Sonos Advice for Multizone Home run speakers

Alright looking into getting my home sonos friendly.

My current home setup consists of 5 “home run” zones

Use of sonos would be home automation prompts (x arrives, x leaves, mail is here, etc) as well as wanting to have general background music, and have app/pc/mac volume control for each specific zone(currently have in wall volume switch in each zone for individual volume control of that zone and I am perfectly fine with having just manual volume control in each zone)

4 zones(Home Speakers) are home run to a multizone yamaha amplifier which control M.Bath, M, Bed, Dining, Office Room which are able to be turn on/off individually using a speaker selector between the yamaha amp and speakers
ALSO each of the 4 zones have a wall mounted volume control to control each zone individually.

1 zone(Home Theater speakers) is home run to a kenwood surround power amplifier, which is recieving audio signal from Kenwood AV controller, which is recieving audio signal from a DVD player.

My thought originally was going to buy individual sonos speakers for each zone, however would really like to make use of already home run system that works perfectly fine.

So here is my first setup I thought of: I use a sonos connect as the audio source for all 5 zones by connecting sonos to yamaha multizone amp which would relay the signal through all 5 zones through the speaker selector. And the Home Theater speakers i can put a multi-source selector so that i can just flip a switch so home theater can recieve signal from DVD player or sonos. (Ideally would like to have soundbar in future instead)
Pros: useful for home automation prompts, alerts, parties, soft background music
cons: no app/pc/mac volume control of individual zones, however each zone can be turned off manually using already installed in-wall controllers in each zone without affecting other zones.

Second setup: includes replacing yamaha amp with a sonos connect AMP and connecting it to speaker selector switchbox which it would relay to whichever zone i want or all 5 by picking manually. (don’t know if sonos amp can handle multi zones)
pros: clears out bulky yamaha amp, in enclosed area would not need switch fan thus quieter.
cons: not sure of compatibility, could burn out amp, probably not powerful enough

Third setup: includes getting 5 sonos amps. each zone would be wired to its own individual sonos amp. The sonos amp that has home theater speakers hooked up to it would have dvd audio signal sent to it via analog input on sonos amp.
Pros: Gives app/pc/mac control of specific zones AND allows zone set wall controls to stay functional. can setup where would like to recieve home automation prompts, removal of speaker selector switchbox, removal of kenwood surround system amp and yahama amp.
Cos: very expensive

Please let me know if i missed anything, or if there is another setup i could use? I would ideally like most cost effective way to do this, and understand that having multiple sonos amp will really increase the potential of home automation, however I am thinking that the First setup would be the best for my situation. Thoughts?

I’d do either 1 or 3 depending on how much money you have to spend (option 1 is $350… option 3 is $2500. Ouch). Only you can answer that question. Option 3 is clearly superior, since you could route announcements to specific zones depending on ST Modes, etc. (i.e. don’t announce door openings in the kids bedrooms at night).

Remember that the Sonos Connect and Connect Amp both only take analog stereo input. If you want surround sound in your home theater integrated into Sonos, you have to buy a Playbar.

You may want to investigate VLC Thing as well.

I believe the Playbar is the only one that doesn’t have delay. Otherwise lips get out of sync.

Thanks for the response :). First off, the VLC Thing is an awesome suggestion :smile: thank you I will definately try that. Also fortunately, all 5 zones I am fine with have home automation prompts and alerts being sent to. The good thing about how the zones were setup in my house is that 4 out 5 zones(the theater zone in Living room being the exception) have in-wall volume controls. So if i don’t want to hear the alerts in the master bedroom then I can turn down the in-wall volume switch to a lower level or just turn it down all the way, the only con is that then there will be no home automation prompts being set to the master bedroom if i turn it down all the way, unless I go back and manually twist the in-wall switch back up to a level that can be heard. Now I may invest in a sonos amp in the near future so that I can give the master bedroom and master bath its own amp, and with that I can include prompts to be sent to master bedroom and master bath while also giving the ability to stream different music and set different volume levels to master bedroom and bath from the rest of the 3 other zones(living room/theater speakers, office room, dining room). The kids rooms are on the second floor and I would eventually like to get one sonos play 1 for each room, so that certain home automation prompts such as fire warning, flood warning and intruder alerts can be sent throughout the house to each room even behind a closed teenage door. Plus it will give the kids a streaming device that they can play music through in privacy. Thoughts? Any suggestions other wise?

Alright another question. Now i came to the conclusion that for the first setup to run correctly as home automation alert system i will have to run my multizone yamaha amplifier 24/7. The yamaha amp is 120w per channel and is a 2 channel stereo amplifier. Any concerns for running it 24/7? Im thinking that i may rig up a fan to a zwave switch and put a temp sensor so i can set up a function if heat raises above a temp to automatically turn on the fan. The amplifier is in a large enclosed area, however there is areas for venting put in place already. Now i can set it up to run 24/7 until i get more funds to purchase a russound 2 channel amp with autosense to replace the yamaha and a sonos amp to make make the master bath and master bedroom a seperate zone. Any suggestions otherwise, or solutions im missing?

I can’t imagine it would be a problem to leave it on all the time. Amplifiers usually have overtemp sensors, and they’ll shut themselves off if they get too hot.

I doubt it draws 240W at idle… that’s it’s max rating.

good looking out my friend :smile: makes sense to me. Im going to wire smarthings and sonos in like 1 hour so excited to see result will let you all know if I got questions thank you.

alright guys and girl I am sold on ST and Sonos a beautiful combinaton. I just bought 3 sonos 1 players today and my multizone sonos connect system is all set up and running. love the system it is awesome. Now if we could get amazon echo working with this system i would be sooo happy. Thank you everyone, i plan on being an active member and hopefully contributing to help mainstream this platform.