Sony ST-HT5000 soundbar's connection with subwoofer impacted by Orbi backhaul

[Anjadekar]

I recently bought the Sony HT-ST5000 soundbar, which is quite a beast, with much excitement. Unfortunately, I have not been able to enjoy it to its optimum as it refuses to play nice with my home WiFi setup.

The issue seems to be a result of the wireless link between the soundbar and the subwoofer, as a result of which the subwoofer makes random crackling/fluttering sounds. I saw other people (who also seem to be using an Orbi system) run into the issue and the solution they suggested, of turning on the Secure Link setting on the soundbar and specifying a band, helped the problem a great deal (in my case the 5.2GHz Channel 3 worked best). The problem was not entirely mitigated though and I was still able to hear the occasional crackle. I then ran into a new problem, which was that every time I powered on my soundbar the WiFi on MacBook Pro broke down to the point where downloads crawl and it became practically impossible to surf the web.

After much digging around and thanks almost entirely to this post by Nakamichi customer support, which is just as applicable to my Sony soundbar, it seems that the dedicated backhaul on the Orbi, which operates on channel 157 at the 5.785 GHz frequency, prevents me from using the 5.8GHz link between the soundbar and the subwoofer, forcing me to use the 5.2GHz link instead, which interferes with the 5GHz WiFi network. So the main question now becomes which channel should I use for the 5GHz WiFi network (since I cannot change the channel for the backhaul)? The Orbi only offers a choice between channels 36, 40, 44 and 48.

Would changing any other settings help in sorting out the situation such that all the devices play nicely with each other?

[FURRYe38]

How close are these speaker systems to the Orbi RBR and RBS? Disstance and far appart will be a start. 

 (in my case the 5.2GHz Channel 3 worked best). Is this seen on the speakers UI? There is actually no channel 3 on the 5Ghz spectrum. There is 36 thru 48 and 149 thr 165 which is only used by Orbi and not configurable for anyone. 

What 5Ghz channels do your speaker systems support? Any chance they have DFS support? Channels 100 thru 144? IF not, then set Orbi for say channel 48 and Speaker system to 36.

Might also try turning down the power output of the 5Ghz freqency on the RBR to see if this helps any. Under Advanced Tab/Advanced Settings/Wireless Settings

[Anjadekar]

Thanks for your reply @FURRYe38. Here are the answers to your questions.

How close are these speaker systems to the Orbi RBR and RBS?

The speaker are abour 15-20 feet from the RBR and the RBS is on another floor.

(in my case the 5.2GHz Channel 3 worked best). Is this seen on the speakers UI?

Yes, the UI for the soundbar offers the options to connect on RF channels 1, 2 or 3 on either of the two RF bands, 5.2GHz or 5.8GHz (so, 6 options in total). The channel numbers confused me too and so I have included a screenshot for you to take a look.

Might also try turning down the power output of the 5Ghz freqency on the RBR to see if this helps

Is there a particular value that you suggest? Would doing so adversely impact the performance of the WiFi network?

[ekhalil]

1. Please disable Daisy Chain in Orbi. This will make the Satellite not to -unnecessarly- broadcast the wireless backhaul signal. Only the Router needs to broadcast this channel, which will reduce the interference on the Soundbar.
2. If point 1 does not help, then you can try to change the backhaul channel to 108 (5.5 GHz) as follows:
   1. Enable telnet by going to orbilogin.com/debug.htm and telnet to Orbi router (default 192.168.1.1)
   2. Enter the following telent commands:

      1. config set wla_2nd_hidden_channel=108

      2. config commit

   3. Reboot the Router
3. Please note that Orbi will automatically change to another channel if it detects interference on the backhaul channel. So please keep an eye on the backhaul channel after the above change.

[FURRYe38]

Might see if you can get more distance between the speaker system and RBR. If possible.

Ok so there channel naming convention is kind of non standard and are proprietary to there product. Kind of makes it hard. 

Try lowering to 50% and test and see if this changes anything with the speaker system. Then up it to 75% and see. 

[Anjadekar]

Thank you all for your replies. I have been trying out the various options and am happy to report that specifying channel 48 on the 5GHz band on the Orbi, reducing the Transit Power Control to 50% and choosing 5.2GHz, channel 2 on the soundbar for it to communicate with the subwoofer has helped a lot. There is a minor popping sound at times but it is exponentially better and for all practical purposes non-existant when compared to before. Even the issue with the Internet on the Mac crashing and becoming unusable has been resolved (though it is perhaps 70% of what it used to be but at least it works). I did try stepping the Transit Power Control on the Orbi back up to 75% but 50% was better and so I went back down to it.

Now that the issue has been identifed I was thinking of trying out the other channels too. Given that the soundbar is talking to the subwoofer on the 5.2GHz band, is there another channel that you would recommend or is channel 48 my best bet? Are there other options on the Orbi that I should consider toying around with? Currently I have:

Enable 20/40 MHz Coexistence - Enabled

Daisy-Chain Topology, Implicit BEAMFORMING, MU-MIMO and Fast Roaming - Disabled

The 2.4GHz channel is set to Auto and the Transmit Power Control setting for it is at 100%.

Thanks for all the help!

[FURRYe38]

Sounds like your headed in to the right direction. 

You can try the other 3 channels on Orbi on 5Ghz. Something to test out. Record what channels seem to work best for you. 

Try disabling 20/40Mhz and set 40Mhz only. Just uncheck the check box and save settings. 

Beamforming should be enabled. MIMO only if you have MIMO supporting devices. 

[Anjadekar]

Unfortunately I continued to experience disturbance on the subwoofer and so have had to replace the Orbi with my older NETGEAR R6400 router for now. This resolves the issue as the R6400, unlike the Orbi, operates only on the lower or upper end (as specified) of the 5GHz spectrum and so I can isolate the portion not used for the soundbar.

[FURRYe38]

Ya sounds like the speaker system doesn't allow for much more channels to pick from. And using the same or upper frequencies as the Orbi wifi back haul which can't be disabled. 

[RoyHobbs]

Was anybody able to get the Orbi and the HT-ST5000 to play nice?  I tried all the steps listed above and every combination of channels/frequencies on my Orbi and the soundbar with no luck

[Anjadekar]

Sony has just released firmware update M40.R.0445 for the HT-ST5000 that promises "Improved connectivity with wireless subwoofer". I replaced my Orbi a long time ago after getting frustrated with not being able to resolve the issue but wonder if this update fixes it. Have heard a few promising things about it on other forums and would be very interested to see if anyone here has been able to test it. @RoyHobbs, would be definitely worth a try!