Question

FLAC files stored locally dropping out on Sonos


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I have to ask this question again. Why is it the performance of Sonos in playing FLAC files has waned over the last couple of years since Sonos preoccupation with being all things to everyone i.e. streaming from every possible source, 5.1 etc. Despite having the matrix I have attached speakers drop out especially one side of stereo pairs. Whenever I skip to the next track speakers drop out and slowly synch up again. Does not happen on MP3s with their lower bitrate. Those of us who were early adopters can remember that Sonos was supposed to have the ability to play 32 speakers with multiple music streams in different rooms. The S2 app takes an age to load on a fast laptop. Changing volume settings can now have a delay as others mentioned. Has some of the memory capacity that used to be available been used for the new features. Don't forget the original system was just designed to play music from local sources and a bit of Internet Radio. Perceived reliability has really begun to suffer as witnessed by a lot of disillusioned contributers on this site. I may sound crass to say this but if I could go back about 30 upgrades to the old blue controller I would do so. Sonos is taking my system in a direction I appear to have little or no control over.

 


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Channel 11 is my immediate neighbour. He had SKY fit a Mini Box to work with his SKY Q box and Sky Router. This setup was using 1,6 and 11 aarrgghhh!. Luckily on talking to him he was not having too much joy with it so when his SKY engineer turned up I suggested turning off 2.4ghz on the Q and Mini Box which makes it all use 5ghz (all on the same channel) bar the router which uses both. This limitation of the 2.4ghz band is a nightmare in urban environments. What a pity we cannot have Sonosnet on 5ghz or a combination of both wavelengths as 5ghz penetrates my house ok.

Thanks R that is helpful as I normally group from the Living Room Pair. I 'll try one of the upstairs Play 1s.

The Living Room nodes in fact have the strongest connection to the Boost. That said, Direct Routing connections between group peers might favour one of the Play:1s. YMMV. 

@ratty . if practical would there be any possible benefit in wiring Livibg Room (L) instead of (or as well as) Boost?

Hard to say without studying the reasons why the STP topology is the way it is. Generally the more wired, the better.

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Thanks R that is helpful as I normally group from the Living Room Pair. I 'll try one of the upstairs Play 1s.

@ratty . if practical would there be any possible benefit in wiring Livibg Room (L) instead of (or as well as) Boost?

Based on the pic above I would try Sonos on ch 11. Overlaps are especially damaging.

If the problem strikes when rooms are grouped then try starting off with a different room. The first room contains the Group Coordinator, responsible for fetching the stream and distributing to the other nodes. In a room with a stereo pair the left unit is usually the GC. The best GC is a wired node; the next best would be one with a good wireless signal.

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That won’t make Sonos on 1, or your router on 6, very happy at all. Is it yours? At -57dB it's not that far away.

No it is not and unknown to me (I live in London so a lot of WiFi around). It does another nasty trick of spanning channel 2-8 on occasions!!

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The system will play flacs quite reliably for long periods if the queue is not edited. Move a song underneath the song playing (play next) or a simply click on play next track and speakers will drop out and then slowly come back into sync. The microwave in the kitchen is another story - that will wipe the floor with the system and causes the system to play the next track briefly, cut out altogether etc. On MP3 it is more reliable with little or no issues. Unfortunately I am one of those rare individuals who despite my age can tell the difference in sound quality especially on the Play5 Pair.

That won’t make Sonos on 1, or your router on 6, very happy at all. Is it yours? At -57dB it's not that far away.

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A strong interferer is coming and going.

Maybe this one:

 

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Router on 6 

20MHz channel width?

Yes

 

A strong interferer is coming and going.

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As you can see the Matrix can change hour by hour!!

 

 

Router on 6 

20MHz channel width?

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Is the Boost close to the living room speakers?  Is there a gap of at least a couple of feet between router and Boost?  What channels are your router and SonosNet on?

Yes Boost is a few feet from Living Room Left speaker but at least a three feet away from Router. Router on 6 Sonos on 1 (the clearest channel). All of my computer equipment and mobiles/tablets are connected by 5ghz, only smart switches and one CCTV camera on 2.4Ghz.

Thanks @ratty.  I forgot that direct routing could override the STP in ‘groups’, including stereo pairs.

Is the Boost close to the living room speakers?  Is there a gap of at least a couple of feet between router and Boost?  What channels are your router and SonosNet on?

And a really weird feature is that your kitchen left speaker is getting its stream from the Boost, whereas the right one is getting its stream from the living room left speaker.

That’s the STP topology. In practice the kitchen right will get stream data from the kitchen left, via Direct Routing. 

 

Am I missing something or is the Kitchen Right not getting the stream from Living Room L which is very marginally further away than the Boost?

Direct Routing links don’t show in the matrix. They’re used, where possible, directly between grouped nodes to optimise performance. A pair is a type of group. Direct Routing only applies to the audio stream within a group, i.e. between the Group Coordinator and the other nodes; all other traffic uses the STP topology in the matrix.

BTW SonosNet tries to minimise the number of hops, but the Boost/kitchen-left direct signal strength is rather low. The mesh should self-adjust automatically if it needs to, but you can always reboot say the Boost and the kitchen units to force a topology recalculation.

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And a really weird feature is that your kitchen left speaker is getting its stream from the Boost, whereas the right one is getting its stream from the living room left speaker.

That’s the STP topology. In practice the kitchen right will get stream data from the kitchen left, via Direct Routing. 

 

Am I missing something or is the Kitchen Right not getting the stream from Living Room L which is very marginally further away than the Boost?

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And a really weird feature is that your kitchen left speaker is getting its stream from the Boost, whereas the right one is getting its stream from the living room left speaker.

There is also interference affecting most of the paths from the Boost.

 

Weird indeed because the Kitchen Speakers are probably furthest away physically from the Boost. I thought the whole idea of Sonosnet was to forward to each other. On my Matrix they are all connecting to the Boost bar one!

 

I have no Cat 5 cabling in the house otherwise I could move the Boost more centrally or just connect one of the central speakers with Cat 5 and forget the Boost altogether.

 

And a really weird feature is that your kitchen left speaker is getting its stream from the Boost, whereas the right one is getting its stream from the living room left speaker.

That’s the STP topology. In practice the kitchen right will get stream data from the kitchen left, via Direct Routing. 

 

Thanks.  Well there is some interesting stuff there.  Significant wireless interference in the living room, some weak signals.  Any idea what could be causing the interference in the living room?

And a really weird feature is that your kitchen left speaker is getting its stream from the Boost, whereas the right one is getting its stream from the living room left speaker.

There is also interference affecting most of the paths from the Boost.

I would expect problems with the two stereo pairs given this matrix.  It will be interesting to see if the diagnostic gives more info.

I really don’t think your problems are caused by a general decline in Sonos’ ability to handle local files, because no such decline has occurred.

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Could you possibly post a full matrix please - the existing one has a couple of columns missing.

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Have you always stored your files on a USB connected drive?

Yes - always and it works really well.