Putting together a new SONOS setup

[PseuFighter]

Hey guys, didn't want to start a new Sonos thread, so figured I'd ask in here...
 
Could someone just give me some idea of what I need to buy to have a decent system going for my living room and bedroom?
 
Not huge rooms, 1-bedroom apartment. I don't plan on sending my TV to it; just music.
 
I'm sort of overwhelmed by the options, so I just want to know what exactly I should get, and I'll probably go ahead and do it.
 
Thanks

 

[cgori]

If you want to hook up your home theater receiver as a Sonos streaming device:
1 CONNECT ($350), put near your stereo
If not:
1 BRIDGE ($50), put near your router
 
Then, for each room (suit your budget), either:
2 PLAY:1 speakers ($350 for pair)
OR
1 PLAY:5 speaker ($400 for one)
 
You could go crazy and do 2 PLAY:5 but I think it's overkill for what you are talking about.
There is also a PLAY:3 which is in between, I know nothing about that one though (seems like you could do 1 PLAY:3 for a medium sized room though).  I guess you could do 1 PLAY:1 for a small room but I dunno how well that would work.
 
I have 1 PLAY:5 in my office and it works perfectly well for background / chilling out - has decent bass/midrange and is good for everyday use.  I am close to getting the pair of PLAY:1 for my bedroom.
 
EDIT: if you can put one of the speakers near your router (if it's in your bedroom or living room), I think you might be able to forgo the Bridge, but I have not tried that.  The Bridge basically lets you put all the speakers anywhere you want (as long as you can get power to them), otherwise you have to do something about both power and network connections.
 
EDIT2: the big advantage of the PLAY:5 is that it has a line-in jack so you take other inputs (a standalone streamer, your laptop/computer, your phone, whatever) and play them over the sonos (or in other rooms as well).

 

[Oil Can Dan]

Just do Play 3's in each room. And as said only buy a Bridge if you're not going to connect one of these speakers to your router.

 

[PseuFighter]

Thanks guys.
 
A good friend has two 3's in his living room and a 1 for his bedroom. I'm strongly going with two 3's and if I don't need both for the living room, moving one to the bedroom, similar to OCD's suggestion.

 

[NortheasternPJ]

I've got a Bridge a Play 3 and a 1. I'm going to be getting another speaker for the office and going with the 3 for it. 
 
One thing to keep in mind is, if you are doing this now, think about the future if you want to combine them. If you have 2 of the same model you can do a stereo setup in a room with them, but you can't mix models. 
 
Any of the 1, 3 or 5 are going to be plenty loud enough and sound fine. I have the 1 in the kitchen and it's not as good as the 3, but the tiny footprint allows me to keep it on the counter. 

 

[Yaz4Ever]

If any of you tire of your Sonos', I'm willing to take donations  Lots of debt to pay off first, but long-term I'm looking to get 2 Play3's, a soundbar, and a sub for home theater and general music playing.

 

[SumnerH]

Hey guys, didn't want to start a new Sonos thread

 
New threads are good!

 

[Tangled Up In Red]

We have the soundbar, a 5 and a 1, which I port to where needed, including outside. Setup is incredibly easy and functionality / ease of use is top notch.

 

[CoRP]

 
New threads are good!

Especially if they are about Skrub's gorgeous manhood.

 

[PseuFighter]

Just want to say that we hooked up a Play 1 in the office today and controlling it from my phone and computer and getting into fights with coworkers on controlling the Sonos is a combination of the greatest thing ever and a fistfight waiting to happen.

 

[StupendousMan]

We have a pair of Sonos 1 speakers, and we're happy with them.  
 
I'd _really_ like to be able to play the output from my amplifier/TV/PS3/etc. through the Sonos speakers, but that means I need either a
Sonos Connect (which takes an analog sound signal and turns it into wireless signal), or a Sonos 5 (which is a speaker, but also has an analog input and can share the result with other Sonos speakers).   So, which way should I go?
 
The Connect and the Sonos 5 are roughly the same price.  I'm tempted to get the Sonos 5, but my wife points out that we'd have to place the 5 close to the TV/etc., and then we have a bit of a dilemma: use the Sonos 5 by itself to play audio from TV, and fail to get a real stereo sound; or use the Sonos 5 together with a Sonos 1, which would probably yield some weird results; or purchase _two_ Sonos 5 speakers, which would cost big money.
 
Any suggestions?

 

[smastroyin]

Maybe this sounds like too much, but why not get the Connect for content you want to play in other rooms, and just leave whatever speakers you have for the TV and amp now?
 
If you have an amp in place, I'm not sure what the benefit is of then taking that signal and putting it through SONOS rather than sending it to a better sounding and cheaper set of wired speakers.
 
(In this post, I am playing the part of SumnerH, however, I'm sure he will chime in himself at some point).
 
You can also of course consider digitizing your entire media collection which can then be streamed from your computer but controlled like any other SONOS content IIRC.