speakers), but from my research it seems they would need to be "grouped" separately which would introduce some latency and create a "stadium effect".

So my question: if I had two speakers on the dining room wall per my original diagram grouped with the soundbase acting as "rear" speakers, would the sound quality from the couch/seating area when watching TV be worse than if I had no rear speakers (just the playbase)? It seems it would be easiest to just group them together, but if its going to result in a worse mix for people in the couch/seating area, I wouldn't want to do that.

Hope this make sense, and thanks again for your help!

Hi fuzzypickles06

Yes it's possible to place two speakers on the rear wall and group them to your Playbase. As you said you may get a stadium effect. However, when speakers are grouped the volume can be changed simultaneously for all speakers or individually by group all within the Sonos App.

So you could inside the Sonos App lower the volume of the Playbase while keeping the sound of the rear speakers at your desired level when you' re in the kitchen/dining room area. Using the TV remote to control volume in this instance would lower/raise volume for all speakers. The only time you might notice a delay is if watching the lips of a person while the sound is only coming from the rear speakers; as you cannot lip-sync the rears as you can with the Playbase.

Hope this helps. Cheers!

Hi fuzzypickles06

Yes it's possible to place two speakers on the rear wall and group them to your Playbase. As you said you may get a stadium effect. However, when speakers are grouped the volume can be changed simultaneously for all speakers or individually by group all within the Sonos App.

So you could inside the Sonos App lower the volume of the Playbase while keeping the sound of the rear speakers at your desired level when you' re in the kitchen/dining room area. Using the TV remote to control volume in this instance would lower/raise volume for all speakers. The only time you might notice a delay is if watching the lips of a person while the sound is only coming from the rear speakers; as you cannot lip-sync the rears as you can with the Playbase.

Hope this helps. Cheers!

Thanks again AJTrek, this is very helpful. This raises a couple final questions for me if you don't mind:

1.- is it possible to group the rear speakers with the Playbase so that they play in full for music/podcasts but are just off when watching TV? Basically, I would just have a stereo setup but the speakers also kick on for music/podcasts?

2.- would adding the rear speakers for TV at that distance end up with a worse sounding experience than if I had no rear speakers at all (just stereo from the playbase)? Given that some or most of the fidelity of the rear speakers could potentially be lost at that distance, am I going to end up with a worse sounding mix by adding the additional rear speakers?

Thanks so much again, you have been a huge help!

My layout is rather similar to yours, except swap the kitchen and dining room. I opted to place the speakers on the back wall as well, understanding that I won't get quite the same sound effect when on my couch, but will get a better experience for music sources.

On your most recent questions...
1 - Yes. You would setup the playbase as one zone and the other speakers as a separate zone stereo pair. They really wouldn't be rear speakers in that scenario. If you go this route though, you might want to put the speakers in your kitchen area instead of in the dining room. You might get better coverage over the whole area if you did this. That said though, I've never had an issue with coverage in my setup. I just like being able to place the speakers on the kitchen counter, top of the fridge, instead of on stands or on the wall.

2 - No, I don't think so. I actually found it rather odd when I was in my kitchen (dining room in your case) behind the surround speakers. After moving them to the back wall, I felt like the entire room was covered. I will say though that tv audio may sound a little odd when in the dining room facing away from the tv, towards the surrounds. But that isn't likely to happen. You may also find that you like the music audio better in your dining room then in your living room.

As I'm writing this though, I'm thinking perhaps the best of both worlds would be to have 2 pairs of play:1s, one for the surrounds behind the couch and one pair for music in the kitchen/dining area. A good excuse to buy more sonos gear perhaps.

Thank you both again. I think I am leaning towards just mounting the speakers on the back (dining area) wall and try them in surround mode with the playbase. I'm now wondering though if, given the distance and use, it would make sense to splurge for play 3s rather than play1s.



2 - No, I don't think so. I actually found it rather odd when I was in my kitchen (dining room in your case) behind the surround speakers. After moving them to the back wall, I felt like the entire room was covered. I will say though that tv audio may sound a little odd when in the dining room facing away from the tv, towards the surrounds. But that isn't likely to happen. You may also find that you like the music audio better in your dining room then in your living room.


melvimbe -- if you don't mind me asking, do you use play 1s as your rear speakers? Also, do you think overall the audio quality is better with the rear surround (even at a distance) than if you just had a stereo (no rear speakers) setup?

I actually use play:3s as my rear speakers. However, this wasn't exactly my choice. When I bought my house, the previous owner threw in the sonos speakers (playbar and sub too) with the deal (lucky me). I did not have any play:1s at that time to use as rears, so just went with the play:3s. The common thought around here is that play:3s are overkill for surround and I agree with that. I have since got a pair of play:1s for my bedroom, which is rather large, and love it. I do particularly like having the play:3s when playing music and wouldn't trade them out for 1s...but I don't think the 3s are worth twice the cost myself.

As far as your other question, yes, I do think the rear speakers make a significant difference. A while back I had some wireless issues where the rear speakers would stop playing every now and then, and I could clearly hear the difference. I might even say that it makes the tv audio particularly better when you are in the kitchen or dining area.

And obviously, you can go with just the playbase now and add more later.

Even though you didn't ask me :8....the following statement IMO is in conflict as I believe you are trying to equate Surround sound with normal audio (stereo for music):

"do you think overall the audio quality is better with the rear surround (even at a distance) than if you just had a stereo (no rear speakers) setup?"

Think of Surround sound as background material that supplements the foreground. For example you're watching a helicopter fly toward you on screen. In real life you'd hear the helicopter in 3 positions (theoretically) :

_In front (sound gets gradually louder)
_Overhead (sound is at its loudest
_Behind (sound gradually fades)

In real life the helicopter sounds would blur together with no real separation and that is what Surround material simulates. The front speakers handle the In front and Overhead by getting progressively louder and the rear speakers handle the Behind with a progressive fade. Hopefully you see my point which is that the rear speakers should never equal the out-put or overall clarity of the fronts in a surround setup.

In stereo mode for music you are basically listening to the same material. The only difference being that the front speakers may be bigger and capable of more defined detail than the smaller rears. The Playbase has 10 drivers as opposed to only 2 drivers in the Play 1 and 3 drivers in the Play 3.

So yes, the Play 3's will play louder in all situations vs. the Play 1's. Play 5's will equal a Playbase in Full speaker mode but are mostly overkill in surround mode; but may deliver better sound over a longer distance when in surround mode.

In short you would not want a pair of Play 5's as surrounds sitting on either side of your couch as you'd most likely have to turn them down in order to get a balanced surround effect.

Assuming you can purchase from a retail or on-line store with a liberal return policy I suggest you audition a set of Play 3's and a set of Sonos One's with Alexa in stereo pair at either end of your dining room table. You can only bond one set of speakers to the Playbase at a time. Set them as surrounds to test and play with them as FULL on speakers a well. Lastly, break the surround bond and listen to them just as Stereo pairs for music. That should help you make your decision. Note: You cannot together set a Play 3 and Sonos One as a stereo pair.

FYI, I use a Playbar with Sub and Play 3's as surrounds but they sit on either side of my two theater chairs. I have a separate setup for music which is 2 Play 5's with sub. I also have a set of Sonos One's in stereo pair in the rear that I only use in party mode (Full up) in conjunction with my Play 5's or as background music (dinner party) or as ambient (smooth jazz) for my Cocker Spaniel when I'm at work.

Good Luck and Cheers!

I think AJTrek1 and I are pretty much in agreement here. I interpreted "a stereo (no rear speakers) setup" to mean a playbase/playbar only. IMO getting rear speakers is worth it, whether you intend to please the speakers a foot or 10 feet behnd the living room sitting area.

I also agree that trying out p:3s o p:1s isn't a bad idea if the options fit within your budget.