3pedal & Golden,

Any updates?

I've got 4 more AMPs (total of 5) to setup at the house now, but it's going to be 3-4 weeks before I have time to mess with them.

Sorry, I haven't been back to the jobs.  I have to complete another install at one of the jobs but will be out for a month or so after surgery tomorrow so it will be some time before I get back there.

Replacing a bunch of connects into amps with the new Sonos amps (see other thread for reason)

Before I ripped them out I switched dining room-kitchen and foyer to working channels on the AC amp. All rooms played decently and I got a baseline. I pulled them out and replaced with the amps. They all sounded different, and significantly. The dining room sounded really good, almost better then the amp/connect. (It’s not fair since the AC amp is/was on its way out)

I defaulted the other two zones and set them back up. All played consistently. Speakers are all the same Boston 8ohm.

However the same issue with volume persists. 0-3/4 has nearly nothing. 3/4-100 is where the magic happens. I will say these seem significantly louder then my last job with triad speakers. I almost want to say their programming on the volume slider is messed up. Then again, it seems like the software is just messed up on the amp. Why would connecting 3 amps to 3 identical speakers yield a different result?

I have 7 more to install tomorrow and will have a chance to play with them a bit more. But it’s still weird and puzzling.

Are all three speakers in the same kind of enclosure? Have you measured the DC resistance of each, to see if there's a problem? How different are the rooms WRT dimensions, acoustics, etc? I haven't used one of these, but does it have a selector for 4 or 8 Ohms?

I didn’t go that far, and I’m well aware of the acoustics and cavities. That’s why I connected them to the 3 working channels of the AC amp before the switch. I just did it by hearing.

Like I said, once the two amps were defaulted and reset up they all were consistent in SQ.

But one still sounded different?

Inquiring minds want to know- did you swap amplifier channels for the speakers?

On the Sonos or audio control?

I concur. Nothing wrong with the overall volume, which seems to be the issue at the start of the thread. Its an issue that the first 75-80 is not high but a significant ramp-up and for that last 20-25% and slight changes are big jumps.

Now when I tested this a few weeks back I did test hookup the AMP to the TV via HDMI to test that out quickly. However, I don't remember the result. I wonder when hooking upon the TV to the AMP if the volume curve changes. What I mean is I wonder if there is more of a normal gradual ramping up of the volume when the AMP is hooked up via HDMI vs. in just the standalone mode. Would make sense as to how this may have gotten past beta testing and no one noticing as much since many probably were testing the functionality in this configuration. Or maybe there is a difference incrementing volume via the TV remote, which is controlling the Sonos volume vs. using the slider.

Paul, yours is hooked up to your TV I believe.. Can you see if the volume ramps consistently when hooked to TV? Does it act differently when using the TV remote vs the Sonos app? What if you play music via the speaker and use the app, does anything change?

Either. Two of the Sonos needed to be defaulted and that made them sound the same, but the third?

Maybe steps are linear when issued from one remote, but log from an App or another remote.

This is one of our main gripes with Sonos, no volume until you ramp up at least 3/4 on the slider. We've done Connects with various 12-50 amplifiers. We no longer use Sonos unless the client requests Sonos. That stuff is absolutely over-hyped DIY crap.

Sonos is popular because...

#1. It works. Failure rate is low.
#2. Lots of content available.
#3. Distributed Audio can be added to any home without touching the drywall.

When you are talking about homes that would have no distributed audio vs homes with Sonos then Sonos wins.

Sound quality might not be as good when compared to competing products but Sonos used their marketing budget wisely and they are now a household name.

There isnt any margin..just like their isnt any margin with selling lag bolts...but...sometimes its okay to use break even products as necessary parts of a complete system.

In 5 years everyone will be here complaining about how much Echo Dots suck and how they miss selling high end Sonos Connects.

30% is not no margin. People always claim this. It may have less margin then some other products, but you can still make money. Sell Connects and you still can get an amp and speakers sale, plus labor. Sell an Amp and still get speakers sale and labor. Sell the play line and and get in and out in less time then it takes to gas up the van, plus labor. At the end of the day, year, decade, you will have zero Sonos related service calls. You'll likely get called to add more and be referred to others. I haven't found a single product that offers the benefits of Sonos.The downside is Sonos the company. They will try to sell your client. Have a so-so client and they will circumnavigate you. Have great clients and they will still come to you. Integration. It's better then it was in terms of reliability, but not great. It is limited in functionality. I only use it integrated in one of two.scenarios. They already have Sonos and want to continue to use it with a new system. 2, the streaming source is available only on Sonos.Lastly, I have never, not once, had a customer complain about sound quality via Sonos. In fact, quite the opposite. They've all LOVED it, whether it be a connect streaming to an amp, a connect:amp, or a play series speaker. I've never NOT had people amazaed at the quality and overall package. Just my experience with my clients.

I had one where it was a very large great room. We put the Playbar under the TV, then put speakers at the back of the room. They didn't want surround sound because the room was so large. So we set it up Great Rm TV and Family Great Rm Back. This allowed them to group the two zones, and have stereo sound come out of the back at a higher volume. This was for an older couple and they really liked the way we set it up so they could hear it better. They then experienced the sound on Sirius/XM cutting out. We were tied up on a big install and they wanted it fixed ASAP so I told them to call Sonos. Sonos claimed that we hooked it up wrong, and that we didn't know what we were doing. That we should have set them up as rears. Then my customer called to tell me I hooked it up wrong. Sonos really shouldn't have thrown me under the bus. They had no idea what the room and application was and their tech jumped to the conclusion that we didn't know what we were doing. This really pissed me off.