[petepete]

I bought a Sub Mini just last week and it took me about 3.5 hours to get it working.

First, I plugged it in via ethernet and my entire network went down. The second I unplugged it, it worked again. Unifi have a dedicated help link in their UI that's displayed next to any Sonos products. I followed the instructions on Unifi's website, made a few ethernet cables for my wireless speakers, disabled WiFi on everything, and it no longer broke. Progress.

Then I tried to adopt it to my system with my Google Pixel and the app hung. I repeatedly tried, both ethernet and WiFi, no joy. Called the helpline and was walked through factory resetting and tried many more times. It just hung at "Adding Sub Mini...".

After a long slog I gave up. I borrowed my dad's iPad the following day and it worked first time.

The entire process was opaque,I had no idea why it failed. Had I not already invested I wouldn't buy any more - and definitely won't recommend.

But I watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind last night and it sounded pretty amazing.

[thunky]

> Had I not already invested I wouldn't buy any more

And that's how they get you.

Makes me wonder if the horrible setup process is intentional to emotionally lock you in. Once you get it working, you don't want that effort to be for nothing.

[beAbU]

> Unifi have a dedicated help link in their UI that's displayed next to any Sonos products

This is horrifying and hilarious at the same time.

[petepete]

Here's the page. The wired approach worked perfectly for me. Sonos's own networking features seem to introduce infinite loops when mixing wired and WiFi.

https://help.ui.com/hc/en-us/articles/18930473041047-Best-Pr...

[beAbU]

The fact that this page exists and the suggestion is to connect your wireless devices physically to avoid weird networking loops is astounding. I assume wireless sonos gear does not come with an Ethernet patch cable, right?

Fair play to Unify for making this page in the first place, and making it easy to find for their users. It clearly and rightfully shifts the blame to the right party.

But wow. How many other examples are there of one org's incompetence leading to unnecessary support load for other companies and they have little choice but to provide the workarounds and fixes themselves.

[inopinatus]

> I assume wireless sonos gear does not come with an Ethernet patch cable, right?

Only recently, but yes.

They used to, though. I have sixteen Sonos players of varying vintage, from the ZP90 to an Arc and almost everything in between, and of those only the Roam and the Move (portable by design) were supplied without network cables. Even the sub-woofers can be plugged in. However I’ve just checked the spec of the recently launched Era 100/300 models - not portable - and indeed, they lack even a built-in interface. Ethernet dongle costs extra. I’m chalking that up as yet another “screw you” from Sonos’s product management to its customers.

[petepete]

The worst part is not all Sonos devices come with an ethernet port and only the supported dongle works - it costs £40!