Install Sonos ceiling speakers in a concrete ceiling?!

A remark upfront: Please abbreviate Kinderzimmer as Kinderzimmer, otherwise it evokes strange associations...

Stand up to your wife for once, this can’t go on, like that beautiful home theater.

Alright. So at first I also thought you could integrate any Sonos components into the home theater configuration at pretty much any position. After the hint from in the form of a critical inquiry, I went through the user manuals and FAQs again. Actually, that’s not possible. You can only integrate the Play 1-5 speakers or the AMP as surround speakers in a home theater. But the fronts (including center) can only be provided by Arc, Beam, or Playbase and Playbar (obsolete). Otherwise, you don’t have a 5.1 home theater in the sense of discrete channels, but rather a 4.0 multichannel stereo. That means in your example the Play 1s would play a stereo signal at the front and the same at the back, and the subwoofer would play the bass parts of the stereo signal.

If you absolutely want to enjoy real 5.1, i.e., in a movie each channel receives the parts mixed into it, you have to have an Arc, Beam, or Playbase (-bar) in the front in the Sonos system that plays the left, center, and right channels, and you can then integrate two Play 1s as rears and the subwoofer so that it plays the LFE (Low Frequency Effect) channel.

I don’t understand the missing resonance space in the concrete ceiling. If you place the speakers on stands or wall mounts, the only resonance space is the speaker enclosure. In fact, every good speaker is designed exactly that way. Acoustically, you don’t want an additional untreated resonance body that the speaker couples to. In this respect, a drywall chamber without further insulation and decoupling is even fatal! Clear case of poor advice.

If I were you, I would even consider possibly installing only the Arc, which is supposed to be capable of virtual surround sound. Saves you a lot of trouble for little more sound enjoyment.

Regards

Tolentino

I already assumed at the time of purchase that the AMP could reproduce 5.1 (center simulated). According to the test/text/illustration above, I also understand that this is possible and that a 4.1 setup does not only represent 4 channel stereo. So a new ARC+AMP for Rear is certainly inappropriate in terms of price. Regards Ben

Oh, be careful with external links, they are not appreciated here. Hmm, yes, then it probably works. However, it remains that you don’t need a Play 1 with an AMP at the front. And you have no center. So you only have optimal home theater sound at one listening position. You don’t need ARC + AMP. You can connect the Play 1 directly to the Arc and sell the AMP...

investing now is difficult, but
either lay 4mm2 speaker cables in the corners (we did that during the shell construction)
or
sockets in the 4 corners for wireless solutions,
the rest comes later and you are open for all future systems,
Nida

After reading the test from the link, passive speakers sound better, the Nuline series is already very high-quality. With laying the cables, you keep all options open. Maybe you can borrow 2 speakers from the colleague of your sister's brother-in-law and do a test listening in your living room. My wife just said, cool … we want to have them

The original poster had a "real" 5.1, which apparently wasn’t that convincing. what was the old now disposed 5.1? Maybe it simply wasn’t "good" enough yet? Or was it a "mature" system and the experience that the sound wouldn’t be that good with the planned Play 1 still has to come? Then definitely keep your options open for the future by either already laying speaker cables as recommended by or at least installing empty conduits. It’s no more effort than putting the sockets and cables there, but you have more options...