Speakers in a Group drop out when audio switches

I started a new thread here: Audio skips every 3rd track like clockwork! | Sonos Community

**Update**

So this issue of the audio dropping out of certain speakers is still going on. I created a new dedicated network and the issue persists. I have since dropped the Boost from the system.

Here is what I know for sure: If you start a new playlist or switch to a different song, about half the speakers will drop out, they will all come back in under 30 seconds. If the tracks change on its own, like when the song ends, there is zero issues, works perfectly. 

After adding a new dedicated network, I can rule out interference on the network as a potential issue. Seems strange it just when you manually change tracks. 

Any ideas on this?

If the audio buffer is depleting to an empty state after approximately the same amount of time 2-3 songs - and it’s not the ‘sending’ source, then I would still hazard a guess, that it’s interference from somewhere, or an issue with the ‘primary’ group co-ordinator, but without details of the network setup, including channels, channel-widths and the identity of devices etc; then it’s difficult to make any suggestions.

You are perhaps best to to reproduce the issue with your new network setup and then immediately submit a Sonos system diagnostic report from within the Sonos App, note it’s reference and then contact/chat with Sonos Support Staff via this LINK and see what the Staff can perhaps suggest to resolve the matter.

Doing that might at least help to rule out a hardware issue with your grouped devices - it may even help you identify a much better group co-ordinator to handle the audio to the secondary devices and to change channels/channel-widths to improve the situation.

Let me provide a little more details, I setup v4 Starlink and have great signal with no obstructions, getting about 150Mb+ consistently. I created a separate 5ghz network called “Starlink GLO” and a 2.4ghz called “GLO Yoga Studios”. I connected 6 Play 3’s, 2 Symfonisks, and a Gen3 Sub. They are all connected to Starlink GLO (5Ghz). 

I thought that by separating the Sonos speakers to their own network with only Sonos it would be good to go, but I am presented with a new problem and less of the problem I mentioned above.

What is happening now is the audio will literally start to skip, not in the sense it is jumping a head but in the sounding sense, it would drop in and out of all speakers mid song with no prior warning or track changes, the sound is the equivalent to pressing the mute button superfast at different times for all the speakers, has to be the worst thing I have heard. 

Skipping the song “may” solve the issue but this one is stressful from an audio perspective.

My first inclination was to change the Starlink GLO network to being 2.4ghz instead of 5ghz since they operate on 2.4ghz on their own. Wonderful AI suggested that 5ghz would be better since there will be less interference on that network, but it seems that maybe the less range of 5ghz is having a measured affect?

If I were to guess it seems like there is no buffer, when I look at Starlink stats I can see outages of less than 0.1s but those did not coincide with the drop/muting sound so maybe not a buffer issue.

Would changing the network Sonos is on to 2.4ghz be a good option? I also noticed the Boost would not enter the system (maybe its locked to 2.4ghz only?)

Thanks!

Have you set reserved ip addresses for your speakers? Is the Starlink wifi set to one of the channels 1, 6 or 11? These simple steps can eliminate a lot of problems. 
 

Yes: I’d be inclined to use the 2.4Ghz band. 

I have not reserved IP addresses, sounds like something that I should do? Easy process? I will begin to shift to 2.4ghz, hopefully I don’t have to re-add the entire system, last time that was a 2 hour process, but whatever it takes :)

It should be explained in the manual; if not there may be someone here that’s familiar with the kit that can talk you through it. In principle it’s quite simple. 

Does reserved IP address have anything to do with Custom DNS? Starlink has this on it:

@GLO Yoga,

Custom DNS is a different thing to reserving/fixing (making static) your device IP addresses - look for DHCP in your router configuration pages - you will likely see the devices (and their IP and MAC Addresses) that are connected to your router. You just need to set them to static for Sonos products, rather than dynamically assigned addresses.

Well diving into it before I change things here is what it looks like:

Then I clicked the one with the lowest signal and got this, my guess is this may be causing the issue: