Sonos
Music everyone already knows how to work.
Sonos is the line people arrive knowing. We put it in a few rooms, behind speakers you cannot see, under the family room television, and into hi-fi systems people already own, on a network built so it keeps working.
Where Sonos belongs in a house
Music in a few rooms
Kitchen, family room, primary bedroom, the porch. An Era 100 or Era 300 in each, grouped or separate from the app, the same music following you or different music in every room. No wiring, no programming, and guests already know how to work it.
Behind the speakers you cannot see
This is most of our Sonos work. A Sonos Amp in the equipment closet drives a pair of Sonance speakers set flush in the ceiling, so the room has no visible speaker and still shows up in the Sonos app like any other. One Amp per room, as many rooms as the house wants.
The family room television
Arc Ultra under the screen, a Sub where nobody sees it, a pair of Era 300s behind the sofa if the room earns surrounds. Speech you can hear, Atmos when the film has it, and the same bar plays the kitchen playlist when the television is off.
The hi-fi you already own
A Port puts streaming into an amplifier and speakers that were good twenty years ago and still are. The system stays, the turntable stays, and the whole thing joins the rest of the house in the app.
With Sonance
The speaker you cannot see is still Sonos.
The rooms people like best have no speaker in them. A Sonos Amp in the closet, a pair of Sonance speakers flush in the ceiling or plastered into the wall, and the room appears in the app like any other. The app is Sonos. The sound is Sonance. Nobody has to know which is which.
- One Amp per room, racked in the closet
- Sonance flush, invisible, or outdoor
- Wired on our Ubiquiti network, not Wi-Fi
- Grouped with the Era in the kitchen
Your house on Sonos
Tell us which rooms, and we will tell you which pieces.
Three rooms and a television is an afternoon. A whole house with ceiling speakers is a plan. Either way the first conversation costs nothing.
Three rooms
The music room
A pair of Era 300s on stands, left and right, for the room where music is the point. Stereo, Atmos tracks where they exist, and Trueplay tuned to the room.
The family room
Arc Ultra on the wall under the screen. Nothing else visible, a Sub somewhere nobody looks, and dialogue you can follow without the remote.
The record player
An Amp or a Port next to the turntable, so the records play through the ceiling speakers and the kitchen hears them too.
Where Sonos stops
It is the right answer more often than people in our trade admit. Not always.
You want keypads on the wall
Sonos lives in an app and on the speaker. If you want a keypad in the hall that says Jazz and means it, that is a Savant system with Sonos inside it, which Savant supports natively.
The whole house, inside and out, on one press
A dozen zones, the terrace, the pool and the theater on one Evening scene with the lights and the shades is what Savant is for. Sonos can be the music source in that system and often is.
A dedicated listening room
If the point of the room is the sound, we would rather put you in front of KEF, Sonus faber or Bowers & Wilkins with a proper amplifier, and use a Port to feed it streaming. Sonos is the convenient part, not the whole answer.
A network that was never built for it
Most Sonos problems we are called about are Wi-Fi problems. Dropouts, rooms that vanish from the app, a speaker that will not group. We fix the network first, on Ubiquiti, and the Sonos usually fixes itself.
Common questions
What people ask us about Sonos.
- Do you install Sonos?
- Yes, and we have for years. On its own in a few rooms, behind in-ceiling speakers through the Sonos Amp, as the sound for a family room television, and inside Savant systems as the music source. It is on our brands list because people like it and it works.
- Can Sonos run in-ceiling speakers?
- Yes. The Sonos Amp drives a pair of passive speakers, which in our houses is usually Sonance, flush or invisible in the ceiling. The room appears in the app like any other Sonos room. One Amp per room; we put them in the equipment closet, not behind the sofa.
- Does Sonos work with Savant?
- Yes, natively. Savant treats Sonos as a music source, so a house on Savant can have Sonos in the family room and the Savant keypads still run it. We do this often, and it is the usual answer when a house wants keypads as well as Sonos.
- Why does my Sonos keep dropping out?
- Almost always the network. Sonos leans on Wi-Fi more than most things in the house, and a consumer router at one end of a Westchester house was never going to reach the other end. We fix the network first; the Sonos usually comes right without being touched.
- Should I buy it from you or from Sonos?
- If it is one speaker for the kitchen, buy it wherever you like and enjoy it. If it is several rooms, an Amp behind ceiling speakers, a television, or anything that involves wire, we would rather plan it with the rest of the house so it is on the right network, in the right places, and covered by the same service plan as everything else.
Start a project
Tell us about the space. We'll come out and give you a straightforward plan.
The consultation is complimentary and it starts with a walkthrough or a set of drawings. You will leave it knowing what is realistic in your house, what it costs, and what can wait until phase two.