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Contributor I
January 6, 2013

DIY Repair your SONOS devices! YES WE CAN!

Greetings,

I recently picked up a mint Sonos bundle, ZP100, bridge unit & controller for $35 at a salvation army surplus store. YES! What a greet deal your thinking, after testing at home, the only thing wrong with it is that left speaker terminal post was snapped off. Every thing else is working flawlessly.
I decided to start a thread on doing general repairs on your SONOS equipment.

Hence, currently I am searching online for original SONOS speaker terminals and have found that there is very little replacement vendors out there.

But, if anyone out there who might know of a good resource, please post those links here and I'm sure this in hand is common and will help the next person. :))

Cheers!
Futura2020
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13 replies

Headliner II
January 6, 2013
I don't think Sonos manufacture the terminals themselves. They would probably be pretty much the same as these (without knowing the innards of the ZP100 or CONNECT:AMP):

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Audio-Small-Spring-Load-Speaker-Banana-Amp-Terminal-Binding-Post-YJ-103/625628683.html

However, you could consider switching them for goldplated banana contacts or similar, I assume it's just a round hole in the player? And you can probably get these in any assorted electronics shop.
Lyricist I
January 7, 2013
I have been trying to repair two zp120's for 3 months.
My logic with tech support is;
Their paranoia is unfounded. If I want to copy their system, I would buy a new one and clone it.
If I am a hobbiest, and I want to repair my Zp120, why can't I buy the most failed part, the power board?
I now have three Zp's and all have power transistor issues. I would prefer to replace them with new boards. Out of stubbornness I will eventually map the board and buy the components. I need a new hobby.
I like the idea of a forum associated with repairs and parts.
Lyricist II
September 25, 2014
Just would like to bump this thread. DIY all the way!
buzz
Grand Maestro
September 26, 2014
I don't know the SONOS internal policy arguments, but some other manufacturers are afraid of legal complications if the manufacturer supports a DIY repair and the unit is subsequently involved in a fire or causes personal injury (such as a shock).
Contributor I
September 28, 2014
I've repaired a few Play 3's that I've bought. Even faulty they still go for more than half the new price. It's a gamble - if it's the main logic board, then it can be very difficult to repair and you've lost out - especially if the price of two faulty units = 1 new one.

Out of all that I've repaired, not one has had the same root cause.
Trending Lyricist I
December 15, 2014
I am trying to repair a Play 5.

Initially some of the power rails were not coming up. But now with that fixed, the unit still doesn't show a whole lot of life (though the white LED comes on now - it didn't do that before).

Since somebody said they'd repaired a few units, I wonder if they might share some details on the root causes, and how they might go about determining if the system is trying to boot, stuck in reset, etc.

If I had a schematic, I would fully check the power+reset sequence, but a bit hard to do it fully without schematic.

Is there a serial port or anything to check for boot-up messages?
Contributor I
April 24, 2018
Good tread here I suppose, hope I can get help with my zp100. I bought it on Ebay as refurbished and I think it's out of warranty. After about 3 month, it will only flash white light. Please what can I do to get this to work? I've tried to see if I can get someone to fix it but to no avail. I'm fairly handy with electronics been a computer tech before.....
What and what can I check to see what's wrong and to fix?????????

Thanks
Stanley_4
Grand Maestro
April 24, 2018
Step one call Sonos and see what can be done, once you have opened it up your options for working a deal with Sonos aren't so good.

For self repair searching the web is your best bet, the built-in forum search is poor, and you'll find some good topics and tips.
Lyricist III
April 26, 2018
I would say once you've opened it the chances of getting Sonos to do much would be round about nil. Contact Sonos product support and enquire about the cost of an out of warranty repair first. You may be surprised at what comes back, if not you've not lost anything and can choose to continue down the DIY route if you wish.

I've been repairing digital circuitry on and off for nearly 20 years now so was well placed to repair mine myself but I was aware that Sonos don't like you doing that and it's an expensive bit of kit, so I got one of my Play:5 Gen 1's fixed by Sonos 8 years into it's life. I'm not prepared to go into detail of the deal publicly because I don't know if it's something I should share. Needless to say I'm still a happy customer.
Contributor I
July 30, 2018
My ZP120 got absolutely soaked yesterday and I had to literally pour the water out of it. This was after I got an electric shock from the case when I tried to pick it up. Sonos have given me a crazy figure for repair so I want to try and have a go myself. Is there anywhere online where you can buy the spare components ?

What is the most common fault that water would cause?