Sonos Five Stereo Pair Only Detects Signal From Turntable First Time
Howdy,
Currently, I have an Audio Technica AT-LP40WN turntable (with integrated pre-amp) connected to a couple of Fives set up as a stereo pair (all up-to-date. 13.1, S2, Build 63289050). I’ve had them since November and until about a week ago, they were flawless. Now, when I try to play a record, it no longer autoplays. I have to either select the input in the app, unplug the line-in connection at the speaker and plug it back in, or turn the whole turntable off to get the audio to play.
Previously, I just had the needle drop and it started, regardless of whatever else I was streaming at the time. I have made no changes to the set up. I’m using the same connector cord, the turntable is set to line, I haven’t changed any hardware component, and the autoplay settings are the same (autoplay to the stereo pair only, no autoplay volume, source level 10, and low audio delay).
Here’s a brief history of the issue:
- A couple weeks ago, again not correlated with any system changes because I had made none, I noticed that when I played a record, it would only come out of the right channel. I unplugged and replugged in the speakers and that solved the problem for a short bit. Autoplay worked each time at this point.
- The issue happened again so I thought maybe it was a cable issue. I replaced the cord, but the issue persisted. I tried unpairing and repairing the speakers, but that had mixed results. Sometimes it would fix the issue temporarily and then when I tried again, autoplay would stop working.
- Having no luck, I reset and set up the speakers again. Now autoplay won’t work at all unless I unplug things and then it will work one time. When the speakers are playing, I now reliably get both channels.
- At this point I tried chat trouble shooting here on the support site, but they walked me through the basics and confirmed I’d need to call in (Case: 02922861)
- It seems issues are often driven by settings in the app being wrong, but I’ve confirmed many times they are the same as what I was using when it worked perfectly from November to May. I even reset the app, but that didn’t seem to have an effect.
- To me, it’s starting to see like there’s an issue with the signal detection that triggers autoplay. Other posts have noted that external pre-amps have caused issues if they don’t turn off when not in use. I don’t think that would be an issue here as this exact turntable and built-in pre-amp were working perfectly fine with autoplay.
- The only environmental variables that changed are having window unit air conditioner installed on one side of the room. It can be loud when turned on and working hard. This is the first time it’s been in the same room as this pair of Fives. Might it be possible that the needle is picking up background noise and Sonos is thinking there’s a constant signal? That would seem far fetched to me. Last summer I had the same set up with one Gen 2 Play:5 and never had any issues with the same A/C unit. I also changed the source level and testing on lower settings with no change to the issue.
I’m at a loss. I’m not sure what other breakpoints there are in the signal detection. Could it be something wrong with the needle/tone arm/preamp in the table causing a persistent signal? The table is only a year old and when it does play it sounds a good as always. I also think maybe there was some change to the software that broke this feature, but I don’t know of any recent update that correlates with my issues.
Not having autoplay functioning on the needle drop is a deal breaker for me so I’d either like to fix it or replace the system with something more reliable. I plan to call Sonos Support as soon as I can, but appreciate any help here, although looking at similar forum posts, it seems issues like this rarely have an easy fix. Most of them don’t have any solution if it’s not something obvious like a loose cable.
If any official support folks are on, my most recent diagnostics are 1009096822 and 192581328.