New Roon user, largely disappointed in the product

Support
1

I am a long-time Logitech Squeezebox user, for at least a decade. Nothing has come along in that time that challenges this product for ease and reliability of streaming. I have tried many would be contenders, e.g. Sony’s streamers, any many others (e.g…, AudiNirvana), and they always fail due to unreliable or poor software.

I had great expectations for Roon, but it looks like it’s going to be joining the heap of would-be also-ran’s because it just doesn’t work reliably enough for my purposes. To explain my setup, I have Roon running on a Mac Mini connected with USB to a high end Devialet D400 integrated system (this is a complete high end system, including DAC, preamp, vinyl preamp, and amp, with streaming capabilities). The Mac mini is connected via Thunderbolt to my music collection. This system is connected to a simple LCD monitor. This Roon system works reliably most of the time, except lately when it seems to be unable to connect to the wireless. It also streams Tidal well. The interface is nice etc. Overall, no complaints.

I have Roon installed on my iPad as well. This is a complete disaster, and rarely works. Typical poor iOS app, in my view, which fails to connect to my Mac mini Roon server (despite my telling it to do so).

Strangely enough, I have Roon running on my iPhone 6+. This actually works! I can’t explain why the iPad version dies and the iPhone version works. They are all connected to the same network.

Finally, I have a Mac Pro (late 2013 model) on which Roon is installed. This again fails to work at all. It does not see the Mac server library at all.

To contrast this completely unreliable behavior, I have 4 Logitech Squeezebox systems (3 Touches and a Boom) all of which work flawlessly. They are connected to two servers storing my music and running the Logitech media server. I can control any Squeezebox from an iPad, an iPhone, any computer in my house etc. with complete bullet proof reliability. Roon, I am sorry to say, is a far cry from the reliability of Squeezebox software.

This would not be so galling if it were not for the fact that Roon requires monthly payment, and Logitech is absolutely free! So, perhaps someone can help shed light on what’s going on. I am on the high end side of computer savvy (I am a professor computer science, and teach graduate PhD level courses in this subject, so I should know a thing or two about setting up networked devices).

2

What do you mean by “Roon seems to be unable to connect to the wirless”? As far as I know Roon does not connect to wireless, your Mac mini does. Is your Mini setup to never sleep or put hard disks to sleep? I had trouble with my mini and sleeping, changing to an imac solved this.

Is the Mac Pro on the same subnet as the mac mini? It sounds like it may be on a different subnet or the Mac mini is sleeping and not responding. Agiain, just making these observations based on my recent Mac mini experience.

5

Hi @Sridhar_Mahadevan – can you let us know a little more about your setup as described here, and the @support team and I can take a look at what’s going on?

Thanks!

1 Like
7

I was using a well accepted euphemism. Of course, my Mac mini connects to the wireless. It connects just fine. Web pages load fine, email works great. etc. It’s not an elementary problem of web connectivity or network connectivity. As I said, my N Squeezeboxes work fine every day. They are running on the same network (although on different machines).

8

Hi Mike,

As I said, I am a relatively new user (< 2 weeks). I have the latest version of your software (Mac OS X, 64 bit) and iOS (for iPhone and iPad). I have a relatively large library (5000 albums, ~100,000 tracks, stored on a Thunderbolt external drive connected to my Mac mini). The Mac mini is running OS X, 10.11 (the last version prior to the latest release from Apple), and connected via hard USB link to the Devialet integrated amp (a $20K high end 400W high fidelity system, which goes all the way from bits to speaker level output). On the Mac mini, Roon works well most of the time (it occasionally stutters in getting Tidal albums, but sees all my albums just fine).

On my iPad Pro, it never has worked even once! When I start it up, it asks me whether I want to connect to the Mac Mini library, and I say yes (assuming that’s what I am supposed to say), and then it comes up blank. No albums are recovered, no music, nada.

On my iPhone 6+, it works out of the box. Puzzling. Occasionally here it glitches as well, meaning it fails to make contact with the Mac Mini.

Let me know what else you need. If Roon produces a core dump somewhere, I can mail that to you. Not sure how to access its logs.

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Hi @Sridhar_Mahadevan ---- Thank you for the follow up and the feedback. Both are greatly appreciated! I would like to gather some logs from your core machine so our developers can have a closer look into this issue and will be contacting you momentarily via PM with instructions.

In the mean time may I kindly ask you to please confirm the IP addresses of the core machine, iPad, and iPhone.

Thanks!
-Eric

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Hi Eric,

Here are the IP addresses.

Mac mini: 10.0.1.195
iPad Pro: 10.0.1.121
iPhone 6 Plus: 10.0.1.122

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Hi @Sridhar_Mahadevan ---- Thank you for following up and confirming that information for me. I wanted to touch base with you to see if you’ve had a chance to send some logs over to us yet, just trying to make sure I don’t miss the upload. Thanks!

-Eric

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Eric,

And where are these logs that I am to send to you? How do I acquire them?

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Hi Sridhar,
In Roon from the main menu select Support and then click “I’ve Already Talked to Support”.
Enter the Support ID that Eric has (presumably) provided and click send.
Hope that helps.

1 Like
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I have received no support ID. Boy, talk about a complicated process to get help. I think it’s easier to get a US passport.

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@Eric @Support can you assist.

1 Like
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@Sridhar_Mahadevan ---- I have provided a link to the PM that I sent you with the log upload instructions and the support ID (see below). If there is any trouble or further confusion with this process, please flag me down (@Eric) and I will be glad to lend a hand.

Also, to help aide in our investigation I would like to get a better understanding of your network configuration and any hardware you are working with. Can you please provide the following information:

  1. Please describe how your devices are communicating. Wifi, ethernet, or both?

  2. What hardware are you implementing in your setup (routers, repeaters, switches, power line adaptors, extenders)? Make and model(s)?

The more detailed and specific you can be, the better :sunglasses:

Thanks!
-Eric

PM: https://community.roonlabs.com/t/new-roon-user-largely-disappointed-in-the-product/14440

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Hey @Carl ---- Thank you for flagging me down!

-Eric

1 Like
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OK, I have emailed the logs to you – please let me know if they tell you something about why I’m having the problems I’m having. Thanks!

19

Hello @Sridhar_Mahadevan,

Would you mind to answer the questions below:

Thanks

20

OK, I rebooted my Mac mini, and things are looking better. Now I get more stable behavior. It looks like I might have had two Roon processes running and perhaps this confused things a bit. I’ll keep you posted on how things develop…but I’ve decided to pony up for a year at least, and try out Roon. The interface is the best I’ve seen, so congratulations on that score. I’m hoping the performance will become stable as well once I get the setup ironed out.

21

Hey @Sridhar_Mahadevan – glad this is moving in the right direction. Don’t hesitate to flag @support if something else comes up.

Thanks!