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Sonos Notes Sept 2 2021

MISC#

  • Sonos is limited to 32 Sonos devices per network... neat

HOME THEATRE#

  • when listening to TV sound, the signal type will show in "now playing"

  • eARC (+ Trueplay makes is better) allows the best 3D audio through "sound arrays"

    • using eARC+ atmos, some speakers produce a negative effect, giving a larger potential soundstage
    • atmos does not map a signal to eeach speaker - they work together in an array to produce a 3D soundstage
    • ^ this only works with eARC

  • Sonos ARC

    • 4" gap between ARC and TV for best sound
    • if you can't get a 4" gap, tilting the TV a bit will improve the height sound
    • don't block the arc's side speakers
    • new setting for ARC is height control, which can improve sound in rooms with high ceilings

SONOS THEATRE TROUBLESHOOTING

  • Terminology
    • main unit (ARC, beam, front amp) is the "home theatre coordinator"
    • anything else connected to that room is a "bonded player"
  • ALL bonded players direct connect through 5ghz (30 ft theoretical range) unless you hardwire (conencts direct, not through WiFi)
  • If you're going to hardwire (for example, you need to use an amp as rears and put it in the basement) make sure to hardwire everything
    • You cannot turn off wifi on any home theatre device if they are not all hardwired
  • binary makes a balun specifically for Sonos amp
    • available through dealer portal or snapAV
  • can use dual sub with home theatre, at least one sub must be gen3
    • both subs produce the same signal

MUSIC TROUBLESHOOTING

  • they recommend hard-wiring at least 1 in 5 sonos plays to make sure there's adequate bandwidth, especially important for high-res audio

    • see sonos support articla 79 for more info

  • sonos line-in - you can adjust the compression level to improve sound quality, but you may have droupouts if you are streaming to 4+ units wirelessly.

    • has a 70ms delay that cannot be reducced

  • if you have a sonos roam, you can use the "bluetooth line-in" feature

    • basically you can have bluetooth and wifi work simultaneously
    • you can start streaming to roam via bluetooth, then open sonos app, select roam, and sharae it to another room

  • if a client is having an issue with a streaming service, always check status.sonos.com (and can check the history of outages at status.sonos.com/history)

  • cool trueplay demo - put a speaker in a box, trueplay it, and compare

  • Sonos architecturial - make sure to "detect" them, even the outdoor speakers, so the amp can optimize for them. This makes a huge difference.

    • when you detect it can actually tell which model of SBS are connected and optimize accordingly
    • dual mono is great for outdoor

NETWORKING#

  • if you are recieveing lots of wireless interference, change the channel on your router/ap from 40mhz->20mhz

    • materials can cause tons of interference, specifically plaster and sstucco
    • look for baby monitors, cordless phones, wireless alarm systems, wireless speakrs, wireless remote RF adapters, etc.

  • if you wire even one player, the system goes into "SonosNet" mode, so all Sonos devices connect to a 2.4ghz mesh network

    • if you are using SonosNet:
      • turn off auto channel select
      • make sure 2.4 channels are not overlapping (sonos vs router/ap) 1 / 6 / 11
      • make sure wide-band wifi is off on your router / ap
      • you can hard-wire multiple units, but make sure you are using unmanaged switches
      • 50ft max range between products
      • keep first wired component at least 3ft away from your router / wifi transmitter

  • if you are using wifi mode:

    • if you are using multiple APs with Sonos, make sure all APs are on the same channel (1 vs 6 vs 11)
    • be careful using wide-band wifi, may work in this mode but keep an eye on it

  • Benefits of hard-wiring

    • Spanning tree protocol

  • Ports to keep open:

  • When setting up Sonos in a rack

    • indivicually wire each amp back to one unmanaged switch, then wire that switch back to router
    • you can daisy-chain the players, but do not add more than 7 in one chain (i.e. maxone wired to the router and then 6 more amps connected to that)
    • consider putting a boost on top of the rack, so the other devices in the house have a better connection (because if even one amp is plugged in,
    • you probably want to disable the wifi on the players if therre are a bunch on the rack, especially if you are putting a boost on top
      • if the amp is being used in a surround system and not all of the bonded players are wired, you will not be able to turn off wifi
      • if there is no ethernet ports in use on the amp, the option to disable wifi will be greyed out

  • Create account for customer: sonos.com/login/ci/create

  • To update settings to a new network, you don't have to hardiwre to the router anymore

    • choose eeither network settings, or choose "let's fix it" or whatever and it will give you the option to do it wirelessly

  • Sonos HTTP interface - IP:1400/support/review

    • provides some neat troubleshooting data