Contributor III

Two Sonos ONES with AirPlay2 or One Sonos BEAM for TV sound - LG TV / Apple TV 4K?

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Buying a few speakers in the Sonos system.

For a small room, where theres no room for 5.1 surround setup
Would you set up Two 2 Sonos ONES, via Airplay 2 for sound from Apple TV (Netflix and Itunes rented movies mainly, DirecTV occasionally) on each side of an LG TV/Apple TV 4K, pointed at the listener?
Grouping them in the app for TV sound, and use the speakers for general music when not watching TV in this room.

Or, would you buy 1 Sonos BEAM for TV sound, and 1 Sonos ONE in the room dedicated to music.

I kind of liked the sound of two Sonos Ones on my left and right but it might be a hassle to have to activate them via Apple TV each time?

Thank you.

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Airgetlam

If it were me, I'd do the Beam, and not use AirPlay 2. It uses way too much bandwidth for me to be happy with it. The Beam would be directly connected to the TV, and use no bandwidth whatsoever.

Bruce

R

rjpra2Author

Contributor III

You the man.

S

SOCalistic

Renowned Enthusiast I

If it were me, I'd do the Beam, and not use AirPlay 2. It uses way too much bandwidth for me to be happy with it. The Beam would be directly connected to the TV, and use no bandwidth whatsoever.

That is incorrect and what do you base that on?
Airplay actually uses very little bandwidth. I know exactly how much bandwidth every device on my network uses and Airplay is barely a blip.

I use two HomePods in stereo pair airplayed to my Apple TV for music and a Beam for home theater.

jgatie

That is incorrect and what do you base that on?

It is based on fact. Airplay 2 streams through the mobile device, so it uses triple the bandwidth vs. playing via the Sonos app, which simply tells the Sonos device what to play, and the Sonos device gets it directly from the source.

Airplay 2: Source->router->mobile device->router->Sonos speaker (three arrows between router and your devices)

Sonos: Source->router->Sonos speaker (one arrow between router and your devices).

I use two HomePods in stereo pair . . .

I believe Homepods are different, in that they can fetch directly from the source. At least that is what I've heard, I'm not a big Apple guy.

S

SOCalistic

Renowned Enthusiast I

Also incorrect and even if true it’s a minuscule amount.
Homepods can pull from Apple but obviously when connected to an Apple TV they are both using Airplay 2 to the Apple TV.
You should know more about a subject before giving people incorrect advice.

jgatie

Also incorrect and even if true it’s a minuscule amount.
Homepods can pull from Apple but obviously when connected to an Apple TV they are both using Airplay 2 to the Apple TV.
You should know more about a subject before giving people incorrect advice.

No, not incorrect at all. When playing to Sonos Ones (which, unlike Home Pods, the OP actually mentioned), Airplay 2 uses 3 times the bandwidth vs the Sonos app, exactly how I diagrammed it above.

And I'll ignore the snarky advice, thank you.

Airgetlam

The OP's question was about either a pair of Sonos Ones, or a Beam. S/He didn't mention a Homepod.

Also, please note that I used the phases "If it were me" and "for me to be happy with". Nor do I believe I imparted any false information, as jgatie kindly pointed out.

Bruce

Airgetlam

That being said, if you have data that suggests that this belief in how AirPlay 2 on a Sonos device works is in error, I'd be delighted to hear about it.

Bruce

Ken_Griffiths

rjpra2,

I have a dining room that’s just 15 x 20 feet and I use a Beam and two Play: 1’s in there. It’s perhaps a bit of overkill for the room, but the 5.0 surround sound is just too good to miss, even in a small room... I would personally start with the Beam and maybe add the surrounds to it later, that way you have music, TV audio, voice control features and AirPlay.

S

Steve1092

Lyricist III

I had the two Ones via AirPlay 2 since the release of airplay 2 on Sonos with my Apple TV. It had issues with syncing the tv sound about 5% of the time plus you had to occasionally reset up the speakers to the Apple TV. I am confident apple/sonos will fix the lip syncing issues as the software matures but I did switch to the beam. The sound of the ones in stereo is slightly better but the convenience of the beam via hdmi won me over.

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