I don’t think I have a quick fix for this, but I’d like to try to figure out what the Sonos app is doing differently from Roon here. The least painful way I know to start trying to answer that question is to run Roon with a command line flag and collect a log of both the Sonos and Roon trying to play to all your Sonos devices.
Here’s the steps:
Start playing something to all of your Sonos devices using the official app
Launch Roon with the -sonostrace command line flag on the system with the Roon Core:
2a) Open the terminal on your MacBook. The first step here has instructions: https://kb.roonlabs.com/OSX_SMB_Fix
2b) Enter this command in the terminal: /Applications/Roon.app/Contents/MacOS/Roon -sonostrace
Wait about a minute to allow Roon to start up and find all the Sonos devices. In particular, make sure that all of your Sonos devices show up in the zone picker in Roon
Attempt to group everything and play music to all the Sonos zones in Roon
Wait for the problems to occur, then close Roon and the terminal app
Zip up everything in the logs folder and upload somewhere I can get them. The logs folder is located in your database folder
If you don’t have a convenient place to upload logs let me know and I’ll send you a PM with some upload instructions.
Hi Ben - I love the idea of the Sonos integration, but so far I have been having a lot of problems - mainly when I gorup Sonos zones.
My Sonos set up works fine (no dropouts) when I stream normal Sonos content. Individual, ungrouped zones in Roon seem to work fine as well though I have not tried this extensively.
My initial experience with Roon was quite good - then I started getting a lot of drop outs and error messages that Roon lost control of the transport. Once these errors started, they became more prevalent. If I disable all of the Sonos components and then re-enable it appears to work for a bit.
The second problem I have had consistently is that once I use Roon, and then switch back to Sonos client, the my Sonos group no longer functions - I have to ungroup the zones and then regroup to hear anything.
Very small side note: while I said normally Sonos works fine, the one issue I have is when using Line-In - I tend to have some losses and drop outs on this mode so I don’t use it. But no problems streaming Pandora, Spotify, or from the server.
While I can’t say for sure that this doesn’t happen, I would be quite surprised if it did. I don’t think the Sonos stuff has much in the way of DSP capability in general, and the mechanism used for grouped playback seems like it wouldn’t work well with that sort of setup.
I think you’ve found another case where Roon and the Sonos apps do something different, and I’d like to see what it is. Can you do the same test I described above for Martin_Ship? If your Roon core isn’t running on Mac let me know and I’ll find the explanation for command line flags on other operating systems.
Thanks Ben! I may have solved the problem by turning on the ‘Beta’ mode in Sonos (it still didn’t work), then turning off the Beta mode, and then re-enabling all of the Sonos zones. So far so good! If the errors come back again I will go through that process. So far both of the problems are gone! Working perfectly.
There is a setting that governs the streaming quality for line-in sources, which is what made me think of it. Wondering whether the zones some are having trouble with have flakey reception. They may even be on wifi rather than Sonosnet, which might make a difference. You can tell that by the WM:0 or 1 when you look at the zones under the Advanced settings. Probably completely off track though…
enabling the “beta” option in the Sonos controller & upgrading software
disabling the “beta” and then downgrading
disabling & then re-enabling all of the Sonos zones within Roon
I regrouped and it’s been working flawlessly.
Given that I have no I why the problem was solved, it is hard to make any claim that this will work for you. But it worked in my case. (As a side note,I went through various iterations of disenabling & re-enablings SOnos zones inside Roon).
I can confirm that there is a grouping issue. I have the following:
Zone 1 - Sonos Connect
Zone 2 - Sonos Connect:Amp
Zone 3 - 2 Play 1s, set up as a stereo pair.
I can play to all these zones simultaneously in Roon. Works fine after several hours of streaming (with one unexplained pause of the music - had to go and hit play to get it restarted). However, if I stop playing in Roon and go back to the Sonos app, things get “interesting”. The 3 zones are shown in the Sonos app as being grouped. But sound only comes out of zone 2 and ONE channel of the stereo pair. If I ungroup and regroup in Sonos app, things work OK again.
If you don’t have enough info on this issue from others, happy to help…
I had a Sonos Amp that had been powered down for the last two years. When I tried to bring it up it would not update the firmware while my Roon Server was running. When I powered down my Roon box the Sonos upgrade completed without issue. I had reported this but have not heard from Roon. The Sonos integration is greatly appreciated! I have used it a lot since upgrading to the latest Roon but I normally am only using one Zone.
In addition to my DAC I also run a sonos amp, sonos connect and a play 1 (mono) without any issues. All integration works fine!
The sonos amp is also connected via hifiberry - that was implemented and more used prior to launch of roon’s 1.3 version.
I have the feeling that internet radio on sonos amp input with hifiberry sounds better than sonos amp directly streaming the the radio station (no active DSP in both devices). It may caused by different streaming sources (or simply volume differences) because in sonos I made use of the comfort to select the station via tunein without caring about streaming quality - for roon I searched for the radio stream directly on the radio’s internet page. To be honest: I didn’t invest a lot on that detail because the sonos-amp is for me only a secondary device in the bedroom after my first priority with external DAC etc in the living room.
I’ve added a Sonos Play1 to my home audio devices (home office: MyTek Brooklyn; Family room: PS Audio DSjr and now Sonos in the bedroom). I really enjoy having my Brooklyn and DSjr grouped together and walking from one room to the other while not missing a beat. Except when I enter the bedroom which has to be playing something totally different.
I understand there is the RAAT vs Sonos interface issue here, but I’m wondering if there is any device I can put in front of the sonos that would be RAAT compliant, feed the sonos and provide me continuous music throughout the house. Is there any device or geek way to overcome this compatibility problem?
VanNuys - my Mac Mini has only two things it is used for, first running the roon server and second, feeding my Mytek Brooklyn via USB connection on the Mac Mini. Both the Mytek and the Mini sit in my home office less than 12 inches apart. The Mini/Brooklyn combo is RAAT supported by Roon and therefore can be Grouped with any other RAAT supported device - i.e. my PS Audio DSJr in my family room.
I have two Sonos devices, one on the bedroom (Play1) and a second in my back porch (Play3). The two Sonos devices can be Roon Grouped together, but not grouped with the Brooklyn or the PS DSJr.
Both Sonos devices are wireless, while the Brooklyn and PS DSJr are not. The Brooklyn via a USB directly into the Mini (as stated above) and the DSJr via ethernet into the onboard BridgeII network adapter.
I have a question about Sonos support but in reverse…
For simplicity (and my wife’s sanity) we primarily use Sonos as the playback control. Is it possible to have a Roon-enabled receiver (like an integrated amp that supports Roon) to act as a Sonos ‘speaker’ ? Or, in other words, can I control the volume of a Roon-enabled device from the Sonos app?
We’re a Sonos family and I haven’t dived into Roon much (yet), but if it can integrate with Sonos then I’d love to upgrade my main 2 channel setup with a Roon-enabled amp or pre-amp/dac.
The Sonos app is only ever going to be able to control the volume of Sonos hardware. Roon can also play to Sonos hardware, and can control volume. Both Roon and the Sonos app will reflect volume changes made while playing music on Sonos hardware, regardless of which app is currently providing the music. You can start playing to a Sonos speaker from Roon, and then see and control volume from the Sonos app, for example.
But, if you buy some non-Sonos Roon Ready hardware, the Sonos app will not be able to control it at all.
Hopefully this helps, and welcome
I’m always happy to answer any other questions about what exactly Roon can do in this area, let me know if I can help.
That’s helpful, thanks. It’s too bad Sonos doesn’t open up their streaming network service or API. They integrate well with music services and now are pushing to integrate with Alexa and Google Home. (the Alexa integration is great!). It’s just that any equipment that’s more audio-focused (amps, receivers, etc.) are all left out. I wish they’d allow manufacturers or other software providers like Roon to integrate better.
