Crackle / static introduced by roon on bluesound powernode 2i

[joe_comeau]

Core Machine (Operating system/System info/Roon build number)
Windows 10 pro
i3 - 1010-- - 3.6 Ghz
8 GB ram
1.0 TB system
4 TB music - USB3 - drive
**** No Speakers on PC ****
Only roon 1.8 & google chrome

Network Details (Including networking gear model/manufacturer and if on WiFi/Ethernet)
1 Gb ethernet
connected to 24 port gb switch
connected to Google wifi mesh - 3 access points
750 Mb download internet connection

Audio Devices (Specify what device you’re using and its connection type - USB/HDMI/etc.)

Bluesound node 2i
Sonos 1 - pair
sonos play 5
Sonos amp #1
sonos amp #2
bluesound powernode 2i

Added a new bluesound powernode 2i ( a refurbished model)

when playing music through roon from Tidal or from local files system
the songs would have crackle / static at different points in the song

This was by either wifi or ethernet connection to powernode 2i
multiple attempts for both

had to return it as I didn’t have enough time to fully test and I thought it was the
powernode 2i - (refurbished unit)

got a brand new powernode 2i - with the exact same problem

---

the same songs play through roon to:
sonos play 1
sonos amp #1 &2
sonos play 5
bluesound node 2i

All without issue. perfect - all through roon
From local source 96kh / 24 bit or tidal MQA 24 bit
tried on all units from both sources

the powernode 2i - has a crackle at different points through roon

HOWEVER
If I play through tidal directly - the same versions
the songs play perfectly - no crackle (no roon either)

spotify also works fine - (not through roon)

I’ve factory reset the powernode 2i
immediately tried through bluesound app with tidal - works perfectly

tried with roon - the same song from tidal - it cracles

the crackle is with MQA , flac and just CD quality - it doesn’t matter

i’ve looked at the related posts
thats why i’ve factory reset

[joe_comeau]

1. Wifi - this is all happening at once:

• Roon sending a stream to the bluesound
• filesync/index of files on file share
• image and info sent from roon to management device

To be clear.

1. I had a node 2i with a file share set
2. over the holidays I added roon
   moved the files to a different file share that roon had access to (node 2i did not)
3. did not remove the file share from the node 2i
4. when ever I play a song (sometimes it would start over <1 second in) - annoying
5. node 2i was connected by GB ethernet

got a refurbished powernode 2i -

1. I didn;t spend much time as I couldn’t get it to work with roon properly
   always crackled throughout songs every 15-20 seconds
2. sent it back thinking it was a powernode 2i issue

got a new powernode 2i

1. same crackling issue
2. after weeks of playing around I looked at the file share setting
3. I did not set the file share - as I moved everything to a roon file share
4. bluesound must have copied it from the node 2i config - probably the bluesound app
5. removed the fileshare setting from both units
6. they play music fine now from Tidal MQA / local 192/24 bit perfectly
   - all over wifi
   I’ve powered down and restarted both node 2i and powernode 2i - multiple times

played music - random selections from both local roon file share and tidal - without issues now

Not having a file share set in the bluesound is the key as roon is asking for a sync or index which causes a problem

if you only use a bluesound - it works fine with a file share

[noris]

Hello @joe_comeau ,

Thank you for the report. Bluesound is investigation a few issues with Roon Ready playback and your report sounds like it could be related, please reach out to Bluesound for further details, thank you!