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So I’ve reached out to support about this numerous times and the two answers I’ve gotten are:

A) Move closer to your WiFi Router

B) The Sonos Move 2 Speakers cannot handle the bandwidth of Lossless Audio over WiFi.

 

I’m sure these support agents have no idea what they’re talking about.  The issue is with the speakers themselves, and can be resolved by writing better firmware.

To disprove the claim that I am too far from my WiFi router, I went ahead and upgraded my already top-of-the-line-but-several-years-old WiFi router to an even better one.  I’m glad I spent the money on it.  It’s a better router with superior configuration options for techy people like myself.  Same connectivity issues with my Move 2 speakers.  Everything else works great on it including my other Sonos devices.

 

If the second claim is true (the speakers can’t handle lossless audio) then I have to wonder why they were built in the first place?  They produce great quality audio when they work.  But most of the time they skip, stutter, drop out, and make static when paired in stereo.

 

I bought my first Move 2 quite some time ago and noticed that it didn’t work over WiFi so I used it over bluetooth.  I figured this was a firmware issue that would eventually be resolved, and the lower audio quality wasn’t that big of a deal since the speaker was in mono anyway.  Then, recently, I went ahead and purchased a second one to pair in stereo.

 

Sales says they are not able to offer any warranty or return on the speakers.  It looks like technical support has no idea what they’re doing, and it also looks like the leadership of the company is not being very transparent with us about the status of these products and the issues they have.

 

I have Sonos products which don’t work.  The company doesn’t seem to care, nor are they willing to do anything about it.  I’m posting here in the unlikely event that someone from Sonos can disprove that.

Do you have any other Sonos products plugged into your network on Ethernet? If so what, and where in relation to the Move 2’s do they sit… ? 

You mentioned “Lossless Audio”. What is your specific lossless audio source?

You mentioned “Lossless Audio”. What is your specific lossless audio source?

A file on my laptop hard drive.  I also use Tidal to stream lossless audio.  Both cases produce the same connectivity issues.  I am connecting to the stereo pair via AirPlay, since the Sonos app is broken and poorly designed.

Do you have any other Sonos products plugged into your network on Ethernet? If so what, and where in relation to the Move 2’s do they sit… ? 

Hey, no I don’t have any Sonos devices hard wired via Ethernet.  I do have a Sonos Five much farther away than the Move 2’s from my wireless router and it works great.

 What is the WiFi SNR of the Move.  Settings-Sonos Move 2 (under Your System)-Move 2 (under Products)-Network.  Look for SNR.  Ideally 45 or better.  Mine work OK at 30 something, but mine are Move not Move 2.  I don’t use AirPlay.

You mentioned “Lossless Audio”. What is your specific lossless audio source?

A file on my laptop hard drive.  I also use Tidal to stream lossless audio.  Both cases produce the same connectivity issues.  I am connecting to the stereo pair via AirPlay, since the Sonos app is broken and poorly designed.

It sounds to me like your network can’t handle streaming the lossless audio to your pair of Moves. When you use AirPlay, it doesn’t stream in lossless quality which is likely why you don’t have any issues streaming in this way. I suggest using a different audio source that isn’t lossless.

You mentioned “Lossless Audio”. What is your specific lossless audio source?

A file on my laptop hard drive.  I also use Tidal to stream lossless audio.  Both cases produce the same connectivity issues.  I am connecting to the stereo pair via AirPlay, since the Sonos app is broken and poorly designed.

It sounds to me like your network can’t handle streaming the lossless audio to your pair of Moves. When you use AirPlay, it doesn’t stream in lossless quality which is likely why you don’t have any issues streaming in this way. I suggest using a different audio source that isn’t lossless.

 

Hi,

I only use AirPlay to stream to the speakers.  I’m using a ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 Pro Tri-Band WiFi 6 Extendable Gaming Router which is absurdly fast with huge coverage.

If it’s true that on a top-of-the-line wireless router, these speakers can’t support lossless fidelity, then it’s incredibly stupid to create such a product.  Why would Sonos create a high quality speaker if it can’t stream lossless audio?

 What is the WiFi SNR of the Move.  Settings-Sonos Move 2 (under Your System)-Move 2 (under Products)-Network.  Look for SNR.  Ideally 45 or better.  Mine work OK at 30 something, but mine are Move not Move 2.  I don’t use AirPlay.

Thanks for pointing this out!  Looks like SNR is 32 dB and 33 dB.

Interestingly, they are on 5180 Hz.  I wonder if they’d perform better at 2.4gHz.

 What is the WiFi SNR of the Move.  Settings-Sonos Move 2 (under Your System)-Move 2 (under Products)-Network.  Look for SNR.  Ideally 45 or better.  Mine work OK at 30 something, but mine are Move not Move 2.  I don’t use AirPlay.

Thanks for pointing this out!  Looks like SNR is 32 dB and 33 dB.

Interestingly, they are on 5180 Hz.  I wonder if they’d perform better at 2.4gHz.

 

So I just set up MAC filtering to force the Sonos Move 2 speakers off my 2 5gHz channels and their SNR went up to 44dB!!!!!

Thanks so much brother!

 What is the WiFi SNR of the Move.  Settings-Sonos Move 2 (under Your System)-Move 2 (under Products)-Network.  Look for SNR.  Ideally 45 or better.  Mine work OK at 30 something, but mine are Move not Move 2.  I don’t use AirPlay.

Thanks for pointing this out!  Looks like SNR is 32 dB and 33 dB.

Interestingly, they are on 5180 Hz.  I wonder if they’d perform better at 2.4gHz.

 

So I just set up MAC filtering to force the Sonos Move 2 speakers off my 2 5gHz channels and their SNR went up to 44dB!!!!!

Thanks so much brother!

Update: Getting 46-47dB SNR and the speakers still skip constantly.

 

Garbage product.  Garbage support.  Garbage company.

You mentioned “Lossless Audio”. What is your specific lossless audio source?

A file on my laptop hard drive.  I also use Tidal to stream lossless audio.  Both cases produce the same connectivity issues.  I am connecting to the stereo pair via AirPlay, since the Sonos app is broken and poorly designed.

It sounds to me like your network can’t handle streaming the lossless audio to your pair of Moves. When you use AirPlay, it doesn’t stream in lossless quality which is likely why you don’t have any issues streaming in this way. I suggest using a different audio source that isn’t lossless.

 

Hi,

I only use AirPlay to stream to the speakers.  I’m using a ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 Pro Tri-Band WiFi 6 Extendable Gaming Router which is absurdly fast with huge coverage.

If it’s true that on a top-of-the-line wireless router, these speakers can’t support lossless fidelity, then it’s incredibly stupid to create such a product.  Why would Sonos create a high quality speaker if it can’t stream lossless audio?

Do you have the same issues streaming directly from the Sonos App?

You mentioned “Lossless Audio”. What is your specific lossless audio source?

A file on my laptop hard drive.  I also use Tidal to stream lossless audio.  Both cases produce the same connectivity issues.  I am connecting to the stereo pair via AirPlay, since the Sonos app is broken and poorly designed.

It sounds to me like your network can’t handle streaming the lossless audio to your pair of Moves. When you use AirPlay, it doesn’t stream in lossless quality which is likely why you don’t have any issues streaming in this way. I suggest using a different audio source that isn’t lossless.

 

Hi,

I only use AirPlay to stream to the speakers.  I’m using a ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 Pro Tri-Band WiFi 6 Extendable Gaming Router which is absurdly fast with huge coverage.

If it’s true that on a top-of-the-line wireless router, these speakers can’t support lossless fidelity, then it’s incredibly stupid to create such a product.  Why would Sonos create a high quality speaker if it can’t stream lossless audio?

Do you have the same issues streaming directly from the Sonos App?

 

When I “stream” from the Sonos app the audio sounds like a helicopter.  The audio cuts in and out at perfect rhythmic intervals, about 500ms of audio followed about 1000ms of silence indefinitely.

I wasn’t aware people used the Sonos app for anything other than setup.  Sounds like the CEO issued a non-apology about it recently, since it’s totally broken.

I wasn’t aware people used the Sonos app for anything other than setup.  Sounds like the CEO issued a non-apology about it recently, since it’s totally broken.

 

I have 17 Sonos devices and use the new Sonos app all of the time to stream music, including lossless, with little to no issues.

I wasn’t aware people used the Sonos app for anything other than setup.  Sounds like the CEO issued a non-apology about it recently, since it’s totally broken.

 

I have 17 Sonos devices and use the new Sonos app all of the time to stream music, including lossless, with little to no issues.

Oh interesting.  Maybe there’s something wrong with both of my Sonos Move 2 speakers then.  And my Sonos Five.  And my Sonos Ace headphones.

Or maybe the app is just stable or unstable in different environments ;)

Was genuinely hoping the boost in SNR on 2.4Ghz was going to be the answer for you… 

On the router, make sure UPnP and IGMP snooping are both enabled. 

Then use the site survey tool to see what other networks you can see around you are and how strong they are. Will help see if there’s some kind of interference going on. 

Also check you have Airtime Fairness disabled:

https://support.sonos.com/en-au/article/asus-rt-and-ax-series-compatibility

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