SL surrounds with playbase audio choppy and dropping out

  • 5 December 2020
  • 7 replies
  • 357 views

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Just added 2 Sonos SL as surrounds in my family room paired with playbase and sub.  I previously had play 3 surrounds in the room but moved to a new room when i bought the SL’s.  I have a single Sonos One hardwired in another room and all other Sonos devices (12) are wireless.  In general my system is very robust and the play 3’s worked well and still work well in the new room.  When I installed the 2 new SL’s the audio is breaking up when using airplay and sometimes drops out entirely with audio only coming from the playbase.  Happens at the very beginning of any airplay session and when changing tracks using Apple Music from my iPhone.  When playing through the Sonos app using music services no issues.  Any ideas on how to solve?  I’ve already tried restarting my network (Eero), updated and restarted my iPhone.


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7 replies

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Also ran a diagnostic while the issue was occurring:  272358433

 

A second diagnostic with my surround setup in another room with good audio (beam, play 3 surrounds) and then moved to the room with audio issues (playbase, sub, SL surrounds):  648233562

Perhaps see if the information mentioned in this post/link may help…

LINK

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Thanks Ken.  I tried nearly all of these with no success and went through the wireless interference link from Sonos in detail.  No luck so far.  I’m hoping someone from Sonos can use the diagnostic codes to get to the bottom of it.

Another strange detail I noticed is the choppy audio actually began the moment these SL’s were installed (while playing the stock sound when booting up a new speaker).  I have 12 total devices and have never experienced this on any of them.


I’m wondering if best course of action is to remove from my system and try reinstall.

 

 

 

‘Bonded’ (not paired) Surrounds to Sonos HT products use an ad-hoc 5ghz connection to the main HT device, usually (when not wired), so if that’s the type of setup you have with the PlayBase, then maybe just try a power on/off of the main player and surrounds and see if that resolves it. I appreciate you mention them as being ‘paired’ I’m assuming you meant they are ‘bonded’ rather than grouped or paired.

Airplay audio also streams from/through the ‘source device’ on the network to the Sonos player, so just ensure that device has a good/stable connection to the local network too.

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Thanks for all the feedback, Ken.  Sorry for not being sharper with my terminology- yes they are “bonded” to the playbase by adding as surrounds using standard process in the sonos app and not grouped.

I tried the power cycling with no luck.  I went ahead and removed them as surrounds and setup as a stereo pair without physically moving them.  They worked perfectly, so this tells me no hardware or wifi strength/interference issues.  I went ahead and removed the stereo pair then re-bonded them as surrounds to the playbase and now everything seems good.  I guess something could have gone wrong in the initial attempt.  Hopefully they continue behaving!


By the way, I’ve been using sonosnet for my whole system with a Sonos one hardwired in another room for about 2 years.  I’ve heard this should be the most robust setup in most cases.  My network is Eero based (1 router + 3 beacons) and I’ve heard of some users having issues with sonosnet adding a layer on top of the Eero mesh network.  Do you know if it matters which setup I use for most reliable performance?

By the way, I’ve been using sonosnet for my whole system with a Sonos one hardwired in another room for about 2 years.  I’ve heard this should be the most robust setup in most cases.  My network is Eero based (1 router + 3 beacons) and I’ve heard of some users having issues with sonosnet adding a layer on top of the Eero mesh network.  Do you know if it matters which setup I use for most reliable performance?

I always recommend SonosNet and perhaps moreso where users have a mesh WiFi system like eero.

What you can do is perhaps scan the locality with software like ‘WiFiInfoView’ in and around the mesh hubs to see the channels in use and then try to set the SonosNet channel so that it is on the least used channel and at least 5 channels away from those in use (if possible). Also ensure the wired Play:1 is kept away from the primary eero hub that it’s wired too...at least three feet, but the further away it is, the better.