Am I barking up the wrong tree?

[A Surfer]

Thanks to anybody with some thoughts to share on my situation. This question is about Sonos products, so some general knowledge about them would be helpful; however, the question at the heart of it really isn't fundamentally tied to Sonos. It is a somewhat hard to ask properly question, so please forgive me if you find it opaque.

I am in the near future about to be moving my Sonos system to a large, long rectangular room. The room is about 35' long by 18' wide. Ceilings are I think about 9'. The room itself isn't the focus of the question, but did want to provide some general information on the room. It isn't treated in any way, and it never will be either. I am more than happy to accept whatever sound the room has to offer. It will be passively treated in the sense that as furniture and floor coverings get added, the room will become "treated".

Currently I have two stereo pairs of Fives (Sonos largest and probably best sounding speaker), an Arc soundbar in the middle between two of the Fives. I am not asking about surround sound, because I have no current designs for that. I am thinking of adding a third set of Fives for the large room and I am conceptualizing their purpose/function as increasing the SPL via more drivers, but also, if it makes sense, making the sound in the room "fuller" as it essentially will have a pair of Fives in the front, middle, and back of the room. I also have two of the Sonos Sub generation 3.

There are several issues that I worry about such as blurring the musical coherence (timing issues?) by adding in a third set of speakers. Is this a real concern? I can add the third set of Fives so that they are mono and let the front and back sets of Fives provide the stereo effect. I actually find that when just playing music (no surround processing at all) that having the two sets of Fives (one pair in front and one behind me) that I still perceive the stereo mixing. Quite well I believe. If I add a third set to fill the middle of the room, will this perception of a cohesive sound field be audibly compromised? The only control I would have over the third set of Fives would be able to control their volume into the mix as they would have separate volume sliders.

This is a terrible post, but I do hope that people can get a sense of what I'm asking. Thanks for trying.

 

[Mr. Widget]

Your description sounds like you are trying to fill a large space with Sonos products which shouldn't be a problem, where this goes off the rails is when you start talking about "blurring the musical coherence".

If you are trying to maintain a stereo image and focus with multiple sources in the same room, you will not succeed. Even if you were using traditional speakers connected to traditional amps you would not succeed. Even if you had the ability to delay the individual speakers to align them, you won't make this work outside of a specific location.

That said, we install multiple speakers in large rooms all the time. We typically alternate the left and right channels so you get a room full of sound that can be pleasing, but it will not be what we typically consider proper stereophonic playback. (Alternating left and right means, your first pair of speakers have the left and right positioned normally, the next pair are reversed, the next pair are normal again and you keep repeating. With this layout virtually anywhere in the room you will be between a left and right pair of speakers.)

 

[eddantes]

I have 6.1 speakers in a room that I run in multichannel stereo. Righ/wrong - no idea. I do this because it helps a long, narrow room with seating through out have full sound. Personally - I find it works well for me.

 

[A Surfer]

Your description sounds like you are trying to fill a large space with Sonos products which shouldn't be a problem, where this goes off the rails is when you start talking about "blurring the musical coherence".

If you are trying to maintain a stereo image and focus with multiple sources in the same room, you will not succeed. Even if you were using traditional speakers connected to traditional amps you would not succeed. Even if you had the ability to delay the individual speakers to align them, you won't make this work outside of a specific location.

That said, we install multiple speakers in large rooms all the time. We typically alternate the left and right channels so you get a room full of sound that can be pleasing, but it will not be what we typically consider proper stereophonic playback. (Alternating left and right means, your first pair of speakers have the left and right positioned normally, the next pair are reversed, the next pair are normal again and you keep repeating. With this layout virtually anywhere in the room you will be between a left and right pair of speakers.)

Thank you very much, and that was my concern. I will probably just have to take the chance and see what happens really, but I would certainly attempt what you are suggesting. My hope is that the timing is not so out of synch that if I was sitting in the middle of the room (my hope) that it would sound like an out of phase signal. I guess the only real way to know is to try.

I am lucky enough to know a Sonos engineer so perhaps I can have them pose the question to colleagues who may have actually tried to use their products like this?

 

[A Surfer]

I have 6.1 speakers in a room that I run in multichannel stereo. Righ/wrong - no idea. I do this because it helps a long, narrow room with seating through out have full sound. Personally - I find it works well for me.

I believe that with a proper surround processing unit, you probably have a much better chance at integrating the various speakers than I will without this type of processing ability. I think I will simply have to take the chance and see (or rather hear) what happens. If I do so I will certainly update the thread.

 

[Mr. Widget]

I am lucky enough to know a Sonos engineer so perhaps I can have them pose the question to colleagues who may have actually tried to use their products like this?

If he suggests anything interesting please post it here... I'd be interested to hear what he suggests.

I would install the Arc according to the typical setup. You can then setup the first pair of Fives as surrounds if your room's layout makes sense to do so, or as a left and right speakers and group the zones. You can then add another pair of Fives set up as left and right speakers and group that zone with the others. Then I would play around with placement and left/right orientation to see what sound best based on where you spend the most time in the room.