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Big Bull
September 19, 2023
Answered

Connect Amp keeps dropping out audio

  • September 19, 2023
  • 105 replies
  • 15459 views

Hi I have 4 Connect Amps that have been working fine for some years but just recently they are dropping the Audio for a few seconds which is very annoying. I have spoken to Sonos Support on a few occasions and done everything they have suggested to fix this which they say is WiFi Interference such as switching channels etc but still have problems. This happens on any music source but I have noticed when the speakers go silent the sound levels are still going up and down on the app as if its playing the audio in other words not muted, not sure if this helps identify the problem. I am getting to the point now where soon these will be removed as they just aren't worth the hassle. I have seen a few threads where people have had the same problem but the only answers I have seen are contact Sonos Support.

Has anyone had this problem and got a viable solution??????

Some posts suggest an issue with S2 being introduced so does anyone know if this is a problem??

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    Best answer by Ken_Griffiths

    So far I have tried as suggested by Sonos to give the 5GHz Wifi a different name, turned off auto on 2.4GHz channels so I can force it to be 1, 6 or 11, I haven't tried setting to 20Mhz so will give this a try.

    Btw Ken can you give me more advice re your comment “give Sonnet a shot”? I did originally have one C:A hard wired to my switch with ethernet cable and then daisy chained the other 3 C:A’s but this didnt help, do you think it would be better for each C:A to be hard wired to the switch?

    SonosNet is where one device is wired to the router (but positioned at least one metre away) - that allows Sonos to use its own in-built wireless mesh signal… so all your other Amps connect back to the wired device either directly or indirectly. If doing that, it’s best to do two further things…

    1. Set the SonosNet channel in the App’s network settings so it is at least 5 channels away from your chosen 2.4Ghz router channel, which should in turn be on fixed channel 1, 6 or 11 and ideally set at 20Mhz channel-width (if the router allows).
    2. Remove the router WiFi SSID from the Sonos App network settings as the local WiFi signal is no longer used and that will stop the Amps trying to hop onto your WiFi signal.

    All that said however, the fact you now have the option to wire all to a switch - it makes sense to go with that option instead and you could even choose to switch off the Amps WiFi adapters in the Sonos App to reduce the potential for network loops/storms, but if they do work fine with the WiFi adapters enabled, then I would just leave them - that’s a matter for yourself.

    Here are some links that may assist too…

     

    105 replies

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    Big BullAuthor
    October 8, 2023

    Btw I have hard wired the unit in question to the router and disabled the wifi

     

    BigBull
    buzz
    buzz
    Grand Maestro
    October 8, 2023

    Have you checked the PING times?

    When you are using SonosNet and because you have older units, there is a small subset of the diagnostics that you can view. Go to http://[IP address of a player]:/1400/support/review and open the Network Matrix at the bottom. Red cells are drawing your attention to possible wireless communication issues. Note that this a static view. Refresh the page to view current data. Also note that the newest SONOS models do not post data here.

    Big BullAuthor
    October 8, 2023

    Can you confirm that this is correct http://[IP address of a player]:/1400/support/review

    The IP is 192.168.0.72 so I tried http://192.168.0.72:/1400/support/review but it didnt find it

    BigBull
    Big BullAuthor
    October 8, 2023

     

    BigBull
    Stanley_4
    Stanley_4
    Grand Maestro
    October 8, 2023

    Re reserving the IP addresses I tried to reserve them by changing setting on my hub to always use a specific IP address which I switched to ‘Yes’ but it doesnt seem to save the setting. I assume the hub should recognise the MAC address and then set the IP address that is reserved but as I say it doesnt save the setting to always use the same IP Address!! I have a group of 4 players together!

    Dig into your hub’s manual and find a way to get the Sonos speaker MAC to router IP assignment mapping to stick, it is sounding more and more like DHCP may be at the root of your issues.

    Big BullAuthor
    October 10, 2023

    OK will do, btw Sonos are still saying that the problem is lack of memory and report the following :

    1. Kitchen ( Connect Amp): Free memory: 1672 KB, 1.66 MB only

    2. Living Room ( Connect Amp): Free memory: 2376 KB, 2.376 MB 

    3. Master Bedroom (Connect Amp) Free memory: 1708 KB, 1.708 MB

    4. Dinning Room ( Connect Amp) Free memory: 1564 KB, 1.564 MB

    I guess it is feasible but going to try and set static IP’s next when I get a chance, will let you know.

    BigBull
    Big BullAuthor
    October 10, 2023

    Does anyone know the memory requirements for S2 versus S1 and whether it might be worthwhile downgrading my system to S1 to free up memory?? Im not interested in any bells and whistles and just listen to the radio streams.

    BigBull
    BillJanzen
    Lyricist II
    October 25, 2023

    I have a similar setup and nearly identical isseus to the OP (Big Bull). We have a large multi-room yoga and Pilates studio with 4 Connect:Amp devices, 3 Play:1 devices and 2 One SL devices linked as a stereo pair.

    All of the Connect:Amp devices have had frequent (but intermittent) drop outs over the past several months, exactly as the OP described. They are all hard-wired to the network switch, but I still had Wi-Fi enabled on each of them as well (I didn’t know there was an option to disable it until reading this thread). I just disabled WiFi a few minutes ago, so I will see if that improves our situation at all (I suspect it will not based on this thread).

    I fully believe that it is likely a memory limitation issue with the S2 software running on these older Connect:Amp devices. However, I don’t know how to find the amount of Free memory for each device, can anyone help me with that?

    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.

    I am holding out some hope that disabling WiFi may improve the free memory issues a little bit, but if that is not the case then I may consider downgrading our entire system to S1. According to https://support.sonos.com/en-ca/article/sonos-s2-compatibility, One SL devices can only be added to S2 systems, but One SLs that are already part of an S1 system will continue to work as they do today. I guess this means I may have to run 2 separate systems, an S1 system for all of our older devices and an S2 system for the One SLs. This isn’t really a problem since we never link rooms together anyways, but it’s annoying for our 40+ instructors who will all need to have both the S1 and the S2 apps installed on their phones.

    Any other advice to try and diagnose our issues before making a major change like this downgrade? Your help is much appreciated!

      Big BullAuthor
      October 25, 2023

      Hi Bill I got fed up chasing my tail with suggestions from Sonos support that I have replaced one of my 4 Connect Amps with the newer Amp which has more memory and so far I haven’t had any drop outs! Still early days so will keep on testing the unit to see if it’s definitely the solution, the remaining Connect Amps are still dropping out intermittently! If this is the solution then it’s a costly one as it means replacing the other 3 😡

      BigBull
        johnmbureau
        Lyricist I
        October 27, 2023

        We are having the same issue. We have 2 connect amps on our S2 system that have been fine for years. Then all of a sudden within the last month and a half both of these amps are dropping the audio and raising and lowering the volume all on their own. Both of these devices are hardwired to our router, and have the wifi turned off. We have a beam, with two play 1s as surrounds, and a Move that are having no problem playing music. 

        It seems very suspicious that both of these amps started to exhibit this same behavior at the same time. We have rebooted all of the Sonos devices, as well as the router to see if this was the issue with no success. 

        Anyone else seeing this?

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