I am starting a thread because the previous thread of the same title was closed.
I am having playback issues on Sonos similar to what was described in the previous thread. Songs will play for a few minutes, then suddenly stop. Pressing play on the Roon remote consistently resumes playback from the same point, but the same issue occurs again within a few minutes. This typically occurs in the middle of a song, and is unrelated to file type, bit rate, or sampling frequency. It occurs with AAC, 16/44.1 ALAC, and high-res ALAC and DSD that are being downsampled by Roon.
My Roon core is installed on an iMac, and my music library is on a RAID 1 array attached by USB. I have a Sonos Boost attached by ethernet to an AirPort Extreme Time Capsule, and A Sonos Connect:Amp that I am streaming to.
Playback using the Sonos app is flawless, both for AAC and lossless ALAC. I am also able to stream from Roon to an Apple TV, which is connected to the Connect:Amp’s line in, without any problems.
It does look like I have some interference on the Sonos Boost, so the first thing I intend to try is to get a 25-foot ethernet cable and move the Boost further from the router.
Any advice would be appreciated. I am specifically interested in Roon so that I can stream my high-res library to the Sonos, but at this point I consider it unusable.
I have the same issue as Brad_Hood. I have all of my music stored on a MacMini (2016, i5, 500GB), Roon is installed as the core, Tidal HiFi is fully integrated, and I’m going from the MacMini directly into a McIntosh C50. I have a blazing network and have no issue steaming the Tidal App, inside of Sonos, to the (5) Play 1’s in my home. So it’s not a network issue.
What I’m really hoping to accomplish is opening Roon, and using it as the sole UI for my entire home when I have the MacMini on, obviously.
Roon recognizes my (5) Play 1’s, and allows me to group them in a zone, but will only play a Tidal track for about 15 sec before saying: “Roon lost control of the audio device.”
Roon, please help me! I love what you have going on. All me to be your guinea pig!
Yeah… that’s not good. You’re getting a lot of wireless interference.
Try getting your BOOST farther away from your router. That may help quite a bit. Another option is to go into settings in the Sonos app and change the wireless channel. IIRC it defaults to 6 which is what 80% of the other devices out there default to.
I have a hunch (I haven’t researched enough to call it anything else) that Sonos tries to be intelligent when dealing with signal issues. Specifically I think it’s trying to downsample higher bitrate streams to something more manageable. Either that or it’s playing with buffers dynamically.
Roon is sending a full resolution 16/44.1 stream and based on the way that I think Sonos works the endpoints have no choice other than to play this stream as-is. When the stream is initiated by the Sonos device I get the impression that the system is trying to make some intelligent choices that favor stability over sound quality.
Part of my reasoning here is that in the past I had a hell of a time getting Sonos wireless zones to work reliably. Fast forward a few years and using the same hardware in the same configuration I had no issues. There’s also some assorted internet grumbling that Sonos is no longer bit perfect all the time.
Hi @Brad_Hood ---- Thank you for the follow up and sharing your feedback from the requested procedure with us. Both are appreciated! I wanted to touch base and see how things have been holding up after your adjustments. Looking forward to your feedback!
