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Persistent playback issues

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
September 4, 2021
72 replies
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Hi all

I'm posting here as a final hope. I have a set up of:

1 x boost

1 x beam

4 x play:1

1 x play:3

2 x One SL

1 x One

1 x Sub

I moved into my current house in January, moving in with most of the speakers and adding the 2 One SLs.

The house isn't massive, but it is old. And has a mixture of walls between rooms that vary from a single bricks thickness to an absurdly thick 20 inches (of brick and stone. Like I said...old house!)

Due to the walls the house kills WIFI. I have cable broadband with download speeds of up to 220mbs if within a few feet of the router. However if you move to the adjoining room (beyond one of the 20 inch walls) you'll be lucky to even pick up the WiFi, not least achieve any respectable download speeds. So I've installed a netgear orbi mesh, with 3 access points in the 'dead zones'. WiFi now works perfectly well, as does the 2 hue hubs I have (1 hub for each floor, every room in the house is equipped with hue).

I also have ring door bell and a couple of their cameras that work fine.

I've recently shiftes the 5ghz network to the cleanest channel (using a WiFi analytics app), and shift the 2. 4 ghz to second cleanest channel, and set the sonos mesh up to the cleanest channel.

I have one neighbour who lives closely. But they often my phone won't even find their WiFi due to the walls!

The boost is hardwired into the main router, as is the sub. 3 subsequent speakers are hardwired to 2 separate APs.

But the speakers constantly cut out when playing music. Randomly on occasion, certainly when skipping a track. I've called sonos support who advised I've "done everything" and to try hard wiring more speakers (which I did, hence the number plugged in). This hasn't helped. There's no constants, some speakers are worse than others on different days. But they are all unreliable at different times. Sometimes all the speakers stop and skips to the next track. Sometimes a couple just stop playing for a few seconds.

I'm now left questioning if it's time I move to another make of speakers. I love sonos, and appreciate the house is a challenge for WiFi. But I am finding myself just switching off music and/or not even bothering to turn them on now which makes me sad!

Having checked the network matrix, it is mostly made up of green, couple of orange. No red. I spent months slowly moving speakers to new locations to eradicate red. I don't want to run cables everywhere and I've exhausted my limited knowledge of networking! I have also rebooted everything several times. Problem is its only sonos that is not working as it should.

I stream Spotify mostly. If anyone could suggest anything to try I'd greatly appreciate it

Thanks

Tom

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Best answer by Corry P

Hi @Goteamtom

Fair enough.

I think the key will be minimising the multicasts. The PER (Packet Error Rate) between the Boost and some of the speakers concerns me, and that’s mostly to do with interference or poor reception, but getting rid of the multicast flooding may allow the system to cope with the PER we have, or at the very least it will be easier to determine when you have found the best spot for the Boost, i.e. moving the Boost will actually have a positive effect on grouped playback. Wiring more Sonos devices should make the PER less of an issue too.

Right now, the annoying factor is that you have 2 situations which both result in exactly the same symptoms. Clearing one or the other may help, but both need to be resolved before you will be able to group all your rooms together successfully.

Edit: 3 situations, if you count the possible IP conflict for the Play:5.

Show previous replies

ratty

There’s something odd. Node 94:9F:3E:58:35:4B is showing in the top row as “undefined”. It has a good connection to the Boost yet no row of its own. Is this the Dining Room player?

When you grouped everything from Living Room -- which seems like a good candidate -- what source were you playing? Was it lossless FLAC or ALAC format? It sounds like SonosNet was choking during the initial buffering phase at the start of a new track.

The matrix is only a snapshot, and doesn’t really reveal an awful lot. There could be interference and intermittent packet loss/retransmission going on which we can’t see (but is visible in the full diagnostic). What happens if you temporarily turn off the Hue kit?

G

GoteamtomAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

There’s something odd. Node 94:9F:3E:58:35:4B is showing in the top row as “undefined”. It has a good connection to the Boost yet no row of its own. Is this the Dining Room player?

Yes, this must be the dining room. Which is the play:5, and one of the worst offending speakers despite its location and proximity to the boost

When you grouped everything from Living Room -- which seems like a good candidate -- what source were you playing? Was it lossless FLAC or ALAC format? It sounds like SonosNet was choking during the initial buffering phase at the start of a new track.

Not entirely sure what you mean, but I was streaming music from Spotify via the sonos app. Does that answer your question?

The matrix is only a snapshot, and doesn’t really reveal an awful lot. There could be interference and intermittent packet loss/transmission going on which we can’t see (but is visible in the full diagnostic). What happens if you temporarily turn off the Hue kit?

I am sure I'll sound daft. But by turn off do you mean just the hue hubs? Or each individual bulb and light too? The hubs is a quick job. Otherwise it'll take ages. I have a lot of hue kit!

Thanks for your help thus far

UKMedia

Just the hue hubs...

Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)

ratty

There could be something slightly amiss with the Play:5. They’ve been known to have the occasional hardware issue with the wireless module. I would take it out of the equation by powering it off for now.

Spotify is 320kbps Ogg Vorbis, which shouldn’t be much of a problem. There is however a tendency with these online services for the Sonos Group Coordinator (the first room in the group) to buffer like crazy at the start of a new track, in some cases buffering the entire track. I’ve seen this temporary bandwidth demand sometimes affect grouped players.

On the Hue question, just try turning off the hubs to begin with.

G

GoteamtomAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

There could be something slightly amiss with the Play:5. They’ve been known to have the occasional hardware issue with the wireless module. I would take it out of the equation by powering it off for now.

Spotify is 320kbps Ogg Vorbis, which shouldn’t be much of a problem. There is however a tendency with these online services for the Sonos Group Coordinator (the first room in the group) to buffer like crazy at the start of a new track, in some cases buffering the entire track. I’ve seen this temporary bandwidth demand sometimes affect grouped players.

On the Hue question, just try turning off the hubs to begin with.

This is the third time I've committed a day to try and rectify the speakers. Curiously enough I identified the play 5 as an issue last time - I could swear the system is worse when the play 5 is grouped in. But I didn't think too much of it as other speakers do the same and the play 5 is second gen and relatively new (bought immediately before gen 3 came out)

I've switch the hubs, and tried skipping tracks again. Made no difference as to when they were on. So hue seems safe to stay! The only speaker not struggling is the living room beam, which is the speaker I first played through before grouping..

ratty

If the Play:5 is somehow dodgy it could be affecting the entire group.

G

GoteamtomAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

If the Play:5 is somehow dodgy it could be affecting the entire group.

Ah. Nevermind. I switch off the play 5, and to no benefit. The speaker in polly's room is currently cutting in and out mid track. And when I skip track every speaker except the living room cuts out for a while. This is still with hue off

On a positive though, the matrix looking lovely and green with no play 5 or hue!

buzz

Grand Maestro

Are you running S1 or S2?

One room name is listed as “undefined” in the network matrix. What type of device is this?

The orange Network Matrix cells on the right are indicating low, but not impossible signal levels. Including these rooms in a Group could be an issue from time to time.

The Network Matrix is static. By this I mean that, if conditions change, this will not be reflected in the current contents. You should refresh the page from time to time to review current conditions.

Noise Floors are very good. ANI levels in the yellow cells could be better. I can imagine that the Main Bedroom could get into trouble from time to time if conditions deteriorate, especially if part of a Group.

What type of wireless devices are near the yellow ANI cells? Moving one of these units a little could help.

By the way, I lived in a 1780’s house for a while, but I could connect most units to the wired network. Fortunately, the nearest neighbor was a few hundred feet distant. Now I’m in a dense urban area and interference is a major issue. From time to time the left column in my Network Matrix can be mostly red and there can be issues.

As an experiment, move the relatively portable wireless units, such as the PLAY:3 or ONE to various locations and attempt to improve signal strength to the low signal areas. If this is an improvement, then placing a wireless BOOST at this location will help.

I share UKMedia’s opinion with respect to EoP (Ethernet over Powerline) devices. They are my last choice for networking, but occasionally they will be the magic bullet. The very latest EoP devices are much improved compared to older units. EoP does not usually travel well between multiple circuit panels and can be disrupted if there is surge suppression in the panel. Circuit panels are arranged in columns. Generally, EoP works best for outlets in the same column. Sometimes, outlets in the other column will be problematic and large appliances, such as air conditioners can cause issues when they switch ON. Surge suppressors will usually block EoP. Don’t connect an EoP device through a surge suppressor and performance is usually degraded if the EoP device is using the same outlet as a surge suppressor. Even with all of my negative comments, EoP would probably be worth a try in your situation.

ratty

Well, without a deeper look in the diagnostics -- to which only Sonos Support is privy -- it’s a bit hard to see where things are choking. The SonosNet connections are a bit weak in places, but look they should hold up with only a Spotify stream.

You could always try WiFi mode as an experiment. Configure in the Orbi’s WiFi credentials, power the Boost off, then wait 5-10 mins while everything sorts itself out.

buzz

Grand Maestro

The other guys type a little faster than I. Your latest Network Matrix is somewhat blurred, but I think that the left column is generally better than the prior posting, but I think that the Utility Room is showing an ANI of 6, which is a little worse than before.

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