Hi there, could someone please tell me if there are any diagrams available for explaining to my electrician how to wire a series of sonos amps to in ceiling speakers. He was talking about wiring them in series and I dont believe that that is the correct method.
The diagram on this page might be what you’re looking for. It’s about wiring 4 speakers to a single amp, and I have no idea if that’s part of your plan, but it does specifically say not to wire in series. If your using multiple amps, you most certainly should have a single speaker wired to more than one amp.
Also I have plans to put a peaker in an ensuite and adjacent walk in wardroom. My plan was to use 2 individual steroe speakers wired back to one amp ie as one zone. should I run 2 wires for left and right from the amp to each speaker?
Thanks.
If I understand you correctly, yes. It’s a little unusual to have 2 stereo speakers (each speaker playing both L/R audio channels) in the same space, but that’s effectively the same as have 4 ‘mono’ speakers. Most would just use normal left and right audio if they have the space for two speakers, but I can see where 2 stereo speakers might make more sense in that location. But yes, both stereo speakers should be connected to both left and right speaker ports on the amp, two speaker wires per speaker. You could also have the electrician use 1 4-wire speaker cable for each speaker, which simplifies things a bit in many cases.
Also, from my experience, electricians also like to wire it so that you can use an in wall volume control knob. I personally don’t like this since I don’t want to have dueling volume control between Sonos volume control and this in-wall control, but opinions vary. I would have this discussion with my electrician rather than leave it up to assumption.
Series wiring in the home is not a great idea.
First, decide how much control you want for each area. Do you want to listen to different music in each area? Unless the areas are exactly the same size, playing the same music, you’ll need individual Volume control over each area. This can be accomplished with separate AMPs for each pair of speakers, or the use of in-wall Volume controls for each pair of speakers connected to the same AMP. For example, you would want separate Volume control for a large bedroom and it’s attached bathroom. You may or may not want separate music in the two rooms.
Generally, it is easier to manage if all of the speakers are wired back to a central site for all of the AMP’s, however, the beauty of the SONOS scheme is that the AMP’s can also be scattered about. This is especially handy in old construction where new wiring to a central site would be very difficult.
For areas with in-wall controls, wire the speakers to their control, then wire the control to it’s AMP. Do not wire controls in series. I recommend “home run” wiring each control back to it’s AMP, but this is not required. In-wall controls should be located near the area they control. Otherwise, you’ll be running back and forth between speakers and control as you make the adjustment.
