Answered

ERA 100 connected to Bluetooth turntable and Feeding 9 speaker sonosnet system drops sonosnet speakers every couple of minutes - then auto reconnects after ~10 seconds.

T

Pushing the envelope of SONOS Technology - and having trouble.

The Setup: 
ERA 100 connected to Pro-ject T1 BT turntable via bluetooth and playing a record
ERA 100 setup via Wifi
Additional 8 room whole house system on Sonosnet and all connected to ERA 100 to listen to the turntable


The issue: 
When I use the ERA 100 as the source to drive my 8 speaker whole house system, after about 10 minutes of the entire 9 speaker system all outputting the turntable music perfectly, I start to get sonosnet dropouts.  The single ERA 100 never has a dropouts and continues to play the music via bluetooth from the turntable flawlessly for hours.  The 8 speakers in the Sonosnet system all start to dropout at roughly the same time and they come back up automatically after 5-10 seconds in random order.  It is as if the Sonos system drops the entire sonosnet system, then reconnects.  The perplexing part is I get perfect connectivity for about 10 minutes, then I get sonosnet dropouts every 2-3 minutes that last 5-10 seconds and that continues indefinitely.

The ERA 100 has a very strong wifi signal and I have a 1 GIG Fiber connection to my home.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!  My current assumption is that SONOS needs better software to link ERA 100 (or other speakers that don’t have sonosnet) to the larger sonosnet system.

 

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Best answer by Corry P 18 May 2023, 10:17

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19 replies

melvimbe

Have you tested to see if the issue occurs with other sources besides the Era 100 bluetooth?  Does the issue happen when the Era 100 is not grouped with the other speakers?

I would recommend submitting a diagnostic next time the issue occurs and contacting Sonos support.  They can give you a better idea of what exactly is happening.  I would guess that your router is throttling back or something after a set amount a time, since the issue appears to occur pretty regularly.  I’m not a network expert though, just a guess.

I really doubt that it’s a software problem with Sonos, since this is not a widely reported issue, and Sonos has had non-sonosnet speakers (Move, Roam) with sonosnet speakers for several years now.  I’ve never had the issue you’re reporting.  The Era speakers do have an upgraded WiFi 6 hardware, and I guess that could make a difference, but I have not seen that issue with my Era speakers.

Danny
T

Danny,

 

Thanks for the response.  To answer your questions:

The issue does not happen with sources other than the ERA bluetooth.  Pandora etc work perfectly and I can group the ERA 100 (wifi connected) and my other 8 speakers (all on sonosnet) without an issue.  They will play as one large 9 speaker group all day long using the Sonos app to select Pandora.

The issue does not happen when the ERA is not grouped with other speakers.  The ERA 100 can play the bluetooth source (Pro-ject) turntable all day long by itself.  Or Pandora from the Sonos app for that matter.

The only time this occurs is if I am using a bluetooth input to the ERA 100 and trying to group my 8 speaker (sonosnet connected) system to the ERA 100 (wifi connected).  

I did submit a diagnostic but no luck from Sonos support after about 1.5 hours of troubleshooting.

 

V/r,

 

Mike

 

 

 

C
Userlevel 6
Badge +11

In the Sonos App, system, what is the SNR in the network info page for the ERA100?

Can you get any additional WiFi diagnostics from the AP/router the ERA100 is connected to?

WiFi can have a strong signal, but their could be congestion/high utilisation causing retries/packet loss.

Also, did you try another bluetooth source, eg laptop/phone, to the ERA100?

T

Craigski

Thanks for the thoughts.  I have used my phone as the bluetooth source for the ERA 100 and it behaves the same.  The bluetooth source to ERA 100 is rock solid.  The ERA 100 never drops out. but the rest of the speakers do.

When the ERA 100 is connected to Wifi the SNR is in the 60s...my Google Home Network say “Excellent” and says the max BW to the speaker is over 500MB.  Yet still I have dropouts to all speakers in the system except the ERA 100.

Today, I hooked up the ERA 100 to my CAT 6 1GB wired system. It is now playing via Sonosnet instead of wifi.  If fact, I have 9 separate rooms all on a single Sonosnet.  Nothing on Wifi.  

Unfortunately, I still get dropouts to all speakers in the system except the ERA 100.  They happen less often, but it still happen.

Could it be a bad ERA 100?  I am struggling to find the issue.

 

 

buzz

I’m thinking that this is an ERA100 issue and you should be working with SONOS support. Hopefully, you can get the issue escalated. Send a few more diagnostics before contacting support.

Do you have the USB adapter that connects ERA100 to the network?

T

Thanks Buzz.

 

Yes I have the USB duel  adapter.  $40 that did not fix the issue.

Ken_Griffiths

Thanks Buzz.

 

Yes I have the USB duel  adapter.  $40 that did not fix the issue.

What happens if you reduce the amount of ‘grouped rooms’ that you play to, does that make any difference? Do the dropouts occur with say a two room group, or four rooms etc.

Also do things work any better, if you opt to run the entire Sonos system on your local WiFi signal instead of using SonosNet, especially as many S2 devices are now capable of using the faster 5Ghz WiFi band aswell nowadays?

S
Userlevel 7
Badge +15

Today, I hooked up the ERA 100 to my CAT 6 1GB wired system. It is now playing via Sonosnet instead of wifi.  If fact, I have 9 separate rooms all on a single Sonosnet.  Nothing on Wifi.

Slight semantics but although your Era is now connected via ethernet, I don't believe it's on Sonosnet as the Eras don't support it.

If you remove the network cable from your other speaker, what happens? As your system now has the WiFi password (because of the Era), do the rest then use that and connect by WiFi, hence giving @Ken_Griffiths suggestion?

R
Userlevel 5
Badge +11

When you group the whole house using Pandora did you start with the ERA 100 and then add the other speakers one by one. If not it might be worth  trying that to see if the problem then occurs..

T

Ken - it appears you are onto something.  I have grouped up to 3 additional rooms with the ERA 100 and have had no dropouts while music played for well over 30 minutes.  With all 8 additional rooms, dropout start in 12 minutes or less.  And it makes no difference if the ERA 100 is hardwired to Sonosnet or connected to wifi…

Still need to add more nodes to see where the tipping point is…

I could not figure out how to get my system onto wifi...when I unplug the CAT 6 from the SONOS 1 speaker that is driving sonosnet, the entire system goes away...If I try to switch networks inside the Sonos app, it says it is unable.  I think this might have something to do with my surround sound setups?  Two of my rooms have play bars connected via Cat 6 to Sonos amps that drive the rear surrounds and sync up the dolby 5.1...

 

Local Superstar - I am not a Sonos expert, but when the ERA 100 is hard wired via Cat 6 to my router, the system info shows it as WM:0.  When it is on wifi, the system info shows WM:1  I thought WM:0 meant sonosnet?

 

Appreciate all the community help with the troubleshooting!

buzz

SONOS is messing with us old timers. We need to adjust our dialog. In previous era’s WM:0 meant SonosNet and all of the units would switch to WM:0 if one or more units is wired. Then ROAM and MOVE were introduced and are WiFi only. They will always be WM:1. With the ERA units WM:0 indicates a wired unit and WM:1 indicates a WiFi unit. The ERA units will not join SonosNet. In my system there are legacy units on SonosNet and these are WM:0, irrespective of a given unit being wired or wireless because there are a couple wired connections. My ERA units are all WM:1 unless I have my lone USB adapter wired to an ERA. This wired ERA will indicate WM:0 while the other ERA’s indicate WM:1.

106rallye
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

So with a cable connected Era WM:0 means all communication is done via your cabled network, while on older speakers it could also mean wireless (Sonosnet) is involved.

T

Thanks 106rallye….

I was really confused on WM:0 and Sonosnet for ERA...now I 100% get it!

With that...back to trying to figure out the solution to my dropouts while the ERA 100 is the pushing it’s bluetooth input to the rest of the system!

Ken_Griffiths

Thanks 106rallye….

I was really confused on WM:0 and Sonosnet for ERA...now I 100% get it!

With that...back to trying to figure out the solution to my dropouts while the ERA 100 is the pushing its bluetooth input to the rest of the system!

Maybe try all on your WiFi signal - you likely have the SSID/credentials already stored, if you have had Era running uncabled in the past, or have a Sonos portable product (Move/Roam) - but you can always add the WiFi credentials to all your devices anyway, just to be sure… see the second section of this FAQ support document to switchover all to a wireless setup.

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/switch-sonos-between-a-wireless-and-wired-setup

Just uncable ‘every’ device when you’re ready to switch to wireless mode …and if you do encounter issues (after rebooting etc.) simply cable a single Sonos device to the main router/hub to bring all back onto SonosNet (er… I mean those devices that do still support SonosNet, that is).

R
Userlevel 5
Badge +11

Sounds like you have multiple devices wired to your network if the playbars are connected to AMPs via a cable. So when you disconnect the Play 1? or Sonos One? (there is no product called Sonos1) the system should not disappear.

If after trying @Ken_Griffiths suggestion of unplugging ‘every’ device things are still not working then it might help if you post back here details of your home network - router, is it a mesh, what devices are wired,  are there any power line devices, WiFi extenders etc.

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @TombaF16 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

Your diagnostics indicate that there is periodic multicasting reaching your ethernet-wired Play:1 which is blocking the Play:1 from receiving the data it actually wants. If your router has an IGMP Filtering/Snooping option, please enable it. If not, I recommend fitting a IGMP-capable network switch between the router and the Play:1.

The wired Play:1 is also reporting transmission failures to your other Sonos speakers - I recommend ensuring it is at least 1m away from your router and any other WiFi devices.

I hope this helps.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
T

Corry,

Thanks for the suggestions. I looked at my ethernet switch and it does have the IGMP Filtering / Snooping enabled.

I plan to move my Play: 1 to another room this weekend as it is about 1.5M from my media closet, which contains the router, wifi network pucks, and lots of devices….will let you know how it goes.

I am still having fantastic luck connecting up to 5 different rooms; no dropouts at all.  So as long as I don’t try to play all 9 rooms at once, it all works great.

 

Mike

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @TombaF16 

Yes - getting your wired Play:1 out of there can only be a good thing!

I see two momentary bursts of multicast packets reaching the wired Play:1, 17 minutes apart. With IGMP Snooping enabled, these shouldn’t be reaching the Play:1, so I don’t know what more to tell you in regards to that. Given your initial description of everything going well for a while, I think these packets are the main issue, though, so perhaps finding the source of them will reveal a solution - you’d need a packet sniffer to find the source.

I also suspect your Play:1’s WiFi interface is being saturated due to having 9 rooms in a group - 2.4GHz can only carry so much. For a group of more than 5 speakers, we recommend having two (or more) ethernet-wired Sonos devices (your wired Connect:Amps and Playbars don’t count as they are wired to each other, nor does your Era as they do not partake in SonosNet) positioned at opposite ends of your Sonos system so that the load of connecting wireless speakers is shared as equally as possible, and one of these wired speakers should be the first-selected room when creating a group (and in charge of the group as a result - the Group Coordinator, or GC). That way, the path the data takes across the network is as efficient as possible.

Having said that, due to you using a turntable connected to an Era, I recommend comparing having a wired speaker as GC and having the Era 100 as GC - you will probably see better results with one rather than the other, but I’m not sure which will be the best. Wiring the Era to ethernet in addition to two non-Era speakers might also be worth trying if you already have the right adaptor, but I would only recommend spending more if nothing else works.

I hope this helps.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
T

Thanks Cory!  I really appreciate your expertise.  I can easily wire another Sonos speaker via ethernet at the other end of the house.  I will try moving the Play: 1 and adding another ethernet connected Play: 1 or Play:3.

 

V/r,

 

Mike

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