One channel missing on only one album

What is the album?  Is it mono?

If the album were mono, there would be no problem. It is Bill Frisell’s East West, disc 1. It was recorded in stereo in 2005.

As a guess, it suggests some sort of wifi interference between Sonos speakers and each other or the router. 

While I applaud your willingness to talk to the AI assistant from Sonos, I’d have been tempted to get through to an actual human.

Have you tried wiring your other Sonos speakers (not the Roam, obviously) temporarily to your router with Ethernet cables, and tested? 

I’ve ripped a lot of music using iTunes (now called Apple Music), and haven’t run into this issue…but I usually listen to this music on stereo paired devices, and not a single speaker like a Roam. 

If a recording has the left and right channels recorded out-of-phase, summing the channel to a mono speaker can cause one channel to disappear.  The example stated in the past was Traffic’s “Dear Mr. Fantasy” which has vocals recorded purposefully out of phase.

ETA:  There is mention on the internet that the OP’s example album heavily utilizes special effects, including phase shifts, to affect the soundstage.  If the problem disappears when played through a pair of stereo speakers, I would lean towards this explanation.  

Played East West on the KEF LS 50 speakers.  I know they are not Sonos, but I definitely hear what sounds like QSound which creates a surround effect with only 2 speakers.  I’m guessing this is accomplished using some out of phase sounds that throw sounds to one side or the other.  In the case of East West I hear the guitar on the left wall just forward a bit from my listening position.  Not as much sound coming from the right side.

The Bill Frisell: East West I used was from Qobuz.  Not sure if a rip would play the same way although my Roger Waters: Amused to Death which is advertised as QSound does play like QSound should.

I will try East West on a stereo pair of Sonos Move speakers and report back.

EDIT:  East West played on the Sonos Move stereo pair does the same thing as the KEF LS50 speakers.  The music is playing from both speakers which I can tell from the bass.  The guitar does favor the left side, but not to the same degree because my positioning is not as close to an equilateral triangle as it is in the KEF system and here is no left wall.

I played it from Qobuz on a stereo pair of Ones. It sounded fine. Then on a single One. It sounded terrible. Most of the sound disappeared. 

The OP was playing the track in mono on a single speaker.  So I'm pretty certain the out-of-phase effects are what the OP was hearing due to the down mix to mono.

Gotta’ be that QSound effect.

Somehow I missed the fact the OP was using only one speaker.  The fact that the QSound effect was on the guitar is probably why he could not hear the guitar on one speaker.

​@thw27: 

Guess AI doesn’t know everything.  Get another speaker.  Make a stereo pair.  That album sounds really good in stereo.

AI knows, or pretends to know everything.

It doesn't know truth from fiction.

It is biased to always provide an answer even if it is completely fictional.

​@thw27: if possible with your equipment, switch to mono playback for the CD or online source. This will result in similar processing as is internal to your mono SONOS speaker.

Note that this can become even stranger if you use a single stereo SONOS speaker, such as a FIVE. In the horizontal position a FIVE is stereo, but in the vertical orientation it is mono.

QSound is a phasing trick that throws some sounds to either side of the stage.  It sounds like a surround effect.  You need stereo speakers to hear it properly.  When using a single speaker the sound that is supposed to be thrown to one side or the other will be canceled out.  That’s why the OP could not hear the guitar.

jgatie:

I don’t have any problem playing “Dear Mr. Fantasy”. The Frisell album was recorded live and the effects he uses were made by using a looping device. The effects aren’t added in production. I have seen him do this live.

kdowling:

You get what I am getting. So much for the Sonos Roam system. You are supposed to be able to carry around one, not two speakers.

MoPac (last)

QSound doesn’t explain why the beginning of the song is missing the guitar track, which should be dominant. The recording was made in two-track.

Considering I’ve never heard this effect before testing this particular album, I don’t think I’d go that far. I’d say it’s a very rare phasing dropout that you are not likely to run into with any other album. But then, most of my listening is in stereo, so I really don’t know how common this might be.

Other than using a different sound system, which I don’t want to do, does anyone have a solution? Is there some workaround to trick the Roam into playing both channels?

Well if it’s not QSound then whatever is throwing the guitar onto the left wall of my stereo system is making it not work well on a single Roam.  Generally to make that pseudo surround effect there is some out of phase stuff going on.  That does not work well on a single speaker.  Try listening to Roger Waters: Amused to Death and you’ll see what I mean.  In the first track if, with a single Roam,  you hear the guy describing is experience in WWII on a TV on the left wall then I’m all wrong 

Good grief.

​Try this with one track.  

Unless this procedure is smart enough to reverse the phase of one channel for this track, the procedure won’t accomplish much. There would need to be a database somewhere indicating which tracks would benefit from phase reversal of one channel.

For success you would need an App capable of reversing the phase of one channel or do this while the track was in the analog domain before digitizing and re-playing as mono.

Overall I doubt that this will be productive because instruments that had not been phase reversed will now be reduced or cancelled.

As mentioned above a FIVE in the horizontal orientation can play the track or, if you need portable and have a larger pocket, the new PLAY is also a stereo speaker.

I don’t have any problem playing “Dear Mr. Fantasy”. The Frisell album was recorded live and the effects he uses were made by using a looping device. The effects aren’t added in production. I have seen him do this live.