I want to replace my Sonos system
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Telling us on a Sonos support forum seems to be an odd choice. However, I'm sure we all wish you the best luck.
Well, I made a mistake with my question. Sorry. What I meant to say was I'm so sick of the system failing on a daily basis, never finding the wifi, failing to group speakers, alsways falling over. Not turning the volume down when requested (embarrassing when you're answering the phone) etc etc. I've had Sonos for many years, am part of the beta community, used to think it was marvellous, recommended it to everyone: but it's now driving me nuts. So I'm seriously considering selling it all and getting something reliable.
Anyone else considering quitting Sonos? What to choose instead? Anyone else had these issues and resolved them? Sonos help have sometime responded and things got better breifly, only to fall over again.
Look at the Google Play feedback for the app and see how badly people are now rating it!!!
Anyone else considering quitting Sonos? What to choose instead? Anyone else had these issues and resolved them? Sonos help have sometime responded and things got better breifly, only to fall over again.
Look at the Google Play feedback for the app and see how badly people are now rating it!!!
Given the problems you are having with your network you will have the same issues with any replacement. I assume you have worked with Sonos Support to try to fix your issues?
Selling the Sonos and buying a non-networked sound system really sounds like a big step back, I don't see any competition for Sonos. Denon was looking good until they got busted for stealing patented technology to get their gear working.
I'd spend a few minutes fixing your networking and get your Sonos back to working well. As angry as you sound I'd suggest you go directly to Sonos via the phones on Monday and work with them to identify your issues.
If you want us (sonos users) to chip in our opinions tell us about your devices, network and problems and see what we come up with.
I'd spend a few minutes fixing your networking and get your Sonos back to working well. As angry as you sound I'd suggest you go directly to Sonos via the phones on Monday and work with them to identify your issues.
If you want us (sonos users) to chip in our opinions tell us about your devices, network and problems and see what we come up with.
I can’t believe that someone who claims to own a number of Sonos players, including several different versions of the 'Connect/Amp', joins the main community support forum after so many years and that their first opening question is to ask its members to recommend a completely different audio system. I find that rather strange to say the least, but to have never sought help here too with their 'reoccurring' issues at any stage in the past, seems equally bizarre, keeping in mind that their audio-dropout problems has pushed them to the point of wanting to exchange their Sonos 'investment' for some kind of 'as yet unknown' replacement product.
My money is on the 'obvious' fact this is likely to be a simple and solvable local networking issue, but what a way to start a conversation, eh?
It almost feels like it was intended as a 'wind-up'.
My money is on the 'obvious' fact this is likely to be a simple and solvable local networking issue, but what a way to start a conversation, eh?
It almost feels like it was intended as a 'wind-up'.
Well....
Thanks all. Maybe I can fix it rather than trash it all.
So we moved 2.5yr ago to a new, bigger, older house with thick walls and two consumer units (electricity fuse boxes) - one for ground floor and half-landing, the other for the middle and top floors. The router (76mbps fibre-to-cabinet) is on the half landing and the Sonos Bridge is hard-wired (Cat5) to that at about 0.6m away. The router feeds two separate ethernet-over-powerline systems -one for the lower floor and one for the upper two floors. It also is now Cat5 wired to my PC and Diskstation (Synology) with all my music (mostly FLAC, some mp3).
I have two connect:amps, one connect, one Play:5 (Gen 1) and two Play:1 s. The Bridge is the ZoneBridge. I also have a CR200 (used to have 2, but one of the screens died, as they do). These are spread about the house - living room (ground floor, connect), dining room (ground floor, connect:amp), bedroom (Middle floor, connect:amp), Kitchen (ground floor, Play:1), top floor, Play:1 and Play:5.
Control is mostly via the Sonos App on our two Android phones (android 8.1) although the living room can also be controlled with the Harmony Ultimate remote (which does TV, blu-ray (Oppo BDP105) and set-top box (Humax Freeview). The CR200 is on the top floor.
The most common failing is an inability to control the system from my phone. I'll go down to make tea in the morning and want to put the news on Radio 4 (BBC) - one of the Sonos favourites. It will always work if I press the play button on the Kitchen Play:1 (if that's what was last playing) but that's not always OK, because that Play:1 may have been grouped the previous day with another device.
So the Sonos app will maybe 30% of the time say "searching for Sonos on your wifi" and then fail to find it. When it does connect, it will often say "unable to connect" or "unable to browse music".
When it is working, maybe 20% of the time it will not group or ungroup rooms until the 4th or 5th attempt.
Similarly volume control often fails to respond quickly, requiring 4 or 5 attempts.
Frequently I will want to play music from the diskstation and having got to the album I want to play, seeing the tracks, pressing play will fail - "unable to browse" or "unable to connect"
And maybe once or twice a week the app decides I don't have any favourites and tells me I can put them where they were. Then after a while they all come back.
The hard buttons on the various devices all seem to work instantly as they always used to.
The system used to work flawlessly. Now it just feels like I wish I just had all the CDs back on their shelves and radios in each room!
So - sorry for the long post, but if the community can help, I'd be grateful.
And yes, Sonos support are aware. They come up with a suggestion, which often helps a little for a while,
I am not connected to SonosNet (on Support's advice).
I am connected to channel 6 (on Support's advice)
Any advice?
Thanks all. Maybe I can fix it rather than trash it all.
So we moved 2.5yr ago to a new, bigger, older house with thick walls and two consumer units (electricity fuse boxes) - one for ground floor and half-landing, the other for the middle and top floors. The router (76mbps fibre-to-cabinet) is on the half landing and the Sonos Bridge is hard-wired (Cat5) to that at about 0.6m away. The router feeds two separate ethernet-over-powerline systems -one for the lower floor and one for the upper two floors. It also is now Cat5 wired to my PC and Diskstation (Synology) with all my music (mostly FLAC, some mp3).
I have two connect:amps, one connect, one Play:5 (Gen 1) and two Play:1 s. The Bridge is the ZoneBridge. I also have a CR200 (used to have 2, but one of the screens died, as they do). These are spread about the house - living room (ground floor, connect), dining room (ground floor, connect:amp), bedroom (Middle floor, connect:amp), Kitchen (ground floor, Play:1), top floor, Play:1 and Play:5.
Control is mostly via the Sonos App on our two Android phones (android 8.1) although the living room can also be controlled with the Harmony Ultimate remote (which does TV, blu-ray (Oppo BDP105) and set-top box (Humax Freeview). The CR200 is on the top floor.
The most common failing is an inability to control the system from my phone. I'll go down to make tea in the morning and want to put the news on Radio 4 (BBC) - one of the Sonos favourites. It will always work if I press the play button on the Kitchen Play:1 (if that's what was last playing) but that's not always OK, because that Play:1 may have been grouped the previous day with another device.
So the Sonos app will maybe 30% of the time say "searching for Sonos on your wifi" and then fail to find it. When it does connect, it will often say "unable to connect" or "unable to browse music".
When it is working, maybe 20% of the time it will not group or ungroup rooms until the 4th or 5th attempt.
Similarly volume control often fails to respond quickly, requiring 4 or 5 attempts.
Frequently I will want to play music from the diskstation and having got to the album I want to play, seeing the tracks, pressing play will fail - "unable to browse" or "unable to connect"
And maybe once or twice a week the app decides I don't have any favourites and tells me I can put them where they were. Then after a while they all come back.
The hard buttons on the various devices all seem to work instantly as they always used to.
The system used to work flawlessly. Now it just feels like I wish I just had all the CDs back on their shelves and radios in each room!
So - sorry for the long post, but if the community can help, I'd be grateful.
And yes, Sonos support are aware. They come up with a suggestion, which often helps a little for a while,
I am not connected to SonosNet (on Support's advice).
I am connected to channel 6 (on Support's advice)
Any advice?
Great - now we are engaged. First thought - powerline adapters can cause problems with controllers. Many people use them without problem, but it is a possibility. Also, Bridges are all pretty old now and prone to a few problems. But before I read through more carefully, is that an iPhone or Android?
Just read - Android. Have you tried connecting them to SonosNet rather than WiFi?
No it's not a wind-up. As stated - it used to be wonderful. My first port of call has been Sonos Support but over the last months nothing seems to have permanently fixed the issues.
1/ Remove the Bridge unless/until you can test its wall-wart power supply. Substitute another Sonos device for now. The PSU has a risk of failing with age. The voltage drops, and the Bridge's connectivity becomes intermittent. A healthy PSU puts out a steady 5.1V.
2/ Remove Sonos' dependency on the EoP (Ethernet over Powerline), even for the controllers. It's very variable, and any attempt to use it across the two consumer units is really asking for trouble.
3/ Remove the WiFi credentials via the 'reset' button at Advanced Settings/Wireless Setup.
2/ Remove Sonos' dependency on the EoP (Ethernet over Powerline), even for the controllers. It's very variable, and any attempt to use it across the two consumer units is really asking for trouble.
I am not connected to SonosNetThat's inconsistent with the fact that a Bridge is deployed. If you've ever been persuaded to configure WiFi details into the system then:
3/ Remove the WiFi credentials via the 'reset' button at Advanced Settings/Wireless Setup.
Thanks for helpful input, John. Support suggested I didn't do that, but have just done so, Will report Back. Reading their info suggests that I should tell my phone to forget the router's wifi. Is that best? I don't use the phone for streaming - just whatsapp, email, news, casual searching.
thanks
At least for the purposes of experiment, and given your use of phone, I'd suggest forgetting the home wifi to ensure phone sticks to SonosNet.
I was going to suggest the same as @ratty and propose you get the Play:1 from top floor and wire it in place of the Bridge. Longer term a Boost might be worth it. Locate the P:1 at least a metre from router if possible.
Do you know which channel your router is using? There are plenty of free wifi scanner apps in the Google Play Store and they can provide useful, though not comprehensive, information.
I was going to suggest the same as @ratty and propose you get the Play:1 from top floor and wire it in place of the Bridge. Longer term a Boost might be worth it. Locate the P:1 at least a metre from router if possible.
Do you know which channel your router is using? There are plenty of free wifi scanner apps in the Google Play Store and they can provide useful, though not comprehensive, information.
Note: after replacing Bridge as wired device, give things a couple of minutes to reconfigure before you think your system has disappeared!
After all the above, go to http://IP_address_of_Play1:1400/support/review (get the IP from About My Sonos System). Open Network Matrix and post a screenshot.
I'd also like to see confirmation of what the EoP is being used for. It can be a silver bullet, but at other times it can be hugely frustrating. Basically if one doesn't have a management app/console that reveals the state of the EoP connections one has only a rough idea about what it's doing.
I'd also like to see confirmation of what the EoP is being used for. It can be a silver bullet, but at other times it can be hugely frustrating. Basically if one doesn't have a management app/console that reveals the state of the EoP connections one has only a rough idea about what it's doing.
My bridge power supply is showing 6.7V.
2/ Remove Sonos' dependency on the EoP (Ethernet over Powerline), even for the controllers. It's very variable, and any attempt to use it across the two consumer units is really asking for trouble.
The powerlines are separated because of the problems of two consumer units. Different hard-wires from router to different powerlines, with separate pairing to keep them apart. The Diskstation is hard-wired (via a switch) to the router. So I don't think I'm depending on powerline except to get catchup TV to the Humax (which mostly works flawlessy). Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the Sonos is at all dependent on the powerlines.[/quote]
I am not connected to SonosNetThat's inconsistent with the fact that a Bridge is deployed. If you've ever been persuaded to configure WiFi details into the system then:
3/ Remove the WiFi credentials via the 'reset' button at Advanced Settings/Wireless Setup.[/quote]
No credentials there - I took that out previously at Support's suggestion. I get the "Set up Sonos on your Wi-Fi" screen, "Let's get Sonos running on your wireless network"
thanks all
I would still swap out the Bridge as it uses SonosNet 1.0 not 2.0. Give the SonosNet phone connection a try. A screenshot of matrix, as suggested by @ratty, would definitely be worth it.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the Sonos is at all dependent on the powerlines.If the Bridge is/was the sole wired device then the Sonos units won't depend on EoP to interconnect. However a controller in a device using an EoP-based WiFi could encounter problems.
Router is using channel 6
As is pretty much everything else - including what I assume to be the SonosNet, (HHID-55xf......etc)
Portable (RINCON_7828CA27FEB601400)
Kitchen (RINCON_B8E9378288AC01400)
Dining Room (RINCON_000E58DE629801400)
Bedroom (RINCON_000E583806A401400)
Living Room (RINCON_000E5826CEE801400)
Attic (RINCON_000E5880323201400)
Network Matrix
I've put the Attic Play:5 gen 1 in the place of the bridge (not the P:1) for domestic reasons.
thanks.
Gonna have to go off-line shortly.
Initial results seem to be positive. Just tried grouping - no problem.
Just tried playing from diskstation - no problem
thanks all, let you know tomorrow when I'm back online. Out now till 10pm.
Just tried playing from diskstation - no problem
thanks all, let you know tomorrow when I'm back online. Out now till 10pm.
Portable to Attic (as currently wired) has a rather borderline signal. Portable has the option of a two-hop route via Bedroom if things get sticky, though SonosNet tends to hang onto single-hop connections if it can.
I would ignore the amber 'OFDM Weak signal level: 3' boxes in the left column. The older radios seem prone to this now for some reason.
FWIW the Play:5 gen 1 has a somewhat weaker radio than the Play:1. But if everything stays stable I'd recommend getting a Boost to replace the Bridge anyway.
I would ignore the amber 'OFDM Weak signal level: 3' boxes in the left column. The older radios seem prone to this now for some reason.
FWIW the Play:5 gen 1 has a somewhat weaker radio than the Play:1. But if everything stays stable I'd recommend getting a Boost to replace the Bridge anyway.
Router and Sonos both on channel 6? They should be different, at least 5 channels apart.
revdv,
Connections don’t look too bad, I would recommend the Boost too (more powerful signal).. that would be my purchase priority and move it further away from the router... as far as practicable.
I would ensure the router 2.4ghz channel 6 is 'fixed' and not allowed to auto-select it’s channel and if your powerline adapters are wifi access points and you need them, then they too either need to be fixed to channel 6, ...or much better don't use them with Sonos and perhaps just use their 5ghz radio with your non-Sonos devices. As a very last resort, you could cable Sonos to the powerline adapter, but look to that as being the very last option open to you.
In summary, run all your Sonos devices on the the Boost SonosNet signal, or cable them to your network. Use either SonosNet channel 1 or 11 to keep the radio signal far apart from your router channel.
As @Ratty mentions, goto the Sonos App 'Advanced Settings/Wireless Setup' and reset/remove the WiFi credentials... not needed when all are on SonosNet.
Dedicated Android Controllers running direct on SonosNet are good too as they connect/control via the nearby speakers/devices
I will recommend one further thing too and that’s to add your Sonos IP addresses to your routers DHCP Reservation Table, so that they get the same address on reboot/restart of the device or network.
Connections don’t look too bad, I would recommend the Boost too (more powerful signal).. that would be my purchase priority and move it further away from the router... as far as practicable.
I would ensure the router 2.4ghz channel 6 is 'fixed' and not allowed to auto-select it’s channel and if your powerline adapters are wifi access points and you need them, then they too either need to be fixed to channel 6, ...or much better don't use them with Sonos and perhaps just use their 5ghz radio with your non-Sonos devices. As a very last resort, you could cable Sonos to the powerline adapter, but look to that as being the very last option open to you.
In summary, run all your Sonos devices on the the Boost SonosNet signal, or cable them to your network. Use either SonosNet channel 1 or 11 to keep the radio signal far apart from your router channel.
As @Ratty mentions, goto the Sonos App 'Advanced Settings/Wireless Setup' and reset/remove the WiFi credentials... not needed when all are on SonosNet.
Dedicated Android Controllers running direct on SonosNet are good too as they connect/control via the nearby speakers/devices
I will recommend one further thing too and that’s to add your Sonos IP addresses to your routers DHCP Reservation Table, so that they get the same address on reboot/restart of the device or network.
And here I thought this was a bad April Fool's joke. Was I ever wrong.
Kudos to those IT ninjas out there helping the OP. This is some network magic happening right now.
Glad to know some experts are in our midst in the event I should ever encounter my own Sonos poltergeist.
Kudos to those IT ninjas out there helping the OP. This is some network magic happening right now.
Glad to know some experts are in our midst in the event I should ever encounter my own Sonos poltergeist.
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