When will 5Ghz work?

  • 28 January 2017
  • 54 replies
  • 37589 views

Hi, anyone know if 5G will work on Sonos?
Thanks

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54 replies

It depends what you mean by 5G. If you mean the 5GHz wifi band then Sonos components only connect to 2.4GHz. It will be OK to have controller devices connect over 5GHz if your router bridges between the two bands or if you have a wired Sonos component
Userlevel 6
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If you mean the 5GHz wifi band then Sonos components only connect to 2.4GHz.

I'd just like to clarify that while wireless setup can only connect to 2.4Ghz, newer devices (Play:3 onwards chronologically) do support the 5Ghz band and it's used when a Boost is present and/or for home theatre surrounds.
This is my third attempt to get a reply through some stupid filter on this site. No idea how many will eventually appear. Yes there is 5GHz capability. Sonos currently makes no use of your router's 5GHz band
Qualification to previoous post. Controllers can connect via 5GHz if Sonos is in Boost mode or router bridges the two bands
Userlevel 7
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This is my third attempt to get a reply through some stupid filter on this site. No idea how many will eventually appear. Yes there is 5GHz capability. Sonos currently makes no use of your router's 5GHz band

Two of them went through, but I deleted them for you.
Userlevel 1
Is there any road map for using 5G band WiFi to connect? I have so many networks in my neighborhood that 2.4 has become pretty much unusable. 5G works like a charm. I don't userstand why the play speakers would not use this band when they can receive it.
Userlevel 5
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The issue with 5G is that while it allows faster communication speeds, it simply does not allow for a strong signal at distance... the signal attenuates far faster.

Using it for 5.1 works for Sonos, because it is faster so reduces lag, but also a 5.1 Audio setup typically will have components that are in close proximity with fewer barriers between the devices (like walls).
If you put your Sonos in Boost mode by connecting one device to your router, both 2.4 and 5 GHz WiFi will be able to connect and control Sonos.
Userlevel 1
So.. It will only use my 5G WiFi if I connect it with a cable? Makes sense 🙂
@Sonos engineers, seriously, get on this, please? This should be a trivial software update. I'm about to throw it out because 2.4G is hardly usable and there's a pristine 5G band waiting to be used.
Not so trivial. How do does the software decide which band to use? What if there's some older equipment in the system that can't use the 5Ghz band? How will this impact the "plug and play" crowd who are trying to have a 100m span between speakers?

At the end of the day, there are a lot of factors involved in taking such a decision. And I suspect that it's not a "trivial" one at all.
Userlevel 1
Well the entire WiFi would be on 5G, so that shouldn't be too hard. If the WiFi is 5G, connect to it.
So.. It will only use my 5G WiFi if I connect it with a cable? Makes sense 🙂
.
OK I'll treat it as a joke, but that clearly isn't what was said. Is your Sonos actually working or not? I have used Sonos in an apartment where there were at least a dozen competing 2.4GHz networks. No issues. But I'm sure Sonos will be grateful for your expert insights. 🙂
Userlevel 1
I looked up boost mode and it said that I would need to connect one player with an ethernet cable. So was not too serious but it does seem a bit weird.
Sonos does work, bit sluggish sometimes, but Chromecast, phone, and working on laptop is very spotty so would like to switch to 5G (badly), but then my sonos wouldn't work anymore while it has perfectly fine 5G connectivity.
It isn't odd. Sonos was originally designed to pass data over its own, dedicated mesh network segment, built for audio transport. You then have two separate segments to your LAN, one SonosNet, the other Wifi. A wired component bridges the two segments. Wiring one player is a decision to use SonosNet.
Userlevel 1
Ok guess I'll try that. Thx!
And if that comes as news to you, you are hardly qualified to advise Sonos on networking matters 🙂
Don't place the wired component too close to the router, and if necessary play around with the Sonos channel setting (only options are 2.4GHz I'm afraid). You want it on a different channel from your router.
Userlevel 5
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Gjvdkamp,

Recommendation: go ahead and get a router that can handle a 5ghz band. While you are out, get a Sonos Boost wifi unit to allow the creation of the separate SonosNet channel. Then you can nicely use 5ghz channel for the devices you want to use like computer, etc... And you can set SonosNet to use the lowest noise 2.4Ghz channel. This way you alleviate a number of problems for yourself and reduce your own locally generated 2.4Ghz channel noise - freeing up the space for the Sonos units.

Asking Sonos to enable 5Ghz as if it is a 'simple' update .... well, you provide a seriously uncharatible characterization of the intelligence of the engineering team at Sonos that seems entirely unwarranted. Sonos does leverage 5Ghz where they have identified it is valuable and useful. I'm confident that Sonos were to let people set a 5Ghz channel, the complaints of poor performance would skyrocket since many people simply do not understand that 5Ghz is *not* 'better'. In fact, for wanting to ensure a stable system, for most environments, 2.4Ghz is the better band to use... at the moment... until whatever is next comes along..
Userlevel 1
Ok ok sorry people did not mean to be condescending in any way, love your stuff! Just when I switch the WiFi to 5Ghz most devices work, except sonos which isn't the oldest or cheapest.. Figured it wouldn't have to be that hard but apparently it's harder than it seems at first glance. Think I'll connect one of the play:1's to the router and if that doesn't fly get a boost.
Sounds a good plan. And actually Sonos units going back to the earliest days (about 13 years) are still going strong, so in tech terms that's quite old. Sonos have a great record of trying to avoid making their gear obsolete, and that predates 5GHz domestic routers. Maybe that is a factor here, I don't know. But as @SHARTB8T says, if it were trivial and desirable Sonos would have done it.

I hope you find a solution that works really well for you.

Finally, to pick up the point @jgatie was making, with a wired component you can be sure that you can connect Sonos controller devices over 5GHz, because the wire will bridge from 5GHz wifi to 2.4GHz SonosNet. Some routers will bridge the two bands anyway, but not all will do so.
sonos engineers could add an option to use 5ghz. somewhere deep in settings to avoid unintened use by pnp users. this would solve most if not all issues discussed here. why not, Sonos?
Probably because they want to maintain compatibility with the devices that were made before the 5Ghz wifi cards were available or cheap enough to include.
well, just spent $700 on a playbar, but to make it work i need to spend another $100 to BOOST existing WIFI 'down' to 2.6. only an engineer would appreciate this, NO ONE ELSE. Just as bad as APPLE, buy this to make our product work for you.
well, just spent $700 on a playbar, but to make it work i need to spend another $100 to BOOST existing WIFI 'down' to 2.6. only an engineer would appreciate this, NO ONE ELSE. Just as bad as APPLE, buy this to make our product work for you.

Not exactly. If you plug the playbar directly to the router, no Boost required. If you had a router that can handle 2.4 and 5.0 wireless, no boost required. And I don't think you can really call 2.4 a downgrade over 5.0 since they clearly have strength and weaknesses in comparison to each other.
Wifi in one room , TV etc in another ; cant plug into router