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Hi there - naive question for the group as I consider the purchase of a group of Amps for a whole house audio setup. 
Are Amps connecting to music streaming services and pulling the actual data from these services VS merely receiving data that I’m downloading on my phone and then redirecting to the Amps?

Said otherwise: if I were to walk away and become out of range of my WiFi network … would Amps still be able to play whatever playlist or music I’d have started? 

Yes. :)

If you’re using the Sonos App ( rather than, for instance, AirPlay 2 or Bluetooth), the Sonos app that runs on each device is getting the stream. You can close the controller ( merely a remote control) and it will continue to play. 


Yes. :)

If you’re using the Sonos App ( rather than, for instance, AirPlay 2 or Bluetooth), the Sonos app that runs on each device is getting the stream. You can close the controller ( merely a remote control) and it will continue to play. 

Thanks for the quick answer 🙂 great to hear 

… this may just push me over to get a few Amps, add them to the network rack and get started…


Fair warning, it can be addictively fun. I’ve got pretty much every room set up. ;)


So… follow up question: can I build a system with a new Amp and a Connect:Amp S2? i.e. will they play nice together? Will I be able to sync them and have them play the same streams at the same time? Will they be able to talk to each other through Sonos Connect?


Yes….both running S2, they’ll be able to communicate with each other, and play the input from either one. 

Not sure what Sonos Connect is in your question, though. I think you mean SonosNet? But no real matter, they’ll be two separate ‘rooms’ in the Sonos controller under S2, which you can group as desired.


Unless you start digging down into the SONOS controller details, there will be no UI difference between CONNECT:AMP and AMP.


Yes….both running S2, they’ll be able to communicate with each other, and play the input from either one. 

Not sure what Sonos Connect is in your question, though. I think you mean SonosNet? But no real matter, they’ll be two separate ‘rooms’ in the Sonos controller under S2, which you can group as desired.

Thank you! And yes, I meant Sonos Net. Thanks for catching this. 


Unless you start digging down into the SONOS controller details, there will be no UI difference between CONNECT:AMP and AMP.

Gotcha. Thank you. 


To add a bit of detail here on using multiple Sonos. 

if you play multiple copies of a stream each device will be downloading the stream independently and they will usually not remain in sync for long. If you want them in sync and to minimize (near) duplicate downloading you’d want to use the Sonos group functions. Then the Sonos you started the stream from, and added others to in the group, would download the stream and share it out to other Sonos in the group.

When playing different streams or you do not want the Sonos in sync then each Sonos will get an individual stream.

An example of wanting the same stream, but not in sync, would be listeners in two different rooms, one who needs to pause the music to answer the phone or other reason but doesn’t want to interrupt the music the other user is hearing. You can use the Controller to mute the one room but often is is easier to just tap the Sonos pause.

 


Super helpful. Presumably this would apply in a system that includes new Amps and S2 compatible earlier versions, correct?


The system is really based on software. Hardware just runs the software.