Quote to Install Sonos Home Audio System

[Amethyst]

I am puzzled, can you help me understand? I can't figure out what your "tractor" paragraph is trying to tell me.

I also found the separate labor charges to be a bit odd, since from what I understand there is very little "installation" involved with Sonos components. Clearly I need to do more research.

Be that as it may, I do not see how asking the salesman to consolidate the labor costs would give me room to negotiate. He would simply add them up and say "That's the labor cost."

I notice they have the labor for each item broken out as a charge. Shouldn't some of these installs overlap a bit.


When heaven forbid we need to split a tractor for any kind of major repair, we always look at everything with a fine tooth comb as the labor cost is already there and fixing other stuff at the same time is always cheaper then doing another split.


I'd think I'd pose this question and ask for a labor consolidation. If they pulled the quotes separately as a one off job they should give you a discount on the labor end.

 

[Freedom56]

Can you see any negotiating room?

Would it be reasonable to say "We'd rather buy the components on line, and have you install them"? (I already know the components are around 20% higher than we could buy them on line). Or would that be cutting too much into the vendor's profit, and make them walk away?

Thanks for your help!

I would start by cutting the labor costs in half. They are over-inflated. I would take 10% off the material costs.

 

[Amethyst]

It is a good question. I suspect the answer lies in the house's open-plan layout. It would be hard to hide speaker wire, as there is no carpet.

This may also explain the two amps, since the TV is part of the scheme. We also inquired about hooking up a turntable to play Mr. A.'s LP collection.

The beauty of Sonos is that it’s “plug n play”.

It’s one thing if you want speakers built into walls, ceilings, etc., but if you’re just setting a Sonos speaker on a shelf or table, there is nothing to install. Their other components are equally simple. I have 5 Sonos speakers, a Sonos soundbar, and subwoofer. The only “installation” I had was to take a cable and connect my integrated amplifier to the Sonos “Connect” (now called the “Port”).

What are the two Sonos amps for?

According to the Sonos website, the Sonos amp can be used like a traditional amp to drive standalone speakers and other devices. I can’t tell from your quote, but are there non-Sonos devices you are integrating into this system that necessitate a Sonos amp? If so, why 2 amps? Why not tie everything to the one amp? (even if it means running some additional wiring to establish the connection) I haven’t looked at the specs, but suspect one amp should have plenty of power.

As far as mark-up, just looking at the Sonos amp, you can get it from Sonos, Crutchfield, or Best Buy for $650. These folks are charging $700. I can only assume they’re marking up everything else by an equivalent percentage.

 

[ivinsfan]

I am puzzled, can you help me understand? I can't figure out what your "tractor" paragraph is trying to tell me.

I also found the separate labor charges to be a bit odd, since from what I understand there is very little "installation" involved with Sonos components. Clearly I need to do more research.

Be that as it may, I do not see how asking the salesman to consolidate the labor costs would give me room to negotiate. He would simply add them up and say "That's the labor cost."

Splitting a tractor to do engine work is very labor intensive.. but if you do 5 things while it's split you only pay for the cost of splitting once. Now if you split the tractor 5 times to do those 5 jobs on different days you pay the splitting fee 5 times.




Or lets say you are having plastic surgery..You get your nose done and then decide to add your chin and an eyelift. One OR time, one hospital stay, one follow up. You still pay for all 3 procedures but total costs is less.


Sorry I'm saying if they drove to your house and put in one system that's a charge. Now maybe if they are installing 10 things at once it's easier and takes less time IOW it more labor efficient to flow from once install to another. Some of the "installs" might overlap a little.


Some places have jobs on the computer and pull X job costs this and Y job costs that. But do X job and Y job combined take the same amount of time as job X and job Y separately.

 

[Amethyst]

OK, now I gotcha.

When we redid our kitchen, the appliance dealer charged a set price to install each appliance. Non-negotiable. So I just assumed it was the same here.

But with so many Sonos components apparently only needing to be plugged in, I will question the separate charges. I bet the store charges for time spent "listening to determine if we've got them in the correct spot" or whatnot.

Some places have jobs on the computer and pull X job costs this and Y job costs that. But do X job and Y job combined take the same amount of time as job X and job Y separately.

 

[ivinsfan]

OK, now I gotcha.

When we redid our kitchen, the appliance dealer charged a set price to install each appliance. Non-negotiable. So I just assumed it was the same here.

But with so many Sonos components apparently only needing to be plugged in, I will question the separate charges. I bet the store charges for time spent "listening to determine if we've got them in the correct spot" or whatnot.

And maybe they won't budge but it seems to me they didn't bother to fine tune your quote. Just printed it off. I didn't see a separate time and travel number, maybe there is one hidden in every quote.

 

[MichaelB]

I will mention the possibility of an upgraded router to the salesman, if only to avoid having an electrician up in the attic trying to snake wiring into the art room. The router belongs to Comcast, but I'm sure they'd upgrade it for a price.

Florida homes are neither cell phone or wifi friendly. I changed routers multiple times without improvement. What made a difference for us was a mesh router system, which pretty much solved the poor signal availability for both wifi and cell phone at home (via wifi calling).

To install one you would need to swap the Comcast router/modem for your own modem and mesh router system. The price tag would be a couple of hundred $, but it could pay for itself by reducing the labor cost of thr Sonos installation.

 

[H2ODude]

I had been having some slowdown with my $50 router that I couldn't track down. Then the Sonos started dropping out and it became annoying. Upgraded to $130 router and all good now. My S system operates directly from devices to wifi, no dedicated separate network which I think the S Boost is for. Old system required such a device. Was looking at the S site and see a lot of new products I'm not familiar with. Amps etc. My system works fine on standard wifi, no amps. I've had the sub woof since first gen and it'll rattle the house if you want it to. I'd start with bare bones (but I think the Arc is way to go for TV, main room w two for "ones" for surround).

 

[Amethyst]

Our Comcast Wifi is 100+ mbps everywhere except on the pool deck (still a workable 35 mbps) and in that upstairs room, where it is about 3 mbps.

I'd worry that a mesh router we bought, might do no better, and we couldn't call Comcast/Xfinity if it had a problem.

Florida homes are neither cell phone or wifi friendly. I changed routers multiple times without improvement. What made a difference for us was a mesh router system, which pretty much solved the poor signal availability for both wifi and cell phone at home (via wifi calling).

To install one you would need to swap the Comcast router/modem for your own modem and mesh router system. The price tag would be a couple of hundred $, but it could pay for itself by reducing the labor cost of thr Sonos installation.

 

[H2ODude]

Our Comcast Wifi is 100+ mbps everywhere except on the pool deck (still a workable 35 mbps) and in that upstairs room, where it is about 3 mbps.

I'd worry that a mesh router we bought, might do no better, and we couldn't call Comcast/Xfinity if it had a problem.

Our $50 Netgear was getting as low as 5 mbps at some points in house. Got $130 Archer AX50 per Wirecutter recommendation and now worst in house is 25-30, more than enough for streaming audio. Even though TV is on ethernet I've tried it on wifi and it streams w no buffering, but it is fairly close to router.

 

[Ready]

As others have mentioned, Sonos systems excel at being simple to set up in a wireless environment. Once you go with a wired solution things get very expensive and complex. We have the Sonos Arc, Gen 2 Sub and One SL speakers all connected in a wireless configuration. The sound is amazing and the entire system cost around $1,700. We can easily add additional speakers in other rooms for around $250 per pair.

We have three stories with concrete between the floors so we have a similar problem with the cable router. Our solution was to go with a Google WiFi mesh network which allows us to get WiFi everywhere. It’s true that if there is a problem the cable company might point the finger at the mesh network but your worst case scenario is you plug your old cable router back in to see if that solves the problem. If it doesn’t the cable company will have to determine what the issue is.

We have used the Google WiFi mesh network for years with Frontier and never had any problems. A wireless solution is the way to go. Wired systems have been falling out of favor for years.

I would definitely go with the Arc over the Beam. Beam is old technology. The Arc is amazing. Read the reviews comparing the two before deciding.

 

[Aerides]

Florida homes are neither cell phone or wifi friendly. I changed routers multiple times without improvement. What made a difference for us was a mesh router system, which pretty much solved the poor signal availability for both wifi and cell phone at home (via wifi calling).

To install one you would need to swap the Comcast router/modem for your own modem and mesh router system. The price tag would be a couple of hundred $, but it could pay for itself by reducing the labor cost of thr Sonos installation.

Yup we did this too with google. And our house is barely 1800 sf. But with a couple of google widgets now we get great wifi in every room and across the patio/driveway, etc. Has nothing to do with the router strength, as before we did this the room next to the wifi was the worst spot in the house.

It’s true that if there is a problem the cable company might point the finger at the mesh network but your worst case scenario is you plug your old cable router back in to see if that solves the problem. If it doesn’t the cable company will have to determine what the issue is.

And this. Comcast techs will 100% always blame other stuff, then blame the router, then do a speed test and say "looks good you idiot" - they are useless. Anytime you have a comcast tech in your home just go back to the default eq.

 

[Franklin]

If the OP is planning to use existing built in "non Sono's" speakers in addition to the new Sono's speakers the added boost and amps are needed. If however you just plan to use all Sono's speakers you can avoid much of the non speaker equipment.

 

[tulak]

Our Comcast Wifi is 100+ mbps everywhere except on the pool deck (still a workable 35 mbps) and in that upstairs room, where it is about 3 mbps.

I'd worry that a mesh router we bought, might do no better, and we couldn't call Comcast/Xfinity if it had a problem.

So many people install mesh networks, I wouldn't worry about this. I don't have Comcast/Xfinity, but I'm sure others here do and use a mesh network. Also, companies that sell mesh network hardware are going to make sure it works with Comcast/Xfinity, since they are a major ISP. And the mesh network hardware providers are also big companies: Amazon and Google.

Something like: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08M9T9692

You want to make sure you get routers, not extenders. I did a quick search and there are instructions on how to configure these to work with Xfinity. However, if you're not technically savvy, then this is an area you might want to pay somebody to install/configure the mesh network, especially since you'd have to make sure the Ethernet port in the studio is connected to a router on the other side of the connection. This might be trivial, but I don't know the wire in your home.

I would do this separate from the Sonos installation. Once that is done, then I'd get the Sonos hardware.

Btw, looking at the quote again, the access points they're selling you are similar to a mesh network, but depending on how they're configured, might not be as intuitive. A true mesh has a single wifi network (SSID) and your devices float between the different extenders/access points automatically. Adding single access points might not work the same way (again, depends on how it's configured).

And at $540 per access point, well, that's not a good deal. You can buy a top of the line mesh network with multiple routers at that price.

It is a good question. I suspect the answer lies in the house's open-plan layout. It would be hard to hide speaker wire, as there is no carpet.

This may also explain the two amps, since the TV is part of the scheme. We also inquired about hooking up a turntable to play Mr. A.'s LP collection.

If the OP is planning to use existing built in "non Sono's" speakers in addition to the new Sono's speakers the added boost and amps are needed. If however you just plan to use all Sono's speakers you can avoid much of the non speaker equipment.

I was puzzled as to why the amp and I thought maybe you had a stereo system to connect?

I see that one amp is for patio/porch. Do you have outdoor speakers that you need to connect?

As Franklin points out, that's the only reason you should need an amp. You do not need this for the soundbar/sub (TV) or surround sound speakers (Sonos Ones) if you ever decide to install those. In that configuration, the soundbar plugs directly into the TV. That's it. The sub/surround speakers are configured in the Sonos app and Sonos handles all of the audio sync between these devices (they make it easy).

I was originally thinking that you might be able to get a turntable that doesn't need an amp and works directly with Sonos, but it looks like there isn't such a product, or if there is, it's not common. In this case, you might need an amp, but you could also plug into the line-in for a Sonos 5 which would be cheaper. Plus, that'd give you an extra speaker too. Makes me think that the amp is overkill for a turntable. And I just noticed that the quote already includes a Play5 for a turntable. No idea why the amps are there. Existing speakers?

Sonos even sells a package with a Sonos 5 and turntable: https://www.sonos.com/en-us/shop/accessories/turntables

 

[Golden sunsets]

We use a mesh system connected to our router/modem which we own.

 

[tulak]

As a side note, Costco also sells some Sonos hardware at a lower price. They sell the soundbars (Beam and Arc), but that might not be an option if you need them installed. But if you decide to get surround sound speakers, they sell Sonos One SL 2-pack. That's where I bought mine.

 

[springnr]

You might try calling Sonos to request installer referrals. Sonos might review your present bid to see if the items make sense for your home.

Also a local installer might mix and match different manufactures products when they fit the application better or are superior.

https://www.sonos.com/en-us/contact

 

[target2019]

I wouldn't go for all of that at once. As mentioned by several you should price shop all of these items to get an idea of the labor cost. If it seems to be a one day on site job, does the labor cost seem reasonable.

If someone is in business they have overhead to pay. For how long will they support you into the future? Are they insured? How do they handle support requests?

I have no Sonos equipment, but others make it sound like a simple configuration. If you don't understand this system and have problems when you're out of support, then you get the up-front learning on the back end.

 

[Surewhitey]

I am with the people who say start small and expand to your needs. We have 3 sonos:1 and one sonos:3 & the subwoofer.


I would question the need for the expensive sonos amps (~$700) and also the cost of the wifi access points. You can get mesh wifi routers for less.


However, I'm no expert. I just know what we have. On the other hand, good BTD!


https://www.sonos.com/en-us/shop/wireless-speakers

+1 on access points. Overpriced and a mesh network is what we have for under $200 for a 6000 sq ft coverage setup.

Sonos sounds good, but many are similar in sound these days. I've heard that their controller app is the best, though. We're budget conscious and have Meshforce 3 pack and an Amazon Echo for outdoors. I'm still rocking the Vizio soundbar/sub inside the house... Call me old fashioned...

 

[Scrapr]

deleted as I didn't read the entire thread.

continue on

 

[steelyman]

To install one you would need to swap the Comcast router/modem for your own modem and mesh router system. The price tag would be a couple of hundred $, but it could pay for itself by reducing the labor cost of thr Sonos installation.

Improving your home network affects more than just a given audio system.

A family member is currently struggling with Spectrum service in Winston-Salem NC (I have no problem with them in the Triangle). The networking hardware (modem/router) is Spectrum-supplied. I think it would be better to get Spectrum out of the loop by using customer-owned equipment but my sense is that it’ll take a few more months of spotty service before they make the move.

Visits from The Cable Guy are not too much fun.

 

[24601NoMore]

Please re-consider putting speakers outside (on your pool deck) unless you live on a really large piece of property with no neighbors.

Our neighbor just put in a MASSIVE sound system around his pool, and it's literally ruining our entire lives. We hear his music throughout every room of our house, day and night. It's gotten so bad we've already talked to the police about it.

Please think about your neighbors before you do something like this unless you plan to play your music at a volume not audible to others around you.

 

[Amethyst]

I'm sorry your neighbor is such a jerk. The grown children of the people behind us have very noisy parties now and then; I hate what they play. Too bad our pool deck does not face them, or we would try to make their lives utterly miserable, in return, with classical music, progressive rock, and jazz.

Heh heh...we have only one facing neighbor, who has no objections (as she said, "You people are so quiet, we never know you're home.")

Please re-consider putting speakers outside (on your pool deck) unless you live on a really large piece of property with no neighbors.

Our neighbor just put in a MASSIVE sound system around his pool, and it's literally ruining our entire lives. We hear his music throughout every room of our house, day and night. It's gotten so bad we've already talked to the police about it.

Please think about your neighbors before you do something like this unless you plan to play your music at a volume not audible to others around you.

 

[Amethyst]

Update - reduced estimate by $1300 so far

After reading everyone's responses, I reviewed the estimate line-by-line and made a list of questions. Arranged to have the salesman come back out tomorrow to go over them with me.

During the phone call, I asked why there were two wireless access points for the studio over the garage, which gets very poor Wifi. Oops, he only meant to include one! Hadn't proofread his own proposal.

I also asked about "overlapping" labor charges, and he reduced some of them. When asked, he admitted that, indeed, their program adds standard labor charges for each component.

So far, thanks to everyone's insights and advice, the estimate is down by $1300. I would like to reduce it a bit more. His prices for components compare favorably with Amazon's, so I don't expect reductions there. He did say they would do some parts of the system now and add others later, if I preferred. I think I'd rather do the whole thing at one time.

 

[ivinsfan]

I'm sending you my address for my finders fee...


I' can't tell you how paranoid we are about computer generated labor costs. You always want to think it's an oversight and not someone out to rip you off. Luckily my DH and BIL have always had great respectful relationships with all our tractor mechanics..those guys look out for us. The beer and liquor they get every Christmas helps too.

In a one off install you have to watch it like a hawk.

Now they at least know you are watching them.