Hi @ustad2be
Welcome to the Sonos Community!
Could you please define “drops out”? Do you mean the units disappear from the app, or that the audio momentarily stops playing?
If it is the latter, please confirm (as I suspect) that you are trying to group the Amps with the Arc to play TV audio through them. Thanks.
Hi Corry - Sorry for not being clear, it is the latter. The audio drops out momentarily when the Arc and the Amps are grouped together within the Sonos App.
Hi @ustad2be
No problem.
Grouping to play TV audio in other rooms can work, but it’s not officially supported. When synchronising music playback, the music can be pre-buffered and frames of it can be arranged to play at certain exact times - this is what Sonos is about. When playing TV audio, however, the main Home Theatre device (Arc, in your case) is unwilling to wait for buffering so that it can stay in sync with the picture on the TV. Surrounds and Subs are on a direct 5GHz link and can play without delay. When playing TV audio to other rooms, the network is involved which has a slower connection (Arc connects to the router over 2.4GHz) and extra devices (the router itself, and any other network devices on the path to the destination). Therefore, TV audio can played over the network, but it’s either going to suffer dropouts due to lack of buffering, or be delayed and therefore out of sync with the HT room if the buffer is increased.
You can increase the size of the buffer by going to Settings » System » Sroom with Arc] » Group Audio Delay » Medium/High/Max. Experiment, and choose the lowest value that results in no dropouts. If you can’t hear the Arc in the other rooms, it should be acceptable. If you can hear the Arc, you may not find the result tolerable.
If you have the option of connecting the Arc to ethernet, that may also improve matters.
I hope this helps.
Thanks for the info.
In regards to connecting the Arc to the ethernet, should I be connecting it to the router or directly to the 2nd port on the Amp?
In general, connecting directly to the router itself is preferred.
If you can’t connect directly to the router using a Gigabit Switch at the equipment end is a good option. Both devices can connect at the maximum speed and the link back to the router can easily support both devices.
A decent 5 or 8 port switch can be found for $20 or so. Just avoid ones known to cause Sonos heartburn.
https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/incompatible-network-hardware
Thanks for the info Stanley_4.
Is it safe to say that any switch that is not on that list will work?
A 5 port unmanaged switch is all I need. Do you have any recommendation?
Hi @ustad2be
Is it safe to say that any switch that is not on that list will work?
Yes, but I’d recommend a IGMP-capable switch. I can’t recommend any specific models, however, but generally one is as good as another.
I’m fond of these, $20 and work well in a home setup.
TP-Link TL-SG108 8 Port Gigabit Unmanaged Ethernet Network Switch
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A121WN6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The 5 port version makes little sense at $16 unless you are really tight on space
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A128S24/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0
I connected the Arc and the Amps to a dedicated switch and that seems to have resolved the issue.
Thank you all!
Hi @ustad2be
Fantastic! Thanks for updating the thread!
