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Hello, I'm building a new home and trying to plan out a whole home audio system based around Sonos, Amazon Echo Dot, Connect Amps, and external speakers. My main goals are to 1) have access to Sonos in most rooms of house, 2) Use Echo Dot, Connect Amp and ceiling speakers to voice control music in kitchen and master bathroom, 3) have 5.1 surround sound using playbar, subwoofer, and ceiling speakers.



I would like to lay out my plans and hoping you all can tell me if it will work, how i could improve it, and if i'm missing anything. And of course all smart ass comments to tell me how stupid I am are welcome



1) Kitchen: Amazon echo dot wired to Connect Amp...and Connect amp wired to ceiling speakers in the kitchen. Basically want to be able to say to the Echo Dot to play music off Spotify/Amazon/Sonos. Also, at times I want the option of being able to use my iphone/SONOS App to play music on the kitchen speakers and zone them with other rooms if/when I want to (ie: play a song on kitchen AND living room speakers or kitchen AND office speakers). Will this be possible or should I forget about SONOS and the Connect Amp in the kitchen and just hook the Echo dot directly to ceiling speakers? Also any recommendations for ceiling speakers that would do well for this scenario



2) Living Room: Sonos Playbar, Subwoofer, Connect Amp wired to 2 ceiling speakers. Will I get surround sound by doing this? Any loss in quality by hooking to ceiling speakers instead of just using Sonos play 1s?



3) Master Bathroom: Same as kitchen. Voice controlled music by connecting Amazon Echo Dot to Connect Amp to Ceiling speakers.



4) Outside Deck area: Connect Amp (will be inside) wired to weather grade speakers (outside). I would wire 4 total speakers to the Connect Amp so that I would have 2 speakers at the outside deck area and then 2 speakers at the walkout basement level below this deck



5) Office - 1 or 2 play 1's



6) Covered Porch: 1 or 2 play 1's



7) Eventually would expand Sonos system to unfinished basement, but that's way down the road.



Any advice, tips, or tricks are greatly appreciated.
I wouldn't worry about connecting the Dot to the line-in on the Connect:Amp. Sonos is currently working on a full integration with Alexa to bring voice control to all Sonos speakers, without use of the line-in.
Thanks for the response jgatie. I'm hoping I'm wrong about this and I probably am, but whenever sonos does fully integrate with Alexa, it probably wouldn't apply to ceiling speakers, would it? My wife insists that we have ceiling speakers (aesthetics) in the kitchen and master bathroom which is where I want the voice integration. Maybe I shouldn't assume and I guess no one really knows many details at this point...but I assume if I want to use ceiling speakers, then the full integration of Alexa and Sonos speakers won't help me and that I would still need a Connect AMP. That is unless Sonos releases ceiling speakers (skeptical, but would be great)



So...at the chance that Sonos-Alexa full integration doesn't help me, would my above proposed setup work?
Ceiling speakers are always a compromise on sound quality, for the benefit of being discreet and out of sight. And probably the safe solution for bathrooms.



If you use a Connect Amp to drive these, I'd think chances of Alexa integration with it is as good as it is with play units.



But where the compromise isn't a must, I suggest play units.



And since you are building a new home, I suggest running the latest spec ethernet cables into every room along with the mains cabling. Having a couple of ethernet jacks in every room will allow for wired Sonos use that is usually a good idea and it will also allow for interference free use of the many and extending in variety WiFi driven home gadgets.



Run adequate thickness speaker cables for installing external speakers to planned install points, and back into the home to where a Connect Amp can be wired to the speaker pair. If you want to use two speaker pair to one Amp, each pair impedance must not drop below 8 ohms; also research in line volume controls and impedance matching if more than one pair of speakers is to be installed to one Connect Amp.
Sonos has stated the coming integration will be compatible with all current and previously sold Sonos devices. So that would include the Connect:Amp with ceiling speakers.
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