Apple Music Lossless Cutouts and Skips

​@DuckAmuck 

I have Apple Music and experience no such problem.

I think part (maybe all) of the problem lies with your network configuration. I have a Wi-Fi 7 mesh network consisting of three (3) Asus routers configured in what Asus calls an “AiMesh”

Only the main router has DHCP capability. The other two for all practical purposes merely extend my network coverage. Going forward I’ll refer to all three routers as “nodes”.

I don’t (nor would I want to) as you say “lock” a Sonos speaker to one of the satellites. Furthermore that would defeat the purpose of the mesh which is ‘self-healing” meaning that  if one satellite fails the other nodes will acquire the clients. 

The Wifi signal strength broadcast by the nodes will vary depending upon any number of factors. The Wi-Fi signals broadcast by all three (3) nodes are overlapping to a degree but not to the point where a client will ignore the closest node and seek one further away.

My Sonos speakers typically attach to the nearest node; as they should. However, if the signal strength drops on the nearest node my Sonos will attach to the strongest Wi-Fi signal still available. I do not employ “smart” band steering; nor do I have separate SSID’s for 2.4Ghz, 5Ghz and 6Ghz bands. They all have the same SSID.

You’ll probably disagree with what I’ve posted. As you most likely assume your mesh is properly configured. That’s fine ...as you are entitled to your opinion. However, I can unequivocally say:

• My network handles anywhere between 50 to 60 clients at any given time
• Thirty-one (31) of those clients are Sonos units
•  I don’t experience the AppleMusic issues you describe

Per AjTrek1’s suggestion I removed the router binding for my Sonos components.  All Apple Music audio is coming in lossless, with no more stuttering. Thank you.  
Fyi, my network is a 3 node Asus Wi-Fi 6 AiMesh, with Ethernet backhaul.  Default network settings, same SSID for 2.4 GHz & 5 GHz.

FYI, my Asus AiMesh also has a wired (Ethernet) backhaul. 😂

I am having this same issue. Apple music only. It just will skip or jump back 1 second. No issues with Spotify. 

I also tried all the networking suggestions and updates without any improvement. 

Has Sonos acknowledged this issue at all?

It’s more likely an issue with the connection between your speakers and the Apple server that Sonos has been told to connect to than an issue with Sonos, per se. 

I would recommend that you submit a system diagnostic within 10 minutes of experiencing this problem, and call Sonos Support to discuss it. Don’t post the resulting diagnostic number here, Sonos’ lawyers get sensitive about GDPR, I suspect.

There may be information included in the diagnostic that will help Sonos pinpoint the issue and help you find a solution.

When you speak directly to the Support staff, they have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your network and Sonos system.

Hi there,

I have been having this problem for a long time and I found that my problem actually ended up being within my WiFi router settings. Turns out lossless requires some specific settings that are not defaulted on many routers. Figured I would share in hopes it may help some people because this issue was driving me crazy! 
 

If your router produces both 2.4ghz and 5.0ghz signals, connect your speaker to the 2.4ghz connection. From there, login to your router setting and manually set your channel to either 1, 6, or 11 as for some reason the speakers prefer one of those options rather than having your router automatically select a channel. From there, if your router has a setting to enable 20/40 mhz coexistence on the channel, make sure that is disabled. As soon as I disabled this 20/40 mhz coexistence there was never another skip. Turns out the speakers require a steady 20 mhz setting and this coexistence feature was disrupting the signal.

I am not an expert on networks or WiFi or anything. I just found some of these tips using google and it worked for me and I hope it helps someone else enjoy Apple Music lossless audio on there speakers. Good Luck!

Sonos support were able to help me. In my case it seems because I have Sonos connect gen2 as part of the system whenever it acts as the group coordinator it struggles with lossless music. The connect will play lossless on its own  or part of a group but when also acting as the group coordinator it seems too much for it to cope with as it’s getting on a bit and no longer supported. Just restarting the group in a different order with a newer devices played first seems to help.

This would explain why there wasn’t much logic to the symptoms, just luck as to who go to be coordinator in the system. This probably doesn’t help everyone but might be worth experimenting with, a new ish wired speaker played first might help. Sonos wouldn’t fully confirm this but said it was “recommended”.

How are you confirming lossless is being played?

According to the Apple Music support page, the Connect gen2 does not support lossless.

https://support.sonos.com/en-gb/services/apple-music (under Additional Details)

Only going by what the Sonos app says. If I only have the connect playing I still get the lossless icon on the app. It is disappointing if it is lying to me. Although even if it is not really playing lossless it doesn’t change the problem or the solution that kind of works for me.

But if we can’t trust the lossless icon that is a definitely a very big concern and an even bigger problem than the dropouts.

The older devices do support ‘Apple Lossless’ ALAC, I recall, albeit 6+ years ago, I was playing ALAC from local library on the older devices.

What is new is the ‘eye candy’ lossless logo in the App, I’m guessing is showing for lossless and also hi-res lossless, and there is lack of clarity on the actual bitstream. I think some 3rd party Apps will show the bit stream? Or look at the bandwidth consumed whilst viewing the eye candy?

ALAC is supported from local library playback, but I didn't think any audio badge showed when playing from local library.

I understood this thread to be about streaming from Apple Music and the support page states the Connect gen2 is not supported, so either the support page is wrong or the audio badge is showing incorrectly. I’ll lean towards the former.

Yeah it’s difficult to know what to believe but the app definitely shows lossless when streaming to the connect from the Apple Music. I can also hear fairly clearly it sounds better on my focal aria evo speakers than if lossless is not selected, that doesn’t mean it’s actually lossless though. I might just switch to spotify and see if that works better.

Yes, this thread is about streaming from Apple Music.

My point is, the older devices are capable of playing Lossless, just not at higher resolutions.

So, its technically possible the older devices are streaming lossless 16/44, just not at higher resolutions. 

Maybe the support page is referring to higher res lossless is not supported on older devices?

I would test, but I sold all my older devices.

No, there’s other threads confirming Apple Music Lossless won’t play on Play:1s, so looks like the support page is just wrong for the Connect gen2.

I don’t use Apple Music or have a Connect gen2, so can’t test either.

Ok thanks. CD quality is fine for me as long as it’s lossless. For info how do people ‘test’ if they are truly getting lossless?

Back on topic I’ve been trying Spotify all morning on lossless and everything has been playing perfectly (so far).

You can check the bandwidth being used for the speaker whilst streaming in your router’s settings.