Trying to find a solution for my new open concept kitchen/dining/living area. There is no TV in the room so it will be only for music and maybe podcasts, and the intent is that the whole room can hear it. What do you recommend?

Assuming you are not looking for a large portable speaker to also take outdoors here, like the Sonos ‘Move’, my own personal thoughts were to perhaps go with two vertical stereo paired Fives and two stereo paired Ones (or 1 x One & 1 x OneSL) - I would perhaps also consider adding a Sonos Sub (which I would add to the Ones), but that can always be added later on, that’s if you do like having that extra oomph!

I would just place the Ones on the kitchen area worktops as available, but put the Fives on speaker stands so that they are at approx. head/shoulder height when seated. The Sonos sub can really go almost anywhere in the main open area, but wherever sounds best to you, or where there’s a power socket, as the low frequency sound is non-directional.

Here are my suggested additions to your plan.

My recommendation would be to avoid placing a speaker so close to the sink (splashes) and to place SUB vaguely in the same plain as the FIVE’s. It might fit under the couch.

At the cost of some counter space you could interchange the FIVE’s with the ONE’s and associate SUB with the ONE’s.

Assuming you are not looking for a large portable speaker to also take outdoors here, like the Sonos ‘Move’, my own personal thoughts were to perhaps go with two vertical stereo paired Fives and two stereo paired Ones (or 1 x One & 1 x OneSL) - I would perhaps also consider adding a Sonos Sub (which I would add to the Ones), but that can always be added later on, that’s if you do like having that extra oomph!

I would just place the Ones on the kitchen area worktops as available, but put the Fives on speaker stands so that they are at approx. head/shoulder height when seated. The Sonos sub can really go almost anywhere in the main open area, but wherever sounds best to you, or where there’s a power socket, as the low frequency sound is non-directional.

Here are my suggested additions to your plan.

 

Thank you so much! I’ve settled on 2 Fives and a Sub for sure, and I wasn’t sure if adding a single Five in the kitchen would be better than the two Ones. That little brown rectangle to the right of the sink is actually a 3-tier open shelf, which could handle a Five or a One. 

Is having a third Five in the kitchen on the top wall facing in better than the pair of Ones or would the Ones still be better?

I personally prefer ‘pairs’ of speakers, as I like the audio channel (stereo) separation, but I’m sure a Five placed Horizontal for stereo output will sound great too... 👍

I should perhaps highlight here too, that the Sonos One (not SL version) has built in voice services for Sonos playback/control using the SVC/Alexa/Google assistants, whereas the Fives don’t have that feature. eg: “Hey Sonos, play some music” perhaps see these links:

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/5107

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/5108