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Hi,

I’m having a pretty awful time with the new updates and I am experiencing a problem that’s been plaguing me since the new updates were made. When attempting to use Airplay as I always do everything works great until I add more than 2 Sonos devices.
Currently I have an Arc, Beam and Five all wired via ethernet with Wi-Fi disabled. I also have a Move on Wi-Fi with a good signal on 5ghz. Regardless of the combination if I use Airplay 2 on Apple Music to play music on more than 2 Sonos devices the song will stutter at exactly the 2 second mark of the song every time a song changes.

I also have a HomePod that I can add to the mix, and that’s fine as the third device. So I can go purely ethernet with 2 Sonos devices and I’m good, I can add the HomePod and still no issues, but if I add a third Sonos device to the fray, regardless of whether it’s on ethernet or Wi-Fi, it will stutter when changing songs at the two second mark. Things work okay on the Sonos app, but the UI is awful and I can’t use my HomePod with Sonos when I want to.

There seems to be an issue with the way that the Sonos speakers keep in sync using Airplay 2 that I never experienced previously having owned the speakers for a few years now.

I’ve tried contacting support, but after an hour on the phone they tried to claim it was due to lossless or the source. I’ve tried my Mac on ethernet, my wife's Mac and both of our phone on AAC, etc. and still no resolution. Is there a way I can get support to take this seriously and actually take a look at what’s happening when the speaker stutters?

I’m not sure I understand completely. Are you using AirPlay 2 to send to multiple AirPlay 2 streams to multiple Sonos devices, or are you sending one stream to a single Sonos device, and using the Sonos software to group the multiple Sonos devices with the one receiving the AirPlay 2 stream?

I’m not sure I understand completely. Are you using AirPlay 2 to send to multiple AirPlay 2 streams to multiple Sonos devices, or are you sending one stream to a single Sonos device, and using the Sonos software to group the multiple Sonos devices with the one receiving the AirPlay 2 stream?

I’m guessing OP is AirPlaying single stream to mutilple Airplay devices, ie selecting multiple speakers from the Apple AirPlay button, as they mention ‘sync’

There seems to be an issue with the way that the Sonos speakers keep in sync using Airplay 2 that I never experienced previously having owned the speakers for a few years now.

 

 

Are you saying that grouping with Sonos App is OK to multiple Sonos speakers?

 Things work okay on the Sonos app, but the UI is awful and I can’t use my HomePod with Sonos when I want to.

Have you tried to AirPlay to a single wired Sonos Speaker & Homepod, and then group Sonos speakers using Sonos App?

 

Hi guys - yeah I was just playing straight from the Apple Music app on my devices to the various speakers. I haven’t tried grouping yet though, so I’ll play around with that today.

I can still airplay with up to 2 Sonos devices without the stutter. Watching how other airplay devices work I think it’s the fact they’re not buffering correctly and treating each song change in the same way as skipping to the next track, whereby everything needs to sync again. If I use a bunch of non Sonos stuff like Apple TVs I can hear that when I skip through a playlist very quickly they need to all buffer and sync again. Sonos devices are basically doing the same with every song change, but only if I use more than two of them. All of the non-Sonos stuff will continue playing without issue even while the Sonos speakers all start stuttering, pretty much exactly around the 2 second mark.

Hi guys - yeah I was just playing straight from the Apple Music app on my devices to the various speakers. I haven’t tried grouping yet though, so I’ll play around with that today.

 

I would also suggest trying the Apple Music Service via Sonos App or play.sonos.com, and grouping:

https://support.sonos.com/en-gb/services/apple-music

When I AirPlay, I always Airplay to single Sonos speaker, and group using Sonos App or play.sonos.com

Out of curiosity, I tried to Airplay Apple Music from phone to half a dozen or so Sonos speakers (ie no Sonos App), played fine. I did however occasionally get the stutter when I skipped through quickly, same as you get on non-Sonos speakers.

I didn’t get any stutter when doing same quick skips using Sonos App with Apple Music Service, just a slight 1 second delay before playing next track, buffering the lossless 24/48 audio.

Hi guys - yeah I was just playing straight from the Apple Music app on my devices to the various speakers. I haven’t tried grouping yet though, so I’ll play around with that today.

 

I would also suggest trying the Apple Music Service via Sonos App or play.sonos.com, and grouping:

https://support.sonos.com/en-gb/services/apple-music

When I AirPlay, I always Airplay to single Sonos speaker, and group using Sonos App or play.sonos.com

Out of curiosity, I tried to Airplay Apple Music from phone to half a dozen or so Sonos speakers (ie no Sonos App), played fine. I did however occasionally get the stutter when I skipped through quickly, same as you get on non-Sonos speakers.

I didn’t get any stutter when doing same quick skips using Sonos App with Apple Music Service, just a slight 1 second delay before playing next track, buffering the lossless 24/48 audio.

 

This ended up working well, so looks like I have two ways to get around the issue for now. I either use play to one Sonos speaker, go into the app and change the grouping there, or I use my HomePod as a source using the ‘Control Other Speakers’ (iPhone) or ‘Switch to’ menus (Mac) on Apple Music and select the Sonos speakers. Just cannot select the speakers and control their volumes directly with Airplay / Apple Music. Not an awful outcome though - at least I can still use my system even if it is slightly more cumbersome than before.

Thanks so much @craigski !! :)

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