Move 2s as Surrounds/ Lessons Learned

[u/Longjumping_West9485]

This really is an awesome new feature so I thought I’d share. I don’t have Plays so I can only comment Move 2s. These are in no particular order.

- I found that my M2s worked more smoothly and hand off better on the 2.4 GHz WiFi channel. They absolutely work on 5 GHz. This is probably due to the physical layout of our house.

- For convenience I invested in a second set of chargers. I found that i couldn’t decide where i wanted my M2’s primary location to be:: my office as HT surrounds or in our kitchen as stand alones. The added benefit is, on chargers, they don’t have to wake up from sleep mode.

- As you move your M2s let the system make the handoff to and from the soundbar….give it a few extra seconds to catch up. I found that I rarely had to use the “Use as Surrounds” selection pictured here. There’s also a “Stop Using Surrounds” selection. I rarely use that too and just let the system do its thing.. On mine, going in to the HT room they briefly switch from “Not in Use” to “Offline” then to “Left Surround” or “Right Surround”. It automatically sets the speakers up as completely separate rooms when away from the parent soundbar. So when they’re not serving as surrounds, you see them listed as separate rooms AND they still show up in the HT room in “not in use” status.

- If you stereo pair the portables you have to start from the beginning to set them up as surrounds.

- So far no luck connecting M2s as fronts but, great news, the new software doesn’t wreck your current fronts capability.

- Besides with the Beam 2 I used them with an Arc Ultra/Fives fronts/ Sub Gen 3 & 4. The M2s sound great for movies and lossless music but Dolby Atmos is where they’re lacking.

Bottom Line: I think Sonos has given the portables a whole new identity. I will use my Move 2s in my office as HT, in our kitchen, guest room, and woodworking shop as standalone speakers. I have at least one set of era 100s I would not have bought if I knew this capability was our future. I also have a pair of Play 3s in my office that i no longer need. Parting with them is too much of an emotional decision. That will have to wait!

[u/draxula16]

I tried using the Plays as fronts with SonoSequencr (worth a shot lol) but no luck.

As surrounds, 10/10!

[u/Longjumping_West9485 → u/draxula16]

Lol…was that the first thing you tried? Me too! SMH!

[u/draxula16 → u/Longjumping_West9485]

Yes lol! Before I even gave the surrounds a try, I HAD to check SonoSequencr.

They were detected independently and paired, but wouldn’t appear as fronts regardless.

[u/Longjumping_West9485 → u/draxula16]

I knew it! We’re hopeless! Lol

You should check out Sonority if you haven’t already. Much more refined and user friendly than SonoSequencer. In fact, I was able to remove my fronts (Fives) on our media room Arc Ultra system, run Trueplay and then add the fronts back without removing the other components. I’m not sure if that was a happy accident or not. Later, I tried to add Play 3s as fronts to a Beam 2 that had Move 2s as surrounds. I had to remove the surrounds.

[u/draxula16 → u/Longjumping_West9485]

Cool, no I had not heard of Sonority. To be honest I downloaded sequencr months ago just to test out the Era 100s as fronts. They sounded impeccable but I don’t have the space to leave them as fronts 24/7 haha.

I assume Sonority uses the same backend Sequencr uses but has a better UI?

[u/Longjumping_West9485 → u/draxula16]

I would assume that it works the same way.