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Hi

I am considering new Era 100’s as a pair.

Their first use would be at a party in a rented house, where we might not have access to wifi, so I thought as they are bluetooth they’d be ideal, no hassles with wifi, just play direct to them. We only have older Play 1’s which cannot be used on a guest network, so I understand.

The question is when you play music via bluetooth, or say through the wired dongle, when the speakers are not on a wifi network…. can you create a pair, or stereo pair, in bluetooth?

Thanks

No. A stereo pair requires them to be connected to a LAN, so they can ‘talk’ to each other. 

Hi Bruce

Thanks for this. So to expand, are you saying…

BLUETOOTH OPTION

• Connect to guest wifi network
• Create stereo pair - if this works on guest wifi
• Then stream via bluetooth / or cable to them?

OR

GUEST WIFI OPTION

• Will ERA 100s work on a guest wifi network, with the sonos app, therefore not needing to Bluetooth?

My whole issue was I was told Play 1’s won’t work on a guest network easily, hence gewtting new ERA’s

Thanks

Guest WiFi options are pretty risky. A guest WiFi isolates clients, so they can only talk to the internet, and not other devices on the network, generally speaking. Which means while each speaker could reach ‘outside’, they wouldn’t be able to see each other, and set up that stereo pair. This is why you were told the PLAY:1s wouldn’t work, and why the Era 100s won’t work. It has to do with the type of WiFi network the speakers are connecting to, not the type of speakers.

There are a small number of Android devices that allow you to set up a Bluetooth pair, the rest of us are only allowed to ‘pair’ a single Bluetooth device at a time with our phones/tablets/desktops, as we don’t have the internal electronics necessary.

If you were able to connect the Era 100 pair to the regular WiFi network, rather than a guest network, and connect your controller (phone) as well, you’d be golden. But your chances, when using a ‘guest’ WiFi network, is slim, unless it really isn’t a true ‘guest’ network as defined by the router, but just a regular network set up for guest use. 

If it were me (and it often is), I wouldn’t carry the second device, and just live with the ‘stereo’ signal being sent to a single Sonos speaker. Which for me is a Roam, but I don’t find, when traveling, I have much time for any serious music listening, and am merely trying to fill a room with music. Stereo separation really isn’t important for me, at that point. 

 

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