So I finally decided to complete my home audio system and activate the Martin Logan architectural speakers in my kitchen, living room, dining room, and outdoor system.  They were installed 2 years ago when the house was built, but I didn’t know what I was going to use to power them.  

I got an amazing deal on a handful of Sonos Connect Amp Gen 1, so I’ve been working on them the past week.  Sadly the Gen 1 amps don’t do Hi-Res, but I didn’t care because this for background music when company comes over.  I must say that Sonos interface is user friendly, and allows me to utilize my Qobuz and Spotify account…even though I’m  running the older Sonos S1 app.

While the initial setup was somewhat easy, the networking monster was waiting in the closet to rear its ugly head with my Ubiquiti network.  I was getting drop outs sporadically in each of the rooms at different times, and it drove me nuts.  It took days of reading on the Sonos and Ubiquiti forums.  The icing on the cake was when a Sonos rep told me my cabling couldn’t handle the throughput.  I knew he was wrong, since I’m running Cat 6a in the entire house. I hate WiFi and only wanted to run a hardwire connection.   Now I had to play detective and figure out on my own.  

It turns out that Sonos requires STTP protocol, and while my Level 3 managed Unifi 24 port POE switch handles it, the Unifi mini switch I am using to isolate the Sonos amps does not.  I then had to go through a rebooting sequence, disable the WiFi radio through the Sonos app while connected to a different network, and then move the Sonos Ethernet connection over to the Unifi network with another round of rebooting.  

I then ran analytics through my Unifi app, and the throughput is tenfold from before, and I’m getting no more dropouts.  So now I’m just sitting here listening to some Colman Hawkins through my Martin Logans with a sigh of relief that I’ve now come out of the Sonos/ Ubiquiti rabbit hole.

So for those who want to run a Sonos system and have a Unifi network, hopefully this will shed some light on the setup.  

Here’s a quick pic of the new amps added to the telecommunications rack.  

The Yamaha THX AV receiver feeds my surround sound system in the living room with Martin Logan architectural speakers.


 

Hey James…. I’m no IT guy but I knew that by jumping into the Ubiquiti network would lead me down a road of unfamiliar territory, but welcomed the challenge having gotten a minor in CS in college.  

I read horror stories online about the Sonos topology taking down systems since they create their own mesh network.  Daisy chaining them via Ethernet, also opened up another can of worms.   Since the majority Sonos users run their system via WiFi on a home network, most just set it and forget it.  With Ubiquity running a proprietary system, it apparently makes it more difficult to integrate 3rd party companies.  When dealing with a Level 3 managed switch, STP needs to be utilized with running Sonos via hardwire.  Here’s a list of articles (  the first one being the most important) for reference for those who want to hardwire their Sonos Speakers.

https://community.ui.com/questions/An-optimal-configuration-for-a-Unifi-Managed-...
Network-and-Sonos/4819df0b-cc15-43b1-8f8f-4ca36c486f1c

This article is restricted to users only….so here is the full text copied.

An optimal configuration for a Unifi Managed Network & Sonos

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Summary

I'm posting this not as a question, but (hopefully) as a helpful "how to" guide for people trying to get their Sonos speakers to work reliably on an Ubiquiti Unifi network.



Over the past few months I've been having all sorts of issues getting Sonos to work across a managed Unifi network. I've done hours of research, tinkering and configuration and I finally have Sonos in a place where it works great.



My Unifi Setup is as follows: Cable Modem --> Unifi USG --> Unifi 48port switch --> Unifi POE switch --> Unifi Pro AC APs (x3) + Unifi CloudKey



My Sonos setup consists of 4 hardwared devices (3x Sonos: Connect, 1x Sonos Play:1). The 3 Sonos:Connects are locked away in an electrical closet in the basement where wireless is terrible: whether it be Wifi or Sonosnet. I wired the Play:1 in a central location in the house to act as a "bridge" for all the other components which consist of: Sonos PlayBar + Sonos Sub (family room), Sonos Play:3 (garage), Sonos Play:3 (bedroom #2), Sonos Play:5 (Basement).

Initial Problem SymptomsWhen I first set everything up, I had the 3x Sonos:Connects "daisy chained" into one another (don't do that!!) and the Unifi settings pretty much "stock". Sonos worked, but not very well. Once music was playing it was great, but getting the Sonos controllers to see/communicate with the speakers was a problem - I'd often have to disconnect from Wifi and reconnect then I'd see them for a short while, get music playing... If I wanted to change song, volume etc I'd need to disconnect wifi/reconnect, etc. A royal pain.



Here's what I did to get Sonos running smoothly over the Unifi network gear.



Hardware Setup:

Make sure all Sonos devices that will be wired into the network are wired directly into the switch (e.g. don't daisy chain any Sonos devices off one another).
My Sonos:Connect devices had terrible reception to other Sonos speakers, so to avoid complications in the mesh I shut off Wifi on any device hardwired into the network with the exception of the Play:1 which would act as my central connection point for the Sonosnet mesh. I shut off the Wifi for each speaker by going to this address in a browser: http://<IP address of Sonos speaker>:1400/wifictrl -- then select "Persist Off" and click on OK.
Switch Setup:

As many other threads discuss, Unifi switches default to RTSP which is incompatible with Sonos. You need to set the switches to STP.
In the Unifi dashboard go to Devices --> Select the Switch --> Config --> Services --> Spanning Tree --> Set to STP.
For the root switch (48 port switch in my case) set the Priority to 4096.
For secondary switched plugged into the root switch (the POE switch in my case) set Spanning Tree to STP and Priority to 8192.
Network Setup:

Settings --> Network --> IGMP Snooping: Set to "Enabled"
Wireless Setup:

Edit the wireless network you use:
Block LAN to WLAN Multicast and Broadcast Data: ENABLED
Add the Sonos Devices (in my case the 3x Sonos:Connect and the Sonos Play:1) that are HARDWIRED to the swtich to the Excepted Devices list!
Enable Multicast Enhancement (IGMPv3) (I honestly don't know if this setting makes a difference or not)
This combination of changes has made Sonos work reliably across the Unifi managed network.I do hope that consolidating all these steps into a single place helps others save time!!

https://en.community.sonos.com/components-and-architectural-228996/can-t-disable...
-wifi-from-ethernet-connected-s1-device-6883467

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/disable-or-enable-wi-fi-on-your-sonos-pr...
oducts

https://en.community.sonos.com/components-and-architectural-228999/connect-amp-k...
eeps-dropping-out-audio-6885634


I agree…networking and music can lead to headaches.