I recently renovated a building for my retail store and installed 3 sets of Sonance in-ceiling speakers. The contractor also installed a set of Polk Audio outdor speakers outside. I have 3 Sonos Amps and was planning to use one of them for the outside speakers, one for 1 set of in-ceiling speakers and the third for the other two sets of in-ceiling speakers. Unfortunately without my knowledge the electrician wired the outside speakers in series, i.e. He ran a speaker cable from where the Sonos Amp is to the first outside speaker and then connected the second outside speaker to the first instead of running a separate speaker cable back to the Sonos Amp. My question is whether I can deal with this without putting too much of a load on the Amp. I guess I could just connect the one cable to only the left or right channel terminals, but I was wondering if there was a way to use the full power of the amp by, for example, connectig the negative lead of the cable to the negative terminal of the left channel and the positive lead to the positive terminal of the right channel. One Sonos tech said I can’t do this and I would in fact not get any music or just get static, another tech said this might work, but it’s not a supported set up hence they can’t comment on it. Would anybody know how to do this or do I just have to somehow figure out how to now get 80 or 90 feet of speaker cable into a finished store ceiling?
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+17Hi
Welcome to the Sonos community and thanks for reaching out to us. I understand your situation and would like to help out.
I do agree with the first tech support you spoke with. There will be no music audio coming out of the speakers if the speakers are connected halfway left and right meaning one wire is connected to the positive of the left and the other wire is connected to the negative of the right. I would like to recommend the following situation on what best fits your interest.
- Contact the electrician and get his work sorted out with the speaker wiring to get them in parallel instead of series. It should still be covered with the warranty for his work.
- Discard the current wiring and look for a Wi-Fi spot near the speakers where you can place the Sonos Amp you wanted to use for the outdoor speakers. Will take a little bit of work but will get the work done within your preferred setup.
I hope this helps.
Please let us know if you still have any further questions or concerns. We are always here to help.
Thanks,
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