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kphagen
Trending Lyricist II
February 17, 2018
Answered

Audio Cutout - but only when sourcing from playbase or playbar

I have a playbar on one tv and a playbase on another tv, also several other play:1 play:3 and connect:Amp.
When I use my phone or laptop as a source and switch to 'party mode', everything is perfect - always.
When I watch either TV with only it's playbase or playbar - it works flawlessly.
If, however, I attempt to group any other speakers to either the playbase or playbar sourced by TV sound - the audio cuts out every few seconds. This just started fairly recently - I recall watching some football this way (party mode) with no issues the entire evening - but by the time playoffs rolled around - it's not usable in that way. I'm unable to think of any significant changes that have been made since I recall this working - maybe the playbase is that new - it arrived on christmas day. :)

Another interesting thing to note is that the source playbase or playbar (depending on which tv I want to broadcast) never cuts out - only the satellite grouped speakers cut out - and they all cut out together.

This occurs with 'smart app' sourced audio as well as DTV sourced audio - I'm quite confident it's not a tv/receiver audio output issue in that the two setups are completely different but are behaving identically - also - the 'main' speaker never cuts out.

I tried switching between BOOST and home wifi - no change.
Only a single play:1 is not hardwired to the Gigabit Cat6e LAN.
I tried disabling the wificontrol - no change.
External interference is unlikely - I don't have many neighbors nearby.

I ran the diagnostics: 8505842
Currently playing Netflix Smart TV App in Master Bedroom - grouped in party mode and cutting out everywhere but MasterBedroom Playbar.

Associated ZP: 192.168.5.235
---------------------------------
PLAY:3: Bathroom
Serial Number: B8-E9-37-D0-90-8A:1
Version: 8.3 (build 40549090)
Hardware Version: 1.8.1.3-1
IP Address: 192.168.5.172
WM: 0
OTP:
---------------------------------
PLAY:1: Kitchen (L)
Serial Number: 5C-AA-FD-4D-FE-A2:F
Version: 8.3 (build 40549090)
Hardware Version: 1.8.3.7-1
IP Address: 192.168.5.235
WM: 0
OTP:
---------------------------------
PLAY:1: Kitchen (R)
Serial Number: 5C-AA-FD-4E-01-F2:D
Version: 8.3 (build 40549090)
Hardware Version: 1.8.3.7-1
IP Address: 192.168.5.243
WM: 0
OTP:
---------------------------------
PLAYBASE: Living Room
Serial Number: 5C-AA-FD-32-F1-5D:8
Version: 8.3 (build 40549090)
Hardware Version: 1.14.1.11-1
IP Address: 192.168.5.196
Audio In:
WM: 0
---------------------------------
PLAYBAR: Master Bedroom
Serial Number: 5C-AA-FD-17-9A-19:D
Version: 8.3 (build 40549090)
Hardware Version: 1.9.1.10-1
IP Address: 192.168.5.241
Audio In: Dolby Digital 2.0
WM: 0
OTP:
---------------------------------
PLAY:3: Office
Serial Number: B8-E9-37-DC-5C-42:8
Version: 8.3 (build 40549090)
Hardware Version: 1.8.1.3-1
IP Address: 192.168.5.208
WM: 0
OTP:
---------------------------------
CONNECT:AMP: Patio
Serial Number: 5C-AA-FD-EA-20-AE:D
Version: 8.3 (build 40549090)
Hardware Version: 1.17.3.1-1
IP Address: 192.168.5.60
WM: 0
OTP: 1.1.1(1-17-3-2.1)
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    kphagenAnswer
    Trending Lyricist II
    February 19, 2018
    Update13:
    On phone with tech support - they're pretty great btw. Thanks John.

    They had me relocate the AMP, so I dropped one of the Play:3 and leveraged the network cable and powercable and switch for that component to take those potential faulty connections out of the mix also.

    Next step is I need to review my router configuration with regards to 'Spanning Tree Protocol' before we get to the next level.
    View in thread

    32 replies

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    kphagenAuthor
    Trending Lyricist II
    February 19, 2018
    Update: That's it, once I powered up the Cisco - the cut-outs kicked back on. I'll work to gain access to the admin of the Cisco and make the suggested modifications - or I'll replace this component with something else - i think i was trying to make use of some spare parts I had lying around...

    I think you guys have this scenario in your diagnostic lib already: 8513004
    kphagenAuthor
    Trending Lyricist II
    February 20, 2018
    Rather than burn any more of my time on it (President's Day is over) - I saw this on sale and will just get the Cisco off my network for good. https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Ethernet-Unmanaged-Lifetime-Protection/dp/B01AX8XHRQ/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1519143619&sr=8-3&keywords=16+port+gigabit+switch

    It is supposed to arrive tomorrow - so maybe I'll have new news to report by the weekend.
    kphagenAuthor
    Trending Lyricist II
    February 22, 2018
    Update: Well, that was a bust. Maybe it's one of my downstream media components that's not playing nice with the connect:AMP. I probably should have tried pulled those unessential connections before buying a new switch...
    kphagenAuthor
    Trending Lyricist II
    February 22, 2018
    Not sure how many times in my life I need to learn this lesson, but clearly it was at least one more time.
    I paid someone to set up my network for me and I think I just invested the same amount of time in unraveling it and understanding it enough to know they did some dumb stuff - but it sure does look neat, tidy and tight! :)

    So, to recap, the skipping kept coming back anytime I enabled my unmanaged media closet switch - which in turn would bring the two WAPs online. If I disconnected the two WAPs, all was well - but when either one or both of them were plugged in - I'd start to get cut outs. I'm still baffled as to why this only occurred when audio was sourced from the playbar/playbase AND when a connect:AMP was online.

    Anyway, I was unable to gain access to my main router and wap manager (sigh - they make "support" sound so good when they're selling it and you're tired of messing with it). But, what I could get into was my managed Netgear GS748T. After reading this thread, https://en.community.sonos.com/troubleshooting-228999/sonos-and-netgear-managed-switch-6761940/index1.html#post16199215 , I decided to give it a try.

    It appears to be in direct conflict with the guidance being offered by Sonos documentation which writes a fairly confusing novel as to how one should Enable STP. This guy very clearly lists it out in a few steps.
    Boom! No cut outs, WAPs back online - everything is on.

    My initial settings on the Netgear 748T (when it was not working):
    Spanning Tree State: Enable
    STP Operation Mode: RSTP
    Forward BPDU while STP Disabled: Disable

    After making only the following changes - my issue was resolved.
    Spanning Tree State: Disable
    STP Operation Mode: STP
    Forward BPDU while STP Disabled: Enable

    I know I don't fully understand STP even though I've read enough that I probably should - so I probably don't know what I'm missing out on - but it doesn't seem to have any side effects at this time.

    @Support : Here's my current diagnostic: 1796207156

    Kevin
    kphagenAuthor
    Trending Lyricist II
    February 28, 2018
    It's been a week and no issues!
    #closed
    kphagenAuthor
    Trending Lyricist II
    March 1, 2018
    Noooooooooo!

    Here's my new diagnostic, cut outs are back...that didn't take long after posting the contrary.

    457335493

    K
    kphagenAuthor
    Trending Lyricist II
    March 3, 2018
    This was a great explanation of STP - stick with it and it all comes together.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAIsFX1XPHo
    One of the points it made was that I should get all of my SONOS devices on the same switch...I'm not sure my plans can accommodate that requirement. I'll move the connect:AMP to the switch in the other closet and see if my issues resolve.

    The next Q would be how to make that not necessary...as I intend to have a stack of connect:Amp in the A/V media closet - but everything else is connected in the main networking closet on the other side of the house 😞.
    kphagenAuthor
    Trending Lyricist II
    March 3, 2018
    I seem to have stumbled onto a change - which may explain why I thought it was working for a while.
    It's only the single wireless Sonos:One that is skipping now (all other devices are hard wired) and I think are OK.
    When I ping any of the wired units, my time averages under .300 ms.
    However when I ping the lone wireless IP, I think it shows latency during the cut-outs.

    Here's a snippet from a ping to the wireless unit:
    64 bytes from 192.168.5.243: icmp_seq=25 ttl=64 time=3.374 ms
    64 bytes from 192.168.5.243: icmp_seq=26 ttl=64 time=276.656 ms
    64 bytes from 192.168.5.243: icmp_seq=27 ttl=64 time=68.874 ms
    64 bytes from 192.168.5.243: icmp_seq=28 ttl=64 time=4.352 ms
    64 bytes from 192.168.5.243: icmp_seq=29 ttl=64 time=12.398 ms
    64 bytes from 192.168.5.243: icmp_seq=30 ttl=64 time=1.924 ms
    64 bytes from 192.168.5.243: icmp_seq=30 ttl=64 time=16.952 ms (DUP!)
    64 bytes from 192.168.5.243: icmp_seq=31 ttl=64 time=9.463 ms
    64 bytes from 192.168.5.243: icmp_seq=31 ttl=64 time=20.021 ms (DUP!)
    64 bytes from 192.168.5.243: icmp_seq=32 ttl=64 time=14.857 ms
    64 bytes from 192.168.5.243: icmp_seq=33 ttl=64 time=1.654 ms
    64 bytes from 192.168.5.243: icmp_seq=34 ttl=64 time=4.948 ms
    64 bytes from 192.168.5.243: icmp_seq=35 ttl=64 time=34.500 ms
    64 bytes from 192.168.5.243: icmp_seq=36 ttl=64 time=1.018 ms
    64 bytes from 192.168.5.243: icmp_seq=37 ttl=64 time=0.999 ms

    K
    kphagenAuthor
    Trending Lyricist II
    March 4, 2018
    Defect appears to be isolated now to the single speaker which is not hardwired.
    I was able to follow the Sonos guide to configure STP on my managed switch.
    Was kind of a pain tracing all of the Sonos connected wires to the exact ports but finally got it sorted.
    The lone wireless Sonos is the only one experiencing the cutout - it's identified port is the same as the Playbase:Living which I think tells me that it's not actually using my WAP, which is on a different switch - but instead is being tunneled across Sonos:Net and through the Playbase hardwire connection.
    If that's true, then I've successfully isolated all of the Sonos devices to the managed switch and configured STP for those ports and restarted the switch.

    I switched the connect:AMP back to the unmanaged switch to see what would happen.
    No change, only the wireless Sonos:1 experiences cut-out.

    I think I'll move that Sonos somewhere and get it wired, adjust it's port setting and see what happens...
    kphagenAuthor
    Trending Lyricist II
    March 4, 2018
    No cut outs when wired...

    Here is a diagnostic with everything wired: 753391532

    Here is a diagnostic with the Play:1:Kitchen (R) wireless: 1656533661

    Any help is appreciated with the analysis.

    K
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