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Help with One SL Stereo Pair L-R Balance

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Hi, thanks in advance for any help you can provide with this issue.

I have a stereo pair of One SL’s on my desk. I’m having an issue with the stereo balance between the two speakers. When I start a song playing, the stereo balance is centered, but over approximately 15-30 seconds, the center image drifts off to one side (one speaker is becoming louder or softer, but never drifting all the way to one side). When I pause the music, then start it again, the image is again centered but proceeds to drift off center again. What is perplexing is that this happens when using the Sonos app streaming any music service, it happens with Roon streaming Tidal or Qobuz, it happens with the Tidal app using Tidal Connect, but it does not happen when streaming via Airplay from any source. Here are the steps I’ve already taken to attempt to resolve the issue:

Rebooted both speakers. Unpaired, then re-paired the stereo pair. Swapped left and right speakers in the stereo pair. Rebooted my wifi router while also rebooting both speakers afterwards. None of these steps changed anything. One thing I did notice is that it seems the stereo image always drifts to the slave speaker, not the primary.

Has anyone else experienced this, and if so, what worked for you? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

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Ken_GriffithsAnswer

It seems to me you have already tried most of the troubleshooting steps, apart from an actual factory reset of each device, but before suggesting to try that, it might be best to first submit a system diagnostic report immediately after you next encounter the issue and make a note of its reference. Then contact/chat to the Sonos Support Staff via this LINK, to perhaps see if they can glean anything from your report.

If you do decide to go it alone and factory reset your devices, then ensure you only do one speaker at a time and get that speaker added back to your existing system and working, before resetting the other one.

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John B

Have you tried physically relocating the speakers to a room where another pair is working normally?

I can't imagine what environmental factor might cause your problem, but it would be a quick and easy experiment.

Also, have you tried connecting the speaker pair by Ethernet while in SonosNet mode?

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acbarnAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

Have you tried physically relocating the speakers to a room where another pair is working normally?

I can't imagine what environmental factor might cause your problem, but it would be a quick and easy experiment.

Also, have you tried connecting the speaker pair by Ethernet while in SonosNet mode?

Hi John,

I haven’t done either. Relocating to another room would be simple, I will do that. I only have two Ethernet ports on my router, one of which is connected to my Boost, so I guess I’d need to get a switch to make that work.

Thanks..

J

John B

I just want you to wire one speaker to the other. I am not optimistic it will make a difference though.

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acbarnAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

I just want you to wire one speaker to the other. I am not optimistic it will make a difference though.

OK, got it. Will try it…

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acbarnAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

OK, tried the speakers in another room (closer to the router), with and without the Ethernet cable between the two, no change. The stereo image is still drifting to the side when streaming any source other than Airplay. I’m stumped.

Ken_Griffiths

Do your older Play:1 speakers (stereo paired) not have this audio drifting issue, if they are put in the same spot as the One SL’s, as that too would help to perhaps eliminate the matter being the local router/WiFi/Network environment?

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acbarnAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

Do your older Play:1 speakers (stereo paired) not have this audio drifting issue, if they are put in the same spot as the One SL’s, as that too would help to perhaps eliminate the matter being the local router/WiFi/Network environment?

Hi Ken,

The older Play:1’s were in this exact location for a couple of years with no issues. They now serve as rears to my Beam.

J

John B

I am out of ideas, I’m afraid. I have not previously heard of such a problem, and really cannot think what might be causing it. There is still a diagnostic to be examined. That apart, the only other line of enquiry that I can think of would be if someone had very detailed knowledge of how a stereo stream from Airplay is handled differently from stereo streams from other sources (if indeed this differs at all).

Sorry I could not be of more help.

James L.

Retired Community Staff

Hi @acbarn,

Thanks for your patience.

I’ve taken a look at your diagnostic and quite honestly, I see no reason at all why the issues you’ve described would be happening. When analysing the diagnostic I was checking a number of areas:

Connection between the stereo paired speakers - the connection between your One SLs is excellent, and I don’t see as much as a single dropped packet in the last 20 minutes before diagnostic submission.
General connection to the network - both speakers have good connections to the Boost, though the left one is slightly weaker than the right.
Background interference levels - both speakers have low interference levels across all measurable areas.
Errant volume commands - nothing to be found.
Audio interruptions from the services - I found 1 dropout, though this affected both speakers and appears to have recovered quickly.
Audio LR balance settings - dead centre and never changed.
Hardware error logging - nothing in the last 17 hours before submission, and nothing concerning logged at all.

In short, I have no idea from the information provided in this thread or in the diagnostic why the stereo image is shifting like this.

I’ve found your open case with our customer care team and have left a note on there detailing what I’ve found.

Someone should get back in contact with you shortly via email.

Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.

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acbarnAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

I am out of ideas, I’m afraid. I have not previously heard of such a problem, and really cannot think what might be causing it. There is still a diagnostic to be examined. That apart, the only other line of enquiry that I can think of would be if someone had very detailed knowledge of how a stereo stream from Airplay is handled differently from stereo streams from other sources (if indeed this differs at all).

Sorry I could not be of more help.

Thanks, John. I really appreciate it.

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