Apple Music suddenly has bad sound when Airplaying to Sonos system

Question

I have Airplayed from iTunes/Apple Music from my MacBook to my Sonos system ever since I got the system two years ago. Suddenly when I stream from what is now Apple Music (formerly iTunes), the sound is slightly muffled, and there is this playing-in-a-cave sound… kind of like bad live audio. This problem does NOT exist during TV use, nor does it show up if I stream from Apple Music on my iPhone. On top of that, I can stream, say, a YouTube video from my MacBook using Airplay, and the sound is good there as well. In other words, I’ve isolated the situation, and it’s unique to streaming to Music. Other than the muted, distant sound, if the surrounds and sub are turned off, the Beam sounds kind of crackly, and close listen sometimes finds no music coming from parts of the Beam. Either way, it’s all muted and flat sounding. Normally I could use my Beam as a stereo unto itself, just not nearly as superb as the full system.

Anyhow, does anyone have any ideas on this? It’s my primary way to listen to music, so I don’t want this problem to continue for obvious reasons! The only thing different is that my system software updated in the last few days, as did my Sonos Player app for Mac.

psasser · Accepted Answer

I’m going to reply here with what resolved the issue in case anyone has the same problem and comes here to find answers. Sonos couldn't help, because this was actually an Apple issue in the end. I was told to go to Users & Groups in system settings and create a new user. I named it “Test” and gave it admin privileges. I then restarted and logged in as Test. When I did, I went to Music and streamed through Airplay to my Sonos system. Voila! Perfect sound. Then I logged out of the test account and back into my main user account. This time when I airplayed to my Sonos, the problem was gone, and the sound was perfect. Apparently the update of my system software left a glitch in my user account which was resolved after “Test” was used to stream the music. All is well now.

Airgetlam · Answer

Since AirPlay 2 doesn’t use the Sonos controller for the Mac in its stream, that’s not a consideration.

I think the first thing I’d try powering down the Mac and your Sonos speakers, the rebooting your router. Once the router comes back up, plug the Sonos in first, then start your Mac back up, and test. Essentially, you’re rebooting all three, and forcing them to reload their software.

If that doesn’t work, you might try to submit a system diagnostic within 10 minutes of experiencing this issue, and contact Sonos Support to discuss it. The challenge that might arise is the signal isn’t ‘in’ the Sonos ecosystem until the Sonos speaker receives it, so if the issue is somewhere in the Mac’s sending of the signal, I’m not sure there would be any data for Sonos to ‘see’ the issue. However, if there are issues with your network connection to the Sonos speakers, that should show up.

I usually suggest the phone folks, they have more tools available, but are available Monday through Friday during business hours. Twitter support folks are available 24/7.

There may be information included in the diagnostic that will help Sonos pinpoint the issue and help you find a solution.

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