Sonos Stuttering With Playback & Recommendations for Core

Hi everyone so I’m new and I find myself confused about a few things. So I was wondering if you guys could clear it up for me.

First about my system.
I have my music on a n.a.s. connected to my wife find router via Ethernet.
I have my roon core on my laptop. (16gb ram,I7, 512 solid state hd.)

I use my tablet and sometimes laptop as my controllers.

And I use my Sonos connect as an endpoint.
Wuth optical out to my parasound p6.

So first of the core. As I said right now it’s on my laptop. Where else would the core go? If I get a nucleus, would the core go there? Or would the nucleus replace my n.a.s.?

  1. Right now my nas is physically connected to my wife find router. If I get a nucleus does that have to be physically connected to my wifi router?

  2. when switching between tracks in my personal library, I notice it stuterss and then plays. While I have had Sonos for almost 10 years and I don’t seem to have that stuttering issue. Any thoughts?
    Im3 days into my trial and so far so good.
    I just find myself over thinking this.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thanks

A post was merged into an existing topic: I don’t want my name in forum

Hello @MAURICE_CAMPOS1,

Thanks for contacting support, I’d be glad to assist here. As to answer your questions:

  • Yes, the Nucleus would have to be connected physically to your Router via Ethernet, it does not have built in WiFi. It is possible to use a WiFi dongle with the Nucleus but this is not recommend and will be less stable than having it connected via Ethernet.

  • The Nucleus would take the place of your Laptop and act as the Core and you would be able to use your Roon Remotes to control it (Laptop/iOS/Android).

  • Where exactly are you seeing this stutter? Does it only occur with your Sonos endpoint or do other endpoints exhibit this behavior?

  • How is your Laptop connected here? Does the stutter still occur if you connect your Laptop (Core) directly to the Router via Ethernet?

  • How is your Sonos connected? WiFi or Ethernet? Does the same behavior occur if you connect the Sonos via Ethernet?

  • Please let me know the model/manufacturer of your Router, and model/manufacturer for any Switches/Range Extenders/Powerline Adapters/ect.

Please let me know the above information when possible.

Thanks,
Noris

Thanks ok so the nucleus would take the place of my laptop which means that my nas would stay put. So the core would live inside the nucleus. Ok thanks a lot.

As for your questions. I’m not at home at the moment so I’ll do my best .

I only have 2 endpoints and they are both Sonos. One in the living room and and one in my basement.

I have very seldom used roon in the living room. So my issues are in the basement. The wifi router is in the living room, so the Sonos in the basement is not physically connected to the wifi router. Neither is the laptop in my basement which at this moment holds the core.

So the wireless router I have is the Asus rt-ac87u
(I’m not at home so I can’t confirm that, but by the picture it looks identical)

So one more question. Since the nucleus has to be hardwired to the wifi router. How will I get music to my basement? Buy a streamer? Does that have to be physically hardwired to the nucleus? Or I can put the streamer in the basement?

Thanks

The Sonos in the basement (is it a speaker?) should be able to be seen by the Nucleus. It’s just the Nucleus you have to connect via Ethernet to the router. The other end points can be wireless, though wired is usually preferred.

It’s a Sonos connect.
Ok thanks. So a streamer like Lumin or whatever will see the nucleus. Ok got it

Hello @4367,

The number of hops between the devices are pretty substantial here, the Core sends the Audio through your router to the Sonos so it has to bounce from Basement -> Living Room -> Basement again. If you try to eliminate one of these hops and connect the Core directly to your router, do you notice an improvement in the stutters? You can also use another Roon Remote to control the Core so installing Roon on your iOS device/Android and then controlling it this way will be a good test.

Does the stutter occur with all kinds of content, even 44.1/16? For the router you have I would also check the settings to make sure you have “Enable Multicast Routing” checked in the options as that has helped in the past.

Yes, you will need some kind of streamer to get the music in the basement. If you have a hardwire connection going from your Router to the basement then installing an unmanaged switch is recommended for best stability. Popular choices for Ethernet based endpoints include ultra/microRendu (ready to go) or Raspberry Pi’s (some assembly may be required) or DACs themselves that support Ethernet connections and are RoonReady.

Please let me know if you are able to run the test with the Core connected directly to your router and if making that multicast settings help. Would also be a good data point to know if the Living Room Sonos behaves as expected.

Thanks,
Noris

Ok great information. Thanks.

So from your first paragraph. Understood. Long term view, I will try to eliminate one hop by connecting an Ethernet from the wi fi router to the core. Short-term, I will connect the laptop (core) to wi fi router and see if the problem goes away. (Maybe tomorrow)

All my music is 44.1/16. I will try the tip with the router setting.

What is a unmanaged switch?

Yes I will try to connect my laptop (core) to the router and adjsut the router setting. I will do that tomorrow and let you know.

Hello @4367,

An umanaged switch is one that does not have a Web Interface to configure additional settings and is the recommended type to use if you have just one Ethernet cable and wish to split it into multiple connections in your basement provided you have one Ethernet link to the Router. You can read this overview to get a better idea:

Please let me know how the test with connecting your Core to the router goes.

Thanks,
Noris