The Sonos system is just *too* fragile…

Sonos works just fine with a properly set up Orbi system. Of course Sonos, with the intercommunication between nodes, something that doesn’t happen on most devices, exposes poorly operating networks. 

Easiest is to wire one Sonos device to the base router/puck of the Orbi system, putting all of the Sonos on SonosNet, but you can also submit a system diagnostic within 10 minutes of experiencing this problem, and call Sonos Support to discuss it. They can help you get the network under control so that you don’t have these issues.

There should 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 phone folks, they have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your Sonos system and network.

I must concur with the fragility, or I would say perhaps more accurately flakiness. I’m running a system consisting of three Play:1 speakers (each alone in its respective room), one stereo pair of Play:1s, two Play:3s (each alone in its respective room), and a Move. I have an Asus Zen Wifi Ax mesh router system with the base unit + 3 further nodes, all in a single-storey 2,000 ft² (~200 m²) house. Many times the whole system will play flawlessly for a day, but many other days various speakers will cut in and out, or the whole lot will stop playing and suddenly say “the song is not encoded correctly” (FALSE because it was playing a second ago and has not changed) or “the device is not available.” All this when NOTHING else has changed; no other large suck on the network suddenly added, no new walls suddenly built in the house, no speaker moved or even touched … is it that a butterfly flapped its wings on the other side of the world and a Sonos system can’t tolerate that?!

• “Just go into wired mode”/SonosNet can’t be the answer, as I have a Move which will then be bricked.
• “Reboot your router” is a wrong answer. I have tried that countless times, but even if & when that works, there’s no good reason to have to do that hourly or daily. Other products in the house don’t require that.
• “Unplug and plug back in all your products regularly” is a rubbish answer as well. Again, I don’t have to do that with e.g. my television, my AppleTV, my Ooma, my YoLink hub, etc.

Anything that asks me to do those steps regularly as a matter of course is fragile and flaky, to Denny Lee’s original point. Is Sonos really admitting out loud they are that?

While I admit that mine is not a simple setup, I don’t understand why the performance must be so flaky. If it’s too complicated, I’d understand if it never worked or if Sonos published forthright guidance saying “No more than 4 devices allowed on one network” and then it’s my fault for having more. But no.  The fact that the misperformance is so inconsistent and unpredictable, with no visible causative change in anything else, is absolutely maddening. It makes me want to sell the whole lot, like Denny Lee, and go get an old-school wired sound system. Sonos needs to stop introducing new products and features or doing change for change’s own sake, when already the existing products manifestly don’t work reliably. Take a 90- or 180-day moratorium on introducing new things, stop adding complexity for a while, and FIX THE BLOODY BUGS.

Running Sonosnet doesnt "brick" your Move.  Just one of many misconceptions in your post.  Another is having to constantly reboot your router or devices to fix them.  That actually exacerbates the problem, which is more than likely due to IP conflicts.  The fact is, Sonos is very stable in a stable network.  If you wish, we can give a few tips to stabilize yours.

These things aren’t my idea. See for example here: https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/unable-to-connect-to-sonos saying “Unplug your router, then plug it back in.” And here: https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/music-service-audio-stops-or-skips saying “Restart the router.” It’s a common refrain from vendors wanting to deflect responsibility for their own bugful software, and of course I don’t want to do be constantly doing it. I suspect if I asked Asus, they’d say the problem with my Sonos is Sonos, not the router, and “go ensure you’ve updated to the latest Sonos software.” (I always keep it current, obviously, but that seems to just swap in new bugs for any old ones fixed.)

As to the Move, https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/choose-between-a-wireless-and-wired-sonos-setup lists the Move among “Products that don’t support the dedicated Sonos wireless network [and so] must either be connected to your home WiFi network in a wireless setup or connected via Ethernet...”  Given I don’t have an ethernet connection anywhere near where my Move is located, how would it work if I were to go into wired mode? [And I mean work as part of my overall Sonos system, not separately via direct Bluetooth communication with my phone.]

Nothing about those suggestions say you must do them repeatedly.  Matter of fact, the instructions I give note a step which assures you never have to do them again.

As to the Move/Roam/Eras in a Sonosnet setup, the Sonosnet capable units run Sonosnet, the others connect via WiFi.  This is completely transparent to the user.  I currently run Sonosnet to 11 devices, plus I have a Move and  a Roam.  All are as reliable as a concrete door stop.

Absolutely concur with @jgatie . Sonos itself is stable. The network it connects to is often problematic. 

SONOS requires more robust network support than simple web browsing, email, or viewing videos. Networks that are “perfect” for these tasks are not always perfect for SONOS. Issues are usually solvable, but they will not solve themselves. SONOS units are very chatty with each other over the network. Web browsing and such do not require any local network chatting.

This article may help.

I have a system of at least twice the size operating fine on a ASUS ZenWiFi AX mesh. I took care to (1) split the bands onto different SSIDs, (2) ensure that all Sonos devices which could use 5GHz were forced onto that band, and (3) bind non-portable Sonos devices to the nearest mesh node. As a matter of course I also reserve fixed IP address for all regular network clients, but that’s independent of the ASUS mesh.

@jgatie  which set of instructions/where? I see you have quite a few posts :)  I’m happy to read anything at this point.

@buzz  I had Airtime Fairness already disabled across the board so that apparently hasn’t helped. I’m on Asus firmware version 3.0.0.4.388_23285-g5068da5 which is still the latest according to them.

@dennyleegamble,
The Sonos Staff suggest using Orbi Hubs in bridged AP mode to a main router here in the thread link below. If perhaps not tried already, I would just give that a go and then there’s always SonosNet to fall back to aswell, before selling anything…

https://en.community.sonos.com/speakers-229128/troubleshooting-sonos-on-wifi-6856334?postid=16520976#post16520976