Roon skips the last 4-5 seconds of tracks when streaming through Sonosnet (ref#W5H8VX)

Support
1

What best describes your playback issue?

· Roon skips entire tracks in my queue

What type of Zone is affected by this problem?

· *All of my Zones* are affected.

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?

· *Both streaming and local* *library* music are affected.

Do you encounter any playback errors with the "System Output" Zone?

· The System Output has the same problem as my other Zone.

Do you have a complex network setup?

· Both the device and RoonServer are connecting to a *single router*

Please try rebooting your router.

· No, I'm still having trouble

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

· Sonos speakers throughout (2xbeam gen2, era 100, move, move 2, sub gen 3, sub mini), some of them grouped to surround sets, but everything working fine (finally), after the crazy software disaster created by the Sonos guys.

Describe the issue

I love Roon, but my main problem is that Roon constantly skips the last 4-5 seconds of a track. My normal streaming route is through Sonosnet (directly) where the problem occurs, but the problem does not occur when streaming over Airplay. Streaming through Tidal directly using Sonosnet works just fine. I found no solution on the internet, except restarting the Roon server twice in a row, which didn't work either. WiFi network is Ubiquity with overall 6 access points, all wired directly to a single router via switches. There are no managed switches in the setup. Wifi is rock solid and bandwidth is way over 250 mbps net. There are 16 Sonos speakers installed, which are working fine with Roon, no latency issues, no loss of signals, no grouping issues, etc. It all works fine, but Roon just skips the last 4-5 seconds of a track. I truly love Roon, especially its intelligence regarding music suggestions and its other music management possibilities, but this single bug drives me crazy... Can you help?

Describe your network setup

Ubiquity, 6 access points (AC Pro), Vodafone router TG6442VF (model for Germany). I have no mesh, or range extenders installed. Net bandwidth is way over 250 Mbps, the router connection speed is 500 Mbps.

2

Do you use crossfade? I have noticed that crossfade doesn’t work with different sampling rates or bit depth. Airplay would still work because it downsamples everything to 16/44 as I understand it.

3

Hi James, no, crossfade is off. That was the first thing I checked while browsing the forums for support. Any other idea? I had this skipping problem from the get go…

5

Hi @gunther.grossmann,
Thanks for writing in to let us know 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.

6

Hi Daniel, thanks for your assistance!

Song 1: The Snake (Eric Church), song length 4:00, skipped at track time 3:48.
Error occurred at Germany (Berlin) time 3:27:22 pm.

Song 2: Like a wrecking ball (Eric Church), song length 3:19, skipped at track time 3:07
Error occurred at Germany (Berlin) time 3:38:50 pm.

Song 3: Heart on fire (Eric Church), song length 4:19, DID NOT skip
Occurred at Germany (Berlin) time 3:43:12 pm.

Song 4: Record year (Eric Church), song length 3:00, skipped at track time 2:48
Error occurred at Germany (Berlin) time 3:45:58 pm.

I don’t get it…

1 Like
8

Thanks for sharing those timestamps @gunther.grossmann ! I have activated diagnostics for your account and I can confirm that the logs came in properly. We’re going to review the logs with the team, but in the meantime, I was wondering - are you able to confirm if the issue also occurs when using WiFi instead of SonosNet for the devices? If you can plug in one of the more problematic zones via Ethernet or connect via WiFi instead of SonosNet, I would be curious to know if it reproduces.

9

Hi Norris, I am so sorry, but I misused the term ‚Sonosnet‘ in my previous post. I have deactivated Sonosnet in the past, because I am running Sonos speakers on two floors of my home and I had unreliable operation of the entire system. What I meant was that I am running on pure Wifi, which solved the sonos speaker connectivity problem in the past. So the logs that you have are for pure WiFi, which is the current setup. So sorry for not having described this properly in my previous post…

10

There are no Sonos speakers plugged in via ethernet.

11

Hey @gunther.grossmann,

Thanks for the additional information!

We’re seeing frequent issues with tracks fully buffering during playback. If possible, while our team investigates further, could you please set up a more simplified network setup - temporarily? Get one of your issue Sonos devices hardwired directly to your router - bypassing all other network gear, and let me know how playback feels. :+1:

12

Hi Ben, thank you for this. I have done a lot of digging around Sonosnet and its benefits in the past. Overall conclusion: Sonos is quietly crawling away from their proprietary WiFi solution, they’re just not telling their customers…

What does that mean? Per official Sonos information, Sonosnet is not supported for ERA 100/300, Move, Move 2, Roam and Roam SL. Furthermore, speakers that are set up in a surround configuration or speaker sets that use a complimentary subwoofer also don’t support Sonosnet. That really only leaves the older speakers like Five, Play one, as well as the soundbars (old and current) as potential candidates for Sonosnet. However, when using a soundbar, the connected surround speakers/subwoofers use a third communication protocol with each other, which is again NOT Sonosnet. Man, it’s crazy, Sonos builds brilliant speakers, but really suck on the software part, they got a lot of homework to do…

Anyway, the only speakers that would be viable for Sonosnet in my case would be the two Fives in the living room (which barely run, since I spent most of my time in the kitchen) and the two Beam Gen2 soundbars…

My setup is this:

  • Router and Mac mini (running Roon core) are located in the office (attic)
  • Roon apps for iPad Air and iPhone
  • 2xMove (office and bathroom, attic)
  • 1xBeam Gen2 + 2xEra 100 + 1xSub (bedroom, attic)
  • 1xMove (bathroom, ground floor)
  • 4xEra 100 + 2xSubmini, set up as 2xEra 100 + 1xSubmini, then grouped together (kitchen, ground floor)
  • 2xSonos Five (set up as stereo pair), 1xMove 2 and 1xBeam Gen2, all grouped together (living room, ground floor)

In total there are 17 speakers, and having run Sonosnet in the past was really buggy, because the distances between the speakers that really do support Sonosnet was significant. Also, network traffic between the speakers was sometimes insane (up to 6 Mbps for a single speaker), which is an indicator for the fact that Sonosnet is kind of an outdated protocol these days. Also, I had a lot of dropouts, Sonos forgetting speakers and setups, regular need for resetting/reinstallation of speakers, which was a nightmare. My victorious move back then was to convert to WiFi protocol AND adding additional access points, where the WiFi signal was week. As of now, the signal strength for my Sonos speakers ranges from -61 dBm (worst) to -28 dBm (best) which rates “excellent” throughout.
To wrap it all up, I really would not prefer to swap back to Sonosnet, since it would not support all my speakers and cause signal strength problems.
On another note, Roon runs perfectly on Airplay2 (and I have to say: there is no better Airplay2 management and control system than Roon, this is why I love your product so much!).

Yes, one could ask: Why bother so much, just use Airplay? The answer is: Roon streaming DIRECTLY to Sonos (with no conversion to Airplay) sounds soooo much better! And as a little caviat on the side: Using the Tidal app also plays perfectly by using Tidal connect (direct streaming)…

One question though: You mentioned that songs fully buffer, what do you mean with that?

Final note: I plugged my Mac mini directly into my router, but unfortunately, no change…

13

Hey @gunther.grossmann,

I understand your position, it will make troubleshooting your issue a bit more difficult, we’ll need to discuss your case further with the team to see what next steps are available.

Close, songs aren’t fully buffering during playback, for example:

Trace: [DG Bad 1] [Lossless, 16/44 TIDAL FLAC => 16/44] [9% buf] [PLAYING @ 3:01/3:19] Like A Wrecking Ball - Eric Church

I hope to have more information early next week. Thanks for your patience in the meantime :+1:

14

Hi Ben, have you got any updates?

15

We spoke to the developers about your case today. Unfortunately they need to do a deeper investigation to figure the issue here. Thank you in advance for your continued patience with this.

16

Just wanted to check in asking for news on this case. How are things going?

1 Like
18

Hey @gunther.grossmann,

Our team hasn’t yet reproduced this issue in-house yet, so progress is slow.

Does this issue occur if you play a long playlist or album containing tracks with the same file format?

19

Hey @gunther.grossmann,

Some good news! Our development team has identified a potential fix for your issue, that should be included in the next Roon update or two.

We appreciate your patience in the meantime - you can see the details of each Roon update here :