Sonos is forcing people to buy new hardware as they've broken the Connect:Amp and they refuse to fix it

B
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Hi,

 

I'm recreating this thread, as the discussion wasn't finished, but it was locked. I also wanted to make it obvious this is a Sonos issue, not a client environment issue.

 

https://en.community.sonos.com/components-and-architectural-228999/connect-amp-keeps-dropping-out-audio-6885634/index2.html

 

I've been following this for a while because I've been having the same issues, and when I spoke to support they said the connect amp can't cope with modern software and that I should upgrade to the amp, which is clearly unacceptable.

 

This has been confirmed by people in that original thread who have been told the same thing.

 

BillJanzen

“FWIW, these issues seem to have occured after the June 2023 software update to S2 version 15.5. Interestingly, there is an alert posted in the release notes of the 15.6 update released July 25, 2023 about adjusting how older Sonos products use their internal memory. See below (copied from https://support.sonos.com/en-ca/article/release-notes-for-sonos-s2):  Alerts:      With this update, we’ve adjusted how some of our older Sonos products are using their internal memory. Because of this change, updates for Play:1, Play:3, Boost, Connect, Connect:Amp, and Sub (Gen 1 and 2) will take longer to complete than before. The reset process for these products will also take more time to complete after this update.”

 

BillJanzen

“We continue to have intermittent drop-outs on all 4 of our Connect:Amp devices, so here’s my update after 1.5 hours on the phone with Sonos today. They said the diagnostics for one of the Connect:Amp devices the chose to investigate showed multiple major alerts, including:      Cannot allocate memory to full status     Write failed     Player crashed: out of memory     OOM Killer  These items all sound like they are related to memory issues with the older Connect:Amp product, as Big Bull mentioned in his previous post.”

 

Big Bull:

“Ok latest is I powered down 3 of my 4 units and just had the one I use most running hard wired to the router through my switch and it still gave dropouts so I sent 2 diagnostics to Sonos and they said : 

------------------ 

Thanks, so on this one in specific I can see the audio interruptions are caused because the product basically is old, and it is reaching its capabilities, there are some things that can be done to try to reduce the impact of this, but if it continues this product will need to be replaced with the upgrade program. 

------------------- 

I am being advised to replace any affected units with the Sonos Amp which can be costly.”

 

Birchan

“  Same problem, 4 AMP of which two lose sound...  SONOS did a wrong analysis and accidentally said that there were memory failures in some of the units. But since they only give a 2-year warranty, mine was 2.5 years too old. How can SONOS sell products that obviously have manufacturing problems and then say that they can replace them with a 30% discount on new ones? Wonder if Tesla would sell cars that stop working after 2 years and say, sorry you have to buy a new car every two years because the warranty has expired. So bad from SONOS so I will be discontinuing my SONOS system and switching to BOSE...  “

 

For context, in my situation I have a connect amp, connected via ethernet with WiFi off, and I started to get regular drop outs around June. It's incredibly annoying, the audio will drop out for a few seconds before continuing, if other speakers are grouped they will carry on fine.

 

It's absolutely 100% not a network issue. When I was debugging it, I briefly made the connect amp the only wired device and turned on WiFi, and other speakers in my house worked perfectly at all times. I've also reserved IP addresses, and I ran a ping monitor on it to check for any network dropouts. There were none. I've put the system back now, so the connect amp has its WiFi off.

 

So it seems to me that Sonos have released a firmware update that the connect amp cannot handle, and rather than take responsibility for it, they're just fobbing people off telling them to buy expensive new hardware to solve the problem, not even with any substantial discount. It's unacceptable. This connect amp worked perfectly before June.

 

Sonos needs to release a new update that solves the issue, or give people affected substantial discounts on replacement amps, and formally announce that the connect amp is end of life. Currently people with issues on this forum are being unintentionally gaslighted by well meaning people who don't know that this issue exists. Sonos cannot say the connect amp is supported when they've released a broken update.

 

People need to know about this issue, I've seen loads of topics about this issue and people get fobbed off with network issues, which is absolutely not the case, at all. Big Bull proved this by doing a replacement to amps which solved his issue.

Corry P 4 months ago

Hi @britcowboy et al,

Thank you all for your information both in this topic and the other one mentioned (which we have reopened as it was automatically closed by mistake).

Our engineers are currently investigating this with the highest priority.

We thank you for your patience while we work through this, we'll keep you updated with any news that we can share.

Thank you.

View original

246 replies

melvimbe

Sonos defenders, how can you defend this? This is indefensible. This product isn't being sold, but it's not marked as EOL unlike earlier Connect AMPs which didn't survive the S2 upgrade. Sonos needs to undo the changes it made to memory in the summer update so we can use our existing hardware. If you defend this, the time will come when Sonos does something that bites you, and we won't be here to support you..

 

Really?  You posted 3 years ago to complain about the S1/S2 changes, and posted nothing till now when you have another complaint.  You’re really going to claim you will be there to support others when there are issues that don’t impact you directly?  And who is this ‘we’ you claim to speak for?  The theatrics are silly.

Firstly, I love the fact you’re going through my post history to find dirt on me, well done. And secondly, I don’t come onto this forum that often, but I do follow Sonos news, I followed the story about the Arc, which didn’t exacly need my help by the time I found out about it. However something I’d never do is hang around a company forum telling people their issues with the companies product aren’t valid, and that the company can do no wrong - that’s pretty sad behaviour imo

 

 

There’s no dirt, just actually seeing if you have a history of actually doing what you said you would do.  You won’t actually be here to support anyone else.  You’ll just read the news. 

If you had actually looked around you’d see the majority of the people you claim are defending Sonos are actually helping people resolve their issues.  You know, that thing you claim you’re going to do.  

Does that sometimes mean Sonos is right and the people complaining have unrealistic expectations?  Yes.  As I said before, I do think it’s reasonable for you to ask for a discount on a new amp and see what you can get.  I’d be surprised if you get a full replacement or if Sonos rolls back features to get this to work.   Hopefully there’s a fix for it.  Anyone else with the issue should contact Sonos support, to eliminate the possibility it’s a network issue and get another name on the list.

 

 

 

Danny
B
Userlevel 4
Badge +5

Sonos defenders, how can you defend this? This is indefensible. This product isn't being sold, but it's not marked as EOL unlike earlier Connect AMPs which didn't survive the S2 upgrade. Sonos needs to undo the changes it made to memory in the summer update so we can use our existing hardware. If you defend this, the time will come when Sonos does something that bites you, and we won't be here to support you..

 

Really?  You posted 3 years ago to complain about the S1/S2 changes, and posted nothing till now when you have another complaint.  You’re really going to claim you will be there to support others when there are issues that don’t impact you directly?  And who is this ‘we’ you claim to speak for?  The theatrics are silly.

Firstly, I love the fact you’re going through my post history to find dirt on me, well done. And secondly, I don’t come onto this forum that often, but I do follow Sonos news, I followed the story about the Arc, which didn’t exacly need my help by the time I found out about it. However something I’d never do is hang around a company forum telling people their issues with the companies product aren’t valid, and that the company can do no wrong - that’s pretty sad behaviour imo

 

 

There’s no dirt, just actually seeing if you have a history of actually doing what you said you would do.  You won’t actually be here to support anyone else.  You’ll just read the news. 

If you had actually looked around you’d see the majority of the people you claim are defending Sonos are actually helping people resolve their issues.  You know, that thing you claim you’re going to do.  

Does that sometimes mean Sonos is right and the people complaining have unrealistic expectations?  Yes.  As I said before, I do think it’s reasonable for you to ask for a discount on a new amp and see what you can get.  I’d be surprised if you get a full replacement or if Sonos rolls back features to get this to work.   Hopefully there’s a fix for it.  Anyone else with the issue should contactSonoss support, to eliminate the possibility it’s a network issue and get another name on the list.

 

 

 

The thing is though, that you're very hostile. I appreciate you help people here, but you're very hostile to people who suggest there's an issue with the product, there's no need to be so hostile.

If a big issue arises I will be here adding my name to the list, like I did with the S1/S2 transition. I didn't say I would be here helping people constantly, I don't have the time, I work a full-time job and have a family, you're reading something that I didn't say.

I'm not interested in just solving my issue, I want the issue solved for others who also have it, which seems to be a growing number. The easiest thing for Sonos to do would be to attempt to fix it in software, it's obviously doable as downgrading to s1 fixes the issue. If its a case of some new feature of s2 can't work on the CA, that's fine, I just want what I have to work, while also not limiting myself and preventing myself from buying s2 exclusive devices, without splitting my network, which I refuse to do (as it defies the point of Sonos imo)

K

The easiest thing for Sonos to do would be to attempt to fix it in software, it's obviously doable as downgrading to s1 fixes the issue. If its a case of some new feature of s2 can't work on the CA, that's fine, I just want what I have to work, while also not limiting myself and preventing myself from buying s2 exclusive devices, without splitting my network, which I refuse to do (as it defies the point of Sonos imo)

It is almost certainly not the easiest thing to do in software engineering, to do this AND keep the unit up to being part of S2 environment that keeps asking for more memory to serve it, and is not equivalent to a downgrade to S1, a solution that seems to work, but is not for you because you do not want a split system. And a system that is not split, but has some units that cannot do what others on S2 can do defeats the concept of a system that is not split. I understand from posts here that there is a 30% discount on the Amp you can get, and you are well advised here by others to see if direct correspondence with Sonos can fetch you more of a discount - giving you that is by far the easiest thing for Sonos to do.

B
Userlevel 4
Badge +5

The easiest thing for Sonos to do would be to attempt to fix it in software, it's obviously doable as downgrading to s1 fixes the issue. If its a case of some new feature of s2 can't work on the CA, that's fine, I just want what I have to work, while also not limiting myself and preventing myself from buying s2 exclusive devices, without splitting my network, which I refuse to do (as it defies the point of Sonos imo)

It is almost certainly not the easiest thing to do in software engineering, to do this AND keep the unit up to being part of S2 environment that keeps asking for more memory to serve it, and is not equivalent to a downgrade to S1, a solution that seems to work, but is not for you because you do not want a split system. And a system that is not split, but has some units that cannot do what others on S2 can do defeats the concept of a system that is not split. I understand from posts here that there is a 30% discount on the Amp you can get, and you are well advised here by others to see if direct correspondence with Sonos can fetch you more of a discount - giving you that is by far the easiest thing for Sonos to do.

Firstly it's 15% on the Gen 2 Connect Amp. Even if it was 30%, that still ends up being around £500 for a new amp, and it's not as if I'm even getting any new features I need with it, it's literally just replacing a device I've already spent hundreds on due to Sonos breaking it, not good enough. Not only that, but I still have a Gen 1 I need to replace, so that's over a grand to replace them. Secondly as this was a bug introduced in the Summer, rolling it back shouldn't be much work.

Ultimately though, having older devices just start not working properly is not a valid solution, and having Sonos get customers to pay at least £500 to fix their issues isn't good enough.

A
Userlevel 4
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As @britcowboy says, the discount on a move from connect amp (gen 2) to Amp is only 15%. After that discount, a pair of Amps comes in at $1,500.
 

If my rollback to S1 doesn’t stay the course then a pair of WiiM Amps at $750 looks like a very attractive alternative to the pair of Sonos Amps. 

K

my rollback to S1 doesn’t stay the course then a pair of WiiM Amps at $750 looks like a very attractive alternative to the pair of Sonos Amps. 

In that case, why don’t as many Echo Dots as there are Connect Amps not look even more attractive, at about USD 40 a piece? Why throw away perfectly good amplification electronics that is in the Connect Amps? I have never understood the sense in spending money on streamers when the Echo Dot does the job as well as is needed in most cases.

A
Userlevel 4
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my rollback to S1 doesn’t stay the course then a pair of WiiM Amps at $750 looks like a very attractive alternative to the pair of Sonos Amps. 

In that case, why don’t as many Echo Dots as there are Connect Amps not look even more attractive, at about USD 40 a piece? Why throw away perfectly good amplification electronics that is in the Connect Amps? I have never understood the sense in spending money on streamers when the Echo Dot does the job as well as is needed in most cases.

Good idea. I’ll investigate this too.

A
Userlevel 4
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60 hours in and still rocking the S1 rollback. Utterly stable and responsive. No dropouts and no software or hardware glitches. It’s how Sonos used to be and should still be.

B
Userlevel 4
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It’s notable how no-one from Sonos themselves have deemed this thread worthy of any kind of response, pretty disappointing customer service from Sonos, just hoping we go away...

B
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Seen people are reporting this issue on twitter too…

 

 

Corry P
Userlevel 7
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Hi @britcowboy et al,

Thank you all for your information both in this topic and the other one mentioned (which we have reopened as it was automatically closed by mistake).

Our engineers are currently investigating this with the highest priority.

We thank you for your patience while we work through this, we'll keep you updated with any news that we can share.

Thank you.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
L

very glad i found this thread.  

Symptoms started summer of 23.  I have one simple Connect : Amp streaming to four zones of speakers.  Main zone has stopped being ‘detectable’ and all other zones have audio drop out.  Have been pulling my hair out all week trying to get this fixed. 

For those that don’t think this is a widespread issue just because there aren’t thousands of post….the silent majority of users of this product are either 1) not noticing the issue 2) living with it 3) too busy to deal with it 4) calling the expensive AV vendor out to fix it or 5) just buying the newest product.

I prefer not to light money on fire and will await the Sonos fix since they are apparently now working on it with high priority.

Big thanks to the relentless efforts of OP.

A
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Quick update on the S1 rollback after a week of running it. 
 

The system has been run from four different devices. Controlling the amps has been quick and easy from each device and completely glitch free. It’s been possible to control the CAs from pretty much at least three devices simultaneously (laptop and two iPhones). There hasn’t been a single occurrence of the dreaded ‘can’t find your device’ messages which previously necessitating rebooting the CAs.

Each of the amps has been run independently (one or other or both playing different music streams) as well as party mode. Music services used have been my personal library, Qobuz and Spotify. There have been no streaming hangs, gaps or jumps to the next track - all of which were depressingly common under S2. 

There has been only one system hesitation/pause on trying to go from two independent music streams to party mode where the system appeared to be confused for a moment but then sorted itself out. That’s about the only mis-step I have noticed and it falls into the category of ‘blink and you’ll miss it’. 
So for those of you who can revert to S1, I highly recommend it while Sonos tries to fix S2.

For those of you stuck with S2, I have my fingers crossed for a speedy fix as I had forgotten how much I enjoy using Sonos.

For the Establishment, please try to exercise a little more humility, compassion and patience next time. Your aggressive behaviour reduces the utility of what should be a community help resource. Sonos hosts it for everyone’s benefit, not solely for you to enjoy the sport of shooting messengers. 😉

K

 

For the Establishment, please try to exercise a little more humility, compassion and patience next time. 

Don’t call a few the Establishment!

S
Userlevel 1

Same issue for me with Connect:Amp Gen2. Worked flawlessly for a number of years then last year started intermittent 5-10 second audio dropouts across any service (radio, Amazon Music, NAS library etc).

Audio continues without interruption in other grouped speakers and linked Sonos subwoofer.

Same dropout problem whether Connect:Amp is hard-wired ethernet to router or wireless via Boost.

Running S2 with some S2 only speakers.

A
Userlevel 4
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Passed the 200 hour mark of the S1 rollback and the software and connect amps are still super responsive and stable. 

K

Passed the 200 hour mark of the S1 rollback and the software and connect amps are still super responsive and stable. 

Good for you; as I recall your entire system can run on S1 and this solution does not need you to run a split system. For such users that are not in this boat, this may not be a good solution.

A
Userlevel 4
Badge +1

Passed the 200 hour mark of the S1 rollback and the software and connect amps are still super responsive and stable. 

Good for you; as I recall your entire system can run on S1 and this solution does not need you to run a split system. For such users that are not in this boat, this may not be a good solution.

Yes. I’m aware that this doesn’t work for those with S2 only devices but I’m providing the updates to 

 

  1. keep this front of mind and
  2. show users who can revert to S1 that there is an immediate solution to hand and
  3. attempt to prove it is a software/firmware issue

 

Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct.

B
Userlevel 4
Badge +5

Hi @britcowboy et al,

Thank you all for your information both in this topic and the other one mentioned (which we have reopened as it was automatically closed by mistake).

Our engineers are currently investigating this with the highest priority.

We thank you for your patience while we work through this, we'll keep you updated with any news that we can share.

Thank you.

Any update?

I've just recorded a clip (which I'll try to upload later) showing how annoying the issue can be, listening to the radio, and in a 2 minute segment, probably around 30-45 secs was silence, so I'm missing half the programme. It honestly drives me crazy

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @britcowboy 

I appreciate that you are frustrated by this issue, so when/if I have something that I can share, I will share it here. It is unlikely, however, that I will have anything further to share until a fix is made available.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
A
Userlevel 4
Badge +1

Nearly 300 hours on the S1 rollback. 
 

Totally stable and responsive across all devices with no pauses or dropouts on any amp.
 

Loving it. 
 

It’s definitely S2 which has broken the connect amps.

T

I have the same issue with my amp! After reading through many of the comments. It is apparent that the software upgrade caused the issue. Sonos should offer a way to reset these amps

K

I have the same issue with my amp! After reading through many of the comments. It is apparent that the software upgrade caused the issue. Sonos should offer a way to reset these amps

Sonos agrees per Sonos comments here, but cannot offer you a timeline for the fix. If you can roll back to S1 for the amp and use it on S1, that seems to be the workaround till Sonos deliver a fix via some future upgrade to S2, which is by no means guaranteed to happen.

B
Userlevel 4
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Hi @britcowboy 

I appreciate that you are frustrated by this issue, so when/if I have something that I can share, I will share it here. It is unlikely, however, that I will have anything further to share until a fix is made available.

I'm not asking for a commit diff, just a basic update like, have the developers managed to recreate internally, do they need any input from us on this? And if they have, what's the prognosis for a fix. I'm not asking for source code here, presumably you have some system for tracking issues internally, like jira, just an update would be good. I'm a senior software developer, and while I have no idea on the Sonos firmware, I am quite good at debugging and making assumptions on what's likely going on.. Which leads me on to..

My latest theory is that it's a memory leak issue. Because I was having increasingly bad drop outs, to an extent where it just wasn't listenable at all, but a hard reboot later, and the drop outs stop (at least for a bit), they'll definately come back, as I've done this before, but I'm thinking a workaround for now is to put a smart plug on it and reboot it every day, not ideal, but as a temporary workaround, fine. But that should help your devs go in the right direction, as that is a very clear sign there's a memory leak that's been introduced, and probably all your devices are affected, but because of their larger memory spec aren't showing the issue as much.

A
Userlevel 2
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Great thread 👍

I’ve been encountering the exact same issue on my Connect:Amp. I did post a reply to a different thread which seemed similar but found that people, in trying to be helpful, just blamed my ‘environment’. Thing is the CA has worked perfectly for over 5 years but now it can be so bad that it cuts out more than it is playing. My ‘environment’ has not changed recently. 

Therefore the idea that a combination of hardware ageing and more resource hungry software updates makes a lot more sense. 

The CA was an expensive purchase given it is used to play audio through a couple of ceiling speakers in the kitchen. I expected it to still be working after 5 years. I would certainly not replace it with a more modern equivalent Sonos product. If I have to replace then it will not be Sonos. Perhaps more alarmingly for Sonos is that it is the first erosion of the Sonos ecosystem that I had, like many, bought into over the past 5 years.  In fact the CA was my first Sonos product. 

I will continue to watch for developments. I will also log another support call. I had done this but got fobbed off with the usual ‘turn it off and turn it back on again’ suggestions involving a reboot/reset of the Sonos and/or network devices (router, AP, switch) 

Andy 


 

 

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