Question

Connecting Sonos Five stereo pair via Ethernet

  • 23 June 2020
  • 3 replies
  • 2713 views

Hi all,

 

We are wanting to configure a pair of Sonos Five speakers in stereo in our bedroom. We have Ethernet ports on the wall in the bedroom, which is fortunate as the room is the furthest from the WiFi router, but I wonder how the stereo pair of speakers would be configured.


I’m guessing we would we need to run an Ethernet cable to each speaker, but is there a more elegant method, i.e. Ethernet to one speaker, and then a cable between left and right? Presumably we might even be able to wire one speaker, and have the other connect to that speaker wirelessly?

 

We’d prefer to keep the network fully wired to avoid any WiFi inconsistencies, but haven’t seen much guidance on how to setup a wired stereo pair. Maybe I’m searching for the wrong terms.

 

Does anyone have experience of this sort of setup?

 

Thanks in advance.


This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

3 replies

pwt - we don’t have the Fives yet, but were planning on getting the latest model. Didn’t realise the older ones had two Ethernet ports - shame the new generation have dropped that feature.

Looks like partly wired is the way to go. That being the case I might try a single Five to begin with, and then see if the room warrants a second added wirelessly.

Thanks for the help!

Wire the left speaker, which is the ‘group coordinator’ of the stereo pair. 

The right unit will connect wirelessly to the left one directly.

Userlevel 7
Badge +20

Are your Play:5 speakers Gen 1 (two Ethernet ports) or Gen 2 (one Ethernet port)?

For all wired: If the former, you can wire one speaker to your network, and run a second cable between the two speakers. If the latter, you’ll need two Ethernet connection points to your network (e.g., by adding an Ethernet switch).

For partly wired: You can just wire one speaker to your network, and it will communicate with the other wirelessly. This applies to both speaker variants. Note that this will establish ‘Wired Mode’ or SonosNet, which may change/disrupt your other Sonos devices if none of these are already wired, i.e. if your system is running in ‘Wireless Mode’.

I’d recommend trying the partly wired approach and seeing how it goes.