Moved Bridge and WOW!

[FHB1]

Hello everyone, I thought I'd share my Sonos experience here as it may help someone who is currently experiencing networking problems.

I've owned my Sonos system (2X Play:5 and a bridge) for about three months now and I was starting to become very disillusioned, because whenever I tried to play a lossless audio file from my NAS, Sonos would cut out. I tried every channel configuration and was in contact with Sonos support ever since day one of owning the system. I was just about to give up and put the whole thing on Ebay when something very simple solved all of my problems.

As a last ditch effort, I went out and purchased a long ethernet cable and moved my bridge about 15 or 20 feet away from my router. Voilà! Ever since moving the bridge away from the router, Sonos streams my lossless audio files perfectly! I have not experienced one audio dropout since moving the bridge!

So, if you happen to be experiencing audio dropouts as I was, I strongly suggest moving the bridge as far away from your router as possible. Hopefully this can help someone out there.

[ratty]

Thanks. It's nice when people post back with success stories.

Sonos' recommendation is that nothing is placed closer than a couple of meters from a router. That said, whether or not interference intrudes is likely to be a function of how well the router masks emissions outside its designated WiFi channel, and also where the Sonos device is located with respect to the router (vertical separation can be beneficial).

I take it that Sonos Support went though all the business of making sure the router's WiFi channel was set so as to avoid clashing with Sonos. It's somewhat surprising that they drew a blank. Interference tends to leave recognisable traces in the Sonos diagnostic.

[FHB1]

Originally Posted by ratty

I take it that Sonos Support went though all the business of making sure the router's WiFi channel was set so as to avoid clashing with Sonos. It's somewhat surprising that they drew a blank. Interference tends to leave recognisable traces in the Sonos diagnostic.

Sonos support was very helpful, but there was only so much they could do given that the ethernet cable that comes with Sonos is only about 5 feet long. As soon as I was able to get a long ethernet cable and move the bridge at least 15 feet away from the router, my network interference problem has been fixed.

I also live in a very large apartment building. When I look in the menu bar (mac) for available networks, there are at least 25 networks that show up. I wonder if that could play a role in all of the interference I was getting? Anyway, it is a relief to have Sonos working correctly now! My lossless audio files sound great on my Play:5's!

[ratty]

Originally Posted by FHB1

When I look in the menu bar (mac) for available networks, there are at least 25 networks that show up. I wonder if that could play a role in all of the interference I was getting?

It might possibly be a factor. Perhaps your new Bridge location, as well as being further from your router, is better shielded from neighbouring signals.

If you're interested, Metageek now have a version of inSSIDer for Mac. You could perhaps see where the least cluttered channels are to be found.

[FHB1]

Originally Posted by ratty

If you're interested, Metageek now have a version of inSSIDer for Mac. You could perhaps see where the least cluttered channels are to be found.

Thanks Ratty, I'll look into that. Hopefully my Sonos system will remain stable the way I have it set up now. So far it is working flawlessly and I've been listening to lossless audio all day long. I'm very happy and relieved now