Sonos Amp no power light

I have not lost a single unit out of 12 since 2011, and I don’t think I am an outlier. But I do have a supply of clean and very stable power 24/7, via an online inverter that insulates all my home electronics from mains power antics. You might want to investigate this aspect at your place.

I have 19 units dating back 10 years now and never had an issue. Four of which are amps. They have been rock solid. Other than the S1 fiasco which was sort of resolved, this has been a solid investment in sound!

Over 10 years I've accumulated a wide selection of smart speakers and media streamers (ca. 15 devices) without one failure... apart from a 2nd generation Sonos Connect which failed after 3 months of light use. Just saying.... 

Were you able to find a repair service by chance ? My amp died recently as well and cannot find anyone to repair it.

I am having a similar issue. My two Sonos Amps suddenly lost power and seem to be dead. Tried unplugging and plugging into different outlets but to no avail. I’ll give Sonos a call, but does anyone know of companies that repair Sonos Amps? 

The overall failure rate of SONOS units is very low. Be careful about conclusions based on reports read here because it’s similar to walking through a hospital, then exclaiming that “everyone” is sick.

The coincidence that two units failed simultaneously raises the possibility that there is something wrong in your home. Power line transients can damage units. Transients can be created by nearby lightning strikes, faulty large appliances, and faulty home wiring can be a contributor. Are you using any sort of surge protector? Were the failed units using the same power circuit?

Are the two units likely to be from the same production batch? You should contact SONOS, they may know something about a batch of units.

Thank you for the response and good to know the failure rate is low as I really love the Sonos AMPS and prefer not to switch to another brand. They were both plugged into the same surge protector. I called Sonos, they were unable to run a diagnostic due to both units not powering up. They offered me the option of sending the units in and then I can purchase new ones at a small discount (my 12 month warranty is up on them). Assuming I buy new ones, any recommendations on power strips to use? Asking in case it was a power line transient.

How is your area with respect to lightning strikes? I ask because some areas are very high risk, while others are tame. In a “lightning alley” you need serious protection. Have you had any similar experiences in the past? Have neighbors had bad experiences? Occasionally, there is a issue with the power feed caused by a storm or accident where a high voltage line falls into contact with a low voltage line and a whole area will be hit by the overvoltage.

There are various levels of protection, depending on the risk. Some structures should have lightning arrestors installed. There are whole house surge suppressors, installed at the electrical panel by an electrician. At the low end of the surge suppressor scale are the cheap (a few dollars) outlet strips that are marked as including some sort of surge suppression. In my opinion, these are ineffective trash.

What sort of surge suppressor was installed on that circuit? I’m suspicious. Faulty wiring can dramatically reduce the effectiveness of the surge suppressor. It is possible that the surge suppressor has been damaged by a recent or past transient. Some surge suppressors are very silly and include a fuse that will blow when the unit is hit by a transient, If the fuse blows, the protection is disconnected. This turns things inside out and your equipment is essentially protecting the surge protector. Over time the level of protection wanes as large transients slowly chip away at the original effectiveness. To some extent the suppressor is sacrificing itself to protect the equipment. Full testing of a surge suppressor requires lab level equipment and training. 

There are “audiophile” level suppressors that, in my opinion are excessively priced, but many are are effective. For mid level protection I like to use this Tripplite approach. Depending on your issue and risks, there are certainly more effective units and you can argue that a multi-voltage unit such as AMP is not very sensitive to routine power line voltage fluctuations. The Joule rating of a suppressor is an indication of how much transient energy it can absorb without being instantly destroyed. In “lightning alley” you’d want more aggressive units. 

In addition to transient protection, the higher end units offer better protection against radio frequency energy leaking through. If you live near a few radio or TV stations or very high voltage power transmission lines, enhanced. RF protection is a good idea.

Thank you so much for the detailed response! So there was a really bad storm last week and one of the circuit breakers did pop, different room from where the Sonos AMPS are located, but I assume the storm is the culprit. I know of at least two neighbors that have had electronics blow out over the last couple of years, so I guess I am in a higher risk area. None of my other electronics had an issue from this storm. I will look into some of the more aggressive protection unit options. Thanks again!

Lightning strikes are chaotic. Years ago the house I was living in was struck and a section of wall was exploded. After breaking out the wall, the strike passed through a sofa and burned a hole in the carpet. In the basement below an old tube radio that was powered OFF at the time, was damaged. 

In addition to instant, obvious damage a transient can injure the long term outlook for a unit. 

You need to protect any copper feed into the house -- such as CATV and phone, in addition to the power feed. If you have a copper line to a pool house or such, it should be protected.

@Soundhack,

In your situation, if the AMP’s are driving outdoor speakers, wires to these speakers should be protected.

Your home owner’s insurance policy may offer some help with AMP replacement costs..

Thanks! Yes, both AMP’s are powering speakers that are outside. The AMP’s are in my basement and the speaker wire is run through conduits that are buried in the ground. I have a cheap amp that I will use to see if the speaker wire is still good.
 

So my home owners insurance has a deductible of $1K. Sonos is going to give me a 30% discount after shipping my two dead AMPS to them, so will go that route, but will get proper surge protection setup before I install the new AMP’s. I absolutely love them and the Sonos ecosystem so hoping this is a one off.

Thanks again for taking the time to provide me advice and guidance, truly appreciate it.

So I just lost my Connect:Amp which I guess has been around since 2016, I rarely used it up stairs here where its connected to my home theater AVR. I use my other Play:1’s around the house but this one hardly gets any use. I have it plugged into a APC 575 Battery Backup and Surge Protector. Do you think its worth my time to get them involved in helping the replacement costs for this unit? A new AMP is $699 and if I settled for a Port those are $449 minus this 30% discount they are going to give me here at Sonos for returning the bad one. I don’t want to pay for a new one at all even with 30% off I thought I had this setup in a nice well thought of surge protected place. Nothing else went bad on the surge protector, so not sure I have an argument with them, maybe the unit just went bad? We have had some storms recently that did flash the power, brown outs I think the are called, where it goes up and down gradually really fast. Anyway it could have been that but not sure I can prove it?

Also, should I replace this unit with a new Amp or the Port? All I’m doing right now is connecting to the AVR via Digital Optical Cable and playing music through the AVR. I don’t know which one is better for that? I don’t even see that connection on either one now.

If it was playing through your A/V receiver, it was a Connect, not a Connect:Amp.  So the replacement would be a Port. 

You are right it is just a Connect. Thanks for pointing that error out. So a Port is what I’ll be after. I did contact APC about my Battery Backup and Surge Protector. The claim process is kind of a pain. I have to send in my unit, they are sending a replacement out, but I have to pay for the shipping of that unit and if the claim goes through (I guess if they find it faulty) then the cost of my shipping will go onto the claim if they deny my claim then I lose out on that shipping and I’d imagine the shipping of this heavy battery backup/surge unit is not cheap. Also I don’t know if the power surges or brown outs we had a few weeks back were the cause so its like rolling dice with this process.