I’m looking for some router advice from Roon members that are controlling Sonos systems. From my limited experience, it seems the router one uses can have a big effect on Roon remaining stable or losing control of Sonos devices. I would love to have some input on the best router to use so Roon remains stable while controlling Sonos endpoints.
One wouldn’t suppose that a router of itself would be that much of a factor, unless it’s either responsible for poor WiFi or somehow interferes with the UPnP traffic that Roon needs to talk to Sonos (most routers shouldn’t). It can sometimes help to reserve fixed IP addresses.
I use a ASUS XT9 ZenWiFi mesh without significant issues when streaming to Sonos wireless devices from Roon. Are you experiencing problems?
I found everything very stable once I used fixed IPs on all my Sonos boxes, and Roon fixed the high CPU issues with Sonos streaming (Thank you!). My office setup is Roon to a Sonos speaker, and I use that every day for 8-10 hours. Works perfectly.
I have nothing special on my network (all Unifi gear) other than my Roon ROCK is on the same network as all my Sonos gear. This is not surprising given both Roon ROCK wants to be on the same network as any endpoint, and Sonos always wants to be on the same network as the controlling phones or tablets. These two requirements force you to have them both on the same network. Since Sonos wants to be on the same network as my phones, that pushes everything to my default network.
Note, I’m sure there is a way to do it, but I never found one that was really stable. The security guy in me wants Roon and Sonos on more of an IoT network. I want to control their access to my data. What I do now is restrict access to specific IPs in my default network. It’s more of a pain than just putting them in a restricted subnet and only providing access to my music share.
When I signed up for a Roon trial I was on a 300Mbps internet service using a Nokia Beacon 6 router and it seemed that I had minimal drop outs. Being that I did, I upped my service to a 1.5Gbps package which according to my provider required the upgrade to a Nokia Beacon 6G, and then the problems started to happen. I’ve reached out to Roon on a support ticket, but frankly I do not think they have the ability to solve the issue. Besides, their responses are very sporadic. Currently it seems I can stream any single Sonos endpoint quite flawlessly, but if I put two or more into a zone them I constantly receive the “Roon has lost control” message. My desire is to have four Sonos speakers as one zone. I have a friend with more knowledge in all this that did some research and found:
The Beacon G6 aggressively optimizes or filters multicast to improve “mesh efficiency.” That causes:
• Devices to remain visible
• Control sessions to silently drop
• Roon reporting “lost control of audio device”
Hence my question about router choice.
As a side note, I know my service provider initializes the routers before they are sent out and I believe limit some of the setup options.
Are you grouping in Roon or in Sonos?
I’ve been grouping in Roon. I am hoping the app can take care of all that since it is so easy to use, and frankly I’m not a fan of the Sonos app.
Likewise. Indeed that’s what propelled me to Roon. 
It might be interesting however to try selecting just one Sonos device as Roon endpoint, then grouping the other devices to it in Sonos. I believe Sonos resorts to multiple unicast streams if necessary within the group.
I have Ubiquity UniFi network in my house with 3 APs. Sonos hates it. Roon doesn’t make that better.
For most stable you want 1 AP (which usually means just the router) and you want to turn off as many features as possible. Just let it bridge and be dumb. In fact, I’d even suggest turning off the 2.4 or 5Ghz radio or at least not let devices cross radios. Flat is best to make the Sonos happy. I’m so tired of Sonos instability I recently plugged a WiiM on the back of my Evo 300 via the USB line-in dongle and I think it actually sounds better. No more Sonos software for me.
Thanks - I will have to try that even though I’d prefer to avoid the Sonos app altogether. If I didn’t mention it already, if I use Roon to stream to a single Sonos endpoint, it seems to be fine - even when I have Tidal sending different source music to different endpoints. I hope I can beat this because I like what Roon has to offer.