No EMF Sonos Setups

1. No EMF Exposure Smart Speaker:

Gen 1 Sonos Play 1 speaker can be hardwired to the internet via ethernet cable and supports Alexa and Google Assistant. Gen 2 Sonos One will transmit Bluetooth (BLE) 24/7 (Sept. 2021) even with Wifi disabled – Avoid Gen 2 if you want  a NO EMF setup.

2. No EMF Sonos Speakers:

Ikea’s Symfonisk Sonos speakers can be hardwired with ethernet and do not transmit a wirelss signals when wifi is disabled (See Method 1 below). Unlike the Gen 2 Sonos speakers which use BLE (Bluetooth low energy) which can not be turned off and transmits 24/7.

If you search out the Gen 1 Sonos speakers (used or refurbished) one can disable wifi in these devices for a no EMF listening experience as well.

Method 1: Disabling Sonos WiFi Through S2 App

Requires Sonos App V 9.2 or later and applicable firmware. If you have the Sonos S2 app this should work for you.

Please note all New Sonos Speakers (Sept 2021) have BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) which cannot be turned off and will remain transmiting even when Wi-Fi is disabled.

Note: Told by software distributor that disabling Wi-Fi on Sonos App will persist through firmware and software updates. I have not confirmed this important detail.

In the Sonos app, tap the More tab and select Settings > Room Settings. Choose the room you’d like to modify, then select Advanced Room > WiFi. If you’ve selected a room that consists of stereo-paired speakers or a home theatre setup, you’ll then need to select the specific player you’d like to modify.

From here, you can select Disable WiFi or Enable WiFi. The app will show which is currently selected with a checkmark.

Please note that the Sonos app won’t let you disable the player’s WiFi if it isn’t connected to your network with an Ethernet cable.

If this does not work try the Port 1400 Method below (Only works with firmware and Sonos App prior to V. 9.2 and earlier)

Method 2: Sonos Port 1400 Method For Disabling Wifi

This method will only work if you have an old generation 1 Sonos device and have not updated the firmware.  For most people, this method will not work. If you have the Sonos S2 App this will definitely not work for you.

Method 2 source (https://bsteiner.info/articles/disabling-sonos-wifi)

Method 2 is persistent – meaning Sonos will not revert to Wi-Fi using this method unlike Method 1.

Step 1: Finding the IP address of the device

From the Sonos controller, click on the “about my Sonos system” menu. You should see something like this:

PLAY:5: Bedroom
Serial Number: 00-0E-58-2D-B0-C3:3 
Version: 4.2 (build 24071060) 
Hardware Version: 1.16.4.1-1 
IP Address: 192.168.1.27 
OTP: 1.1.1(1-16-4-zp5s-0.5)

In the example above, the address is 192.168.1.27. We’ll refer to it as <sonos_ip> in the rest of this article.

If you feel more technically inclined, you can also retrieve the IP address from your DHCP server. Sonos registers its players under the “SonosZP” client ID.

Step 2: Checking the status of the Wifi link

Sonos provides a little known on the port 1400 of their players that you can access from any web browser at the following URL:

http://<sonos_ip>:1400/status/ifconfig

You should see something like this:

The entry we’re interested in is labeled ‘ath0’, which stands for Atheros device 0. Atheros is the manufacturer of the embedded WiFi chip.

Step 3: Disabling the link for good.

To disable the WiFi link for good start by issuing the following HTTP request:

http://<sonos_ip>:1400/wifictrl?wifi=persist-off

You should get the following answer:

wifictrl request succeeded HTTP 200 OK

You can also check that the link has indeed been disabled by going back to the status page. The ‘ath0’ entry should not be present anymore. The setting is not persistent, so if you happen to be unable to connect to your player after disabling the WiFi you can undo the change by power cycling the player.

The change will now be preserved even after an upgrade. If you ever need to connect the player wirelessly in the future you can turn the WiFi back on as follow:

http://<sonos_ip>:1400/wifictrl?wifi=on

Sources:

  1. https://bsteiner.info/articles/disabling-sonos-wifi
  2. http://www.gadgetmypad.co.uk/disabling-the-wifi-link-on-a-sonos-music-player/
  3. How to disable or enable WiFi on your Sonos players