Persisting dropouts with SONOS endpoints

Hello @support

I’ve been having dropout issues playing both FLAC files and TIDAL tracks to my SONOS endpoints. This has been a longterm and persistent issue that I thought might have been solved with recent Roon updates, but as of Build 334 there has been no improvement to performance in my system…

Here are the basics of my system:

  1. Roon Core on SGC sonicTransporter AP, wired via cat6 to Netgear Orbi router.
  2. 2 USB endpoints: a. microRendu (cat6 to router) to Mytek Brooklyn DAC; b. 2017 i7 iMac (cat5 to router) to Schiit Modi 2 DAC
  3. 4 SONOS Zones: Play 1; Play 3; 2 Sonos Connect; SONOS Boost connected via cat 5 to router through TrendNet unmanaged gigabit switch.
  4. Remotes: iPhone 8, iPad Pro and the iMac

Pertinent observations:

  1. Playing to Sonos zones directly through the Sonos app: No dropouts
  2. Playing to either of the USB endpoints from Roon: No dropouts.
  3. Through Roon, dropouts occur whether playing to only one or to grouped Sonos zones, usually after a few to as long as 20-30 minutes of playing.
  4. Usually, though not always, the music will stop after a few seconds of “stutter” and then I get the “Roon has lost control of audio device” message (I can pinpoint when this occurs in the Roon Server diagnostic logs).
  5. The iOS remotes briefly lose connection to the core, but once reconnected, playback can resume from the point at which it stopped.
  6. Rebooting SONOS units, router; Roon Server app; Core; or any of the remotes does not solve the issue. I have also uninstalled and reinstalled the “Sonos Auto Configure” app on the sonicTransporter, to no effect.

I understand from community discussion that there have been various issues with playback to SONOS from Roon but that some improvements had been made in recent updates. No such luck here, so any help would be appreciated!

Thanks, Bill.

1 Like

Hey @wkimbel87 — Thanks for sharing your report with us!

In order to better understand what you’re experiencing, I’d like to propose a test.

Can you connect one of the SONOS devices directly to the router via Ethernet and try to play to it from Roon. Do you experience the same behavior when using this configuration?

Thanks,
Dylan

Hi @dylan

Well, I switched the SONOS Boost and sT-AP ethernet connections so that now SONOS is connected directly to the router and the sT to the switch–and there have been no dropouts playing to SONOS zones from Roon during brief listening sessions over two evenings. So problem apparently solved, thanks! But WHY that solved the issue is a puzzle since playback through the Sonos app rarely if ever resulted in dropouts to any of the 4 zones. Have you folks identified the root of this behavior with Roon playback to Sonos?
Bill

Hey @wkimbel87,

The team is currently investigating this behavior that you’ve reported and we were hoping to get a little more information here. If you switch back to using the SONOS Boost, can you replicate the error you’ve been seeing once more and make a note of the time?

Once I have the timestamp I will enable some diagnostics on your account so the team can take a closer look.

Thanks,
Dylan

A post was split to a new topic: SONOS grouping issue