Sonos One Gen 2 as Bookshelf speakers with the Sonos AMP

  • 14 March 2019
  • 7 replies
  • 1238 views

Similar questions have been asked before of the One gen 1/Play 1 offerings and whether or not they can be used as a pair with an AMP and a sub as part of a 2.1 configuration. The consensus appears to be a no, but wondering if the One gen 2 changes that? I am looking at getting the new AMP and a decent pair of bookshelf speakers, but before I take the plunge wanted to know if the One Gen 2s could be considered as option on my bookshelf shortlist. Thanks!

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7 replies

Userlevel 3
Badge +6
A play 1 pair or sonos one pair, no such thing as a gen 2, bonded with a sub will make an excellent bookshelf speakers.
I am not sure where a sonos amp fits in though.
The amp is used to drive passive speakers. The ones are powered with their own built in amps.

If you are lpoking to feed the ones with a source like TT, then a connect is what you need and nort the amp.

So either an amp connecyed to good passive bookshelf speakers and bonded with a sub or a pair of ones bonded to a sub, either would be very good.
Thanks for your response. Not sure what you mean by "no such thing as a gen 2", this was a reference to the recently released Sonos One Gen 2 speakers, basically a Sonos One with "minor" hardware updates, at the least. The purpose of the AMP was to enable TV audio as a source.

Having bought into the Sonos eco-system over many years, I was keen to expand using the pair of ones over the bookshelf speaker option, as this gives me flexibility to move/repurpose my Sonos inventory if ever the need should arise.
Userlevel 7
Badge +21
The recent announcement of the Sonos One Gen 2 did mention that Sonos one, gen 1 and 2 could be mixed as a stereo pair. However it still remains that you cannot mix (officially) Plays 1s and Sonos Ones (g1 or 2)

The Quote from Sonos
"You can stereo pair a Gen 2 with Gen 1, or use them together with a Sonos home theater setup as surrounds. There aren't any functionality changes between the two, and Google Assistant will be coming to both of them when we're ready to go."
Maybe to answer your question a different way, there is currently no way to use play:1s, Sonos Ones (gen 1 or 2), play 3, or play 5 as the front left/right speakers in a home theatre setup.

The functionality isn't really dependent on the speakers themselves, but whatever Sonos device is playing the 'master' role, taking in the TV audio and sending it out the satellite speakers.
Thanks, Melvimbie. That's essentially the question I wanted answering so it's a shame to hear that it isn't possible. My intention was to connect the new Sonos AMP to my TV via HDMI and then connect the pair of Ones to the AMP wirelessly. It seems that I would need a playbar/base/beam in addition to the Ones for the home theatre set-up that I am after, but even then the Ones could only ever be surrounds, with the master speaker representing the front channels.
You can actually use the Ones as surrounds bonded with the Sonos amp as well as playbar/base/beam, but your essentially correct.

I agree that it would been a a big plus if the amp could power surround speakers and wireless send audio to Sonos speakers for the front channels. It helps for your scenario (I think) and would definitely help those with projector setups.
Userlevel 4
Badge +4
You can actually use the Ones as surrounds bonded with the Sonos amp as well as playbar/base/beam, but your essentially correct.

I agree that it would been a a big plus if the amp could power surround speakers and wireless send audio to Sonos speakers for the front channels. It helps for your scenario (I think) and would definitely help those with projector setups.


And it would help those that want Sonos stereo speakers as fronts primarily for music, but don’t want to add a soundbar for Tv because the Sonos ‘fronts’ also provide better TV sound than at least the Beam. At least my Play5 stereo config is far superior when using line in (with all its flaws) to my Beam, which is linked to another TV. Seems really silly that Sonos now have developed an Amp that can a) feed tv to any passive fronts, b) feed surround to any Sonos back pair, but cannot feed tv to Sonos speakers as fronts. Of course, it would have been better if Sonos would bring a dedicated center to market, but even if they would enable the amp to take on the coordinating duties of a playbar/beam using Sonos speakers only, I would already be quite happy. My 5s produce an awesome phantom center, but would be nice to connect to HDMI and use surround when watching movies.