Apple Music Lossless Cutouts and Skips

For folks with iffy networking or slow connections it would be great if all the "preimum" bitrates above 44k could be locked out. The audible performance improvement of them is questionable and the data needed stresses the network beyond what is necessary.

I agree, but I don’t think this problem is related to low speed connection, at least in my case, it wasn’t. 
Now, with Amazon there are no glitches, and I suppose the Ultra HD or Atmos are as heavier as the Apple lossless, aren’t them?
 

Can you stream AM Lossless to the wired speaker without dropouts, ie no group?

Are your TVs streaming 4k via WiFi?

I’ve had this issue for ages - since before the new app was released.

I've noticed that when I play Apple Music through the Sonos app, if the "Lossless" label isn't displayed on the Now Playing screen, then at some point during that track there will be a jump/stutter (usually around the 1m - 1m 40s mark for me). At which point, the "Lossless" label will appear on the Now Playing screen.

If the Lossless label is displayed from the beginning of the track, I've found that the track won't jump.

The Phonos app (shoutout to controlav) shows the sample rate and bit depth of the currently playing track, so I've noticed that these will sometimes switch to a higher quality when this issue occurs. But not always. I've also had Sonos display no "Lossless" tag, while Phonos reports that Sonos is streaming 44.1kHz 16-bit audio (CD quality lossless). Then the track jumps at some point during playback, the "Lossless" label appears on the Now Playing screen, but the sample rate and bit depth hasn't changed.

I think there's generally an issue with how Sonos detects the "best" quality to be streaming in based on what is available from Apple or your network conditions, and then it does a pretty poor job of switching quality mid-track.

Spotify, Tidal, Amazon Music, Qobuz all play lossless without a problem, so I think this is an issue on Apple Music or Sonos' side, rather than my network.

Hi getting back to this thread.

I continue having issues with stuttering and skipping streaming when using Apple Music through my Sonos setup.  

As mentioned, I have a large system and I have verified the problem happens as I add more zones to the feed, being 3-4 the maximum before problems arises.  I have 22 components spread in 3 floors and grouped in 12 zones.  The components are WiFi connected to a 3 nodes Mesh system, which has backhaul Ethernet.  My ISP provides Gigabit internet and has no connectivity problems at home.

As others have indicated success with Spotify and Amazon Music,, I gave a try to Spotify Premium and can tell that it works!…no stuttering or skips when playing through 5 or more zones at a time.  I can also tell that Amazon Music also works.  Hence, my conclusion is that there is something not working properly with Apple Music integration and particularly Lossless, I can’t tell is its at Apple or at Sonos’ end, but I suspect the later. I stumbled across quite some complaints in Reddit as well.

You can read through this thread if you have some patience.

https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/comments/1oojlpl/new_sonos_app_player_updates_are_now_available/

Regards

what I have observed on mine is that its definitely stuttering on Apple Music tracks now since lossless was added. I have noticed that songs don’t always start in lossless mode and the track ”stuttering” always lines up to the split second with the appearance of the lossless icon in the now playing screen.

I would assume that the songs are sometimes starting in lossy and then when adequate data is streamed its switching into lossless but this switch is not seamless. it’s incredibly frustrating and could be completely avoided by giving customers the option to choose a preferred default quality.

let’s be real, lossy is fine for a sonos one or a ray or a beam. it’s a ridiculous situation.

On the subject of Apple Lossless, and as others have pointed our in this thread and another one that is closed for comments:  would a reasonable compromise solution to have a switch or toggle that would disable lossless streaming and allow the system to default to the lower bitrate version of songs?  Maybe this is possible, since the problem arises when Sonos attempts to play Lossless and then, after a while defaults to a lower quality version of the song.

But if you don’t need “lossless” perhaps AirPlay is the better way, isn’t it? and you get a much better music control at the same price.

My problem is that I want “loseless” sound through Sonos app (only way?) without glitches! 

My solution, go to Amazon and suffer other issues…
 

Ok.  I’d been experiencing this Apple Music problem for some time, and just looked it up on Reddit and this community.  I’ve confirmed that there is a very noticeable glitch when transitioning from lossy to lossless per the Sonos app.  It happens on many songs on a single playlist, because many songs start lossy, then go lossless partway through. I tried to “fool” the system by turning on the Crossfade feature, but that did not fix the problem.  I only use Apple Music for streaming - never tried other services.

At first I assumed the problem as caused by my large number of Sonos devices and mesh network, but reading the posts it does not seem to be so.  Right now I am experiencing this in my library on my Five pair + sub.  One of my mesh network routers is in the same room.  I currently have the two Five speakers and Sub Mini locked to that router, so that they don’t bounce around to one of the other two routers (especially the left speaker).

This has really put a crimp on enjoying my system in the space where I listen to music critically.   

I would certainly 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, their lawyers get sensitive about GDPR.

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.