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Hello everyone,

In this article, I’d like to delve into some key terminologies used in the Sonos ecosystem. Understanding these terms will significantly enhance your experience with obtaining help here on the Community, and help you navigate and use your Sonos system more effectively.

For each, I’ve included some points that address some commonly-held misconceptions.

Rooms

A “room” is a singly-addressable area in the Sonos app. It may be one speaker, two speakers, two speakers and a Sub/Sub Mini, or a whole surround sound setup. Importantly, each room can only play one source at a time, and all equaliser or TruePlay settings (and others) apply to the entire room.

The largest room possible (barring the new Zones feature) is one with one soundbar, two Subs, and two surround speakers. You cannot add front speakers to a soundbar - it already contains drivers for playing those channels.

Each room get’s it’s own name, which can be changed at any time in the room’s settings.

Rooms can be added to Groups.

If needed, you can have multiple Sonos Rooms in a single physical room (meaning a room in your home - the usual definition), but there is no way to delineate this in the app, short of using appropriate room names (like “Livingroom TV” and “Livingroom Music”).

AIOs

All-in-One. Any Sonos speaker that is self-contained and can operate without any additional devices (unlike a Port or Amp). This term is mostly used internally - users tend to say “speaker”.

Player

A Player in the Sonos ecosystem is any Sonos device that can play audio. This includes AIO (All In One) speakers like Sonos Eras, sound-bars like Sonos Beam, and components like Amp. Players can be bonded or paired to others depending on your needs (Amp and Port cannot be paired).

Sub & Sub Mini are not considered Players as they cannot play a source by themselves.

Controller

Controllers are the devices used to manage your Sonos system, as in, a device running one of the Sonos apps - this could be your smartphone, tablet, or computer. This term was also used for dedicated devices that existed before smartphones became a thing (now obsolete). The controller allows you to adjust settings, create groups, add music services, and more, providing complete control over your audio experience.

There is also the new Web App, which is a web-based controller that allows control and some configuration of your Sonos system from anywhere you can access the internet. It is not designed for smaller screens like those on phones.

Grouping/Groups

Grouping allows you to link multiple Sonos Rooms together, enabling them to play the same audio simultaneously across those multiple Rooms. This feature is ideal for parties or for creating a seamless audio experience throughout your home.

Music playing across grouped speakers will always play in sync, but TV audio may be out of sync on other, grouped-in rooms (your soundbar will prefer to stay in sync with the TV picture rather than other rooms).

If you have 3 or more rooms in your system, you can save a group so it can be remade easily later. There is an automatic group of “everywhere”, which is why group saving is not available if you have only 2 rooms.

Bonding

Bonding refers to the process of connecting a Sonos Sub/Sub Mini or pair of Sonos speakers with a Sonos soundbar like Beam, Arc, or Ray, or, connecting a Sub/Sub Mini to a solo speaker or to a stereo pair. When bonded, the devices work together in a single Room to create an enhanced audio experience with richer, deeper sound.

This bonding is semi-permanent, as in, it can be undone, but takes enough re-configuration that you would not want to do so on a daily basis.

Pairing/Stereo Pair

Pairing involves connecting two (near) identical Sonos speakers to play stereo sound. For example, you can pair two Sonos Era 100 speakers to create a left and right stereo setup, offering a more immersive listening experience. Such a setup is typically referred to as a “stereo pair” after the fact.

Note that the restriction is due to us wanting to preserve the best audio experience. Only audibly identical speakers (like a Sonos One and a Sonos One SL, or two identical speakers) can be paired.

This pairing is also semi-permanent, as in, it can be undone, but takes enough re-configuration that you would not want to do so on a daily basis.

Zones

A Zone is a configuration where multiple speakers play together for easier control in the Sonos app. Zones can be created, edited, and removed easily in the Sonos app. A Zone of any number of speakers will show as a single Room in the Sonos app, and has the setting and features of a Room, barring TruePlay Tuning, which is not available for a Zone.

Zones offer a semi-permanent configuration of a number of speakers, controlled as if it were a single speaker, similar to a stereo pair. The feature was initially created for Sonos Pro installations and was ported over to home systems, so it does have more commercial uses in mind, but can be used to create a more customised setup.

For more information in regards to Zones check our Community thread Welcome the new zones feature and Support page Set up a zone for multiple Sonos products.

System/Household

The term System in the Sonos context refers to the complete setup of Sonos products connected to your network. Your system includes all the players, controllers, and other Sonos devices working together to provide a seamless audio experience.

Internally, we also use the term “Household” interchangeably with “System”.

It is possible to have multiple systems/Households in different locations on one Sonos account, and to have a S1 and a S2 system/household on the same network concurrently.

A single Sonos speaker (if on it’s own) is a system. However, if you add a second speaker (or even a sound bar, Sub and surrounds), you are not creating a new system - you are adding to the existing system.

Creating a new system in the Sonos app when you already have a system creates problems - please try to avoid this! When you purchase additional Sonos products, never opt to “Set up a new System”.

Disable WiFi

This is often misunderstood, so I’m adding it here despite it not really being terminology per se. This setting is to entirely disable the internal radio on a Sonos Player. 

As such, it should never be used on a unit that will be bonded to other units. As a result, it is a particularly bad idea to disable the radio on a Home Theatre primary device (like a soundbar).

This setting is really only intended for when there are multiple players in very close proximity to each other - like when putting multiple Amps in a rack, for example. If you are not a professional installer, you probably should not be using this setting.

Summary

Hopefully you now understand why I have written this article - when you can have one system with three groups each containing two rooms, one with one player, and another with two, it is important when asking (or answering) a question that we all know what we are each saying.

I hope this glossary of terms helps you get the most out of your Sonos system. For more detailed information on some of the terms or points made, feel free to explore our support articles or reach out to our community forum at large (the Info Hub is a good place to start).

Experienced Sonos users - if I have missed anything you think should be added here, please comment below. Though, this article is intended as an introductory guide so please do not reference any current issues.

Thank you for choosing Sonos!

I hope this helps.

Corry P

 

updated 12/8/25

 

Gonna be linking to that “Disable WiFi” a lot.

Remember the good old days when Sonos had Zones and houses had rooms? (Arrrgghhh)

Thanks for the clear breakdown of Sonos terminology! Understanding the differences between rooms, groups, and bonding definitely helps when setting up and troubleshooting the system.

Needs updating for Zones. Zones in the new sense of the word, not the original use (which is now Groups).

Hi ​@controlav 

This article was written after the introduction of the new Zones feature and does not need updated.

The article starts describing ‘A “room” is a singly-addressable zone in the Sonos app. It may be one speaker…’

Then for section on Zones it states ‘A Zone is a configuration where multiple speakers play together for easier control in the Sonos app.’

A room with one speaker is not a zone according to the given definition of zones.

Hi ​@Mr. T 

Good find!

I think I wrote that part before Zones were added. I’ll make some changes.

Also: Saved Groups (with names) are known as Areas. Though I don’t believe this terminology is currently exposed in any UX.

I’ve mentioned this before, but why does a ‘Room’ appear as a ‘Speaker’ icon in the App? Now with the (1) next to the ‘Speaker’, it could cause potential confusion, eg a single ungrouped room with multiple bonded HT speakers, would appear as a single speaker icon with (1) next to it.

I would put money on a new user not familiar with Sonos terminology and the Sonos App, would initially think there is one new notification on a speaker, eg update for one speaker/player, and try to click on the icon.

Hi ​@craigski 

I can’t say I know.

However, as tapping on said icon takes a user to the grouping screen, I personally don’t understand all the confusion over it.

I’ll admit that (in my opinion) it is somewhat superfluous to have a number there when there is not a group of 2 or more rooms.

Having said all that, I don’t think that this is an appropriate place to give that particular piece of feedback, as it has nothing to do with terminology. A new feature request thread asking to have the number removed from the icon when there is no group would be the best way to go about it - please feel free to do so, and I’ll feed it back to the relevant teams for consideration.

I hope this helps.

 

My main point was consistency of the terminology, I understand it has evolved over time. The App uses a ‘Speaker’ icon that in the above terminology is a ‘Room’, the App user guide refers to ‘Speaker’ or ‘Product’ or ‘Output’ not ‘Room’

 

 

Also, notice the user guide doesn't display (1) for ungrouped Room/Speaker/Product, but does display (2) when grouped?

Should the App be consistent with Sonos Terminology, or the Sonos Terminology be consistent with the App? Not a big issue for me, but you did ask for feedback in your original post. I don’t mind if ignored, most of my posts are. 😀

My main point was consistency of the terminology, I understand it has evolved over time. The App uses a ‘Speaker’ icon that in the above terminology is a ‘Room’, the App user guide refers to ‘Speaker’ or ‘Product’ or ‘Output’ not ‘Room’

 

 

Also, notice the user guide doesn't display (1) for ungrouped Room/Speaker/Product, but does display (2) when grouped?

Should the App be consistent with Sonos Terminology, or the Sonos Terminology be consistent with the App? Not a big issue for me, but you did ask for feedback in your original post. I don’t mind if ignored, most of my posts are. 😀

 

Sorry ​@craigski - did you say something? 
 

(Someone had to do it… 😜)

Hi ​@craigski 

That’s a fair point, and my response is that the person who thought of putting that icon (whatever the icon turned out to be iconic of) has likely never read this thread and perhaps never will. The same goes for the author of the manuals. In fact, I’d be surprised if any Sonos staff other than those that work on the Community and a few Tier 1 support agents are even aware of it existing.

This thread is a guide for new Community users to using standard terms already in use by both staff and community members. It is not a bible of Sonos terms that our developers or UI element designers must abide by in any way whatsoever. It is largely to prevent people from saying “zone” when they mean “room”, or “system” when they mean a soundbar + surrounds (which an occurrence of actually prompted me to write this guide in the first place), which can slow down the process of getting help to a person who needs it, be it from other Community members like yourself, or from staff, like me.

Regardless of whether a room is called a room, a zone, a product, an output, or an area, I think all are fairly difficult to depict in a universally-understandable way with iconography, unlike a speaker, which is, I feel, very easy to depict in such a way. It does not seem a strange choice to me

As for the comments regarding the product manuals, I was not personally aware of the use of “Output”, nor of the differences with the icons. And, while “room” may not be used in the manual, it is certainly used in the App and in general discourse, including with the technical support team. My assumption would be that the manual (or at least that screenshot within it) was written/created before the code and icons were finalised, and no-one spotted the discrepancy before you did. Thanks for flagging - I’ll feed this back, and presumably either the icons in the app or the manual’s screenshots will be changed (I know which I’d like to see changed).

I don’t mind if ignored, most of my posts are. 😀

Sorry to hear that! We moderators only get involved in a thread if a) it seems no-one else will, or b) it seems appropriate that we do so to convey information that may not be forthcoming from other sources.

If you specifically want to hear from one of us, you can ​@craigski us and we will very likely reply (unless on holiday, or if we think you might be trolling 😉).

I hope this helps.

My main point was consistency of the terminology, I understand it has evolved over time. The App uses a ‘Speaker’ icon that in the above terminology is a ‘Room’, the App user guide refers to ‘Speaker’ or ‘Product’ or ‘Output’ not ‘Room’

 

 

So what would an icon representing a ‘room’ look like?  My guess is that use of the speaker icon isn’t a mistake, but the best representation they could come up with given the limited space to deal with,  You could maybe argue that it would better to have an unrelated icon, say a musical note, or just a number, but I doubt that would be more intuitive to the user.

Honestly, I don’t see much use for the icon personally.  I’ve never really wanted to know how many rooms are in a group, just what rooms are in the group.

Regardless of whether a room is called a room, a zone, a product, an output, or an area, I think all are fairly difficult to depict in a universally-understandable way with iconography, unlike a speaker, which is, I feel, very easy to depict in such a way. It does not seem a strange choice to me

 I was going to be rather pedantic, and I guess I will be now, and say that none of current Sonos speakers/devices/products have the classic single tweeter on top, single woofer on bottom layout matching the speaker icon.

Hi ​@melvimbe 

I’m going to be even more pedantic and say that if the tweeter dot and woofer circle was not there, it would no longer be an icon of a speaker.

Honestly, I don’t see much use for the icon personally.  I’ve never really wanted to know how many rooms are in a group, just what rooms are in the group.

Agree. If there is no icon, there will be no conflict with the “Community Glossary” and the official Sonos User Guide.

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