Roon drops audio intermittently with every song on SONOS

Hi there,

I have been having this issue in the last couple of weeks since I added a SONOS sub mini to my network. Initially I thought the fault is with the sub mini, so I disabled it and Roon streamed without any audio dropout. Once I enabled it the dropout started again with every songs. Sometimes it lasted for 1 second and other times could last 2-3 seconds. When it happened, Roon was playing but silent (I saw the progress bar was moving). This has never happened before in the past and the music was playing flawlessly without the sub mini.

To troubleshoot I rebooted all SONOS speakers but it did not help. So I switched off Roon Core and started LMS (Logitech Media Server). To my surprise, the audio dropout NEVER happens! Also Tidal can play without any issues to my SONOS speakers. So the issue is with Roon.

So far I know it has nothing to do with my Wifi setup or the SONOS speakers. Only Roon has issue with audio dropout when the sub mini is enabled. This is a very strange behaviour!

My current network setup:
Ubiquiti AP Lite
Ubiquiti 8-port switch
Internet router

Server:
Synology DS920+ (Celeron)

Sonos setup:
2 Sonos Play:One set up as surround
1 Sonos playbar for the movie
(new) 1 Sonos sub mini

Roon Core is running as container on the Synology NAS. To be clear: this setup has never given any issues before until now.

I am really frustrated that I cannot enjoy my music with Roon. So I will run LMS for now until this issue is resolved.

Can someone in this forum help me further with troubleshooting? Any help is appreciated! Thank you in advance!

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Is your Sonos gear wirelessly connected, or are you using wired connections via the network ports?

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When used wirelessly, Sonos devices connect via SonosNet - a wireless mesh network established between the devices. No idea why - my wireless APs kick SonosNet’s butt in terms of performance.

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Hi @Graeme_Finlayson my Sonos speakers are all connected wirelessly. I set them up as surround system: 1 playbar, 2 Sonos One (L/R) and Sub mini.

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Hi @AMT thanks for the info. Yes I am aware of this URL. Been checking it for the last weeks and it always shows Red and Yellow… never Green! (OFDM ANI level around 6/7). When streaming music the Playbar will always show Red… it seems to me that the interference is quite high in my apartment.

You pointed out that the sub could be using the last piece of bandwidth and causing the issue. It baffles me: I have no more than 20 Wifi devices in my network and the Ubiquiti AP is connected with a 1Gbs ethernet cable to the Internet router so it should have enough capacity. However I do not experience the dropout while streaming h264 movies or when streaming music using LMS. So I suspect that Roon must be the culprit here.

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Ah thanks for the tip… I have a RJ45 jack at the TV and the playbar. Currenty it is connected to the TV. I will try your solution to wire the Playbar to see if the issue is resolved. Will get back to you. Thank you so so much for this tip!

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Do I remember correctly, back in the early says of the play bar that for a 5.1 setup that Ethernet was a requirement?

These days my Arc and Sub are running wireless along with the Play 1s.
The are about 3 or 4 feet away from a wired Boost though.

I might test taking the Boost out and putting the ARC on Ethernet soon and managing to get another power socket back. Not that I send anything to the ARC though as it is only used through the TV for AV use and almost never from Roon or Sonos :thinking:

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Hi @AMT kudos to you. I wired the Playbar now and all speakers are now on WM:0 (Sonosnet) and I don´t see any of the speakers are connected wirelessly anymore! And you are so right: the issue with audio dropout is now gone! I will test this for a few days and if it runs smoothly I will get an RJ45 Ethernet splitter to share the wall jack with the Playbar and TV. I am one happy Roon user now :wink:

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I was digging back through my old Sonos memories and I remember Sonos saying the WiFi was not strong enough to drive the multiple devices at the same time and keep the timing accurate (though in some cases it was possible to get it to work well enough).

Now I have looked behind the TV, I can see I have run a spare Ethernet cable through the wall to mine (ARC) but have never needed to use it, so at some point I will try it out as a potentially more powerful device than the Boost, then re-measure the signal strength.

And yes none of us like being told to do anything that is out of kilter with what we are planning, regardless of how sound the advice is :grin:

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Eric Kudos to you for following the good advice from @AMT . Trust me this is not common.

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Hi @Michael_Harris what do you mean by this is not common? That to wire one of the Sonos speakers is not common practice?

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Hi @AMT I only need to wire 2 devices so a switch is just too overkill. For aesthetic reasons (no wires visible hanging around on the wall) I cannot install a switch. I don´t have a TV cabinet under my TV (it is mounted on the wall) and to keep my living room clean, clutter free and no obstructions, I cannot put the switch on the floor or behind the TV so it is a no go. Thanks for the advice! :wink:

I was desperate anyway :wink: So any advice would help! I am just so glad that my issue is resolved just within 1 day! Kudos to this forum and the friendly posters… yes, respect and help each other!

Eric I simply meant following advice from those that have war wounds from playing with this over a number of years.

I generally go with the dumb as they come Netgear GS105 or GS108 (or the GS30x) model’s as I have found them excellent and super reliable (and cheap) and currently have 3 within 25 feet of me in the living room here :flushed:

I know that the max bandwidth for the splitter is 100mbs but it should be more than enough to stream high definition content. Both Playbar and Samsung TV have 100mbs ethernet port and the RJ45 wall jack is connected to a 1Gbs port so it should be fine.

I use Plex to stream my content. So far I am getting mostly Direct Play and on occasions when the audio is not supported it will be transcoded. Everything works flawlessly so far.

I have Ubiquiti managed switch… I like them to be smart :wink:

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In which case carry on, you are doing very well :+1:

Hi my audio dropout issue with Roon is now resolved when I wired the playbar in a surround setup with sub mini. It has been working stable and flawlessly in the past week. I use an ethernet splitter to share the network with my Samsung TV and playbar. Works perfect! I use this one:
https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B09KYDRYZ5?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

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Streaming through Sonos’s’ streaming protocol whatever it’s called “Sonos Steaming” or whatever, IS COMPLETE trash. Not sure who’s fault it is but either way it’s unreliable af.
However running Sonos devices from Roon via Airplay2 has been rock solid.
I have a fancy SOHO network that’s configed properly it’s not a network thing (I know a lot about this kind of thing), it’s a Sonos streaming implementation thing… again I don’t know who’s fault it is, but streaming over Sonos’s service from Roon is just not worth the headache at the moment