Pioneer VSX-LX103 "Works with Sonos"... not working with Sonos ZP80

zp80 if running the current software should be working fine.

yea try hooking direct to router not through the switch.

are you sure your pioneer is getting network connectivity?

@Chris, I was able to download and install the latest firmware on the receiver so the Wifi appears to be working fine.

can you try hooking the ZP80 into ethernet of your router direct vs. via switch.

The one known problem with the Google Hubs is that they select their own WiFi channel automatically and the hub channels cannot be manually changed either.. Sonos products all need the same channel and presumably the pioneer Receiver probably cannot see SonosNet radio either... so I reckon therein somewhere, lies the connection issue.

Success! So I wired the receiver ethernet directly to the SONOS ZP80 in the second port (the first port being wired into my switch). I then disabled Wifi on the receiver (under the Network menu > Wifi > Off (Wired)). The ZP80 was detected immediately. I realized switching to wired connectivity was the key here so I then moved the receiver ethernet cable from the back of my SONOS to my switch. Still works! I followed the rest of the instructions, setting volume level and power management and tested playing a track in the SONOS app with the receiver off. Bingo, the receiver powers on and sets the volume level as specified. Next step was trying to group my receiver with another player... After a few seconds I started noticing distortion, with the sound coming out of the speakers connected to my receiver cutting out and going very quiet. The solution to this seems to be disabling Wifi on my SONOS ZP80. It's connected to the switch so I don't need Wifi enabled right?! So with wifi disabled there appears to be no distortion so far and I'm already three songs in, merrily dancing around my apartment with glee.

In summary, the ZP80 works perfectly, the trick in my case, and I'm pretty certain it has nothing to do with the ZP80, but more likely my network setup, was to use wired network on the receiver (disabling wifi) AND disabling wifi on the SONOS ZP80. One frustration is that the receiver volume isn't controlled by the SONOS app and only via my Pioneer remote. I thought that was one of the features of "Works with SONOS" but I could be wrong.

Hope my findings helps somebody else in a similar predicament. Thanks to everyone involved helping me troubleshoot this. I haven't had need to post anything on the community forum for 11 years since my last post, which is testament to the solid build of SONOS. Let's hope all the components last another 11 years! Kudos SONOS. Can you imagine an Apple product lasting 11 years these days... er no I didn't think so 😉

Glad you got it going. Sounds to me like the Sonos wifi channel is interfering with the google wifi channel (must be in close proximity).

thebullet,

I’m sorry to say, I have read so many bad things about Google Hubs.

If I had a similar setup, I would personally switch the main router, that I now have from my internet service provider, into 'modem mode' meaning it becomes just a modem connection only. I would then plug a small unmanaged 'switch' into the configured 'modem'.

Next I would plug two things into the switch, the main google hub/wifi-router and a Single sonos device to begin the SonosNet radio network, keeping them far apart from each other.

I would setup my Google Hubs around the house and find out what channels they are using on the 2.4ghz band using wifiinfoview free scanner software and then make sure that SonosNet was on a completely different non-overlapping wifi channel and then go from there with my network.

As mentioned earlier, I am told that the Google Hubs cannot be set to use static WiFi channels and so they tend to jump about the wifi channels automatically and that is when they can be a nuisance (apparently) and interfere with SonosNet, but it’s the best way I can think of setting up such a system, without cabling even more things to the switch.

I would let all Sonos Speakers, ZP80 etc. link over SonosNet and let the pioneer receiver find the ZP80 by attaching it to the WiFi signal broadcast from the Google Hubs

The above of course is just my own personal opinion.

Anyhow I’m also glad to hear you got your new Pioneer Receiver (and ZP80) working together over the 'Works with Sonos' API interface. That’s really great news ?

Ken, Sadly there are many Cable Modems (maybe other types too) that won't support the switch directly, they only provide one IP address. Making it worse at boot time they look for a MAC address and tie the IP to that so changing devices requires forging the MAC or rebooting the modem. With that issue about all you can do is hook an external router to the modem. Most frustrating!

You can get a decent router (just router, no WiFi) from Ubiquity or Netgate (pfSense) that will let you connect your switch to it and provide NAT, DHCP and the rest of the essential networking services. You can also run pfSense on a PC if it has two or more network ports. The pfSense is easier to learn but the Ubiquity stuff is very nice once you master it.

Stanley_4,

Sorry it’s my 'rather silly' mistake in my post above ... I meant to say to run the switch off the main Google Hub.

I don’t know if you can do this in the US, like you can in the UK.. ?..?

Perhaps if I can try to give an example...

I have an ISP supplied router, that can be switched over to 'modem mode' (so it switches operation and becomes just a modem) ... one WAN IP address is assigned to it by the ISP. In my own particular case it’s a Netgear brand AC mimo router from VirginMedia which has a simple software setting to switch modes.

Then the first Google Hub (which will become the main router) is plugged directly into the (now) modem device using the Hubs WAN port and ANY LAN port on the router (usually it’s the first LAN port)... we do not have to register or spoof the MAC addresses here of the Hub, as we are using the registered Netgear router as the modem, which passes the WAN IP through and onto the Google Hub. I assume the Netgear device is where virginmedia take the MAC address from as its authorisation.

Then an unmanaged switch can then be connected to the Google Hubs other 'LAN port'... we can do this in the UK as there is no MAC address registration or spoofing required. The registered modem is all that is required.

So the local network is then all managed by the main Google Hub, which becomes the DHCP Server, Gateway etc. The WiFi from this Hub then connects to the other hubs and they all broadcast a WiFi signal, albeit that WiFi signal can (apparently) be on different channels emitting from each hub (that’s the problem with these hubs... the channels can differ at each hub, albeit the SSID and password are the same etc.) Well that’s what I have been told and you cannot set a static WiFi channel either on the Google Hubs... hence they cause problems from time to time with sonos profucts.

That’s what I really meant to say... so having corrected my earlier mistake, I’m just curious now, if this is how things work with ISP's in the US?