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I have a Sonos Play 5 Gen 1, and always thought the sound was superb.

I recently tried streaming a Led Zeppelin track (Stairway to Heaven) and realised that the right hand channel has little to no sound. (That track is very good when testing stereo sound since the guitar and flute on the opening sequence are completely separated with the guitar on the left stereo channel and the flute on the right).

So, my Play 5 Gen 1 has very low output on the right channel. Almost silent but not quite. The left side speaker sounds fine as does the bass.

I’ve yet to open it up, and I am an electronics engineer so a repair should be relatively straightforward if I can locate the faulty item. Has anyone else had this? Is it likely to be the amp that is faulty more than the speaker, or the preamp rather than the power amp? Just trying to get some ideas before I tear it down.

 

I’m not using it as a pair with another speaker, it is stand alone and one channel of its own internal speakers is what is not working.

Have you checked the ‘balance’ slider in the EQ settings - mentioned, just in case.🤷‍♂️ Also have you tried breaking apart the stereo pair and pairing them the other way around, to see what difference, if any, that swapping over the channels makes to the output on the same speaker?


Ah please ignore the above, I now see it’s not stereo ‘paired’ speakers, my mistake.


Hi, and thanks for replying. I only have one Sonos device, the Play 5 G1, so the faulty channel is the internal stereo “right” side. I have used the balance slider, which is how I found the issue, while sliding all the way right while music is playing, that side is almost silent and the left side when slid all the way left, is fine.


I am certain this is a fault, so anyone wanting to check this, play “stairway to heaven” original by Led Zeppelin as the guitar and flute are on full stereo separation so it is really obvious if one is missing.


I’ve raised a fault ticket and have to do a diagnostic when I get home from work, lets see what that shows. I also found a good video showing how to dismantle the unit so when I attempt a repair, that will come in handy. I wish consumer goods would supply schematics, especially for older items that are no longer in production.

 

I just can’t find any posts on this particular fault mode.


I’ve not seen any like this, to my memory. 

The minor concern is that the moment you open up the speaker, you lose out on potential assistance from Sonos, at the least in terms of any potential discount, which is often dependent on the age of the device. 

There’s a group of people who post here in Troubleshooting, or perhaps “advanced” that have popped open their speakers, but Sonos neither supplies parts for repair, nor do they publish schematics. Nor do they have an authorized repair network.  


Thank you, that all makes perfect sense. I expect I would either repair this myself using components from RS or write it off and wait till another used one came along as they are so expensive the the Fun Prevention Officer would likely put her foot down on my buying a new one.

If anyone on the forum sees this thread and has any tips on tracing the potential faulty circuit or component, I would appreciate that info. I am an electronics engineer by trade so the repair and fault finding is not so much of a problem, but a pointer to “its usually the power amp” or “check c17 on the preamp” etc was the kind of info I was hoping for.

When the EQ is slid all the way right, there is still bass, but little to no treble sound (very faint and muffled) so I suspect it is the power amp driver circuit to the right hand speaker that holds the key, may only be a decoupling cap or something like that. I’ve seen those go bad on other systems leading to DC getting to the speaker and holding it in or out, damping the sound to a very low level. Though there is usually a noticeable thump or crack from the speaker when this happens on power-up, the Sonos Play 5 is silent when powered on so the issue may be further back in the preamp.


Replacing speakers isn’t just matching the size and finding a proper replacement to keep tyhe same sound quality can be hard.

I’d ask Sonos sales (call them) nicely if they could get you a lower price on a replacement.

If you really want to open it up and try replacing bits ebay has a fair selection of parts-only deals on Sonos gear.


Hi

Found your post looking for this same problem. But my problem is with a Sonos connect.

It's playing very low (but still something!) On the right speaker. Left speaker is normal. 

It's not the speaker because I have this same problem on any speaker I send music to. And also, if I invert the cables I get the inverse problem, meaning low sound on the left instead and normal on the right.

It's not the Amp, i mean there is no Amp on a sonos connect, and i have tried sending music via 3 different amps.

One more info, I had very high popping and disturbance in the speakers with this sonos connect, actually impossible to use it, and I "fixed it" by changing the caps. But since then throw sound issue is there.

If you are an electronics engineer and have any good ideas what else to loom for if be happy to hear. Anyway if you have the same problem as me perhaps it's worth something to you that it might NOT be the speaker and not the Amp for you either

Carl