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How does wifi affect speaker performance?

  • 13 March 2023
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W
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My system includes Sonos speakers connected by ethernet as well as wifi. All too often, some of the wifi speakers furthest from my Orbi router and satellites, drop in and out. I’m considering adding a wifi extender, or worse case, another satellite, to improve stability. Your thoughts on what is best will be appreciated.

My network is an Orbi RBR50 router with three Orbi RBS50 satellites, all ethernet connected to the router. The house is two stories, 5,100 sq feet. Unfortunately, the internet cable comes into an upstairs closet in the southeast corner of the house, about as far as possible from where I want coverage. Satellite 1 is on the second floor about in the middle of the west wall of the house (in other words, the opposite end of the house from the router.) Satellite 2 is on the first floor in the northwest corner of the house. Ethernet connected to it is a Denon receiver with a Sonos Port running non Sonos in-wall home theater speakers. Satellite 3 is also downstairs in the middle of the east wall of the house. I have a Sonos Boost ethernet connected to the router and have set up a 2.4 Ghz Sonos network on the router. All speakers show as ethernet connected even though a Sonos Arc is the only one actually ethernet connected.

There are four pairs of Sonos One’s wifi connected in various downstairs rooms. Three pairs are approximately in the middle of the downstairs, situated between the two downstairs satellites. The main problem is with the kitchen pair in the southwest corner of the house. Once play begins, repeated stop/starts of music happens.

The kitchen pair is 32’ from Satellite 2, a straight shot, no walls in between. I used the Orbi app to assess wifi performance. Standing in front of Satellite 2, I get 84% signal strength -45dBm. This drops to 48% strength, -75dBm when standing in the kitchen by the speakers. I moved one of the two kitchen speakers 12’ closer to Satellite 2, still in the kitchen. Signal strength remained 48% -65dBm. Listening this morning seems to indicate more stability, at least there were no dropouts . 

Not sure if there is an Orbi specific wifi extender I could put in the kitchen, or if a Netgear one would work with Orbi. I’ll ask that on the Netgear user forum. If there is, do you think that would improve performance in the kitchen? While so far, moving one of the two kitchen speakers 12’ closer to Satellite 2 seems to be working, and I’m am ok with the new position, my wife isn’t. 

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Best answer by Stanley_4 13 March 2023, 19:17

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7 replies

Stanley_4
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You don’t say what Sonos you have, here or in your profile so I can’t give you a great answer.

If you have your Boost wired all other Sonos, except Roam and Move, should be connecting to it and not your WiFi. Note that the new 100 and 300 may complicate this.

Extenders are a bad idea for Sonos use but since your Sonos shouldn’t be using the WiFi anyway it may not matter. Another router hub also wouldn’t be used by Sonos.

You might want to wait for an issue and send Sonos a Diagnostic, then ask them to look at it. By phone is best but posting here is an option.

You might check this: https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/reduce-wireless-interference

W
Userlevel 1
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Thanks for the reply.

I’ve ruled out an extender based on replies in the Orbi user forum. The problem Sonos speakers are Sonos Ones, as are the speakers not having problems. All show as ethernet connected, I assume, because they are in the 2.4 Ghz network created by the Boost, which is ethernet connected to the router.  

Pretty certain the issue is distance from the problem speakers to the closest satellite. Moving one of them 12’ closer to the satellite seems to have corrected the problem. So far today, no dropouts.

Fingers crossed.

buzz

You can introduce a wireless BOOST about midway between good and poor coverage areas. For testing purposes you can move a wireless player to this proposed location. BOOST uses the same radios as the players.

Today’s successful test indicates this trial location is a potential BOOST location.

W
Userlevel 1
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If you’re saying I can connect Boost wirelessly instead of ethernet connected to the router, I didn’t know that. If that’s it, would a wireless Boost still make the 2.4 Ghz connection necessary for the Sonos devices? I thought it had to be ethernet. Would it be ethernet if I connect Boost via ethernet to one of the downstair satellites, which is ethernet connected to the router? Not sure it’s necessary but can there be more than one Boost in the network?

Airgetlam

The BOOST is a SonosNet extender, not a wifi extender. It will take any SonosNet signal from your wired speakers and extend it further. It will not extend your Orbi network. 

You can have one BOOST or speaker wired, to generate the SonosNet signal, the unwired BOOST will extend that signal, if it is in range. 

Bruce
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Thanks for the reply, Bruce. I have a couple of questions to make sure I understand you.

I have a Boost ethernet connected to the router at the east end of the 2nd floor, as far from where I need coverage as possible. Not my choice; that’s where the internet comes into the house. At the west end 2nd floor, I have a Sonos Arc ethernet connected through an Orbi satellite, which is ethernet connected to the router. The problem has been Sonos Ones in the kitchen directly below the room with the Arc. They rely on wifi. I’ve moved one of them around a bit and things seem fairly stable now. But I’ve thought that before only to find it wasn’t.

If I understand you correctly, I could add a second Boost ethernet connected to the satellite directly above the kitchen, the one connected to the Arc. If so, that should improve the signal for Sonos below. I realize that some connectivity will be lost going through the floor, but it might be better than what I have now. 

Airgetlam

Juts for clarity, when you say a “Boost ethernet”, we’re talking about a Sonos BOOST, correct? That is what should be connected to the router, if so. 

Sonos doesn’t like being connected to extenders in general. I’m not sure about the Orbi in particular, while I own one, I’ve never taken the step to install it (moved after purchase, no longer really need it, plus it was a gift). Some work, some don’t, it’s often up to how the network extender is designed, and the way the software is configured. What I do know is that Sonos needs to be on a single subnet, from a networking perspective, and many “mesh” routers split up the different extenders on different subnets. Which is why Sonos points out that they’re not compatible with extenders in their FAQ.  

If your Sonos BOOST is working, it’s possible that the Sonos is vacillating between the connection to the Orbi Satellite and the SonosNet signal being generated from the BOOST. I’d certainly try disconnecting, at least temporarily, that Arc’s ethernet connection to the secondary Orbi, and see how the Arc reacts. I suspect, if distances and wifi obstructions aren’t too much, it shouldn’t react at all, after the initial swap. It should be reinforcing the SonosNet mesh at that point, so any connections to “downstairs” should be better. 

If, and I stress that “if”, you have a second BOOST, or even any Sonos device that you could put halfway between the current position of your wired BOOST and the Arc, that might help, well, boost the signal (this is why Sonos’ naming conventions irk the heck out of me) . But by having the BOOST wired to your router, you are creating the SonosNet (one of the earliest) mesh networks. If you don’t have a Roam or Move (and eventually, an Era 100 or Era 300), then you could, and probably should remove the wifi / network information from your Sonos system, so that it’s only relying on SonosNet, and has no confusing knowledge about a secondary network that it can be waffling between. The software is designed, to my knowledge, to grab the least “expensive” path between the speaker and the router. If, and again I stress that word “if”, you are presenting two opportunities for connection, your system could be switching back and forth, and potentially give a reason for a slight pause when doing so, depending on the network status at that moment. Better to have a single path, until that can be proven not to work, and remove any possibilities of confusion. 

As a side note, when I was in a similar position with ethernet coming in nowhere near the “center” of my home for Sonos purposes, I put the BOOST on a long ethernet cable running from my router, to get it in a much more favorable position for the house. The BOOST does not have to be “near” the router, beyond it shouldn’t be within around 3 feet for interference purposes, but it can be as far as an ethernet cable can reach. I happened to be using a 50 foot cable, although it was more around 30 feet of actual distance, and because I was able to run a cable without breaking in to walls or tripping over it. That type of situation won’t exist for everyone, however. And if you have a secondary one, as long as the first is wired, the second doesn’t need to be, it will accept the SonosNet signal, and re-amplify it.

Bruce
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