Enthusiast II

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

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
December 31, 2023
294 replies
16587 views

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.

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

Pinned Reply By Corry P

Hi @britcowboy

Thanks for bringing this back to my attention.

We now consider this issue to be largely resolved, and any remaining cases are being dealt with on an individual basis. If you still encounter the issue described here, I recommend you get in touch with our technical support team who have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your Sonos system and what it reports.

I hope this helps.

Show previous replies

K

Kumar

SONOS has been a reliable product for years, I hope to see this resolved!

From personal experience in my early years of using Sonos, and from thousands of posts here I know that a large majority of such issues are in fact down to network issues, fixed by user intervention with their network. How do you distinguish between these usual issues in the cases you refer to, and this specific issue, that is down to Sonos? Quite a challenge, I would think, and not one that I envy you for having to address. For instance, the new Amp cannot be affected by this issue, from all accounts of what the issue is.

Ken_Griffiths

Hi,

We have been a SONOS dealer for years and have sold hundreds of setups each year.

Count me in on tracking this issue. Since last summer we have had multiple clients reporting audio interruptions. This has been affecting multiple different devices across multiple different setups we have sold. The most common device we’ve witnessed having this issue is the Connect Amp. Although we have also seen similar issues with the new Amp as well.

SONOS has been a reliable product for years, I hope to see this resolved!

Pity you did not join the forum here sooner and report your issues, as it may have helped others (and Sonos) to have identified the issue sooner, rather than later. I assume (hope) you’ve been in touch with Sonos since the Summer in an effort to resolve the matters you encountered with your installations?

A

Alex.Dickson

Lyricist III

SONOS has been a reliable product for years, I hope to see this resolved!

From personal experience in my early years of using Sonos, and from thousands of posts here I know that a large majority of such issues are in fact down to network issues, fixed by user intervention with their network. How do you distinguish between these usual issue in the cases you refer to, and this specific issue, that is due to Sonos? Quite a challenge, I would think, and not one that I envy you for having.

You are correct that the network is paramount. Majority of the homes we service the network as well as A/V and security equipment. From large homes to the simplest of setups. However when my client’s network consists of a router and a switch which SONOS has had no problems with since the installation around 2017. Now they and a wave of others are reporting the same issue and timeframe. I have to seek out what has changed.

Especially after the holidays we have gotten an increased number of calls.

A

Alex.Dickson

Lyricist III

Hi,

We have been a SONOS dealer for years and have sold hundreds of setups each year.

Count me in on tracking this issue. Since last summer we have had multiple clients reporting audio interruptions. This has been affecting multiple different devices across multiple different setups we have sold. The most common device we’ve witnessed having this issue is the Connect Amp. Although we have also seen similar issues with the new Amp as well.

SONOS has been a reliable product for years, I hope to see this resolved!

Pity you did not join the forum here sooner and report your issues, as it may have helped others (and Sonos) to have identified the issue sooner, rather than later. I assume (hope) you’ve been in touch with Sonos since the Summer in an effort to resolve the matters you encountered with your installations?

I personally have had to call SONOS support about this issue twice last week. The best I can get from them is to try and mitigate the problem by hardwiring any devices not already on the physical network. Else they will suggest upgrading. Which is an extreme shock for clients to hear that the system needs to be replaced after 6-7 years of use for $700 each amp.

K

Kumar

Especially after the holidays we have gotten an increased number of calls.

Understood; but the new Amp should not be suffering from the issue on this thread is what I gather from all said here so far.

Bumper

Hi,

We have been a SONOS dealer for years and have sold hundreds of setups each year.

Count me in on tracking this issue. Since last summer we have had multiple clients reporting audio interruptions. This has been affecting multiple different devices across multiple different setups we have sold. The most common device we’ve witnessed having this issue is the Connect Amp. Although we have also seen similar issues with the new Amp as well.

SONOS has been a reliable product for years, I hope to see this resolved!

Pity you did not join the forum here sooner and report your issues, as it may have helped others (and Sonos) to have identified the issue sooner, rather than later. I assume (hope) you’ve been in touch with Sonos since the Summer in an effort to resolve the matters you encountered with your installations?

I personally have had to call SONOS support about this issue twice last week. The best I can get from them is to try and mitigate the problem by hardwiring any devices not already on the physical network. Else they will suggest upgrading. Which is an extreme shock for clients to hear that the system needs to be replaced after 6-7 years of use for $700 each amp.

Alex we are very disappointed that you didn’t join the forum earlier to help Sonos figure this out cause they were incapable of doing this on their own (or maybe that was the point :). Shame shame shame on you LOL /s

A

Alex.Dickson

Lyricist III

Especially after the holidays we have gotten an increased number of calls.

Understood; but the new Amp should not be suffering from the issue on this thread is what I gather from all said here so far.

I've only had one install that had issues with the new equipment. Primarily from what I understand the issue was when the client would group play the arc audio from his TV throughout the home. SONOS support had informed me that streaming this audio source requires each Amp to decode the audio stream from the raw hdmi signal which requires more processing power. After installing a new dedicated switch in the home for the 5 Amps and disabling their Wi-Fi. The issue seemes to be resolved now.

I only note this since it seems to be related to SONOS devices maxing out their processor and memory in general.

melvimbe

I personally have had to call SONOS support about this issue twice last week. The best I can get from them is to try and mitigate the problem by hardwiring any devices not already on the physical network. Else they will suggest upgrading. Which is an extreme shock for clients to hear that the system needs to be replaced after 6-7 years of use for $700 each amp.

$700 for the Connect:Amp?

Danny

Bumper

I personally have had to call SONOS support about this issue twice last week. The best I can get from them is to try and mitigate the problem by hardwiring any devices not already on the physical network. Else they will suggest upgrading. Which is an extreme shock for clients to hear that the system needs to be replaced after 6-7 years of use for $700 each amp.

$700 for the Connect:Amp?

Replacing the connect:amp with Amp will be ~$700 each no?

melvimbe

I personally have had to call SONOS support about this issue twice last week. The best I can get from them is to try and mitigate the problem by hardwiring any devices not already on the physical network. Else they will suggest upgrading. Which is an extreme shock for clients to hear that the system needs to be replaced after 6-7 years of use for $700 each amp.

$700 for the Connect:Amp?

Replacing the connect:amp with Amp will be ~$700 each no?

On first read, it sounded like he was saying that the original purchase was $700. I see it now.

Danny

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