Does not function as advertised, a huge waste of my time

castala,

Have you contracted for the BestBuy Totaltech membership? If so, I suggest that you make them own these issues. What you have described so far is just a gaggle of equipment that was never intended to work together as a “system”.

The long wait time required to get control of the SONOS items indicates that the WiFi is not likely setup correctly.

Your power up sequence is incorrect. First turn ON only the ARRIS, wait, then turn ON all of the ORBI and wait. This is your best shot, but I don’t think that the WiFi is setup correctly and I have low expectation that the situation will be trouble free.

What is the source of your music?

Must admit, it sounds as if the network/setup/install isn’t too clever. I didn’t understand the part about two Orbi routers aswell as the Arris? - whether things are setup as double NAT, or if it’s a ‘bridged’ network setup - I would have personally bridged the Orbi’s, making them access points only (preferably wired directly back to the Arris) and switched off the Arris WiFi adapters and set things just to connect to the Orbi mesh only. However there are a variety of ways to go about the available network setup, including using one of the Orbi’s as the main router instead and setting the Arris ‘bridged’, or put into ‘modem’ mode.

I tend to look after my own Home Sonos, a holiday Home and help with our two childrens Homes too and all of us rarely have any bother from any Sonos products. All work well - I think it’s going to be issues with multicast/broadcast discovery of the Sonos products across the LAN, but it’s difficult to know precisely what’s going wrong, without knowing the full details about the Home network setup.

Like @buzz  mentions, I would perhaps go back to BestBuy and tell them that their ‘paid-for’ setup isn’t working and let them sort it for you, that’s assuming it was they who installed the Home network setup in the first instance.

Thanks again to all of you.  I will take this up with BestBuy Totaltech and in person with the guy who sold me the “system” and the installer, both of whom I think I can track down.

Your responses have left me wondering why the Sonos reps I have spoken with for long calls have never mentioned any of this and read the sent-in diagnostics and clearly understand (or fake understanding) that the Sonos app controls the sound system in three rooms including the hard-wired Klipsch speakers.

I was misleading in my description of the other equipment being “controlled” by the Sonos app.  The television and the CD player sound can be controlled through the app when the sound output of the items is run through the Arris and the app (the TV can be directed to do so, the CD player is wired directly into the system).

I don’t know what to tell you about the Orbis.  I was told only that they were strong routers used to extend the power and range of the Wi-Fi.  Questions about these two items will be on my list for BestBuy.

I would appreciate if someone could tell me how to control the volume manually on the Roam and Move.  I don’t believe this is possible on the Klipsch speakers, and think they can only be controlled on the app.

Thanks for spending the time writing and getting back to me!  It is much appreciated.

.

One of the reasons that we can’t fully understand your issues is that the Klipsch R-51M speakers are passive and there is no way to directly connect them to the ARRIS. It’s possible that there is another SONOS unit that drives these speakers and also accommodates the CD player and TV.

You can follow the wires attached to the Klipsch to whatever drives them.

MOVE Volume

ROAM Volume

Honestly, good luck with Best Buy. In my past, I’ve found their expertise to be extremely variable. At this point, I’m down to using them for TV mounts and other physical labor. Or, at least, in Austin, that was the case. Haven’t tried any of the techs here in San Diego yet. 

Go to this screen on your SONOS controller and tell us what you see.

On the system page are listed:

Main Bedroom    [the Klipsch speakers, plugged into the nearby Orbi which is plugged into the Arris]

Living Room       [the Move]

Kitchen              [the Roam]

at bottom os system page, a bar with:

Main Bedroom + 2

As mentioned before, the only place to control the volume on the Klipsch speakers (as far as I know) is through the Sonos app.

Again, thanks for your help!

I am embarrassed to admit this (and it doesn’t mean that all of the problems I have experienced haven’t been real and frustrating), but, moving all the components in the main bedroom, there is buried behind the TV, under one of the Orbis, and between to the Arris and the CD player is an amp, a Sonos - Amp 250W 2.1-Ch Amplifier, which is obviously driving the system and is what controls the Klipsch speakers.   This doubtless clears up many of the questions you have had about how the system is configured and functioning.  (No Sonos rep on service calls has ever asked about or even mentioned the amplifier.  For me it has been out-of-sight, out-of-mind.)

Show us your System Information. It will be easiest if you can capture the screen, but if you can’t capture, just give the information I’ve outlined in the gray boxes. There will be one section of Sonos System Info for each player -- you’ll have three of these.

AMP Volume