I just got a new A&K SP1000M and set it to Roon Ready. It was easily discoverable.
But when I play tracks from Roon to the A&K device, the tracks play for a few seconds and stop (sometimes within 2 seconds, sometimes 20 seconds, unpredictable).
This happens across album, whether from library, tidal, or qobuz; and wether roon play is controlled from windows or iphone. So the device itself seems to be disconencting easily.
This isn’t a small reliability issue. This “roon ready” behavior affects 80% of tracks I’m trying to play.
I find this issue happens on my sp1000 and kann alpha when the wifi connection becomes weak. I first reboot the AK and if no success I reboot the router or wifi access point. The AK devices are 2,4ghz only. You may need to provide separate 2.4 and 5 wifi signals from your router or access point.
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AceRimmer
(Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast!)
3
Very good point on the 2.4ghz only WiFi.
I had forgotten about that being the reason I gave up on my A&K and sold it.
Way too costly to be giving me those problems.
Thank you. I have indeed set up a separate network name to work exclusively on 2.4 and connect the device that way. The problem still persisted. I may try rebooting both device and router, that’s always a good idea. Thank you
Wireless on the A&K daps is pretty poor and the reason I sent my Alpha back. It dropped off from Roon all the time just from moving it few feet in one direction away from the AP and it wasn’t that far away to begin with. For the price they really are not worth it in my opinion for Roon… Sound nice but at the expense of reliability. Why on earth the used such old WiFi chipset is beyond me.
I have pretty bullet-proof WiFi on two different locations, and yet neither my SP1000M not my Chord Hugo 2+2Go can do Roon Ready (or DLNA for that matter) reliably. They may work for a while and then they start glitching as @goldwerger described. I’ve played with having separate a 2.4GHz subnet, didn’t help much. I gave up. I don’t mind too much because my main uses for both devices is for music from local microSD cards away from my Roon setups, but it’s a shame that neither A&K nor Chord could do the basic work of getting up-to-date WiFi on their expensive devices.
@Fernando_Pereira my experience exactly. SO disappointing. Great promise, terrible execution.
I’m at a loss, given there are no mobile roon ready devices whatsoever, except A&K - which I agree wtih @CrystalGipsy is outdated tech; and Chord - which requires micro USB in 2022 (really??).
I rebooted my modem, router, nucleus, and device.
I downloaded 100% of all my files - including Tidal and Qobuz - to the microSD card, to eliminate an factor related to streaming.
And I then used my computer to operate roon to stream to the A&K unit, which doesn’t use anything on the device, except it’s connectivity to Roon.
This is a new device bough new 6 months ago that operates as spec-ed outside of Roon. So no device issues.
It works unreliably. It will play a track or two, and just skip in the middle of a track and go to the next without any reason. So you get about 50% (not 99%, or even 90%) coherent listening experience. It’s not just somewhat unreliable, it’s just unusable.
Certifying this as Roon Ready is a joke.
And I wish Roon actually had mobile options. It has none.
I see that the A&K Acro CA 1000 is now Roon Ready. This has both 2.4 and 5gb wifi so I wonder if this could be a solution. It has certainly peaked my interest (I gave up on portable Roon after similar experiences to you with Fiio/ iPhone etc). This new device is certainly portable but not pocketable.
I use my SP 1000 purely as a DAP when I walk the dog listening on Ultimate Ears IEM and the audio quality is superb both for Tidal MQA albums and my own hi-res and DSD files.
Totally agree! Initially I was all “that’s ridiculous! What on earth is the point?!”… but then I realised that it could be the exact thing I’m looking for and could fill many uses for me at home. If only I could be assured of rock solid wifi/Roon connectivity (like Naim Atom) unlike my Fiio etc.
I tried it at CanJam couple weeks ago. Inferior in sound quality to my SP1000M. I think the lose of AKM chip is notable. Too bad, intriguing form factor for mobile home use.
