Optimal Setup for Larger Spaces - and intro

No, there aren’t easily accessible “tools” or “reports”, although there is some legacy reporting from when Sonos purged most of that data due to privacy (my interpretation) requirements. You can log in to an individual speaker (not a Boost) to get the data by entering http://x.x.x.x:1400/status on your browser, using the IP address for the Sonos device to replace my x.x.x.x.

Given that there was a firmware update yesterday, I do wonder if you may have a duplicate IP address issue, which often rears its head at that time, since the Sonos devices request new IPs, and if the server is in a “bad’ state, where it’s forgotten what has been assigned or not, the Sonos can receive duplicate IP addresses. 

Two solutions to this. A quick one, by just unplugging all Sonos devices from power, then rebooting the router, and once the router comes back up, plugging the Sonos devices back in, so that they get new IP addresses from the refreshed router. But that’s semi-temporary, the next time there’s a firmware update, if your router is in an odd state, it might happen again.

The longer term, and recommended by me and others here, solution is to assign reserved IP addresses for all your network devices in your router’s DHCP table. Often, people need to refer to their particular router’s manual to learn how to do this, there’s really not a generic instruction set that works across all makes and models, to my knowledge. 

Note that the duplicate IP address issue can occur both on standard speakers, and bonded speakers, even though the bonded speaker generally aren’t directly connected to the router, but connect through the device that they are bonded with. 

Excellent advice, thank you. This will be the evening’s activities as well as activating my new sub and whatever else has come in today. 

This may sound laughable but at some points in the past I had Wemo devices attached to some of my SONOS equipment so I could conveniently power cycle it without climbing all around the house to do so. I didn’t come up with a simpler way than that but much of that has disappeared when things were stable in the last year. I would love some kind of monitoring dashboard to know a speaker is consistently losing connection (so I could optimize) or facing some kind of memory fault or other issues so I can take action, replace, etc. I get the point is simplicity so I’m probably in the minority here but… 

Very much value your advice and feedback. Thank you! 

Daily update: The IP reservations are done, the sub G3 is in, installed and functional. I’m surprised at how heavy it is and expect it must be some kind of cast metal or something!  I have SUB questions. I’ll Google, but I’m enjoying the conversation here! 

So the sub is installed behind my couch, which is in a big open space, and the back of the couch is the back of my office area (again open). Think back to back: sitting in the office, my back is toward the couch. Sitting on the couch, my back is toward the office, but they share a virtual line where the back of the couch is up against some open tables under which the sub lives. 

The sub is parallel to the back of my office chair. I’m feeling a little over-thuddy while listening to music in the office, but it seems rather perfect while on the couch listening to TV. So my questions are: 

1. Is there any best practice in sub orientation (parallel/perpendicular) to seating position? For some reason I was thinking changing it 90 degrees would let the air movement move out to the left & right instead of toward me. Of course I’ll try it but I’m interested in other experiences and suggestions/feedback
2. My past sub life experience I had the adjustments for volume and crossover point. I feel like I want to turn down the volume on the sub but not the surrounds, but not turn down the bass. Trying to understand what the bass slider on equalizer is doing exactly compared to two adjustments of volume or crossover point. 
3. Are there any restrictions on sub positioning? Right now I have it upright as designed, but wondered about lying on its side. 
4. Fourth and finally! My Roombas are going to tear up the paint on this thing certainly. Even before I had it powered on and installed it had started gathering dirt particulate from the air. I would guess I won’t go any kind of protection route, but thought about it. 

Thanks all who have so helpfully commented along this journey as I took it from “several years of just Play:1 growth” to adding Fives, 5’s, a sub, a pair of used 3’s, two Beam (regretting two G1’s but it got me through a learning phase) and future thoughts toward fewer 1’s overall and an Arc. 

Cheers!

StarDate January 28, 2022. Discovered that Sub settings stay nested in the Beam collection and not separate. Discovered that “volume” is listed as Sub Audio/ Level under  Sound/Sub Audio, wasn’t scrolling down far enough to find this previously. 

Sub -4 is the sweet spot for my area. Impressed by the range of the sub on the lower end, but not where the crossover is set on the upper end. 

Network has been stable. More 5’s and Fives arrived. Continuing this journey with another pickup of delivery items tonight. 

I honestly believe that those settings for volume of individual speakers has a lot more to do with three things: 1) The room acoustics….each room is slightly different, 2) the kind of things being played….in general I like my explosions loud when I’m watching movies, but less oomph when playing music, and 3) your ears, and opinions. From what I can tell, I’m different than other people and there’s no “this is the ‘right’ setting...it all depends on the individual, or sometimes partner’s approval. 

Along the lines of your point I would really like a setting like we have for surround speakers: ambient sound or full sound during music playback that could automatically throttle the sub a bit during music playback. 

This is a general complaint that I have about all subwoofer setups. At one point a manufacturer provided this capability for a couple years. The subwoofer could sense a video signal and switched setups when playing video. I thought it was a very friendly feature.

So I’m almost done with my loft transformation from all Play:1’s to adding 7 Fives (or Play:5’s) and a sub. The transformation has been remarkable. Hair raising. 

I’m using a Move to balance out a spot in the living room that was missing (missing wash? Is this the term? I’m not sure if I’m yet qualified to use that term correctly...) 

I still am a fan of the center and flank approach in areas that are not a TV: A Five or Play:5 in the middle, flanked by a couple Ones or Play:1’s or Play:3’s. That is a really great balance of sound for me. 

The Fives I’m using as rears near the living room face the office behind the TV so those double as my office setup and a bit below ear level, don’t need the “flank” approach. 

From here at some point in the future I will probably swap my main beam for an Arc, I still have some Ones on the way (in retrospect, probably didn’t need them but will help reduce the Play:1’s I have left) and still yet to install the Beam at the bedroom TV. A bit of a depth issue there with a cubic shelf I don’t want to replace and still imagining other solutions for that area. 

Thank you to EVERYONE who interacted with me on this thread-- every bit was extremely helpful, and especially BUZZ with the very first reply which helped me tremendously in creating several sound environments that please me very very much! Cheers!!!!!!

If you are using a FIVE as the center in a center-flank arrangement, experiment with deploying the FIVE in the vertical orientation.