1 Sonos - 5 Speakers???

ChrisLoudon · March 18

Hi guys,

Do you think a single Sonos Amp can safely drive 5 x 6ohm speakers.

Speakers in question are Monitor Audio C265 ceiling speakers.

Currently using a Yamaha 5.1 AV receiver for the task but want to move this to the rest of my Sonos life.

Cheers

johnt · March 18

I am not that familiar with Sonos, but the "Amp" looks like it has outputs for two speakers only. I don't think you can power five speakers with it. The Yamaha is much better suited for this task.

saintlouisbagels · March 18

Are the ceiling speakers playing specific audio channels or are you just duplicating L and R channels?

The Sonos Amp can run 6 of their architectural ceiling speakers (parallel wiring). I'm not knowledgable about tech specs and electricity, so I can't confidently say you're totally fine with your scenario or if you're at risk of clipping, etc.

source:

https://www.sonos.com/en-us/shop/ceiling-speaker-pair

johnt · March 18

@saintlouisbagels is right. The Amp website does specify three pairs of 6-ohm or two pairs of 8-ohm.

Edit: The website also says this is a single zone amplifier. I'm sure they will tell you not to imbalance it with 3 on one terminal and 2 on the other, but I think you will be okay.

Omon_Ra · March 18

I'm guessing the 5 speakers will act as '1 zone.' Just get a speaker selector https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=38159 and then you won't really need to worry about a wacky ohm load on the Sonos Amp. Or just get one of these instead of the Amp and run that into your Yamaha. Though if it were me, I'd ditch Sonos and move everything to Yamaha and use MusicCast.

ChrisLoudon · March 19

11 hours ago, saintlouisbagels said:

Are the ceiling speakers playing specific audio channels or are you just duplicating L and R channels?

The Sonos Amp can run 6 of their architectural ceiling speakers (parallel wiring). I'm not knowledgable about tech specs and electricity, so I can't confidently say you're totally fine with your scenario or if you're at risk of clipping, etc.

source:

https://www.sonos.com/en-us/shop/ceiling-speaker-pair

hi buddy,

Its would be 3 speakers connected to the L and 2 on the R. Just expanded Stereo.

The Sonos specs support 6 speakers @ 8ohms (3 per channel), just wasn't sure about 6 ohm speakers.

I don't intend on driving these speakers hard, its really just for background music when cooking or cleaning.

I've got an Arc + Sub in the same living area for TV watching so I'd be keen to pair the 2 systems and get a bit more oomf from the Arc + Sub and have the ceiling speakers help fill the rest of the room.

ChrisLoudon · March 19

9 hours ago, Omon_Ra said:

Though if it were me, I'd ditch Sonos and move everything to Yamaha and use MusicCast.

I was thinking that a while ago as my AV receivers are and probably always will be Yamaha.

I got a couple of WXA-50s for other rooms in the house BUT the reality is, MusicCast just isn't Sonos. While I hate paying tech taxes like Apple Tax or Sonos Tax given the cost of their kit, its just better and so seamless.

Since I also have the Arc + Sub in the same living area, grouping these zones would be very difficult between ecosystems.

saintlouisbagels · March 19

10 hours ago, ChrisLoudon said:

The Sonos specs support 6 speakers @ 8ohms (3 per channel), just wasn't sure about 6 ohm speakers.

I don't intend on driving these speakers hard, its really just for background music when cooking or cleaning.

I don't see any problem in getting the Sonos amp then.

You can also look into the Sonos x IKEA stuff. My friend has some of their lamps and picture frames and hearing the party music playing at a pleasant volume in every room is very cool.

ChrisLoudon · March 20

On 3/18/2024 at 9:45 PM, johnt said:

Edit: The website also says this is a single zone amplifier. I'm sure they will tell you not to imbalance it with 3 on one terminal and 2 on the other, but I think you will be okay.

Yeh, I think that was maybe my biggest concern. I'm not going to drive them hard so 3 + 3 should be ok but just wasn't sure if an imbalance would cause undue stress.

I'm gonna give it a bash and see what happens. The 3rd speaker in the larger part of the living area isn't 100% necessary so if I feel the amp getting way too hot or i hear any unhappy noises then I'll just run it with 2 + 2