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Speakers playing different music problem


Hi everyone

 

I've had endless issues with my 3 Sonos One's and 1 x One SL that I have set up in my gym studio. They keep dropping out and unsyncing. I've tried improving the WiFi, reconnecting them all multiple times, installing the Sonos Boost and reconnecting them all to that. I am STILL having issues with one of the speakers inexplicably playing different music to the other 3. Coincidentally it happens to the the SL which is the odd one out although I don't think this is a contributing factor. I cannot explain it and don't understand how or why it randomly starts playing different music. We use one single phone to operate the system and play music from the Sonos app. How or why is this happening and what can I do to stop it???

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Best answer by Airgetlam 7 June 2022, 07:30

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9 replies

It sounds like you’re still having some wireless interference issues, but I see you mention you have tried improving your WiFi, but how?

Have you scanned for the least-used ‘non-overlapping’ channels in the 2.4Ggz WiFi band and have you set the channel-width to 20Mhz only, assuming that the router caters for that? Are the channels in use now fixed, rather than auto-selected on startup/reboot/update etc?

You are using a wired Boost and SonosNet, so have you set that directly-wired device well away from the connected router, at least one metre, or more …and ensured it’s channel is at least 5 channels away from your chosen routers 2.4Ghz channel. 

It may optionally help a little to also reserve all your Sonos IP addresses in your routers DHCP Reservation Table, but that’s up-to you if you haven’t done that already?

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Are you grouping all of the Sonos Rooms into a single Group?

Individual Sonos, not Grouped will often end up playing different streams from your provider. The difference in the streams may be almost unnoticeable or hugely aggravating, and vary over time.

 

Keep in mind the Controller only tells the Sonos speakers what to play, they get the music from the source you have told them to use directly, not through the Controller.

It sounds like you’re still having some wireless interference issues, but I see you mention you have tried improving your WiFi, but how?

Have you scanned for the least-used ‘non-overlapping’ channels in the 2.4Ggz WiFi band and have you set the channel-width to 20Mhz only, assuming that the router caters for that? Are the channels in use now fixed, rather than auto-selected on startup/reboot/update etc?

You are using a wired Boost and SonosNet, so have you set that directly-wired device well away from the connected router, at least one metre, or more …and ensured it’s channel is at least 5 channels away from your chosen routers 2.4Ghz channel. 

It may optionally help a little to also reserve all your Sonos IP addresses in your routers DHCP Reservation Table, but that’s up-to you if you haven’t done that already?

Thank you for the response - I have further determined that the speaker isn’t actually playing strange random songs. It is playing the music from the same source as the other speakers but there’s like a 15 second delay between them and so when we are running playlists there can be 2 different songs playing. So the real issue is actually that there is a significant delay between that speaker and the other 3. It’s as if it is receiving the signal at a delayed rate.

Are you grouping all of the Sonos Rooms into a single Group?

Individual Sonos, not Grouped will often end up playing different streams from your provider. The difference in the streams may be almost unnoticeable or hugely aggravating, and vary over time.

 

Keep in mind the Controller only tells the Sonos speakers what to play, they get the music from the source you have told them to use directly, not through the Controller.

So the source is our iphone which is playing music from MixCloud app which is brought into the Sonos app and played from there. The phone is connected to the same broadband Wifi network at the speakers. I have set up a Sonos boost and connected all 4 speakers to boost. I haven’t set up stereo pairs though because I have tried this previously and it didn’t seem to resolve the issues and I feel like it actually adds additional complexity and another point of failure. I’ve determined that the issue is a delay so the faulty speaker is playing the same music i.e. from the same iphone but its like 5-10 seconds behind the other 3 speakers. The room they are in is like 13.5m x 12m and the speakers are hung in the ceiling at each corner of the room. Modem and boost set up against one wall within that room

Just to be sure I understand this setup, you’re playing the Mixcloud data to just one Sonos speaker, and then using the Sonos controller to group all the other Sonos speakers to the one receiving the signal?

Or are you trying to send individual streams to each Sonos speaker?

 

@Airgetlam 

I’m not entirely sure about that. So we have the Sonos app on the phone as well as MixCloud. We bring playlist uploads from MixCloud into Sonos through the Sonos app. It is being played through all 4 speakers via the Sonos app and I have created stereo pairs between the 4. I think the device is sending the signal to all 4 speakers individually rather than just to one but I am not certain. How can I confirm this? Would one way be better than the other?

 

Yes, sending a single signal to one Sonos ‘room’ is preferable, then ‘grouping’ that room with all other Sonos rooms in your physical space. Sending separate streams to each Sonos room would, as you’ve found out, likely end up with the multiple streams not being in sync. Stick with one stream to the Sonos, and then group the speakers in the Sonos controller, and they should be in sync. 

Yes, sending a single signal to one Sonos ‘room’ is preferable, then ‘grouping’ that room with all other Sonos rooms in your physical space. Sending separate streams to each Sonos room would, as you’ve found out, likely end up with the multiple streams not being in sync. Stick with one stream to the Sonos, and then group the speakers in the Sonos controller, and they should be in sync. 

Can I ask, how do I set it up so that it is streaming to one single speaker?

In the app you’re using to send a signal to the Sonos speakers, choose just one ‘room’ to send the signal to. Once that ‘room’ has begun playback, open the Sonos controller and use the grouping function to get all speakers playing in sync.