Simple ? - How to turn off

  • 5 February 2005
  • 58 replies
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  • Contributor III
  • 72 replies
Had my new Sonos for 2 days . . . exceeds expectations! But how do I turn off? It seems just pausing music or muting is not the same.

Am I being too old fashion/analog?

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58 replies

You can choose to switch off the whitelight in Settings.
Since the post you quoted is more than nine years old I imagine the 'son' in question has grown up, left home and started a family by now... 😉
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Apologies for resurrecting an old thread, but I have a quick question. If I was to go on holiday and unplugged my Play 1 speakers from mains power, would they remember their settings when I returned and and connect automatically to the network, or would I have to set them up as new Sonos components? Thanks.
Apologies for resurrecting an old thread, but I have a quick question. If I was to go on holiday and unplugged my Play 1 speakers from mains power, would they remember their settings when I returned and and connect automatically to the network, or would I have to set them up as new Sonos components? Thanks.
Welcome to the forums.

Sonos units retain all their settings when they're unplugged. Just plug them in again when you get back, starting with the one wired to your router.

In fact if you were to use Add a Sonos Component to set things up all over again you could lose settings.
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Thanks for the welcome and the speedy reply! Much appreciated.
Hi I one of these dads that religiously tries to turnoff everything at night, with fire safety in mind , we have a playbar, should I unplug it, or is this generation of new electronics etc okay to be left plugged in, White light still on.
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Hi I one of these dads that religiously tries to turnoff everything at night, with fire safety in mind , we have a playbar, should I unplug it, or is this generation of new electronics etc okay to be left plugged in, White light still on.

The PLAYBAR is perfectly safe to leave on all the time. It's designed to be powered up and ready whenever you need it to play. And if you want, you can even turn off that white light. That's under Room Settings for the PLAYBAR.
Hi I one of these dads that religiously tries to turnoff everything at night, with fire safety in mind , we have a playbar, should I unplug it, or is this generation of new electronics etc okay to be left plugged in, White light still on.

The PLAYBAR is perfectly safe to leave on all the time. It's designed to be powered up and ready whenever you need it to play. And if you want, you can even turn off that white light. That's under Room Settings for the PLAYBAR.
Hi I one of these dads that religiously tries to turnoff everything at night, with fire safety in mind , we have a playbar, should I unplug it, or is this generation of new electronics etc okay to be left plugged in, White light still on.

The PLAYBAR is perfectly safe to leave on all the time. It's designed to be powered up and ready whenever you need it to play. And if you want, you can even turn off that white light. That's under Room Settings for the PLAYBAR.


Hey folks. Just installed a 5.1 system and love it.

Carrying on from the below though, it's almost unthinkable in today's world that there's an advanced electronic device that can't be turned off easily. In fact, isn't it that almost every other advanced technology turns off automatically when not being used? Sounds like the 5.1 system's not turning off is equivalent to leaving on a light bulb full time.

Is that right and what does Sonos think about that? Can software and/or firmware updates correct this (by adding an auto shutoff feature) and is that something that Sonos is considering implementing?

I think the ship has sailed on us all being responsible for trying to mitigate further environmental damage- so I'm concerned that this system is counterproductive in that regard. In fact for me, at the expense of being called a tree hugger, this could be a deal-breaker. It's a little surprising that we're supposed to keep a light on all night in room (like the living room or basement) when everyone's sleeping!

Otherwise love the technology.
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Hi I one of these dads that religiously tries to turnoff everything at night, with fire safety in mind , we have a playbar, should I unplug it, or is this generation of new electronics etc okay to be left plugged in, White light still on.

The PLAYBAR is perfectly safe to leave on all the time. It's designed to be powered up and ready whenever you need it to play. And if you want, you can even turn off that white light. That's under Room Settings for the PLAYBAR.


Hey folks. Just installed a 5.1 system and love it.

Carrying on from the below though, it's almost unthinkable in today's world that there's an advanced electronic device that can't be turned off easily. In fact, isn't it that almost every other advanced technology turns off automatically when not being used? Sounds like the 5.1 system's not turning off is equivalent to leaving on a light bulb full time.

Is that right and what does Sonos think about that? Can software and/or firmware updates correct this (by adding an auto shutoff feature) and is that something that Sonos is considering implementing?

I think the ship has sailed on us all being responsible for trying to mitigate further environmental damage- so I'm concerned that this system is counterproductive in that regard. In fact for me, at the expense of being called a tree hugger, this could be a deal-breaker. It's a little surprising that we're supposed to keep a light on all night in room (like the living room or basement) when everyone's sleeping!

Otherwise love the technology.


Advises poster that the PlayBar may easily be switched off by walking to the socket and switching the off switch - You did install it into a switched power socket right? Given your evangelical switching off predilections?
Can software and/or firmware updates correct this (by adding an auto shutoff feature) and is that something that Sonos is considering implementing?
This already exists. The amplified devices go into a low power state -- basically the audio pipeline is turned off -- when idle. If the entire device was powered off you'd never be able to connect to it to wake it up.

Sonos units are network devices, like switches and routers. If they didn't stay powered their connectivity would fail.
I have to say I don’t get this thread. The way of consumer electronics now is to leave equipment in standby mode – ready for end user control. As far as the LED light is concerned, a previous poster explained how that can be turned off in a firmware setting. I don’t see why it is such a concern to completely power down a device that you may want to bring back up at any time. Why should internet speakers completely turn off? You can’t equate SONOS speakers to a simple stereo system that turns on and off. They’re much more, and part of the appeal is the fact that multiple units can be located almost anywhere, are always ready, and can be easily controlled from a mobile app or home PC. I have several SONOS set up as a group to all come on at once. I can’t imagine having to go turn each one on individually whenever I want to hear music.
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Four Play 1s, a Playbar and a Connect = equals 26.9 watts X 365 days = 9818.5 watts per year minimum - even if the Sonos system is not playing any music at all.

That is NOT very responsible - is it?

https://sonos.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/260

Idle Power Consumption, Watts
230V (EU)
PLAY:1 3.8 Watts X 4 = 15.2 Watts
PLAYBAR up to 6.1 Watts
CONNECT 5.6 Watts
Four Play 1s, a Playbar and a Connect = equals 26.9 watts X 365 days = 9818.5 watts per year minimum - even if the Sonos system is not playing any music at all.

That is NOT very responsible - is it?

What kind of unit does the 9818.5 figure represent? "Watt days"? Never heard of it.

That amount of kit uses about the same as a single 25W incandescent bulb.
Userlevel 7
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Four Play 1s, a Playbar and a Connect = equals 26.9 watts X 365 days = 9818.5 watts per year minimum - even if the Sonos system is not playing any music at all.

That is NOT very responsible - is it?

What kind of unit does the 9818.5 figure represent? "Watt days"? Never heard of it.

That amount of kit uses about the same as a single 25W incandescent bulb.


The correct answer is 235.644 kWh. In the UK a reasonable charge would be 9.5p per kWh. ie those items of yours cost £22.39 per year to run if they are never used to play music.
those items of yours cost £22.39 per year to run if they are never used to play music.
Which is pretty small, compared to the potential cost of replacing just one of those units as a result of premature failure caused by daily powering on and off. And, no, I don't have any objective data to back up that hunch. However it's well known that regular power (and hence thermal) cycling is one of the strongest factors in determining expected lifespan.
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Thanks for the pedantry. Something to prove, I guess.
Exact UK utility figures are not the point of the exercise - it is about being responsible about the planet and energy consumption not about currencies of one sort or another. Interesting you assumed I lived in the UK. There is a world outside the UK.
The figures are Sonos figures. Look at the link I put up.
The cost in Western Australia is closer to Aus$100. We are paying exorbitant prices for utilities to a stupid government that wasted all of its mining dollars on pork-barelling and who are now grafting money from pensioners in council housing to pay government wages. But that was not the issue. My point was, and still is, that Sonos should try to be a an enabler of a greener world.
Just provide a software 'off' switch.
Sonos units are wireless network devices, and a fair proportion of the power requirements come from being always on, always alert, always available. Furthermore they need to maintain a dialogue with each other on a regular basis in order to sustain the system.

Sonos is clearly aware of the power issue though, as borne out by the appreciably lower figures for more recent products, e.g. BOOST vs BRIDGE, and PLAY:5 Gen 2 vs Gen 1.

Amplified units already power down their audio stages when idle. A software 'off' switch which shut down the main processor and disconnected the device from the network would be a one-way ticket requiring user intervention to force the device back online. Basically you'd have to power it off and on again, so on that basis you might as well turn it off in the first place.

But in terms of environmental impact, the electricity usage needs to balanced against the shortened lifespan caused by regular power cycling and the resulting increase in e-waste. Given the increasing trends towards low carbon energy production I'd go along with a few extra kWh rather than dumping yet more toxic substances on the surface of the planet.
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If there was an "off' switch you could choose to use it or not.
There already is. It's the switch on the wall.

As already pointed out, a software "off" switch would have the same net effect: of cutting the device off from the network. You might just as well pull the plug.
Scrivener,

While the exact order varies by model, the top three failure modes of audio amplifiers are:

Output devices
Power supply components
Power switch

In general, the remaining failure modes are so sporadic that they are not worth tracking unless one particular model exhibits a significant design or production fault.

On the first level a mechanical power switch would seem to be the most "green" solution. But this may not be operationally convenient because you would need to track down all of the relevant power switches as you start and end each listening session. For convenience you may want a remotely operated switch for the most heavily used SONOS units -- if the idle power of the remote switch is less than the idling power of a SONOS unit. However, there is an environmental cost for these remote switch units and there will be a big environmental cost if a SONOS unit fails early because of all the power switching.

I think that one should consider the lifetime environmental cost of a unit and this spans the gamut from mining the raw materials, building the individual transistors, integrated circuits and such, assembling, testing, and shipping the unit, power used over the unit's operating lifetime, and ultimate disposal. Due to lack of data, this is not an easy equation to optimize.
Sonos, I love you! This thread proves only that some people just like to complain. Imagine I guess the genius who invented the wheel having to defend the fact that stuff tends to keep rolling!?! LMAO ...
Userlevel 7
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The thread is basically some users wanting to be able to switch their devices off without getting out of their seats (and presumably 'living with' the 20 secs or so boot up afterwards) to reduce energy consumption - and others who don't see it as an issue and also that to switch them back on would then necessitate one to get out of the chair because the units are off so couldn't 'hear' any subsequent 'on' commands.
Is there a reason why there couldn't be a real, real 'deep sleep' that could wake up using a form of WOL - or does the wireless nature of most setups make that not possible? i.e. a pc's power usage when hibernating is way less than when just powering the hdd's, cpu etc. down - but can be woken quicker than a full startup via WOL.
Userlevel 7
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I'm pretty sure that Sonos will have made the units to be as sleepy as possible and have the lowest possible power consumption when not receiving a signal.

Frankly it really is as simple as "Switch it of at the plug" if you're concerned about it.


But the caveat is that the units are NOT designed to be used in that way so there may be unforeseen circumstances - eg early failure
Userlevel 7
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I'm pretty sure that Sonos will have made the units to be as sleepy as possible and have the lowest possible power consumption when not receiving a signal.

Just adding to this, with each new unit we get the idle power consumption levels to be even more conservation friendly. The new PLAY:5 uses less than a third of the idle power of the first generation. This is hardware based however, so not something that changes on older units. We're constantly looking at ways to improve things with software updates as well to spread the love to all our products.
Just got my own sonos and was interested in answers to this question. I noticed initially that the little LEDs were white, but turned green as soon as I started streaming, never to go back to white. While I understand devices like these remain ON to some degree, I found that interesting, even a bit troubling. I, too, noticed the heat buildup when "off".

I would have thought nothing further about it until I added sonos to my harmony remotes. Unlike from the sonos app, when I turn them OFF from the harmony, the LED turns back to white!? I cannot help but wonder about the significance of this, if anything.

At some point in the near future, surely I will get out my kill-a-watt and measure consumption at these various states.