Amp + Arc Wired/Wireless Set Up

Cable the Amp to the Arc (preferred) (or to the router) and also Cable the Arc direct to your router aswell and see if that works for you.

Thanks for the quick reply @Ken_Griffiths. I’ve cabled the amp to the arc, but I’ve read that doesn’t work if ARC unless it’s in “wired” mode… but if I switch to that it wont be a part of home network anymore. 

Your devices will run on SonosNet - is there a particular reason that may cause you an issue?

All products will be on the same LAN subnet, accessible via your network, so your mobile controller devices and their Apps (running on your WiFi) will still be able to access all your Sonos devices.

Its worthwhile however setting the SonosNet channel 5+ channels away from your routers 2.4Ghz channel as that will reduce interference. I would also ‘fix’ the router to use a non-overlapping 2.4Ghz channel …and (optional) if you want to go even further, set the channel-width on that band to 20MHz.

@Ken_Griffiths

Its worthwhile however setting the SonosNet channel 5+ channels away from your routers 2.4Ghz channel as that will reduce interference. I would also ‘fix’ the router to use a non-overlapping 2.4Ghz channel …and (optional) if you want to go even further, set the channel-width on that band to 20MHz.

I believe the hinderance to the SonosNet is that the Arc doesn’t seem to reach the Amp with the SonosNet signal it’s putting out. I tried moving it closer (about 10 ft), but it’s still inside where the Arc is outside, and sitting on a stone mantle. 

I have a CAT6 cable running from the arc to the amp, but that doesn’t seem to help. Would you suggest I run CAT6 from both products to my internet router in order for them to truly connect?

As you already have the wired link between the Amp and Arc I would just cable the Arc to the router.

Note the Arc will be ‘controlling/distributing; the audio to the ‘bonded’ Amp/surrounds so no point linking that directly back to the router, just leave it as is, wired to the Arc.

@Ken_Griffiths Thanks again for the reply. 

With the existing cabled connection from the ARC to the Amp, the Setup function doesn’t work. It gives me the “check the product’s power & network” error. 

Let me backtrace my steps: 

1. Arc is set up correctly and working underneath TV. The HDMI ARC cable runs from the TV to the ARC itself. All is well. 
2. With the network cable unplugged, The Amp is set up as it’s own “room” and powers the outdoor speakers just fine. 
3. This is where I get stuck. I plug in the network cable from the ARC to the Amp, and then follow the dialogue to set up the Amp as Surrounds, but it won’t complete the set up. I get the error. If I try the same thing without the cable set up (as it’s intended design), I get an error. 

@Ken_Griffiths I got it working!! (I think)

So, the solution right now:

1. Both the amp and arc have to start set up as separate rooms. 
2. I connected the Arc to the Amp via a Cat6 cable. 
3. I also connected the Amp to my router with another Cat6 cable. 
4. That’s when they finally “magically” connected the Amp as surrounds. 

Now, I still don’t have the amp speakers pushing out audio because I haven’t been able to complete the TrueTune step (there’s a lot of background noise outside).. either that or there’s some configuration I haven’t quote tinkered with yet. Both are still set with “wifi on” 

The TruePlay tuning only works if you are using the Sonance architectural speakers shown in this link…

https://www.sonos.com/en-us/shop/architectural
 

Try playing a 5.1 audio source to the room and also set the surrounds to play ‘Full’ music audio rather than ‘ambient’. To change that setting goto ‘Settings/System/[Arc Room Name]/Surround Audio” and see if that works for you.

For anyone who may see this in the future: 

I finally got everything configured the way it’s intended to work!

1. My HDMI ARC cable is plugged into the back of my ARC. 
2. The ARC needed to be wired to the AMP using Cat6. 
3. The AMP also needed to be wired to my router using a Cat6 cable. 
4. The AMP speakers need to be set up as a separate room before trying to set them up as Surrounds to the Arc. 
5. I had to “disable” wifi on both the Arc and Amp to get the Surround setup complete. 
6. After set up, I had to make sure the TV was configured to push out Dolby and it’s internal TV speakers set to “off”. 
7. On my Apple TV, I had to go into it’s own Audio Settings, make sure it’s pushing out Dolby and then, (this is KEY), select the Sonos Room of Arc+Amp as the default speaker AND unselect the TV speakers… otherwise it only pushes audio to the Arc. 

Hallelujah.