Starting a week ago, Amazon Music no longer works on my Sonos 1 system!!

  • 30 October 2021
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37 replies

Ken_Griffiths

It must be something related to your local network and it ‘not liking’ the Amazon service - maybe it’s not coping with the 16/44 encoded files that Amazon falls back to for your older S1 setup. The S1 and S2 system I use here, still appears to be okay so I’m guessing it must be something on your network, possibly to do with the Velop Hubs mentioned earlier.

Are you running all with just one Sonos device wired to the main Velop Hub only when it’s in router mode, or are you running the Velop system bridged off another router and have the Sonos device wired to that router instead? Also if there are any switches in the mix (managed or unmanaged) consider changing those, or any connecting cables. 

There hasn’t been that many complaints here about the Amazon Music service in recent times to make anyone think there is a problem with that service - so I would definitely look into the matter as it possibly being something local to yourself… if practicable, even try your S1 setup on a different LAN, with the Velop system switched off.. to try to rule it out. The fact other devices connect to the internet is somewhat irrelevant as it’s the communication between all the Sonos devices across the LAN, not just their ability to access the internet that makes it different to most other network linked products.

T
Userlevel 1
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So I have a COX modem for voice and internet and TV; that is plugged by wire into the VELOP system, which has a default setup that was also recently changed by my employer for better end-point-security. One of the S1 Amplifiers is plugged into the Velop node that is plugged into the Cox modem. So -- many moving parts.

Let me try to move the Sonos system directly to the Cox system next. Actually, I may just wait for 30 days until my Unlimited trial expires and see if things start to work again -- which for the time being solves my problem….

Will keep you posted.

Ken_Griffiths

I assume if the Cox device is a router, that it’s own WiFi network is switched ‘off’ and that the Velop Hub is set one metre or so away from the Cox device. Also that the wired Sonos device is a metre away from both, as that’s normally where most interference can arise if they are close to each other.

That said, I too would choose to cable one Sonos device only to the Velop primary hub and ensure the SonosNet channel is set to the least used channel.

One thing to not do, is wire another Sonos product to a secondary Hub as that can cause issues. It’s also best to not have any WiFi credentials saved in the Sonos App ‘Settings/System/Network/Manage Network’ area, although that is unavoidable if using any Sonos ‘Portable’ products, like the ‘Roam’ or ‘Move’.

R
Userlevel 2

The Chicago Tribune (Dec 2021) reports “ Sonos speakers support up to 16-bit audio, which means some high-res audio formats can’t be played back. This won’t be a problem for most users, but audiophiles with 24-bit audio files may need a different solution (like Sonos’ competitor, Bluesound).”

Ken_Griffiths

The Chicago Tribune (Dec 2021) reports “ Sonos speakers support up to 16-bit audio, which means some high-res audio formats can’t be played back. This won’t be a problem for most users, but audiophiles with 24-bit audio files may need a different solution (like Sonos’ competitor, Bluesound).”

I think thats what they call ‘fake news’ many Sonos products Support 24-bit audio.

The Sonos devices that support 24-bit streaming audio are:

  • Roam
  • Arc
  • Beam (both generations), 
  • Five
  • Sub (all generations), 
  • Move
  • One
  • One SL
  • Port
  • Amp
  • SYMFONISK Bookshelf
  • SYMFONISK Table Lamp
  • Play:5 (Gen 2)
  • Connect (Gen 2) (Summer 2017–> onwards)
  • Connect:Amp (Gen 2)
  • Note: Using Qobuz - the older Playbar supports 24bit streaming audio too.
T
Userlevel 1
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So I think it all is clear(er) now: According to KEN’s clarification of RIO’s posting above, Sonos Connect and Connect Amp Gen 2 should work with 24bit audio -- but mine are Gen 1 (the cost of being an early adopter).

Also, and as I wrote before, Amazon had extended automatically my Unlimited trial by one month, but that trial finally expired as of this morning (1/1/22) -- and it all works again. So this is the second time around that I got to perform this test/experiment, with the same outcome both time.

Conclusions: I have several very old pieces (Gen 1) that do NOT support HD streaming. Hopefully Amazon or Sonos will figure out a way to turn HD off (I can on my Windows Amazon Music APP; but not in the Sonos S1 controller). Until then I will unfortunately have to give up on Amazon Unlimited for now. 

PS: I never could hear the difference between HD 24 bit streaming and the regular streaming. I guess I am not and “Audiophile” -- or just plain too old and have listened to too much loud music. Either way, not worth the few k$’s to throw away my old equipment and replace with the new of basically the same functionality...

J

By 'HD', Amazon mean 16-bit CD quality, which every Sonos player has always been able to play. 

24-bit is labelled 'Ultra HD'. I have an S2 system, but within this some players are not capable of Ultra HD. On those, Amazon Music just plays HD.

I would have expected S1 to play HD versions rather than not to play at all. But apparently not? (Note: 24-bit is not available on S1 at all, with any player)

T
Userlevel 1
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If you go up this thread, John, I described the “malfunction”: It was very weird. I was able to play the Ultra HD music through my (mostly...) S1 system components, but the music would jump across component/station to component/station. It worked if I did not play through more than 4 or so synchronized speakers/connections/amps at the same time. If I played through all 11 current speakers/connections/amps at the same time, then the music would “migrate” from speaker to speaker. After my Amazon Unlimited subscription finally got cancelled it all worked fine again (this happened twice: I cancelled, it worked, Amazon gave me 1 month free extension of Unlimited, it broke again, as of this morning Unlimited is canceled again, it works again).

That’s the summary… 

I really hope that Sonos finds a way to configure their (S1) service so it will by default disable HD streaming from Amazon (something I can do on my Amazon Music client, on my laptop...).

Ken_Griffiths

My understanding is the 24-bit Amazon Music service is only available on an S2 Household - I’m quite sure it’s not available in an S1 setup, in fact very little has changed in S1 since the move to S2.

I have an S1 setup here as mentioned with Play:1 and it’s still working fine with Amazon Music HD/UltraHD Unlimited, which is the primary music service I use, aswell as Deezer. So it’s all very odd.

I would be interested to know if the Velop mesh system was switched off and removed from the equation and perhaps just the router primary hub only was used with the Sonos devices, if the issue then goes away. I can’t recall the last audio. dropout I had with the players here and the Amazon service. It makes me wonder if the Velop system is playing a role in this, despite the coincidences seen so far when switching the type of subscription service. 

T
Userlevel 1
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Ken: To be frank -- I am happy it’s working at this point (without Amazon Unlimited “HD”….). To move the system to a different WIFI would -- I think -- make the system inaccessible from my various tablets and laptops, which are running/signed into the Velop system. Even if the Velop mesh is to blame -- I am reluctant to mess with it because I think my employer has secured it further remotely, to allow my laptop access to confidential info through VPN. 

Also, as I posted a few messages back, the error log in Sonos had numerous messages like this:

Saturday, November 27, 2021 - 5:25 PM Central Time
Unable to play 'King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 1' - the song is not encoded correctly.

Not sure how Velop Mesh would “corrupt” the binary file streamed to Sonos...(?). This rather looks like Sonos S1 -- or one or more of its components -- isn’t prepared to deal with the 24 bit compression format, and fails to properly sync up with other components. That’s what it feels like.

As I said, hopefully, Sonos will allow me somehow to turn off HD 24-bit compression for/through Amazon unlimited. Currently, I am 100% certain that Unlimited and the default format how it streams music is what had caused the problem (at least preceded it; “root cause” is something deep in the soft/hard.ware I suppose).

Airgetlam

Any changes to what Amazon is sending to Sonos would be changed on the settings of your Amazon account, not from within Sonos, who doesn’t have access to that sort of data. 

Bruce
Stanley_4
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My Amazon music has been acting up again, sometimes it just stops playing music for a moment to a minute but a couple times it stopped playing music for several songs. The Android screen showed them playing and changing but no sound.

Changed to a different Amazon station and it started playing with no issue. Next time it happened I switched stations for long enough for it to start playing and switched back and the original station resumed.

System looks good, the WiFi channel isn’t heavily congested, matrix is all green and local FLAC files stream with no issues. I’m looking at Amazon as the source of the glitches and if they continue past the holiday, and I get less busy, I will submit a diagnostic and support request.

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