I found an interesting issue with Sonos on a UniFi network

I found an interesting issue with Sonos on a UniFi network

I have a set of Sonos 5 speakers in the dining room which are a stereo pair, across a very wide room, facing each other. I know it’s a weird setup and it should probably be separated, but because I have a Sonos sub in one corner, there is no other way to share it with both speakers.

In the past few months, I have been noticing that the stereo pair is not pairing. I.e., it plays together, then only one plays, and the other does not play, and it sometimes plays both speakers and sometimes not.

By accident I discovered that the issues go away when I use Unifi switches for both speakers. For some reason, I had moved a Unifi switch to another room, and replaced it with a switch from another vendor. I now realize, all the issues started after that.

For some other reason, when I replaced it with another Unifi switch (5-port), now I notice all is well again.

The other weird thing is that I have another Sonos 5 in an adjoining room which was also on another non UniFi switch. Today, I replaced that with a UniFi switch from another room where I don’t have a Sonos speaker.

The problem with that speaker stopping playback in between when grouped with these speakers has now gone away.

Maybe this has something to do with Apple Lossless which is the default playback mechanism for Sonos and Apple now. I did try AirPlay, with lossless turned off in the Apple Music app settings for WiFi streaming. That had no effect whatsoever on the glitch.

This seems to have fixed the issue for good. It’s weird though. I never thought a humble network switch can have this much effect on music playback.

These issues started happening only after Sonos started supporting better than CD quality music.