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So, two months ago I bought a Sonos ARC, Sonos sub and two Sonos One’s for a family room setup.  I am eventually moving to Florida with the setup and the room will be 20x20 open into a kitchen that is 18x14.  The ceilings are 12-14ft hight.  The Best Buy salesman was concerned that with ceiling heights like those, the Atmos sound would not work well with the ARC.  Then he said to just add a Sonos Amp and two in-ceiling speakers when I move and that would provide adequate Dolby Atmos sound.  

So, today I went in to look at outdoor speakers and we got into a conversation about what I currently have and what I wanted to do in Florida with this room.  This time two of them in the store said it won’t work, and at the very least be ineffective for what we want.  In fact, they suggested I go to a traditional receiver to do Atmos in a room that size.  Does anyone here have a room with volume like that and will it work?

Hi @ekkoville, thank you for reaching back to the community and for sharing your set up with us. Let help you with this.

Appreciate your interest in the Sonos product. You can always place your speaker or Arc specifically in your desired location. The Arc has two up-firing speakers within it that sound best when positioned either on a tabletop, or wall-mounted below a TV. Also, Arc requires a minimum of 5.5 inches on the front and sides of it, with at least 2 inches between the backside of Arc and the TV when in a tabletop orientation. If wall-mounting, it is recommended to have a clearance of at least 5.5 inches between the TV and Arc.  

You also need to re-evaluate your room like the walls, windows, floors, and ceiling. Sound bounces on all hard surfaces in the room which have an impact on how the sound travel and affects the audio experience.

Tuning your Sonos speakers with Trueplay. Trueplay measures how sound reflects off walls, furnishings, and other surfaces in a room, then fine-tunes your Sonos speaker to make sure it sounds great no matter where you've placed it.

We can also wait for suggestions and feedback from our Sonos community users for the setup that they may suggest or they have a similar room size like yours. You may also contact our Sales Specialists through phone or email where you can send the floor plan for further assistance.

Please feel free to reach out in the future if you have any other questions.

You're always welcome here.


Thanks Rowena, appreciate the kind words and support.  From everything I got from the staff at Best Buy/Magnolia, it’s not an ideal room a Sonos Arc setup.  I continue to evaluate my options. 


Hi @ekkoville, thank you for the update. 

Please feel free to reach back to us if you have questions to assist you.

We and the community are always here.


I’m actually surprised no one has a room that size or has enough expertise to give an opinion.  Isn’t there a Sonos tech rep in here once in awhile?


Hi @ekkoville, thank you for your response. 

Have you tried contacting our Sales Specialist? They can assist you with your concern and provide you options.

You may also try looking for local installer assistance that you can search by zip code to see who is available in your area.

If you need help with any other information, please be sure to let us know.

The Sonos Community is always here to help.