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Answered

Beam and Sub with AMP

  • December 31, 2020
  • 13 replies
  • 275 views
S

I know this question has been posted several times, but the answers don't seem to be helping me. 

I have an Amp set up in my basement with 2 in ceiling speakers. The AMP is daisy chained to two more AMPs by ethernet cables, and then runs into a switch.

It works fine as a stand alone room. 

Then, I added a beam, and a sub to the same room. The Beam (wired with ethernet or wireless) and the sub (wireless) work together for my TV, but I can't get the AMP speakers to work with them, and now that I tried adding the AMP speakers as surrounds, they no longer come on at all... Even if I try to use them as standalone. 

What am I missing. 

Best answer by Ken_Griffiths

So in summary, If you choose to wire a Sonos product make sure it’s always back to the primary orbi hub only. Do not wire them to a satellite orbi hub, just leave them wireless. 

The issue that then arises, is the fact the Amp is not in the same room as your Beam, which in a bonded HT setup would usually communicate over a 5ghz ad-hoc network link between the Beam and the Amp and if it’s too far away then that link won’t work… you therefore will have to wire them to the LAN and as stated it’s best to wire them both to the primary orbi hub or the same switch off that hub.

The sub in the same room as the Beam should bond and run fine on a wireless connection.

Hopefully it should then work. 🤞 

If you do wire one (or more) Sonos products to the primary Orbi hub, I also recommend you goto the Sonos App "Settings/System/Network/Wireless Setup” and remove/reset your orbi wireless credentials from that area… that will stop your devices hopping between SonosNet and your Orbi WiFi system. Also set your SonosNet channel, so that it is at least 5 channels away from your Orbi 2.4Ghz channel to reduce interference.

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13 replies

buzz
  • buzz
  • December 31, 2020

Go to Settings --> System → About My System. Are all of your units visible here?

S
  • ShanerM
  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • December 31, 2020

Yes... All visible. Also, previously, I had the basement AMP with 2 wired speakers working just fine. As soon as I added the Beam and Sub, I lost the ability to get any sound out of the AMP speakers. 

Ken_Griffiths

With the Beam wired to the LAN, if you remove the wireless sub and switch off the wireless on the Beam, does the Amp then work?

I can perhaps understand the Beam not reaching the Amp over the 5Ghz ad-hoc network as it’s in the basement, but thinking forcing it use the wired LAN might fix the issue.

S
  • ShanerM
  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • December 31, 2020

So, interesting. I removed the sub, and tried to disable WI fi on the Beam (beam has an ethernet cable plugged in and goes to a switch in my ad hoc IT room), but it tells me I need to be wired to a router.

More info. I have an Orbi home mesh network setup in the house as well. The room that the Beam is plugged into, leads to a switch, and the switch runs through the Orbi router before it gets to the Internet providers router. 

 

S
  • ShanerM
  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • December 31, 2020

IT room... 

 

S
  • ShanerM
  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • December 31, 2020

It's going from bad to worse. I have now lost the beam from the system. It is no longer showing in the about my system section. I tried to do a factory reboot on the beam and re-add to my system, but I'm now having issues re-adding it. What a nightmare.

Ken_Griffiths

With a Wireless mesh system, it’s highly recommended that a single Sonos product is wired to the Primary Mesh Orbi Hub (router) only that’s usually connected to the ISP router, which is best operated in modem/bridge mode, with the ISP router WiFi switched off..

If not, you can perhaps try running all on your mesh WiFi signal only.  I wouldn’t wire the Sonos products to any satellite orbi hubs, directly, or indirectly via a switch, as that tends to cause issues.
 

What would be better is to try one Sonos device only wired to the orbi primary hub and perhaps consider having the Amp in the same room as the Beam and sub… or maybe try to wire several Sonos devices back to the same switch off the primary Orbi hub only (if practicable). I hope that makes some sense.

Ken_Griffiths

So in summary, If you choose to wire a Sonos product make sure it’s always back to the primary orbi hub only. Do not wire them to a satellite orbi hub, just leave them wireless. 

The issue that then arises, is the fact the Amp is not in the same room as your Beam, which in a bonded HT setup would usually communicate over a 5ghz ad-hoc network link between the Beam and the Amp and if it’s too far away then that link won’t work… you therefore will have to wire them to the LAN and as stated it’s best to wire them both to the primary orbi hub or the same switch off that hub.

The sub in the same room as the Beam should bond and run fine on a wireless connection.

Hopefully it should then work. 🤞 

If you do wire one (or more) Sonos products to the primary Orbi hub, I also recommend you goto the Sonos App "Settings/System/Network/Wireless Setup” and remove/reset your orbi wireless credentials from that area… that will stop your devices hopping between SonosNet and your Orbi WiFi system. Also set your SonosNet channel, so that it is at least 5 channels away from your Orbi 2.4Ghz channel to reduce interference.

buzz
  • buzz
  • December 31, 2020

If you can, Bridge the ISP’s Gateway and turn OFF its radios. It also would not hurt to move the Gateway farther from the AMP’s if any of the AMP’s are using wireless of any sort.

S
  • ShanerM
  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • January 1, 2021

Oh boy... This is now beyond my comprehension. I'll run it by my IT guy and see if he can understand. Thx for the help guys... I'll touch base after I've spent some time on it. 

S
  • ShanerM
  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • January 1, 2021

Ok, problem solved. What I did was to unplug the ethernet cable for my Basement in my IT room from my switch, and run it directly into the amp, and then the other port on the AMP runs into the primary Orbi hub. So I have tied the Beam and the amp together.

Thanks for the advice guys. 

Ken_Griffiths
buzz
  • buzz
  • January 1, 2021

I’m not exactly sure what you have done. It would pay to check the WiFi speed to your phones and wireless computers. Traffic through AMP’s Ethernet ports is limited to 100Mbps.

S
  • ShanerM
  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • January 1, 2021

So, to be more clear, I have 7 rooms in the house that all have ethernet ports. Al those ports run to a patch panel, and then from the patch panel to a switch. The switch then runs into my Orbi base station.

My basement runs on patch panel number 6. i have the Beam plugged into this port in the basement. I unplugged number 6 from the switch, and ran that line directly into the AMP for the basement. Then, I ran another line from the AMP to the Orbi. So my Orbi has 2 lines going into it. 1 from the switch, and one from the AMP.

I just ran a speed test on a PC in a different room and got 316mbps download.

So, all good! 

Ken_Griffiths
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