Avid Contributor III

high-end router or Sonos boost?

13 replies
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Hello again Sonos comrades.

I was just wondering if somebody more technical than myself could speak to whether it's better to use a top-of-the-line wi-fi router or a Sonos boost. Or if there is any benefit to using both together.

I recently came into possession of a Netgear router with WiFi 6 capability and high throughput. I am pretty sure it's the best you can get on the consumer market before getting into industrial routers.

I got it because have some WiFi weak zones in my home caused by a dense brick chimney that runs through the middle of my house. This causes some of my sonos speakers to drop out or disappear.

Currently I am still using 2 Sonos boosts with the new router and I think I have seen a marginal improvement in performance quality. But its certainly not been the panacea I was hoping for; especially for the price I paid for the router.

My question is, would I be better off without the Sonos boosts? Is it possible the boosts themselves are impeding the potential of the router? Like are the Sonos speakers actively seeking out the signal from the Boost rather than the Netgear router, and thereby choosing the suboptimal signal?

Or would these devices work collaboratively to create more coverage?

Furthermore, my primary boost is sat right next to my router as it has to be wired in. Would it be better to spead them out? The ethernet cable Sonos provides with the boost is only 2m long. Worth getting a longer one?

Any thought on this?

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Show previous replies

buzz

Grand Maestro

Typically, one BOOST is wired to the network and should be spaced at least a couple feet from any other WiFi devices.

If any SONOS device is wired to the network the whole SONOS crew (except MOVE and ROAM) will switch to SonosNet, the SONOS private mesh. BOOST uses the same radio as the players. The audio section has been deleted from BOOST in order to reduce costs. BOOST is typically used in situations where the wired network connection is in a location that you do not want to sit a SONOS player. In difficult situations, such as yours, you can use multiple wired or wireless BOOSTS to improve wireless coverage. A wireless BOOST should be placed about midway between a good coverage area and the problem area. If the BOOST is wireless it is easy to experiment with different locations.

Stanley_4

Grand Maestro

To experiment grab a long extension so you can move it around and not have to put up with the startup delay.

I bought a 100 foot Ethernet cable for the same reason, I can just walk stuff around, sit it down and run my tests.

Airgetlam

One minor caveat to buzz’s post...a Sonos device that is “bonded” to a Sonos sound bar connects to a 5Ghz signal created by that sound bar, and not the SonosNet signal. It’s an extremely minor difference, but the sound bar would connect to SonosNet, the surrounds and subs would connect to the sound bar in a normal configuration.

Bruce

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