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Hi all. I've owned and been using Sonos as my primary stereo brand for a year or so now. I seem to keep spending a pretty penny on building more yet I lack a lot of basic understanding and functionality which I need to figure out. I have a soundbar, sub and 2 play 3's for surround sound (overkill I know but I got a good deal from a friend to upgrade upstairs on 5's and I like to just play music a lot downstairs through that system). That setup works great and I think I am for the most part getting all I can out of it.



Upstairs I have an old pioneer receiver which I run my TV, record player, and cassette deck through a Sonos CONNECT. The revceiver is connected via RCA cables, the CONNECT is on the wireless network and the PLAY 5's are hard wired to the CONNECT with ethernet cords (in an effort to reduce the constant drop outs). I've had it setup this way for a while now and I've always had issues with it, to the point where I just leave it off to watch TV it's so bad. Even listening to music I find myself often just walking away frustrated because it constantly dips in and out of connectivity. My questions with the connect are as follows:



1. I know it's not my internet connection so what could be causing the interference where my speakers come in and out of connectivity? This by no means always happens. I could, if I'm lucky, get a full session of watching TV or listening to records with no problems at all or it could start happening after 5 minutes and stop almost immediately and I sit through it or it could just keep on happening where I turn it all off in frustration and walk away. Overall I'd say I experience this problem about 15% of the time I use it.



2. Why does the CONNECT have it's own volume bar on my SONOS app when it does nothing? Not only that but I find myself having to constantly to regreoup the CONNECT and pair of PLAY 5's. For some reason my system seems to constantly forget that they are working together, and again the CONNECT has it's own group which doesn't have any volume control yet I can scroll the volume bar left and right all I want so I just don't understand what the purpose of it is nor do I undestand why my player can't remember what my group is as I don't ever mix it up, I just am always putting it back together into one group.



In reading through the forums, which I promise I tried to do extensively before posting!, I saw that there is a fixed volume or variable option for the CONNECT. I do not remember ever seeing that nor could I find it when going back through settings on my controller so I suspect this possibly could have something to do with the volume bar being there but not doing anything. So perhaps if I can figure out how to access this that would answer that question. The dropping out is clearly the most important part of this topic though.



Thank you guys in advance for any help and insight you can provide to help me at least understand it all a little better and hopefully end the dropping out
Couple of points, you say the play:5s are hardwired to the Connect, you mean with network cables? But you also say the Connect is connected wirelessly, do you mean direct to your Wi-Fi or do you have a Sonos device wired to your network? You see, you can't do both, if your Connect is connected directly to your Wi-Fi then the network ports on the back are disabled, so the cables to the play:5s aren't doing anything and the play:5s are also connected directly to your Wi-Fi. This is almost certainly the cause of your dropouts. If you can wire a Sonos device to your router you will be using sonosnet mode, which for large installs is usually more reliable, provided there is a decent connection from the wired device to the wireless ones.



The Connect has a volume control because it is primarily intended as a playback device, rather than an input, so if you plugged the output from the Connect into the receiver you could listen to Sonos music through the receiver.



Lastly you don't need to group the Connect and the play:5s together in order to play the Connect's line-in on the play:5s , just select line-in from the play:5 source menu.
Thanks so much for the detailed answer! I thought since there are 2 ports on the back of the Connect then that was probably meant for a dual speaker set but what you say makes sense. The Connect is wirelessly connected to the network and then the cables from the Play 5's to the Connect are not doing anything and are also wireless (If I understand you correctly). When I get home I will connect the ethernet directly to my modem and see how that does. I think I understand what you are saying in the last point about grouping but not entirely sure. I will try that as well tonight. One other question just for curioisty sake. Why would there be 2 ethernet ports on the Connect? wouldn't you just be connecting it to a modem or router and that's it? when would you have a use for both?



thanks again!
There are two Ethernet ports so you can wire the unit to the network without the net loss of a port. In other words you can daisy-chain another device through the Sonos box.
So I just got home and plugged the connect straight to the modem and 10 minutes into a record I am getting little drop outs. Not a lot but any amount is frustrating. My internet speed is consistently 50gb+ as I have been trying to immediately do speed tests when I hear drop outs occur and I never see a problem. Plus it often happens when streaming TV and the stream never drops or buffers, just the audio.



Any other troubleshooting I might try to fix this?
So the CONNECT is now wired to the network. What's the situation with the PLAY:5s? Are they completely wireless? Are they quite close to the CONNECT?



Try changing the SonosNet wireless channel, in Advanced Settings.
yes, so I unplugged the ethernet cords that I had the play5's running to the connect with since that setup was superfluous and the connect is wired straight to the modem itself, not even a router. The speakers are very close to the connect and modem (all on the same entertainment console)



I will try chaning the Sonosnet wireless channel.



Thanks
the connect is wired straight to the modem itself, not even a router.

You'll need to elaborate. Your local network must have a router. It needn't be a wireless router. If what you have is truly a modem (and not a modem/router) you'll be in for big trouble.
the connect is wired straight to the modem itself, not even a router.

You'll need to elaborate. Your local network must have a router. It needn't be a wireless router. If what you have is truly a modem (and not a modem/router) you'll be in for big trouble.



it is a modem that has input ports on it. I have a wireless router that is running through one of the ports but the Sonos Connect is now pllugged straight into one of the other ports on the modem itself. I'm not sure why this would be big trouble but if I should do it differently please let me know. Since the change I haven't noticed much difference with performance (roughly 90% of the time working properly with no dropout).



thanks again for any and all help/input
it is a modem that has input ports on it.

That sounds suspiciously like a router, not a modem. Modems generally have a single port.



I think you have two routers operating, which will cause problems. Plug the CONNECT into the wireless router instead.
it is a modem that has input ports on it.

That sounds suspiciously like a router, not a modem. Modems generally have a single port.



I think you have two routers operating, which will cause problems. Plug the CONNECT into the wireless router instead.



And if you have two routers (I also don't think there's much "if" about it), it is possible that both are dishing out IP addresses, which could easily explain why you have network problems. What are the makes and model numbers of the two devices?
it is a modem that has input ports on it.

That sounds suspiciously like a router, not a modem. Modems generally have a single port.



I think you have two routers operating, which will cause problems. Plug the CONNECT into the wireless router instead.



And if you have two routers (I also don't think there's much "if" about it), it is possible that both are dishing out IP addresses, which could easily explain why you have network problems. What are the makes and model numbers of the two devices?



Still having issues. To clarify my setup as I did mispeak before:



I have one modem/router combo where the router portion has been disabled on it because it had shitty connectivity

I have an active netgear router that was quite expensive as I was trying to get better connectivity

the CONNECT is plugged directrly into the active router (not the modem/router as I previously stated incorrectly)

Everything running is very very close to each other, all within one entertainment console and within a couple feet of each other



I'm still experiencing dropping out consistently. I've tried, just to experiment, playing with using the output rather than input on the CONNECT as that's what one response previously stated it was designed to be. I have to say I don't fully understand why it would ever be anything but a Line In device but regardless I've tried to set it up in every way I can imagine might be possible just for the sake of trouble shooting and I've gotten nowhere. I am pretty confident that the setup that works about 90% of the time is the correct setup, I just can't for the life of me get this roughly $750 worth of Sonos equipment to work without dropping out.



I imagine I am speaking to no one at this point since this thread is rather old and those of you that have tried to help (which i greatly appreciate) haven't been able to help thus far figure out the issue. the sound on Sonos is great but man, what a pain my entire Sonos experience has been and continues to be....
You will be advised to have at least a metre between your wireless router and the Connect, however if the Connect is wired to the network and the play:5s are wired to the Connect you won't be using the wireless networking anyway. Is that still the situation? Do all your Sonos devices read WM:0 in Settings-About My Sonos System?
You will be advised to have at least a metre between your wireless router and the Connect, however if the Connect is wired to the network and the play:5s are wired to the Connect you won't be using the wireless networking anyway. Is that still the situation? Do all your Sonos devices read WM:0 in Settings-About My Sonos System?



I looked at "about my sonos" and it looks like everything is still operating wirelessly even though I have an ethernet cable runing from the connect to the router. How do i make sure that is running through the cable and not wirelessly? I previously had ethernet cables running from the Play 5's to the Connect but I was told by a previous user in this thread that that was useless and was not doing anything so I just unplugged those. Should I plug those back in?



thank you!
You will be advised to have at least a metre between your wireless router and the Connect, however if the Connect is wired to the network and the play:5s are wired to the Connect you won't be using the wireless networking anyway. Is that still the situation? Do all your Sonos devices read WM:0 in Settings-About My Sonos System?



I looked at "about my sonos" and it looks like everything is still operating wirelessly even though I have an ethernet cable runing from the connect to the router. How do i make sure that is running through the cable and not wirelessly? I previously had ethernet cables running from the Play 5's to the Connect but I was told by a previous user in this thread that that was useless and was not doing anything so I just unplugged those. Should I plug those back in?





That would be me, in wireless mode the Ethernet ports are disabled, if you haven't managed to get the system into Sonosnet mode by plugging the Connect's Ethernet into the router then there's something very wrong. Can you try a different Ethernet cable? Or wire one of the play:5s to the router (the left one ideally)?



Give it five minutes or so and then check about my Sonos system.
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