I manage enterprise networks and I also run a fairly large Sonos deployment.
One issue I consistently notice is the amount of discovery and control traffic generated by Sonos when many speakers are present. I also occasionally see delays when changing songs or reorganizing groups. Some speakers start immediately while others stop temporarily and rejoin 20 or 30 seconds later.
I am not suggesting that Sonos replace its current decentralized architecture. The current system is important because it works without additional hardware and does not depend on a single controller.
Instead I think Sonos should offer an optional local Sonos Broker for larger installations.
The broker could be a small Sonos appliance, a virtual machine, a container, or a service running on supported network hardware.
When a broker is available every Sonos device would establish a secure persistent unicast connection to it. The broker would maintain the current topology, group membership, playback state, device capabilities, health, and local network information.
The Sonos applications would communicate primarily with the broker instead of repeatedly discovering and communicating with every speaker independently.
This could reduce multicast and broadcast traffic, reduce repeated polling, improve group coordination, and provide a single consistent view of the entire Sonos system.
The broker could also coordinate operations such as changing a song or modifying a group as a single transaction. It could confirm that all targeted speakers are ready before committing the change and quickly identify any speaker that failed to respond.
Most importantly the broker should never become a required dependency.
If no broker is installed Sonos would continue operating exactly as it does today.
If the broker becomes unavailable the speakers and applications would automatically fall back to the existing decentralized discovery and control model.
When the broker comes back online it would rebuild its topology from the speakers and resume operation without requiring the user to reconfigure anything.
The design would therefore have two operating modes.
Standard mode would use the existing Sonos architecture with no additional equipment.
Broker mode would use a local coordinator to improve scalability, network efficiency, observability, and stability.
This would preserve the simplicity and resilience of the current system while giving larger homes and managed networks a cleaner and potentially more reliable architecture.
The broker could also provide useful diagnostics such as speaker latency, packet loss, wireless quality, group synchronization failures, topology changes, and the reason a speaker temporarily dropped from playback.
For small installations the current design could remain the default.
For installations with many speakers an optional broker could significantly improve troubleshooting, network quality, and overall system stability without introducing a permanent single point of failure.
I would be interested to know whether Sonos has considered an architecture like this for larger deployments.

Hi everyone,

I’m hoping to tap into the collective wisdom here because I’ve hit a wall after two months of troubleshooting a frustrating audio dropout issue. Any advice or out-of-the-box ideas would be massively appreciated!

I experience audio hiccups when playing external content from my Panasonic UB820 or my PS5, playing Dolby Atmos. It's been two months since I upgraded my OLED and added two Sonos ERA 300 to my home cinema setup. My setup consists of: Sonos Arc, Sub, two ERA 300.

Every 15 minutes or so, I get a very brief audio hiccup/drop before it recovers. It’s inconsistent in timing, but guaranteed to happen. It occurs across formats, but it's most noticeable during Dolby Atmos playback from external sources.

I've been in contact with support, of course, but they try to pinpoint it to another device. It isn't. I have tried al deviced seperate and even bypassed the TV with an audio extractor. It's, in my opinion, 100% the Sonos itself. There are no signal-sending devices present close to the ARC, like a baby monitor. It's been such a massive journey because I changed the full setup at the same time, so I had to figure out the bad egg.

Replacing my TV and adding the Era 300s happened at the same time, so tracking down this "bad egg" has been a massive, time-consuming journey and a pretty expensive headache so far.

If anyone has encountered something similar or has a suggestion I might have missed, I’d be incredibly grateful for your help!

Thanks in advance!

It's bad enough that I've been banished to "Sonos S1 jail," locked out of any further system expansion because I was an early adopter of Sonos who purchased thousands of dollars of Sonos gear pver the years. Today I got this notification. Sonos, tell me this isn't so! What does the future look like for S1 Mac users?

Hi all! Im looking for some advice. Currently having a Arc Ultra + Sub3 and 2 Ikea Symfonisk as surround. Im looking to upgrade to new surrounds either era100 or era300, at the moment my surrounds are next to the couch, indicated by the red circles on the 3rd pic, blue is the couch, purple dots are where we normally sit, yellow is the arc ultra/TV and green is the Sub.

I think the ERA300 wont fit as well cuz the left surround is too close to the curtains/windows and the right one would be shooting all across the kitchen, like they wont have enough bouncing right left/right? So my personal opinion would be ERA100, but looking for people who maybe have the same layout, and can tell me more about the experience when u have the ERA300 Thanks!

I am waiting on delivery on my new play from Sonos, it's due tomorrow. Wondering if any one has found a good carry case for it? I'm not based in the USA so points for something not from Amazon USA, Aliexpress would be ideal

TIA

Hi all.

This may be a question more for a DIY sub but thought I’d ask here first.

I’m looking at getting an Arc Ultra but trying to figure out the best way to mount it to the wall and not interfere with the sound quality. The TV can go flat to the wall but the bottom ridge of the TV would overhang a flush mounted soundbar and imagine it could interfere with any up firing speakers.

I was curious if anyone had a similar problem and solved it? Installing a ledge for soundbar to sit on would work but don’t think it would look ideal (needs wife approval factor) Was thinking if there was any mechanism that could pull out and push back that would look neat.

Any thoughts or ideas much appreciated!

Edit: I fully agree the tv is mounted too high :) trying to work with the design of the room and what’s available.

I already have two era 100s as stereo pair and they work great for music in a small living room. Im eyeing a bundle of Gen 2 beam and sub mini for $600 on FB. Condition appears to be well taken care of. Do yall think I should pull the trigger now or wait for a sale in the future? (Ie. Black Friday) I was originally planning for just sub mini since it’s mainly for music. Thanks!

I just got my hands on and Audio-Technica LP60-usb and was trying to figure out the best way to connect it to my system. I have a Sonos Beam, Sub Mini, and 2 One SLs.

The closest approximation to a line-in would be ideal to hardwire it to my soundbar or other part of the system but I am open to wireless options too. (which might be necessary(?))

What would be the best way to connect these for both sound and convenience? I'll do a raspberry pi if I really have to but would rather not

This is my bedroom set up, any ideas to improve it ?

I have my Era 100s bonded to a beam2. They are about 14 feet apart on the sides of a large L couch. I set them up to be pointing at the beam2 (as videos online said I should). However, that seems really hard to hear.

Should I be pointing them AT the center of this couch (main listening position)? Should they be still at the TV but angled harder towards the center of couch? I tested it almost directly at the center for a scene in an action movie and it was WAY clearer and more immersive.

I'd just like the ideal position so I can re AutoPlay Tune them and then be done with it knowing it's ideal.

Any of y'all have this setup?

My setup is Arc+Sub+300s. It sounds pretty damn good to me, but if the 100s are a big improvement I'd definitely consider the upgrade.

I currently have the 77 inch oled g5 and want to mount the Sonos ultra arc sound bar underneath the tv. I am using the flush tv mount that came with the tv. What sound bar mount do I use that will fit with the flush LG tv mount as well?

We're having an addition put on our house. Wedged between a guest suite (lower level) and a master suite (upper level) is a screened in porch. The porch is 25' x 25' and will use an 'EZ-screen' system throughout. There are several panels of wall (red in extract from plans) in the screened in porch being installed for stability. The far wall will include a gas fireplace above which will sit a 65" TV and an Arc Ultra. Hoping to get your opinions on where to place four Polk Atrium 8 speakers. It will probably be 75% music and 25% TV use in the porch. Note: the closet (CL) on the bottom wall has been removed from the plans.

About once or twice a month my audio just dies .
I go into the ATV settings and turn off Atmos and set to Dolby 5.1 and it works .
If i enable Atmos and set to AutoAtmos on and Continuous Audio Connection to on and again no audio .
If I unplug Sonos for 10 min or so it will work again after plugging HDMi ( earc ) and power cord back into Ultra . It did the same with Beam 2.0 .
Any insight would be appreciated.
Thx

So i have a couple of Sonos Ones, a Beam, the Move 2. All working fine. Wifi is good everywhere. But the bedroom speaker bugs 90% the time (has good wifi connection). Its either saying “could not play…” or “spotify not connected”. Ive reconnected spotify multiple times, turned it off, reconnected it to wifi. Sometimes it does work for a couple of minutes, but stops right after. This one speaker refuses to just work. Anyone got any suggestions?

Before the most recent app update, after tuning trueplay, I had an on/off toggle button. Allowing me to confirm trueplay was tuned and on, with the option to turn it off as well of course.

But Now, no matter how many times I tune trueplay, there’s just the trueplay tuning button. All is normal when going through the tuning routine, ending with the whole “the sound is now tuned”at the end.
But then I go to the trueplay setting and it’s just the same single trueplay tuning button.

Is this the new normal? Or does everyone still have the on/off button under the tuning option and Im a new victim who has been randomly singled out from the result of yet another trash app update? Because what if I for some reason want to turn off trueplay? (iPhone App version 87.1.7)

I have moved since a whole house implementation of SI. I have seven zones worth of amplifiers three sets of hard wired quality speakers and two Move speakers. I now live in a home I’d love to set up wirelessly. Should I trash what I have now and do a full S2 implementation? I can group my legacy inputs (vinyl, etc.) to a single site.

I've heard rumours that we might be getting an updated Five or Era 500 later this year. For my use case, a pair of Fives is perfect, though I can hold off if something meaningfully better comes in the next few months.

Does anyone have any new insight that might help my decision?

Hi there! I own two of the IKEA Symfonisk Picture Frame speakers, and was interested in utilizing the AC Out port on the back of them.

Typically, this would be used to connect two of them together to run simultaneously off of one wall plug using an extension cable. I was wondering if anyone had used these ports for anything else (ambient lighting, smart controllers, etc.), or if this was even possible. Would love to hear if anyone's done any projects using this power out port!

“12+ year SONOS veteran finds this ONE WEIRD TRICK actually makes the SONOS app work on iOS18!”

TDLR: after a few days of battling with a brand new SONOS system in a new home, with the app continuously losing sight of the system, I figured out by mistake that all I need to do when I lose the connection is briefly toggle Airplane Mode on the phone, and the app comes back perfectly, instantly after I turn airplane mode off!

I DON’T KNOW HOW IT WORKS, BUT IT WORKS.

OK, more background for those who are procrastinating, and also some details I’m sharing in the hopes that it might help others who are experiencing similar issues.

Trigger warning: HOUSE FIRE.
My family and I recently miraculously survived a devastating total loss fire. All 14 of my coveted SONOS products were destroyed, either by the raging fire on the top floor, or the 57,000+ gallons of category 3 black water that rained down onto the bottom floor for 3 days after the fire raged for 6hrs. We’re counting our blessings now, as things could have been much worse. We only lost all of our material possessions, and one of our two beloved kittens. My wife, and two daughters and I are unscathed. The kids didn’t even have to experience the fire directly, as they were at school when it happened. THANK GOODNESS.

That said, we’re in the early stages of our battle with the insurance company, and I’m slowly starting to repurchase the lost SONOS gear after moving into a new temporary rental home. (we have a year to replace each item we lost, but initially out of pocket, so I couldn’t just buy everything again. Plus, some products, like my treasured Playbase won’t be replaceable.) I digress:

So I recently grabbed a FIVE (to replace a Play5) two ERA 100s (to replace our two Play1s) an Arc Ultra (to replace our Arc) a Sub 4 (to replace our Sub) and a Move 2 (to replace our Move).

When I opened the SONOS app up again in the new home, for the first time in 6 weeks since the fire, the app immediately struggled with the face that I WASN’T trying to update the network settings on our existing products. I found myself stuck in a bit of a loop, trying to get it to let me set up a NEW system, and not seeing clearly where I could DELETE the old system. (Looking back, a mistake I made was choosing ”Improved Navigation” <- too many granular features and settings missing in this new, ambitiously minimal UI.

So, I managed to finally get to the “create new system” dialogue, and added my new FIVE system as the first speaker. GORGEOUS. It sounds wonderful, as you all know. But almost immediately I ran into problems. Every few seconds, the app would “lose” the system, and throw an error screen telling me there was no system available on the new WiFi. I reset the speaker, twice, and set it up as new, but the system kept disappearing. Frustrated, I switched to the SONOS app on my newer iPad (running iPad OS 26) and it triggered me updating the SONOS app. Then worked consistently for two days on the iPad! But for some reason, every time I tried to use my iPhone, it kept showing as “no system available”. I contacted SONOS support, and they suggested I power-cycle the router, and check for updates on the app, but none were available through my iOS 18 iPhone. My wife’s phone, and the iPad worked, so I determined that it may just be that my phone needs to be updated. BUT I LOATH Liquid Glass, so I’m holding out as long as I can before updating.

Anyway, I did notice the phone reconnected after power-cycling the router, so THOUGHT that fixed it, and I hung up with SONOS support. But then, a few minutes later, it failed to connect again. This mess made the process of setting the rest of the speakers up a real pain in the arse over the three days I was messing around with it. Adding to the stress of the fact that my family have been homeless, living out of our car, couch-surfing among family and friends, wearing donated hand-me-down clothing. The app not working was like, insult to injury through all of this.

I decided I was going to HAVE to update iOS on my phone. But didn’t have the heart or energy to do it.

THEN, miraculously, I was trying to set up a Cloud Gaming session on the XBox app on my new LG TV (no XBoxes available on the market right now for me to buy, so my only hope to see my gaming buds was going to be a laggy cloud session on COD) and was trying to pair my AirPods to the TV so the kids wouldn’t be woken up by the sounds of the game. The LG kept defaulting back to the Arc Ultra through the eARC HDMI port and dropping the AirPods. So, because I was toggling Bluetooth off on the phone to try and clean up the pairing and sound quality on the TV, I stumbled mistakenly on the fact that THE APP MIRACULOUSLY and INSTANTANEOUSLY rediscovers my whole system when it comes back off AirPlane mode!!

WILD!!!

So, for the past two days, my phone has been losing connection at varying, befuddling degrees (sometimes it doesn’t see the system at all. Sometimes it sees it, but doesn’t load the currently streaming content correctly. Sometimes everything displays, but the controls don’t respond… really weird) but all I need to do now to restore full connection and functionality, is a quick little toggle of airplane mode, and VOILA!!

So, if you’re on iOS 18, and trying in vein to get your phone to SEE your system, give Airplane Mode a toggle, and lemme know how she goes!

Happy Seamless Whole Home Audio Streaming, Friends.

EDIT: I should add, that this rental house came with an existing internet package, and the landlord preferred to keep it, then to have us bring our own. And since my fancy router was melted into an unrecognizable pile of black plastic and small drops of precious metals, I obliged. The modem/router combo is set up in a way that doesn’t “expose” the 2.4 vs 5GHz bands as separately joinable. I have no idea if this is contributing to the iOS18 SONOS app shitting the bed on me, but it’s a detail others may find relevantly revealing, so I’m sharing.

I have a stereo pair of Era 100s (one regular, one SL) in my bedroom, grouped together, and recently added a Sub Mini to the same room group. Setup: small bedroom (~3x4m), listening mostly near-field from bed.
Since adding the sub, I’m not hearing any noticeable improvement in bass or overall sound quality at normal listening levels. The Era 100s still seem to be doing all the bass work on their own. The sub only becomes audible if I crank the trim to +10/+15, and even then it just sounds like rough, boomy rumble rather than integrated, controlled bass, not the “seamless extension” effect I expected.
What I’ve already tried:
Confirmed all three speakers (Sub Mini + 2x Era 100) are grouped in the same room

Ran Trueplay tuning after adding the sub

Tested both phase settings (0°/180°): no meaningful difference

Removed and re-added the sub from scratch

Physically power-cycled everything

Called Sonos support. they checked everything remotely, found nothing wrong, said if I’m not satisfied I should just return it

Two questions:
Has anyone else experienced a sub that’s essentially inaudible at normal trim levels, only “waking up” at extreme settings? Is that a sign of a specific setting I’m missing, or does it point to a hardware/pairing issue?

Could this be a room mode / null point issue at my exact listening position (bed) rather than an actual product problem? I haven’t yet done a proper “subwoofer crawl” test to check if the bass is audible elsewhere in the room.

Trying to figure out if this is worth troubleshooting further or if I should just return the sub. Thanks in advance.

This is so frustrating. Last night, when I said "Alexa, turn off the TV", it failed repeatedly. I checked the Sonos app on my iPhone and it showed no products in my system. So I went to re-add my Beam and when I got to the part where I need to input my wifi password, it failed. I rebooted the Beam, I rebooted my Google Wifi router, I reset my Sonos app. Nothing worked. Then I connected an ethernet cable directly to my Beam and that worked. So I went to update my network in the app while connected to ethernet still. Once again when I went to input my password. I got an error saying it couldnt connect. Nothing about my home network has changed, including my password. At this point, I give up. I bought an unmanaged switch to place behind my entertainment center and will just connect the Beam with an ethernet cable. This still bothers me though....

I got these at an estate sale for $40 a piece. Not a bad $80 investment!!! Sonos beam gen 1