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Sonos Amp with existing amplifier

  • 27 October 2020
  • 14 replies
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C

Hi

 

we purchased Sonos Amp and connected it to our existing amplifier that is connected to 7 in ceiling speakers each with a volume control slider on the wall.  It seems to work but we’re worried about having 2 amplifiers together.  
 

thanks

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Best answer by Kumar 27 October 2020, 11:19

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14 replies

K

You should be worried, power both down and disconnect them from each other immediately. 

Assuming what you want to do is have a Sonos front end interface to the 7 speakers, the correct Sonos solution is a Sonos Port, wired to the line in jacks on the amplifier.

Or, a cheaper solution to get streamed music play there is by similarly wiring an Echo unit. Either a Dot, or a Echo Show 5 if you also want to see album art for what you are listening to.

J

Agree with @Kumar .  Can't quite imagine how you have connected the two but it certainly doesn't sound a good idea.

C

Thanks for the information.  I’ve now disconnected the Sonos Amp from the Episodes amplifier.

So, now I have a Sonos Amp.  I could keep it and connect it to the one set of unamplified in-ceiling speakers that are not going through the Episodes amplifier.  I could then get a Sonos Port and connect that to the audio in RCA ports on the Episodes amplifier.  Is this all correct?

If so, the one in-ceiling unamplified speakers has a wire coming out of the wall with 4 wires in it (red, white, black and gray).  There are four places on back of the Sonos Amp where these wires could be connected.  2 ports labeled right and 2 ports labeled left.  Does it matter which wires go into each port, color-wise?  I’m assuming that all 4 wires need to be connected to the Sonos Amp from the speaker?

K

In which room is the one unamplified speaker that is not attached to the Episodes? Separate from the rest?

C

I think it is the master bedroom.  The Episodes amplifier can only do 6 speakers … so the 7th one is not hooked up to it.  When I tested it all out, the only speaker that did not play was the one in the master bedroom.

We bought the house recently and it came with the Episodes amplifier connected to the 6 speakers but it was not connected to anything to get a music signal.

I was wondering if I kept the one speaker (of my choosing) on the Sonos Amp and then the others on the Sonos Port (connected to the Episodes amplifier) then I would have 2 music zones?

K

The port is the correct Sonos front end for the Episodes. 

The sonos amp would work for the 7th speaker pair.

You would then have two music zones.

C

Nice!  Thank you!

One last question.  For that 7th speaker.  The set of wires coming out of the wall has 4 wires (black, red, white, and green).  The Sonos Amp has 2 sets of banana wire connections, one set labeled Right and the second set labeled Left.

Do you know where the 4 wires for the speakers should go on the Sonos Amp?

K

You also have the opportunity of wiring something cheaper like an echo dot to the episodes and doing a side by side comparison for features with the Sonos amp wired to the remaining speaker and see how they stack up as a basis for the next step of getting a Port.

K

I am struggling to get the answer to the 7th speaker wiring. All I can say for sure is the Sonos amp speaker terminals will be used. 

How the 6 speakers are wired to the volume control sliders should provide a logical answer because it would be the same logic.

C

I found this that might be worth trying:  http://wiki.gohts.com/tiki-index.php?page=Speaker+Wire+Color+Codes

K

Yeah, I saw that too. I suggest using just the red and white to either of the two speaker terminals on the Sonos amp and see how it goes.

I have no experience of ceiling speakers myself, so I can't say why one speaker has four wires to it. A typical speaker will have two, red and white, corresponding to the color codes on the amp. The amp has two terminals for a left right speaker pair.

C

I may have found an answer. The picture below is what the 4 speaker wires are connected to the Episodes amplifier.  So, I just need to see the wire colors and what color is going into the R+, R, L and L+ and then do similar on the Sonos Amp for the single speaker’s 4 wires.  I would guess that I could put them in the same order.  The picture is off the web.  So, I’ll have to look at the wires going into my amplifier.

 

 

C

So it looks like red is R+ and black is R and green is L and white is L+ for the other 6 speakers.

 

K

That should be ok. Basically, the red color code on the Sonos amp speaker terminal is the positive terminal. Of which there are two, one for left and one for right. It seems that each ceiling speaker takes signals from left and right, hence the four wires.

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