Sonos is undoubtedly the number one choice for soundbars and speakers that add an immersive theatre experience to your regular movie nights at home. Yes, we are talking about a home theatre set up here that ensures an experience similar to watching a movie in a movie hall, provided you make your own bowl of popcorn.
Surround sound is an important factor contributing to the theatre experience where you feel like you are actually in the movie with all the crisp dialogues, bold brass, and fuller sound. This article lets you understand the best surround sound settings you can use for better movie watching.
Further reading: Sonos secret features: Make the most of your Sonos speakers
What are the Sonos surround sound settings?
Follow the steps to change the surround sound settings.
- Open the Sonos app
- Press System under the Settings tab
- Tap the name of your Sonos home theatre room under Products
- Press Surround Audio under Sound.
Here you can adjust the settings given below.
- Surrounds: The switch can be tapped to toggle surround sound on or off
- Music Level: While listening to music, you can use the slider to increase or decrease the volume of the surround speakers.
- TV Level: While watching something on TV, you can use the slider to increase or decrease the volume of the surround speakers
- Surround Distance: Surround Distance can inform Sonos what the distance between the surround speakers and the listening position is. Changing this setting will adjust the overall music playback volume and TV on the surround speakers.
- Music Playback: While listening to music, you can use this setting to select the type of audio you want from the surround speakers. Remember that the Music Playback setting cannot be used with TV audio and Dolby Atmos music.
- Ambient: This is low-volume audio with a limited frequency range. This is the default setting for surround speakers during music playback
- Full: This full-range audio gives the same volume as the home theatre speaker.
- Reset: Reset when pressed, resets all the surround sound settings to their default values
Further reading: Sonos Trueplay: What Is It And How Does It Work?
How can you make your surround sound system better?
Here are a few things you can do to make maximum use of the Sonos surround sound system to make it deliver the best.
Add voice control
Having a virtual assistant at your service is a good add-on if you already have Sonos home theatre at your place. Just like you assign chores to Google Assistant or Alexa, you can ask them to play songs for you. If you own Sonos Arc or Beam, you are lucky because both have these assistants built into them. If you own another speaker from Sonos, you can still have the assistants using Google Home or Amazon Echo. All you have to do is pair the Sonos app with the virtual assistant app.
When selecting sound settings, choose Full
The Sonos rear speakers are by default set to Ambient mode in the settings. This is good when you are watching TV as the volume from the rear speakers will be lower than the front speakers when this setting is on. But this setting is not preferred while listening to music as you want the same level of sound from the front and rear speakers for a fuller experience.
The best way is to adjust the settings to Full mode so that you get maximum sound from both speakers while the music is on. When you watch TV afterward, the settings go back to rear surrounds to make the sound subtle. You can also consider setting the surround level volume slider to 75%.
Enable Autoplay
Autoplay is an option that automatically makes your Sonos TV speaker change the source when a new one is detected. For instance, if you listen to music on your Sonos speaker and switch on your TV, the speaker will change to the TV audio. When the speaker is configured, the settings choose Autoplay by default.
Turn on night mode and speech enhancement
If you turn the night mode on, the louder sounds are suppressed, but the quieter sounds are enhanced. This is a great idea if some of your dear ones have to get some sleep while you are still in the mood to watch some TV.
All TV speakers have the Speech Enhancement option to improve the sound quality of whatever you watch on TV. This feature can be permanently turned on so you can hear every single word being spoken.
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FAQs:
Which Sonos speakers can be used as surround sound speakers?
Sonos speakers like Play:1, Play:3, One, One SL, Five, Play:5 (Gen 2), all SYMFONISK speakers, Amp, and Connect: Amp can currently be used as surround sound speakers. The only speaker that is an exception is Sonos Roam. You can refer to more Sonos products on Amazon. Hope you will like it
Which Sonos speaker is best as a surround sound speaker?
Every Sonos speaker works great in one way or the other. Sonos One SL is a speaker that works best as a surround sound speaker. But if you want to keep the speaker in a small room, the Ikea SYMFONISK picture frame and table lamp are good options. Sonos Five can be chosen if you require more power or purchase the speaker for a large room.
Where should I place my Sonos surround speakers?
The best place to keep your Sonos surround speakers is on the right and left of your listening position, slightly behind it, facing the front. You can stand on the spot and keep the speakers at the level of your ears so that when you sit down to watch or listen to something, the speakers are above the level of your ears.
Conclusion
Sonos offers quite a few surround sound settings to ensure that you need not compromise on the sound quality whether you are watching TV or listening to music. You can manually change the settings and see for yourselves which one suits your taste best.