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My brother-in-law passed away suddenly a couple of years ago and we visited his house this weekend. He loved tech and it’s been a nightmare for his widow to make sense of. As I’m apparently the most tech savvy (a web developer) I’ve been given the task of trying to sort out the Sonos set-up. She’s currently using an Amazon dot for music though there must be £6K’s worth of Sonos sat there redundant. 

He’s got two pairs of in-ceiling Sonos speakers, a Sub (Gen 1) and an early Soundbar. The set-up could be up-to 10 years old now. 

I managed to factory reset the Sub which was then being recognised by the Sonos iOS app, but aside from that I was unable to get anything else working.

I never managed to get the in-ceiling speakers to make a sound. 

Am I right in thinking that there should be an Amp to go with the speakers or could they work in conjunction with the Sub?

Excuse my ignorance, I’ve only ever used my Sonos One. 

Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

 

 

Are the two sets of in-ceiling speakers in the same room as the sound bar? If so, where are they located in relation to the sound bar?

More than likely, you are working with a Playbar, Sub (Gen 1), and one or two Connect:Amps powering the two sets of in-ceiling speakers. Look for a device that looks like this:

Sonos Connect:Amp

 

Thank you so much for getting back to me so quickly, 

I’ve looked high and low for a Connect:Amp, his widow claims to have never seen one, is there a chance they’ve been stashed in the ceiling void?

The in-ceiling speakers are in the same room as the Playbar (that’s exactly what it is, I’ve just googled it, thank you!). However it’s a decent sized room so not sure they’d be used exclusively for the TV if that’s what you’re thinking. 

I can definitely recall him playing music from a streaming service through the speakers without the TV being involved. 

It would be odd for the Connect:Amp to be stored in the ceiling. You should check all of the cabinets and closets in the house. If possible, go up into the attic and see what room the speaker wire leads to.

It is entirely possible that the in-ceiling speakers aren’t even connected to a Connect:Amp. They could be powered by a different amplifier or receiver, or not wired to anything at all.

Which controller is being used S1(gray) or S2(gold icon)? Are any of the SONOS units wired to the network? Legacy systems would generally have at least one wired player. In this case SONOS would use SonosNet, a private mesh network, rather than WiFi. There is nothing to configure for SonosNet. All players and controllers must be on the same subnet. It is possible for all of the players to be wireless. The players will then switch to WiFi. If the system is using WiFi you’ll need to supply the correct SSID and Password. If the router has been replaced, likely the wrong SSID and Password are in use. The easiest way to work through this is to temporarily wire one unit to the network, then update the SONOS network settings.

It’s possible that SONOS amplifiers are hidden in the attic. All they need is power and speaker connections for music play. If this was a surround system, the older amplifiers will need a network connection for the rear speakers.

For the Sub to be working it has to be connected to either your missing Amp or the soundbar.

I’d power down the Sub and Soundbar, reset the Sonos App (System, App preferences and scroll way down) then let it look for the Sonos System the Amp should be showing.

If that doesn’t find it look at your router’s connected devices pages and see if the Amp shows up there.

If you can’t find the Amp, power up the soundbar and connect the App to it, add the Sub to it so you have at least that much of the system working.

 

Thanks for everyone’s help on this, some really useful suggestions and potential solutions. I’ll be up at their house in the next few weeks and will try again now I’ve got some direction. 

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