The data travels from the router to the BRIDGE, then to any of the Sonos PLAY:5s via SonosNet, and each one, I believe, assuming that the ‘radio’ is not turned off, gets the signal via the lowest ‘cost’ router. Normally, that should be via cabling, but should for some reason, SonoNet have a lower ‘cost’, it would accept the signal that way.

For what it’s worth, I’d seriously consider retiring the BRIDGE at this point, before it goes bad and causes a headache. Either wire one of your PLAY:5s, or put your Wi-Fi data into the Sonos controller before you retire the BRIDGE, so the PLAY:5s are on your local Wi-Fi signal.

Minor edit.., there is only one generation of the BRIDGE. The newer, better, faster replacement device is the BOOST, which also supports S2 (although that’s not significant to you…but it’s a lot better even in an S1 system).

Thank you Bruce for the detailed reply!

In summary;

Remove the BRIDGE, replace with BOOST.

Should I still leave the Play 5's connected to each other via Cat 5 cable or is this a waste of time?

It surely is an exotic way of connecting Sonos! Why don’t you just try? And post the results here….

True! Will do and report back.