Sonos Amp and 3rd party subwoofer issue

If you want a sub in a Sonos ‘room’ with an Arc, then the Sonos Sub is the only option. 

Beyond the extra cost, it’s a good performing sub, imho. I’ve got two of them. I’ve considered a third, bonded with a pair of Sonos PLAY:5s, but haven’t pulled that particular trigger yet. 

Hey guys … Im starting to have the exact same issue described here w/  my Sonos Amp.  my Sonos amp w/ 3rd party sub was working perfectly up until a few weeks ago.  All of a sudden, I can’t hear anything.  My sub just won’t output anything unless I jack the sub volume all the way up and and increase the sub level to +15 in the sonos app.. and even then, its muffled and not impressive at all.  Sub is good … wires are good.  Everyone says update 11.1 fixed the issue, but I’m running 11.2.6 (S1) and having the issue.  Tested another sonos amp I have, same deal.  

For those that now have the issue resolved, are you using the S2 platform or S1?  

Sorry for my stupid question… Do I need a passive or an active sub using an amp with two normal (Bose 251) speakers? 

It’s an active sub, or you can use a Sonos sub - just to add the Amp user-guide/manual is available here too, if you need further information:

https://www.sonos.com/support/en-us/sonos-user-guide/index.html#t=sonos-user-guide%2Famp%2Famp.htm

Thx! 😊

Doing research on Sonos Arc with non Sonos rear surrounds and 3rd party sub and came across this thread. So just to clarify, if I have 2 rear surrounds that are non Sonos along with a 3rd party sub connected to the amp, the sub will not work? Does anyone have 2 speakers and a sub connected to the amp to get a surround sound setup with the arc? If I can keep my sub and rear speakers, I’d consider the amp since my current HT setup is decent. 

@Capthat 

When the Sonos Amp is used for HT rear Surrounds all the Amp ports, including the .LFE Sub port, are disabled. So a 3rd party active Sub can’t be used with that type of setup, you can only use a Sonos Sub when a Sonos Arc is being used for the HT front channels.

Thanks...kind of disappointing that it has the inputs on the amp but they all can’t be used 

I guess there are perhaps technical reasons why the Amp ports are disabled as the Amp just becomes a slave to the Arc master device. If the Amp is set as the HT master device for the front channels (in place of the Arc) then all the ports are not disabled and the 3rd party Sub can be used in that kind of setup, just not when an Amp is used for the rear surrounds.

The only way to connect your 3rd part SUB is to configure your Amp in a separate room to your Arc or centre speaker, if you add the AMP to the same room setup as your Arc then the output is disabled.

This is a bad marketing move and just a money grab to get you to not use your existing Sub and to purchase the Sonos SUB…

If you configure your Amp in a sperate room and add your L + R speaker and Sub they work, but when you put them all in the same physical room as your centre speaker the sound is out of phase and it sounds bad