YT Music to Chromecast Audio to Line-In Port drops audio often

I have found that while the audio is cutting out, if I boost the volume, it always causes the audio to cut back in. Odd that the speakers can work perfectly fine at a low volume, then magically cut out for a time before cutting back in. Very annoying though, as I play music through my house throughout the work day at low volume so that it doesn’t pull my concentration; but my mind latches on to hearing audio drop out all of a sudden (or cut back in all of a sudden).

Odd. I’d absolutely submit a system diagnostic within 10 minutes of experiencing this problem, and call Sonos Support to discuss it. 

There may be information included in the diagnostic that will help Sonos pinpoint the issue and help you find a solution.

When you speak directly to the Support staff, they have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your network and Sonos system. And it would absolutely be helpful if indeed there is a problem with the software. 

I had a session with Support. They ran a diagnostic but all they really had me do was enable WiFi on all my devices and change the SonosNet channel. All my devices are hardwired, so, sure enough, this didn’t fix anything and the problem persists.

Hi @Aaron M, did everything work fine until recently? Did anything change in your setup?

Think of running some experiments to isolate the issue. For example, connect the Chromecast Audio (CA) to the line in on one of your Sonos Amps … does the low-volume problem go away?

• Yes: your CA is working fine and the problem could be in your Sonos Port
• No: the problem is likely in your CA

@press250 - I’ve no idea, TBH. I haven’t tried that yet. But the process of elimination should help narrow things down. The problem usually exhibits itself within 10-15 minutes of play easily, so I’ll try moving the CA’s 3.5mm to RCA adapter from the Port to one of my Amps and see if the problem persists. I’ll report back here.

Oh and this problem has existed since I first started using this system. Bought a new home; someone recommended Sonos; did research, got these items, then I used the CA because it’s worlds easier to work with than the YT integration on Sonos.

@press250 That’s an interesting proposition.

I’m Amish when it comes to electricity, but it sounds like a feasible cause and effect. One that I’m sure Sonos doesn’t allow you to modify in the Port.

So far I’ve been playing my music at a VERY low volume directly to Amp 1 (controls the in-ceiling speakers on my first floor) We’re about 6 songs in, and there’s been no cut out mid-song or at the start/end of songs.

If this continues, it might point more towards the Port being at fault. I know the Port has the setting in it where you choose between Levels 1-10, and I haven’t tried all of them; not knowing what the major difference is, but if Sonos could confirm that the logic running in the Port does have some kind of signal strength detection I would also assume that the same song that cuts out could be “rewound” to the point where it was playing and then when it gets to the same spot, it should cut out again.

I’ll keep playing this music for now. After 30 minutes or so, that’s definitive, as normally I’d have well over 5-10 instances of drop out during that period. At that point, I’ll connect the CA back to the Port and up the CA’s volume, using the Sonos App’s volume to lower its output. In the event I still have the issue, I’ll rewind and play that song again, seeing if it cuts out at the same moment.

 So there is no way to force a Port to lock onto an input??  I don’t have anything connected to my Port, but logic tells me there should be a switch in the app to choose input or stream or auto detect.

@MoPac Visually, the RCA inputs on the Port look 1:1 like those on the Sonos, but my guess is that the Port is adding some additional checks on the input that the Amp doesn’t, and this is leading to the cutout.

I put the Port back into the mix, set my YT app to about 30% volume (good gravy, my speakers are loud; go Amps!) and then reduced Sonos app to a point where the music is “low”. So far, no cutouts.

It will be WILDLY frustrating if the “workaround” (note, I don’t call it a solution, because it doesn’t fix the problem) is to choose my music with YT, but then to have to use the Sonos App to set volume. That would be one heck of a facepalm; and it hints that the problem still exists within the Sonos Port, since the same low volume from YT App to CA directly run to an Amp never had the cutout issue.

After 15 more minutes, I’ll go to dropping the YT App volume, bringing the Sonos App volume back up and seeing if I get a dropout (and if so, I’ll try to rewind the music to the same point and see if the issue repeats)

Well, technically I’ve selected “Line In” as the source, since the Chromecast Audio had a 3.5mm jack that went to an adapter which converted to RCA Analog Red/White plugs that went into the Port’s “IN”.

The hope is that if the inputs are the same across the Port and the Amp, a software fix should be all that’s needed. But I don’t know how realistic it is, even if we reported this to Sonos and they confirmed it, to see it get patched in any reasonable time frame.

Findings

DIRECT TO AMP
When connecting the CA directly to an Amp (via 3.5mm to RCA adapter), YT audio can be set as low as possible and music played flawlessly.

DIRECT TO PORT, MAX VOLUME ON YT, MIN VOLUME ON SONOS
When connecting the CA directly to the Port (via 3.5mm to RCA adapter), YT audio can be set to mid-range (higher than low volume) and the Sonos App can be used to lower the volume. Like this, music played flawlessly.

DIRECT TO PORT, MIN VOLUME ON YT, MAX VOLUME ON SONOS
When maxing the Sonos App audio and then lower the YT App audio like how I originally set things up, I started to experience cut outs.

ADDITIONAL FINDINGS
I made an observation. There was a song that for the last 10-15 seconds, the music was very soft. Mixed with the low volume, this was practically inaudible. As the playlist moved to the next song, the first 9 seconds played before the song cut back in. This song starts off with some rather intense sound. I scrubbed the song back to the beginning, expecting the audio to cut out until we were 9 seconds in, but the audio played immediately from the start of the song.

So I played the previous song and dragged the slider to the last 20 seconds. Sure enough you hear audio until around 15 seconds until the end of track. It’s hard to tell whether audio is cutting out at the point or if the combination of the soft music and low volume were just hard to hear. But sure enough, when the next track played, it skipped the first 9 seconds of it before cutting in.

I think what @press250 was postulating could be true. For low-intensity songs played at low volumes, the Port (but not Amps) will assume no music is playing, and will cut out. There’s something about the way it handles a new track starting where it doesn’t sample the music/signal if it had previously detected such a low signal that it caused a cutout. After the exact same 9 seconds of playing the new song, the audio cuts back in. But if you scrub it back to the start immediately after the audio cuts in, the song plays from the very beginning.

The transition to a cutout state mixed with the next song playing in the list seems to be a culprit. And this is ONLY an issue with the Port; as the Amp does not exhibit this problem. The Amp allows the YT App to be as low as possible and the Sonos App fully cranked, and it will always play the audio at a low volume; no cutouts. But the Port is seemingly broken. Its logic results in cut outs when the YT App audio source is too low, and the signal doesn’t seem to get re-sampled again until events like a new track play (even then, taking it ~9 seconds before it can determine that there is a signal, and route the audio to the speakers) This is about the same time it takes when you initially “Cast to” the Chromecast. There’s this expected timespan where the source app (YT Music) is going from outputting music on my phone to sending it via wireless network to the CA.

Hi @Aaron M, great diagnosing! I’ve seen audio gear with “power saving” mode turn off at extremely low volumes. Happily, the gear had a ‘sensitivity’ setting to remedy the issue. Anyway, that is what gave me the idea.

@press250 Well, unless there’s a debug mode where I can change some advanced options on the Port, it looks like this might require a software fix. I’ll report our findings to Sonos in hopes that they look into it and confirm our findings. Thank you for all your help!

Well, sadly, I had a chat with Sonos Support, but there was obviously a language barrier in place and I feel the rep wasn’t understanding that I wanted to provide feedback for software engineers to look into. After waiting 12th in line and then waiting an average of 3-5 minutes per response, each of which wasn’t moving towards me providing the feedback, I just asked for an email to send my information to Sonos directly.

I really hope that an opportunity to fix this issue wasn’t lost just because of cost-cutting efforts in support.

They gave me a case number and told me to contact the CEO, so I’ll send the info there and hope it isn’t lost into the ether.