Advanced setups

This is the place to troubleshoot your Sonos hacks, advanced setups, and third party integrations. Be mindful of your products warranty, and that Sonos staff can't always assist in an official capacity here.

  • 1,733 Topics
  • 11,726 Replies

1733 Topics

M
MorrispwContributor I
posted in Advanced setups

Gen1/Gen2 Play 5's w/Sub

I currently have a gen 1 and a gen 2 play 5, two sonos subs. I can't split them to left and right since they wouldn't be equal, and right now I have the older gen 1 in the garage. For my main room, I have high vaulted 25ft ish, ceilings, and a very open multi level living room. I was trying to hook up and have two subs, one for each level, into my one play 5 second gen. Is there a limit, one play component to one sub at this point? I'm looking to add a second play5, two play 1's, and a sound bar shortly, to help even the room out with surround sound. Will I have to make it two separate rooms, then group them so the subs work together? Or will I be able to just add the sub to the second play 5 when I split them left to right?

4
Airgetlam
6 years ago
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DiveGuy2Contributor I
asked in Advanced setups

Question About a Slightly Complicated Multi-Zone Home Installation.

Hey, maybe someone can assist. After having enjoyed a Sonos WiFi whole-house (apartment) system for years, I'm excited to finally have the opportunity to install a wired system using Sonos components (no longer will spotty wireless connectivity arbitrarily interfere with my audio experience--win). So here's my situation: I will have 8-9 Connect:Amps to carry my speakers and sub throughout the house. What is the best way to cable them so I can have the "zonal" benefits of the independent amps while I am playing music from different non-streaming sources like CD and phono? How do I connect all of the amps to both of these sources? Will I have to find a CD/turntable that has 8-9+ outputs? Not sure that exists. Or does a switch exist of some sort? Would I be able to tether the amps through RCA? Would putting an amp between the sources and the Connect:Amps offer a solution? Any thoughts/input would be much appreciated. Thanks, DiveGuy

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C
6 years ago
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viola2572Contributor I
asked in Advanced setups

two networks one sonos system

Hi ok we have a large house, it was easier to have a different broadband and telephone system in the gym rataher than running a lan cable as it was too far. So I want my sonos in the gym as well with my playlists , how do I do this?

3
C
6 years ago
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kegwinContributor I
asked in Advanced setups

Sonos at a caravan park

Hello everyone, I'm fairly new to Sonos, I have a Play1 and Play5. I'm going for a long weekend away to a caravan park, where there is no internet. I was looking at taking my Play1, and have read that people on here have set up their systems using a router that has been set up at home, and taking that with them to create a wifi hotspot. I'm not very good with routers or connections or much tech talk. so my questions are..... 1. if I set up a new router and take it along with my Sonos, can I control it from my phone? 2. if I can control it from my phone, can I play either my offline Spotify songs/playlists or play them online? 3. am I just wasting my time and should I just take my Play5 with an Aux cable?

1
Tyler M
6 years ago
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KitharaContributor I
asked in Advanced setups

Windows 10 Context menu: Cast to Device

I have my Sonos Play:5 setup and I've been playing around successfully with my music services (Spotify, Pandora, SoundCloud, Amazon, Google Play etc..I've also set up a music library, adding folders from my networked computers, and even found a hack for using Dropbox (windows 10 share named Sonos in my dropbox folder. What I'd also like to do is play 'anything' off of the hardware I'm using at the moment, whether it is iOS, Mac or Windows. One approach is to use the Audio Line in. First, I plugged a Google Chromecast into the audio line in of my Play:5 and I can cast from chrome. That worked great and i could now play youtube in Chrome. But what if I want to CAST from the output of any software, such as a DJ software, or my DAW (music production software)? For this on my Mac I purchased Rogue Amoeba Airfoil and can cast [b]all system audio[/b] to my chromecast and onto audio line in in Sonos. All pretty cool... But what about iOS and Windows? QUESTION: On one of my windows 1

2
MikeV
6 years ago
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mrothrocContributor I
asked in Advanced setups

Sonos, Cisco, STP, MST, and Spanning Trees

Hi all, I'm wrestling with an STP issue on some Cisco switches and I'm hoping for some advice. I have two cascaded switches, and I've configured STP (actually, MST, since that seems to work with the Sonos devices). When I only have players wired to the core switch, things work as expected. However, when I connect a player to the cascaded switch, that player completely loses its connection to the network. I cannot ping it. In both cases, STP looks fine. I can also see the MAC address of the player on the correct port on the cascaded switch. Does anyone have any ideas? Detailed config: ----------------------- --- Main switch --- ! Relevant parts of config: spanning-tree mode mst spanning-tree etherchannel guard misconfig spanning-tree extend system-id ! spanning-tree mst configuration name michael-sf ! spanning-tree mst 0 priority 4096 spanning-tree mst 1-4094 priority 24576 spanning-tree vlan 1-4094 priority 4096 ! ports for players interface GigabitE

6
inopinatus
6 years ago
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D.Frazier24Contributor III
asked in Advanced setups

Router/Connect:Amp placement

In short, I'm building a new home and I just want to make sure that everything is done accordingly. Originally I was going to store my Fios Quantum router on the first floor with the rest of my connect amps. I've since scratched that idea and I'm planning on running cat6 from Fios ONT box to the router on the first floor, and then running a separate cat6 back to my basement where my CONNECT:AMPS will be placed and plugging it directly into only one of the amps triggering SonosNet. There will also be a separate cat6 coming from router and plugging into a 16 port unmanaged switch which will liven up the rest of the cat6 connections in the house if that changes anything. So, is it all right if my CONNECT:AMPS are down in the far corner of my basement approximately 35 feet from my router on the first floor? I also plan on having a CONNECT next to my router on the first floor which will plug into my receiver. Should I plug the CONNECT into the router as well? I will also have one more

0
D
6 years ago
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brombiContributor I
asked in Advanced setups

Can I use the 5ghz net instead of 2.4ghz?

I recently bought the play 3 and everything about it is amazing, well almost everything. I live in a place with a lot of different wifi networks, and the 2,4ghz network gets very crowded. It gets very laggy when I switch songs. I have 100mb/20mb internet.

7
K
6 years ago
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D.Frazier24Contributor III
asked in Advanced setups

Multi Room Audio Set Up Help

I'm going to try and keep this short. I'm building a house which will have 3 floors and stand at 7,000 square ft. I plan on using 3 CONNECT: AMPS, CONNECT and a PLAYBAR/SUB which will get me to 5 total zones through out the house. Two of the CONNECT: AMPS will be located with the CONNECT next to my Verizon Fios router on the first floor. My 3rd connect amp will be located on the second floor of the house with my PLAYBAR. This is how I picture the configuration, and please tell me if there is a better way to do this. FIOS ROUTER —> TP-LINK (SG-108) 8 PORT GIGABIT SWITCH (1ST FLOOR) —> 2 CONNECT: AMPS/CONNECT FIOS ROUTER —> TP-LINK (SG-105) 5 PORT GIGABIT SWITCH (2ND FLOOR) —> 1 CONNECT: AMP/PLAYBAR/SUB Will this work? Is there a better way to set this up? Both switches will provide a hardwired connection to other devices in my home as well (TV's, game systems, etc.) I'm also planning to have 2 additional wired access points throughout out the house to make up for any dea

6
K
6 years ago
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NVAContributor I
asked in Advanced setups

Sonos on a wired layer 3 network

If I want to connect my Sonos components with a wire, can Sonos communicate via a layer 3 network or must it be layer 2 (same subnet)

4
N
6 years ago
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Shawn_AVIDContributor I
asked in Advanced setups

BOOST Mode - Can you connect more then one wired Sonos device?

I started working for a home theater / home automation installation company a few months ago and we install a lot of Sonos. Sonos is a pretty solid product but, we still run into some strange network issues every once in a while. I was originally told that Sonos creates it's own wireless mesh that it uses to communicate from device to device. Now my background is in networking and I am from the school of thought that anytime you can hard wire a device instead of using WiFi you do it, to reserve the limited airspace for your mobile devices, that are not practical to have hard wired. The standard practice when setting up these sonos systems has been to usually have all of the Sonos Connects and or Connect Amps all centrally located in a network rack and distribute speaker wire to each room, usually using a set of in-wall or in-ceiling speakers. Now having several Sonos all wired to the network as well as creating their own wireless network is concerning due to the potential for a swi

6
ratty
6 years ago
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Mack1979Contributor III
asked in Advanced setups

Google wifi and 3rd party router

I have Sonos working fine with my existing network, and I use HomeSeer home automation to control it (things like announcing when someone unlocks the front door). The wifi is terrible in our house, so yesterday I installed Google WiFi to have the mesh network so we can seamlessly move between them. Now I cannot work out how to have both HomeSeer (running on PC on original network) accessing Sonos AND have it working from my phone (on the wireless). If I set Sonos up wirelessly it works fine, and is visible for control for my phone, but Sonos desktop and HomeSeer cannot see it. If I set Sonos up wired (original network) then Sonos desktop and HomeSeer can see it, but the Sonos app on my phone insists it doesn't exist. Google WiFi won't work in bridge mode and still have the mesh network. My phone (on the wifi) is able to connect back to my main PC (HomeSeer runs on 192.168.1.3@1000), so it looks like it is open in one direction, or has the right port-forwarding set up, but I can

10
M
6 years ago
A
adhodgsonContributor I
posted in Advanced setups

Sonos with newer whole house wireless system

Hi Guys, I have the following setup: Living room with Playbar connected to router. Office between living room and bedroom containing 2 Play:5 speakers connected via Sonos wireless. Bedroom containing 2 Play:3 speakers connected via Sonos wireless. With this setup streaming Internet radio and Spotify through the system works but when streaming content from the TV via optical via the Play Bar, I get timeouts on the Play:3 speakers. I am wondering whether using one of the newer whole house wireless kits like the Devolo Giga Gate (I already must use a home plug wireless extender to get wireless extended through the walls of the house) would make any difference rather than using the Sonos wireless? The Giga Gate device has wired access on the other side of the bridge, which I would be using on one of the Sonos units. My thinking is that the wireless on the Giga Gate may be stronger than the wireless on the Sonos. Anyone tried to use a similar device? I also want to ge

6
A
6 years ago
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DaklathenContributor I
asked in Advanced setups

No sound from PC -> HDMI Receiver -> Playbar, help please

My set-up that works: PC and Wii U plugged in to my Toshiba TV which has an optical out leading to my playbar which is set-up with satellite Play:1 speakers. I only receive 2 channel stereo using this set-up, and that is the configuration my PC video card is sending to my TV. After searching around I realized I needed an HDMI switch and audio de-encoder to get surround sound to work properly (5.1) so I go a Prosumer UltraHD HDMI 3x1 Swtich with MHL/ARC/Advanced Audio. This is a de-encoder/swtich combo. http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MSAU8XO?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00 Configuration that doesn't work: PC/Wii U -> HDMI Swtich -> HDMI out to TV/Optical Out to Playbar However, now that I have set it up, my PC still shows only 2.0 stereo output as my only option and NO sound is playing through my playbar. From research so far all I can surmise is that my video card is reading the EDID from the TV saying it can only output 2.0 sound since that is all the

5
L
6 years ago
NatK
NatKContributor I
asked in Advanced setups

Sonos Play 1 New wifi Password

Help! Pretty new to Sonos. I have a Play 1 and changed my wifi password. I have standard set up. As per video clip on Sonos site I plugged in Ethernet cable and then went onto Sonos app, settings and advanced settings is not there! So cannot go any further to reset my password. Any ideas????

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Stuart_W
6 years ago
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Jost L. HansenContributor III
asked in Advanced setups

3 (or more) Play:1 in one room without stereo pairing

Hi, I have 14 Play:1 hanging in a large room. Right now they all are in their own "Room" and then I have put all rooms in one group. But I would really like to have another setup: One room with 3 speakers One room with 5 speakers Three rooms with 2 speakers And then group all 5 rooms. The three rooms with 2 speakers would normally not be a problem, but when I put 2 speakers in one room they are getting stereo paired and I don't want them to be paired because they are not hanging so it makes sense to make them stereo paired. I haven't tried to put a third speaker in a room because of the stereo pairing, so I don't know what happens when I do that. Can I make the five rooms with out stereo pairing the speakers? Thanks in advance Jost

8
V
6 years ago
T00LF00L
T00LF00LProdigy I
asked in Advanced setups

Will Sonos work with Luma wifi?

Luma wifi is about to be released and looks like a great product. Can Sonos and Luma both create mesh networks that work together or will there be interference? I assume they will work, right?! A wifi mesh will be on a different frequency than the Sonos mesh, right? Luma looks like the solution many of us could use if it works as effectively as Sonos does with its own mesh. Opinions? Mesh.

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2
6 years ago
J
Jost L. HansenContributor III
asked in Advanced setups

14 Play:1s do not start at the same time when changing songs

I have 14 Play:1s (yes, I know it's an unusual* set up :-) that don't start at the same time when I put a new song/playlist on. There's general no delay when the song shifts to next song in the same playlist, even though I've heard some of the speakers stop playing and then start playing again a few seconds later. Is it my network causing this or is it because I have 14 speakers? I read somewhere that changing the audio compression could make a difference, but should it compressed or uncompressed? (my logic says compressed, since the files are smaller then?) I have also a Sonos Boost (not connected at the moment though). Could a Boost help? Any other things I could try? In general it's not the biggest problem, but it sounds a bit weird when some of the speakers don't play a sound. But since the speakers are in cafe* we put on a song when, with a little announcement in the start, when we are going last round in the bar. And this announcement is cut off for some of the speak

8
J
6 years ago
J
Jost L. HansenContributor III
asked in Advanced setups

Using a travel router (or "normal" router") on a wired only LAN to connect to Sonos

Hi, I have a shared Wi-Fi (where you log in with through an log in splash screen on the browser, not typing in a password) and wired only LAN. I can't use the the Wi-FI, because it's shared and I don't want anyone to be able to control the Sonos and I can't make the Sonos log on the Wi-Fi because of the browser login function). So I have to use the wired LAN, but I need WiFi to control the Sonos from my phone. In threads where people are asking for password protection for their Sonos, they are suggested to use a travel router, so they have their own wi-fi. Can I use the travel router solution for this and plug it to the wired LAN? Or can travel routers only attach them selves to a Wifi? If so would a "normal" router that can make its own wifi work? (it's first time I hear the term travel router, so I actually don't if a travel router just is a "normal" router but smaller". Bonus info: In my situation I have to use a Sonos Boost (I have 16 SONOS:1s) and that have to be wired to

5
J
6 years ago
C
ChilliMintLabsContributor III
asked in Advanced setups

Play sound via API

Is there anyway to send a .wav file to a player remotely and make it play it?

2
Jine
6 years ago
S
Stig_03Contributor I
posted in Advanced setups

Rear Surround Speakers Issue / Remedy

I LOVE my entire Sonos system and only have one issue. I'm watching a stream on youtube for music that definitely doesn't have surround sound.. Which is completely fine. However, I have a PLAYBAR up front, a sub and two PLAY1's as the surrounds. Its extremely annoying that because theres no surround sound, the PLAY1's do NOTHING. Why can't they just replicate what the PLAYBAR plays?? I don't care if its not surround sound but I desperately want all 3 speakers and the sub to go at once. Its so quiet without the PLAY1's. They're extremely impressive I definitely notice the minute they aren't working. My current way around this is to remove the two play ones as surround's, group them as a room of their own, then group them to the sub and PLAYBAR. This is incredibly annoying! Then as soon as the stream is done I need to go back and set up the entire surround system again to work with my xbox. Is there a different way around this is am not aware of? And yes I have put the rears as FULL s

3
S
6 years ago
J
Joshua_14Contributor I
asked in Advanced setups

Network traffic flow and source?

I'll shortly be having two separate WAN uplinks at my house - one 4G with an associated cost per GB, and the other, uncapped ADSL. I'm load balancing with a Draytek 2925 and routing policies to decide on which uplink to use based on the source and destination IPs. My question with regards to Sonos, what is the source IP? My setup is... 1x Boost 3x Wired Connects 7x Wireless speakers (SonosNet, no Wifi), one of which is a stereo pair. I want to send Spotify streaming up the ADSL uplink, but Tidal up the 4G uplink for the sonos players. I don't want to create a policy based only on the destination, as from my phone I want to sent Tidal over the ADSL uplink (since my phone is syncing, rather than streaming, and I don't care how long it takes) Which source IPs should I use to assign the rules to assign the rules to? Am I right in thinking if I use an IP range including the boost and the wired players only, that would catch everything?

4
J
6 years ago
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BobbyNContributor I
posted in Advanced setups

Sonos / Echo

I'm a heavy Sonos and Echo user. I have 5 Echo's (each room) and Sonos in 5 rooms. Would be happy to help with Beta if needed.

6
S
6 years ago
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DarkjamziContributor I
asked in Advanced setups

Sonos Play1 and Zipato

Hi, just got started with Sonos and have a question/problem. I integrated the speaker with my Zipato home automation system, so it can play files when an event occurs. My first project was to make a doorbell. I saved an MP3 file on my network server, and when someone presses the doorbell, this should play. This works OK, until I play another song/file. Then when someone rings the doorbell, the doorbell file plus the other song/file starts to play. It seems it is building a queue, and when an event happens, instead of just playing the file, it plays that queue. The command I send is: x-file-cifs:\\My Passport\Files\Doorbell\doorbell.mp3 Any idea how I can prevent a queue forming or playing when I just want it to play 1 file? Thanks for the help!

0
D
6 years ago
K
kdbama1Contributor I
asked in Advanced setups

Playbar and external speakers

I have a sonos playbar connected to my TV through an optical chord. The apartment I moved into has speakers built into the wall with the copper wiring. I just went to Best Buy and bought a receiver and the Sonos connect (Not connect:amp) based on the sales guys advice. I want to be able to play TV sound through the playbar and external speakers simultaneously. Is this even possible or was the Best Buy guy wrong. Do I need the connect:amp? Or is this impossible?

2
K
6 years ago
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