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
16586 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 :

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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

A

Alex.Dickson

Lyricist III

You should try reverting to S1. I’m now over six weeks into my S1 rolllback and my connect amps and apps have been completely stable.

We were curious if a rollback would solve the issue here. This is good to hear. We presumed that it would, but have not found a candidate client willing to experiment with this yet. Unfortunately the majority of our clients with older connect:amps that we upgraded to S2 was to utilize newer SONOS products along side their existing equipment. So still this is not a comprehensive solution.

I would suggest that SONOS put out a middle ground controller app. Something that would be for the specific use case of operating older connect equipment and the newer equipment. A dummied down version of the current S2 controller basically. Then just drop connect product support for the latest version of S2.

K

Kumar

I would suggest that SONOS put out a middle ground controller app. Something that would be for the specific use case of operating older connect equipment and the newer equipment. A dummied down version of the current S2 controller basically. Then just drop connect product support for the latest version of S2.

I had suggested this as well - S1, 2 and 3. Because this may be a bigger problem than just Connect Amps and may also soon affect other old kit that Sonos permitted to move to S2, such as play 1/Sub/Play 3, the collective user base of which may be much larger than just Connect Amps Gen 2.

M

mikevanoost

Lyricist II

I am considering the rollback to S1; I am still concerned it will mess up my one amp though. If I do it I will definitely let you know the results.

Thanks.

S

SD_Prof

Lyricist I

Just signed up and discovered this thread. I have these same issues, and all of my equipment is on S1. Multiple calls to Sonos support have only yielded very short term improvement.

My large Sonos system used to be highly reliable, but not for the last many months. Intermittent and very frustrating. Not sure what to do.

K

Kumar

If you are on S1, it should not be the same issue. Folks have eliminated the issue via a rollback to S1, per some posts here.

One thing to do is to open a new thread, submit some diagnostics when there is a problem, refer the diagnostic numbers in the first post in the thread, and give a shout to Sonos staff that is present here by doing this: @Corry P

A

abr2021

Lyricist III

Well I spoke too soon (which is why I asked if any of my optimism was backed up by release notes).

My CA is as bad as ever.

Ho hum. Whatever the solution is it won’t be a Sonos product. I will buy a cheap Bluetooth amp and simply connect to that from my phone when I need to. Not as seamless as the CA but, as my phone will be about 1 metre from the amp, I am fairly sure I won’t get drop outs.

And had been tempted by Sonos’s double discount on their upgrade program but I simply refuse to spend any more with them whatever the deal ☹️

Airgetlam

Just be sure to not purchase any ‘smart’ technology, that relies on memory modules to operate, as they go bad. Stick with old fashioned tech.

Bruce

Stanley_4

Grand Maestro

But don’t burn your fingers…

Bumper

Just be sure to not purchase any ‘smart’ technology, that relies on memory modules to operate, as they go bad. Stick with old fashioned tech.

Yup this is a good reminder that Sonos 5 year old devices might not be able to survive or cope with new firmware due to memory issues. Especially when there are bugs that specifically cause the issue 🤦‍♀️

K

Kumar

In general, seeing how smart devices keep getting smarter, it makes sense to have these as separate and therefore cheaply replaced front ends of a audio system. Wired to amplification electronics/speakers that are built to last, a feature that is worth paying a premium for if one knows these will not need changing till their natural death at end of designed service life.

@abr2021 : you will be surprised at how seamless an Echo Dot will be if wired to the line in jacks of the same Connect Amps that are giving you trouble. You just need the Sonos control app to work with them for the time needed to configure their line in jacks for autoplay. I suggest this approach instead off the BT speaker you refer to; other than the memory modules, the Sonos component may be in perfectly adequate working order to continue to deliver the same sound quality via a change in the smart front end.

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