Dropouts while listening to music.

Thanks @Paul A - I think things are getting better now after unplugging Playbar from the router and plugging Boost into another router in the same network. I will keep testing different music sources and let you know how it goes!

Hi @skyriver.

Thanks for the immediate feedback.

I’m glad to know everything works now. I hope not only do you enjoy your Sonos but as well as everything goes well moving forward.

Please let me know if you still have further questions or concerns. We are always here to help out.

Thanks,

Hi @Paul A 

I had a chance to run a longer test today and had absolutely no problems this morning when I was playing music from a local network drive attached to one of the routers as well as from Sonos Radio. I even tried to play it on all speakers in all rooms at the same time and it was playing nicely without any significant delays.

Then, I tried to play music from my TV attached to the Playbar via Optical cable and again things were working fine, with no delays in the living room. The only issue was that I had to set Group Audio Delay to Max (2,000ms) which means that the Bedroom speakers were 2s behind the music in the living room. I think It’s simply because the music had to jump from the Playbar to Boost and then further to Bedroom’s Symfonisk speakers. I use this mode very rarely, so it’s not a big issue for me anyway.

However, later in the afternoon/evening I again started playing music from the local network drive to all the speakers in my living room (this time not streaming to Bedroom speakers at all). Unfortunately, the drop outs came back, usually lasting around 1-2 seconds every few minutes. As advised in some topics in this forum, I had a look at the network matrix but it didn’t look too bad (please correct me if I’m wrong):

I also made a small diagram showing the layout of the rooms and the Sonos devices and routers:

The Sonos Boost and the router that it’s wired to are in the hallway roughly half way between the living room and the bedroom. The two routers have the 2.4Ghz radios turned off to minimise the possible interference.

After some of the drop outs I submitted diagnostics: first 581718668 and then 2041809610 around 30 minutes later. Do they show the reason why these drop outs still occur?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, I’m not too sure where to look next. Do the Sonos speakers require very stable connection within the LAN network (to the network drive storing the music) and/or the internet? I would think that they can cache at least a few seconds of the music and things should work smoothly even during very short issues connecting to the network drive.

Hi @skyriver.

Thanks for the immediate and detailed response as well as showing a nework matric of your Sonos devices.

I would like to share with you the diagnostics provided shows interference with the Playbar, Symfonisk Lamp, and Boost. I would suggest try using a different ethernet cable with the Sonos boost to make sure it has a reliable ethernet cable with no issues of the wire being a little faulty. I would also like to recommend going through the guide on how to reduce wireless interference. The boost maybe wired to the router however, it may still encounter wireless interference since it is generating Sonos WiFi or Sonos net to all your Sonos devices. Audio drop out is also present and displayed on Playbar and Sympfonisk Lamp. I would also like to recommend another guide that might help.

Based on the Network matrix provided, I do not see any major/glaring issues on your Sonos devices.

Please let me know how it goes. We’re always here to help out.

Thanks,

Hi @Paul A 

Thanks for the recommendations!

I replaced the cable to a much shorter FTP cable, thinking that the longer it is the more interference it may be getting. I’ve also moved Boost slightly closer to the line of sight between the living room and the bedroom. Every now and then I was still seeing orange boxes on the left hand side of the network matrix, but fortunately it wasn’t affecting music too much.

Things were running with no issues for 2 days. Now I’m doing a little renovation at home so speakers are unplugged, but hopefully once connected again I’ll be able to enjoy issue-free listening! :)

Hi @skyriver.

Thanks for the immediate response and feedback.

I’m glad to hear that everything is working as expected. I do hope you continue to enjoy your Sonos and good luck with the renovation.

Please do not hesitate to reach out if you still have further questions or concerns. We are always here to help out.

Thanks,

It’s been almost two weeks now after the renovation and the Sonos system has been running smoothly with many different music services (local audio files and streaming services) with absolute no dropouts. Thank you @Paul A for your help! Hard to choose a single best answer but I’m sure all of the above helped!

Hi @skyriver.

Thanks for the feedback and update.

I’m glad to hear that everything is still working as expected. I do hope you continue to enjoy your Sonos and the new look after the renovation.

Please do not hesitate to reach out if you still have further questions or concerns. We are always here to help out.

Thanks,

Hi @holsen.

Welcome to the Sonos community and thanks for sharing the solution on what solved the issue on your situation.  I’m glad that everything worked. This is a good read so other members of the community who might be have the same setup and issue as yours can find this thread helpful. I do hope you continue to love and enjoy your Sonos. 

Please do not hesitate to reach out or create a topic if you have additional questions or concerns. I’ll be more than happy to help.

Thanks,

Hi @holsen 

Thanks for your advice!

I’ve already had the points 2-4 completed but I didn’t know that switching off Beamforming is going to help in this situation too. I’ll definitely try it next time I need to troubleshoot it.

After some problems recently with high OFDM ANI levels on the Playbar and Sub (that are next to each other) I’ve decided to wire Sub to Playbar and see what happens. It turns out that it did help reduce OFDM ANI level and the whole reliability of the system.

Summarising the only two devices that I’ve got wired at the moment are Sonos Boost (wired to a secondary Wifi router) and Sonos Sub (wired to the Playbar sitting just above it).

Good luck with it.  I can confirm that since posting above, 4 - 6 weeks ago, I am still drop out free.  I'm really thankful for the network optimizer feature on the deco system.  It automatically reassign Chanels and node…. Turning off beam forming also made a positive  impact.