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Would this be a good set up to improve both HT and Music?

  • 26 October 2023
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S
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Hi all,

I currently have two ONEs in the lounge (stereo pair, on Sanus stands) and two Symfonisk Bookshelf speakers in the kitchen (stereo pair).

I am looking to buy a Beam Gen 2 for the lounge. I am thinking of bringing the Symfonisk speakers into the lounge and placing them on stands behind the sofa on either side with TV straight ahead and keeping the ONEs where they are at either side of the TV in the far corners. 

For TV, I would like to use the Beam as main speaker(s) and Symfonisks for Rear Surrounds. I don't think I can also add the ONEs as extra speakers for TV in this set up?


For Music, I would like to use the Beam, together with the ONEs (as a stereo pair) and IF POSSIBLE, also the Symfonisks. Would the latter best be achieved by changing the setting to Full Audio (not ambient)? 

Also, assuming I can do all of that, am I going to notice a big improvement when playing music to all these speakers, compared to what I'm used to, ie, playing on just the ONEs as a stereo pair? Does it sound like a good music set up considering the equipment I will have when I buy the Beam? Also, will it be any good for music with Atmos/ Spatial Audio? I’ll probably stream from Apple Music.

Thanks v much for any advice.

 

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Best answer by GuitarSuperstar 26 October 2023, 21:57

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9 replies

G
Userlevel 7

This setup should be fine. You can group the Ones with the Beam/SYMFONISKS setup and play the same audio out of all of the speakers at the same time, but you will experience a slight delay from the Ones when playing TV audio. Streaming music will be in sync though. So I would keep the Ones ungrouped anytime you play audio from the TV.

For music, this grouped setup should give you a much fuller soundstage from the front of the room with the added Beam.

Since the SYMFONISK speakers are being used as surrounds with the Beam, music will always stream out of both the Beam and SYMFONISK speakers together. If you want full stereo playback from the SYMFONISK speakers when streaming music, set the Music Playback setting to Full instead of Ambient.

Spatial Audio from Apple Music should sound great with this setup too. Although I would only play the Atmos music through the Beam/SYMFONISK setup alone. Grouping the Ones while playing Dolby Atmos music will mess up the way the Atmos mix is intended to be heard.

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi
S
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This setup should be fine. You can group the Ones with the Beam/SYMFONISKS setup and play the same audio out of all of the speakers at the same time, but you will experience a slight delay from the Ones when playing TV audio. Streaming music will be in sync though. So I would keep the Ones ungrouped anytime you play audio from the TV.

For music, this grouped setup should give you a much fuller soundstage from the front of the room with the added Beam.

Since the SYMFONISK speakers are being used as surrounds with the Beam, music will always stream out of both the Beam and SYMFONISK speakers together. If you want full stereo playback from the SYMFONISK speakers when streaming music, set the Music Playback setting to Full instead of Ambient.

Spatial Audio from Apple Music should sound great with this setup too. Although I would only play the Atmos music through the Beam/SYMFONISK setup alone. Grouping the Ones while playing Dolby Atmos music will mess up the way the Atmos mix is intended to be heard.

That is an amazing reply, thanks so much. I will definitely ungroup the Ones when playing audio from the TV in that case. I’m really pleased to hear that music will be upgraded, especially the soundstage, given I am probably traditional in having a triangular listening position. I love my Ones already to be honest, even if it’s just entry level Sonos. Having them on stands and positioning them exactly and then trueplaying them has had me impressed from day one, but also wondering what an upgrade would sound like. I guess this will be it, or at least the next stage.  I’ll experiment with Full vs Ambient in relation to the Symfonisks when listening to music. Maybe there will be advantages to each setting depending on the type of music? And thanks for the advice regarding spatial audio/ taking out the Ones. Excited to find out how that sounds. My experience of spatial/ atmos so far has only been on my Wireless Buds (Sony WF-1000XM4). They are a great pair of earphones but the spatial audio capability has been a bit underwhelming (pretty good but not wow) - even on recordings with a proper Atmos mix (e.g. REM’s Automatic for the People). I’m guessing really you need ‘space’ for ‘spatial audio’.

Once set up, in a few months, I’ll be considering the Sub mini and then I think it will be an even sweeter set up for an average sized lounge. I can wait for that though.

So, my only issue now is the Beam Gen 2 sometimes shows up as backorder only on the Sonos website (about 3 weeks wait). Strangely it says In Stock and delivery next working day in my basket, so I’m going to give Sonos a ring in the morning and find out the situation. I’d like to buy from them so I can use my upgrade discount. Fingers crossed!

ratty

For Music, I would like to use the Beam, together with the ONEs (as a stereo pair) and IF POSSIBLE, also the Symfonisks.

If you really care about the soundstage at your ‘sweetspot’ I’d actually advise against doing this. The presence of the Beam in the middle -- pumping out L/C/R -- is very likely to muddy the stereo image from the Ones. Although they’ll obviously play in sync there won’t be any guarantee of phase coherence between the two ‘rooms’ across the frequency range. 

Consider adding a Sub Mini to the One pair instead for music listening.  

S
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For Music, I would like to use the Beam, together with the ONEs (as a stereo pair) and IF POSSIBLE, also the Symfonisks.

If you really care about the soundstage at your ‘sweetspot’ I’d actually advise against doing this. The presence of the Beam in the middle -- pumping out L/C/R -- is very likely to muddy the stereo image from the Ones. Although they’ll obviously play in sync there won’t be any guarantee of phase coherence between the two ‘rooms’ across the frequency range. 

Consider adding a Sub Mini to the One pair instead for music listening.  

Ah, thanks. This has been the biggest dilemma for me. Buy a Sub Mini or a Beam. Or, if both, then in which order. Unfortunately finances don’t permit buying both at the same time.

At least I now know Sub Mini would probably be best for music for me (given sweet spot). 

And Beam is best for HT.

So the question for me to answer is do I:

  1. upgrade music first and enjoy that for a few months (buy Sub Mini first); or
  1. upgrade HT first and enjoy that for few months (buy Beam first)

Maybe B appeals a bit more because you get a bit of both worlds (HT upgrade but also some Music upgrades eg spatial audio and experimenting with full vs ambient/ speakers at different volumes etc).

Not decided though!

And then when I’ve finally bought both, I’ll have lots of options (but will also need to decide whether to group and trueplay the Sub Mini for Music or HT… But that’s a headache for another day).

Stanley_4
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The nice thing about Sonos is you can have both configuration options available.

I’d group everything for non-critical listening with the surrounds in full.

For critical listening where the imaging is important experiment, either just the Ones or add in the Beam with surrounds in Ambient Mode. You’d want to re-look the One’s spacing in this situation to get the best image.

S
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The nice thing about Sonos is you can have both configuration options available.

I’d group everything for non-critical listening with the surrounds in full.

For critical listening where the imaging is important experiment, either just the Ones or add in the Beam with surrounds in Ambient Mode. You’d want to re-look the One’s spacing in this situation to get the best image.

Thanks, that’s a good point about critical and non critical listening - I can definitely see scenarios where each would apply. Regarding changing the Ones’ spacing, that’s really interesting. Do you have any suggestions, or is it a case of trial and error? I’m thinking maybe bring them to the centre of the room and angle them more towards each other? Then Beam would be up front and centre, Ones mid-room to help fill the room with sound and Symfonisks at the rear to hopefully help the overall balance. Does that seem viable?

Sliding the Ones back to their original position for critical listening would be easy. There would be the Trueplay retuning issue to contend with, but again I could experiment.

S
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Hi,

Final option: leave Symfonisks in the kitchen (which has its advantages) and move the Ones behind the sofa as rear surrounds. I’m guessing for HT, this will be superior to the Symfonisks as rear surrounds.

But how would music sound when playing through Beam at front centre and Ones from behind? I would lose the original soundstage, but would it sound good (compared to just Ones at the front?)

Stanley_4
Userlevel 7
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The spacing on the Ones is really up to your ears. Close to the Beam’s speakers the image will not be blurred but it will suffer from the “too close to image well” problem. Too far and the Beam / One will blur the image.

I’d start with the Ones alone and get the imaging as good as possible, add in the Beam and see how it sounds, if decent leave it as is, if not move the Ones in half the distance to the Beam and try both ways again.

I suffer from spousal aggravation when doing Trueplay sessions so I’d look for a single optimum set of locations and tune once.

S
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Thanks, that’s really useful and good to know.

I phoned Sonos and the Beam is on backorder for 3 weeks, so I decided on a slightly different strategy.

I bought two One SLs - they are on a brilliant discount due to the new speakers that have come out - and two more Sanus stands. So, they will go in an upstairs room. This means I will have more multi-room (kitchen, lounge, upstairs room), as I am going to leave the Symfonisks in the kitchen.

Then, I’ll buy a Beam when it’s back in stock. And move the Ones in the lounge to the rear, either side of the sofa. For rear surrounds for TV.

Critical listening will be done in the upstairs room, rather than the lounge. And the next purchase will be a Sub Mini for the upstairs room to make that critical listening even better. My digital piano is already in that room, so it will make it even more of a music room. Maybe eventually I will buy an AMP so that the piano will play through the Ones. That would be pretty sweet. I’ll have to look into whether it’s possible. [Edit: From searching the forum, it seems there would be a 70ms delay, so I won’t do this after all].

I think that will be pretty much my ideal system when it’s all in place and lots to enjoy in the different stages while I get there. 

Really thankful for the advice which helped me to decide what to do 👍

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