Why does my Play3 say my network speed is insufficient?

  • 13 March 2021
  • 3 replies
  • 47 views

I have a Play3 in the home office with a very good wifi signal. However when I try to stream anything from Qobuz the streams break up and it tells me my network speed is insufficient to support playback.

That is nonsense because I can stream Qobuz in 24 bit hi res flawlessly to my phone and desktop computer in the same room with all of the devices connected to the same wifi access point.

What I’ve ended up doing is installing BubbleUPnP server on my NAS and creating OpenHome renderers  for my Sonos products. I can then use the BubbleUPnP Android control app to stream Qobuz to the OpenHome renderer i.e. the Play3 and that configuration works perfectly using the same Qobuz stream and wifi access point.

So why does the native Sonos app not work but the OpenHome renderer solution does? If wifi or internet speeds were a problem the OpenHome solution wouldn’t work either.

Prior to the OpenHome renderer solution I went through a full Sonos system factory reset but that made no difference.


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3 replies

Warning messages can sometimes be inaccurate.  Basically, the Play:3 is saying ‘what I am receiving is not in a clean, stable form that I can decode and play’.  The question is, why?  

Is this your only Sonos device?

The words ‘access point’ immediately grab my attention.  What sort of network do you have set up?

Which wireless channel is your 2.4Ghz router band using?

 

There is also a Play1 in the kitchen and that works fine, that is also connected by wifi.

Network setup is a BT Whole Home wifi system with 3 disc setup. 2.4GHz channel 6.

It just seems odd that the Play3 will work fine with the OpenHome renderer version when it is still the same Qobuz stream and coming from the same wifi access point but won’t work natively with the SOnos app. If it was poor wifi then surely the OpenHome renderer shouldn’t work either?

I can only guess from a distance, but wifi interference can be very localised.  Also, unlike your phone etc, the Sonos system has several devices that need to be in constant contact to function properly, and mesh systems can often interfere with that.  I don’t know anything about the OpenHome renderer but it is possible it just isolates the Play:3 speaker.

There are a couple of things you could do experimentally that may shed light on the problem.

  1. Try the Play:3 in different locations, within the same room and outside it.
  1. Connect your Play:1 to your router, power cycle the Play:3 and see how it performs when connected to SonosNet rather than your WiFi