I’m using a sonos arc ultra soundbar with sub 4 and two rear sonos ones. After a while with somewhat unstable thread I changed the soundbar to Ethernet which puts the two rears on Sonos net. Question is: Is it better to have the speakers on sonosnet or regular wifi? Does sonosnet introduce more interference or would it help?
If your rears (& Sub) are set up as a surround system then they should not show as separate speakers on your wi-fi as they are placed in a local 5Ghz network maged by the soundbar.
Sonosnet will only come into play if the ‘surrounds’ are set up as a separate Sonos ‘Room’ to the soundbar. The Sub will be associated with the room of the speakers it is paired with.
Sonosnet is a 2.4Ghz network separate from and additional to your router supplied Wi-Fi. Sonos recommend using router Wi-Fi and not Sonosnet.
I would not have thought there would be any impact on Thread as long as Wi-Fi frequencies (Router, Sonosnet and other networks in the locality) had reasonable separation and strength.
I do not run many thread devices but have no problem with Sonos on my local Wi-Fi.
I don’t actually remember if my Sonos devices are using SonosNet but:
- TV room has Playbar, subwoofer, two Play:1s set as surround system. These appear as a single thing in the Sonos S1 app but each device shows separately in the Eero Wi-Fi app.
- Master bedroom, two Play:3s set as stereo pair. Also single thing in Sonos, separate in Eero
- Two Connect:Amps driving ceiling speakers, separate devices in both apps. One of these is connected via Ethernet to my main Eero and is an old model hence stuck on S1.
- Guest bedroom, one Play:1.
So the things that are grouped in Sonos app show as single things in the Sonos app but every device is listed in Eero with its individual IP address.
Also every Sonos device shows as running over a wired connection in the Eero app even though only the one Connect:amp is wired.
Back about 2018 I had a Sonos Bridge which was wired via Ethernet. It died which is when I connected one of the Connect:amps.
Unlike most of my smart home stuff the Sonos gear just works so I hardly ever think about it.
I can force all speakers on WiFi or have rears (and possibly sub) on sonosnet if I unplug Ethernet from the soundbar. I’m just unsure if having them all on sonosnet is worse for my thread network interference (two possible WiFi networks which could interfere) or would it be better from a thread perspective to have them all on wifi. From a sonos perspective I suspect sonosnet might be more reliable though, so its a balancing act
I think you are misreading something somewhere with regard to surround setups in Sonos. If a soundbar/surrounds/sub are up in either Sonos S1 or S2 as a surround system then the surrounds and sub are run of an invisible 5ghz network managed by the soundbar. They will not be visible as active connections on local Wi-Fi. This can be confirmed on Sonos website or by a simple google… So,
How are you defining rears?
Like I say they will not appear as actively connected to a network if they are actually set up as surround speakers (like the Sub doesn’t…) as part of a 5.1/Atmos system with the soundbar.
As Sonosnet is a separate 2.4Ghz band I would have thought, technically, there is more likelihood of interference when using it, especially if the bands are close/overlap. Also, technically, any modern network Wi-Fi router should be able to handle many clients across Thread, Sonos and other wireless devices without issue.
Since the 5ghz network managed by the soundbar is always going to be a given when running Sonos surround regardless of Sonosnet use I would ditch Sonosnet and set up a surround system in Sonos and see how it goes.
If for some reason you have issues, it can be reverted easy enough…
Ok. Confusion reigns. Further research suggests that the arc ultra doesnt even support sonosnet so looks like its not an option either way. Odd though that the sonos app is offering me the option to configure sonosnet channel when its not even in play 
. I guess ill keep the ultra on ethernet then…
… there is that too of course 
… 
A further update on this, the latest update in the Sonos app provides the functionality to disable sonosnet from the app. Interesting then that it gave me the option to disable it even though I believed the arc ultra didn’t even support it. Changing the setting did appear to make a difference in that it to a while to apply the setting and didn’t seem to be doing nothing, and I needed to power cycle the tv afterwards to bring sound back. It remains to be seen if this actually has any effect on my thread network stability.
