Intermittent Audio Drops on Sonos Devices (ref#SDYQPG)

Support
1

What best describes your playback issue?

· Music stops playing unexpectedly

What type of Zone is affected by this problem?

· *Network Zones* are affected.

Is the affected network Zone connected with Ethernet or WiFi?

· WiFi

Does the issue affect all file formats?

· The issue affects *multiple/all* file formats.

Does the issue happen with local library music, streaming service music, or both?

· *Only streaming* music is affected.

Please select the streaming service(s) with which you're encountering playback problems.

· TIDAL

Have you tried logging out and back in again to your streaming service in Roon Settings?

· Logging out and back in had no impact, the issue remains

Do you have an approximate timestamp of when the issue last occurred?

· Whenever I play tidal audio to paired Sonos Move and Play 1 (original)

What are the make and model of the affected audio device(s) and the connection type?

· Sonos Move, Sonos Play 1

Describe the issue

Sonos drops audio for handful of seconds intermittently

Describe your network setup

Fiber 1gb >> mesh network. All Sonos speakers green on connection diagnostics. Roon on MacMini M4 hard wired to router

2

Hi @Seth_Engstrom,
Thanks for reaching out to us about this issue. I think the next step here is to enable some diagnostics on your account so our technical staff can get some more insight into what’s going on here.

However, before I enable this feature, I’d like to ask for your help ensuring we gather the right information.

First, can you please reproduce the issue once more and note the time at which the error occurs. Then respond here with that time, and I’ll make sure we review the diagnostics related to that timestamp.

3

Hi Daniel,

Thanks in advance for your help. I tested it this morning between 8:45 and 9:30 a.m. Eastern and saw the issue appear many times.

I would be playing a playlist of Tidal songs from Roon to Sonos, and the audio would drop out for a few seconds at a time. If I rewinded back a few seconds, the missing piece would play just fine—it doesn’t appear that the source is missing.

I was continuously testing the Sonos connectivity and never saw anything but green across all devices (Noise Floor: -116, -112, -115 OFDM ANI level: 0)

I have about a dozen Sonos speakers, all connected to wifi (not Sonosnet - that was worse).

If I play that same Tidal playlist directly from Sonos there are no drops in the audio.

-Seth

4

Tested again just now. Issue appeared on first song played at 4:14pm Eastern

Song played for ~58 seconds, then silent for 8 seconds (counter running whole time), then resumed song. It’s as if some just hit mute for those seconds.

5

Hi @Seth_Engstrom,

Thanks for sharing the additional information!

  1. Are you able to test playback via ethernet? Temporarily set up a direct hardwire connection from one of your endpoints to your primary router and attempt to reproduce the issue.
  2. Have you tested out different DNS servers? Since the issue seems to only occur with Tidal content, we have seen users have a better experience in the past if they change their Router’s DNS servers from the ISP provided ones to Cloudflare DNS, Quad9 or Google DNS. Can you please give this a try and let me know if it helps?

Thanks! :+1:

6
  1. Connected a Sonos speaker directly to the router and still experience the issue
  2. Changed the DNS to Google DNS and still experience the issue

More context:

  • When I play the same Tidal playlist using the Sonos app, there are no drop-outs
  • When I play the same Tidal playlist using Roon to WiiM Pro, there are no drop-outs
  • When I play the same Tidal playlist using Roon to my iPhone, there are no drop-outs

I only see it occur with Tidal >> Roon >> Sonos speakers

Thanks!

-Seth

7

I can predictably see this issue on the song Mambo Italiano (Rosemary Clooney, album 20) from Tidal. After ~55-60 seconds it will drop audio for 1-8 seconds

This morning, I tried everything I could network-wise (mesh/none, 2.4/5ghz, wired/not, force connection to a specific router, physically move speaker) and all produced the same issue on the above song.

Again, if I played that same track from Tidal using the Sonos app it plays without incident. What is different in how Roon sends audio to the Sonos speaker versus how the Sonos app does it?

Thanks!

-Seth

9

Hi @Seth_Engstrom,
Thanks for getting that timestamp for us. We were able to find the error in your logs.

02/19 08:09:32 Info: [Worker (1)] FTMSI-B 1 FileCache ti/9FCF9460 dwStatus:AllBlocksDownloaded files:0 accessTimeOut:True priorities: ('zoneplayer:11':30) ('zoneplayer:27':1) --> bw limit:0kbps

It looks like the requests to Tidal are timing out due to lack of bandwidth. Do you have any Quality of Service (QoS) Settings active in your router?

10

Glad it’s capturing an error :slight_smile:

I’m surprised that it would be bandwidth related as have 1gb fiber connection (and Sonos app doesn’t have same issue).

I checked my mesh router setup and QoS was turned ‘on’ but with no devices selected for QoS. I have now turned it off.

Just so I’m clear, did you want me to test with QoS disabled entirely or instead enabled for the Roon core Mac Mini?

11

Hi @Seth_Engstrom,

We just want to make sure QoS settings aren’t limiting bandwidth to your Roon server and Sonos devices. If you turned it off that should be fine.

Another possibility after ruling out QoS settings is there being a lot of traffic on your network when you’re trying to stream. That could also explain the bandwidth limits and timeouts.

12

Tested just now with QoS off.

The issue is still present on Play 1 Sonos device (drops ~60s in, Mambo Italiano, Tidal) 3:20pm EST

BUT, the song plays fine on Sonos Roam (Roon via Sonos streaming, same song)

13

I do believe this has something to do with the source/track being played.

I can readily reproduce the issue with Tidal, Rosemary Clooney, 20, Mambo Italiano

But I can also play full albums of other material from Tidal without issue.

Could it be the song itself? Could it be the act of playing a playlist? Spitballing here…

14

Hi @Seth_Engstrom,
I tested that track from the album you specified from Tidal.

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I was able to successfully play it. So I don’t think the issue is the source itself. Are there any other tracks you have issues with? Maybe we can establish some sort of pattern of what’s similar between those tracks?

15

In good/bad news, everything has started working without any drops over the last few days.

This dismays me as I have no idea what’s changed with Roon/Tidal/my-setup that would have solved it. My hope is it does not return but I know this is of little help to others experiencing the same issue.

I’ll keep monitoring it… thanks for all the help to date.

16

Hi @Seth_Engstrom ,

Happy to hear that everything is now working properly without drops! Please, do let us know how the system performs after further testing and if we can mark your case as closed, thanks!

17

I’d still love to know what changed but everything works just great now.

You can close this one out :slight_smile:

18

Hi @Seth_Engstrom,
I’m really glad to hear the dropouts haven’t returned! I’m sorry we weren’t able to pinpoint the exact cause, but please don’t hesitate to reach out if anything comes up—we’re always happy to help!

19

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