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Sorry,this turned into an essay but I wanted to get everything covered.

Some background  -

I have an issue in that I live in a large(ish) concrete block of apartments in the business centre of large city and our flat is over three floors. The block is put together like an Escher painting so most rooms are surrounded on 2 or 3 sides but somebody else's apartment.  One floor is one on side of the block and the other two are on the opposite side.  The top floor is the master bedroom suite and this is where we having most issues.

Our current Sonos system is throughout the flat.  We have 6 Play:1s (alls in a pairs), a pair of Ones (Gen 1), a port and an AMP (upgraded as part of the deal that Sonos offered from older generations.  i’m currently running S2 and it’s automatically updating currently to 12.2.1 according to the app) 

As you can imagine the interference is a nightmare both from the neighbours but also from the surrounding public wifi services and it would fairly standard to see 12 other SSID and I suspect others not advertising.  Most of the time it’s just about ok but I do have continuing issues with the pair of Play 1s.  I’m running an RBK50 Orbi mesh with an extender. it’s at the latest version of their firmware.  I’ve tried playing with the channel and leaving it on ‘auto’. I do plan on moving to 6ghz (6e) when the mesh systems starting supporting it rather than just 6  The internet is running FTTP at 1ghz with around 2ms ping.  Due to the spread out nature of the flat I’m not using Sonosnet as I couldn't get it to work when I extended the system beyond the bottom floor.

 

The problem

Constantly we get drops outs in the master bedroom playing sources from the internet (mainly Radio - from tune in, Sonos Radio or Radioplayer) and have frequent issues with ‘cannot connect to this Sonos Product in the app) and occasionally the master bedroom disappearing.   The wifi can be variable but my wife has been working on a laptop up there and 5ghz while not rock solid is very reliable. 

My Proposed Solution

Now that Sonos are supporting 5ghz I’m thinking of replacing the play 1s with a Five (or If I’m feeling flush a pair of Fives) but I’m concerned. I can see that AMP I have for the bathroom is still connecting at 2.4ghz. I’m concerned that the Five(s) will do the same and if I have the same problems I currently have after spending 500/1000 I’ll be rather upset.  It’s closer to the Orbi Sattelite so that may be factor.


So a couple of questions :

should it be connected at 5ghz and can I force it to? 

Does anybody have any better suggestions to solve my woes.

I can see that AMP I have for the bathroom is still connecting at 2.4ghz. I’m concerned that the Five(s) will do the same and if I have the same problems I currently have after spending 500/1000 I’ll be rather upset.  It’s closer to the Orbi Sattelite so that may be factor.


So a couple of questions :

should it be connected at 5ghz and can I force it to? 

No, Amp doesn’t support 5GHz WiFi. Those which do:

  • One (Gen 2)
  • One SL
  • Port
  • Five
  • Sub (Gen 3)
  • Move

Possibly home theatre players -- of which Amp is one -- reserve their 5GHz radios for local connection to surrounds/Sub. 

@banjax, Switching back to SonosNet isn’t an option?

@banjax, Switching back to SonosNet isn’t an option?

Unless things have changed dramatically since the days of the bridge I don’t think so.   I did try but the mesh doesn’t work from upstairs to downstairs.

 

The bottom floor wouldn’t reach the next floor as it’s along a corridor and just doesn’t reach so I’d end up with two separate systems.   I had the same problem with zigbee and Hue.  When I changed the lighting fittings and put HUE bulbs (which act as Zigbee repeaters) along that corridor I could run it as one system but before that, I needed to run it as two separate systems. 

 

@banjax, Switching back to SonosNet isn’t an option?

Unless things have changed dramatically since the days of the bridge I don’t think so.   I did try but the mesh doesn’t work from upstairs to downstairs.

The bottom floor wouldn’t reach the next floor as it’s along a corridor and just doesn’t reach so I’d end up with two separate systems.   I had the same problem with zigbee and Hue.  When I changed the lighting fittings and put HUE bulbs (which act as Zigbee repeaters) along that corridor I could run it as one system but before that, I needed to run it as two separate systems. 

 

<snip>

No, Amp doesn’t support 5GHz WiFi. Those which do:

Sorry, that’s me not checking closely enough.  Saw the Port and my brain must have added  Amp to the list as I bought them at the same time.


Maybe I just need to bite the bullet order a Fives and prove it within the 100-day returns window.

 

I wish I had somewhere to put the Play 1s though.  The only place I don’t have wired is the loo and that has no power outlets.

A couple of points:

  • The Sonos Bridge is obsolete and things have definitely moved on. Bridge was SonosNet 1.0. Boost is SonosNet 2.0, with much better wireless. And latest player models are better still in terms of wireless strength.
  • ZigBee/Hue sits in the same 2.4GHz band as WiFi/SonosNet, and is known to introduce potential interference (and vice versa) if channels aren’t assigned carefully. 
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