Distortion with KEF LS60's when using iPhone as Roon Remote (ref#95HTQ2)

Support
1

Hi! What’s not quite right with Roon?

· None of the above quite fits

None of the above quite fits

· None of these quite match

Tell us what's going on

· Roon 2.65/Roon Rock/Kef LS60’s - hardwired Ethernet/iPhone 17 pro max/ iPad both iOS 26.2.4.

When using iPhone as remote, getting distortion in speakers (sounds like clocking error) pressing pause on iPhone and then restarting on iPad clears problem.

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· Sky TV router, Norton VPN, internet speed approx 70mb/sec

2

Hi @Julian_Mullins,

Thanks for the details here. We are looking into a similar KEF thread, and we want to confirm whether this distortion only happens when sample rate changes occur. That comparison may help us narrow down what is going on with the LS60s.

Please let us know if the issue is limited to sample rate changes, or if it happens in other situations as well. If you can confirm that, we can keep digging from there.

3

I don’t think it can be totally to do with sample rate changes. For instance last night I booted system from iPhone and started track directly from iPhone. Immediately I could hear ‘clicking’ mixed in with music. Pressed pause, restarted track from iPad - no clicking.

I have tried this again whilst typing this and exactly the same is happening. Playing from iPhone - interference/clicking; iPad no problem - very strange.

However I first noticed this on Sunday when I had been playing tracks for 2+ hours and had not had any problems, then suddenly this ‘interference’ became extremely noticeable. This may have started with a sample rate change, I’m not sure. The track where it became very noticeable is in my local library, not streaming.

I hope that helps.

4

Just a couple of updates:

  1. if I boot from iPad also get the distortion, switching to iPhone clears problem after a pause.
  2. The track where the problem is most noticeable is actually a streaming track (my mistake) and is an MQA Format. Have now tried other non MQA tracks without problem. Perhaps this format is where the issue is.

Thanks

5

Hi @Julian_Mullins,

Thanks for the updates and additional info! Based on a fresh Roon Server diagnostic report, you may be spot on with the issue being tied to MQA content.

Every time you pause and quickly resume from the iPhone (or any remote), Roon tears down and restarts the RAAT stream to the KEF LS60.

During each restart, the MQA authentication has to re-establish itself in sequence: authentication → Roon core decode → LS60 renderer.

The logs show this happening correctly most of the time, but on a significant number of restarts (72 occurrences of IsMqa=False in the logs) the handshake completes out of order, the LS60’s internal MQA renderer fires before it receives confirmation that the upstream data is actually valid MQA.

The LS60 then tries to render what it thinks is an MQA-encoded 88.2kHz stream internally to 192kHz, but the data isn’t properly authenticated yet, producing the clicking you hear.

This is compounded by 24 separate RAAT__SOURCE_SELECTION_PLUGIN_STATUS_TIMEOUT errors fired by the LS60 itself, its internal source-selection plugin is struggling to switch states cleanly, which delays authentication further.

The David Sanborn “Theme from Love Is Not Enough” track is the one you’ve been testing on, it’s an MQA TIDAL FLAC (16/44 source, decoded to 24/88 by Roon’s core decoder, then rendered to 192kHz internally by the LS60). Non-MQA tracks skip the entire handshake chain, so they don’t trigger this.

Let’s see if the following steps help:

  1. Test disabling MQA on the LS60 zone in Roon: Go to Settings → Audio → KEF LS60 → Device Setup and set MQA Capabilities to "No MQA Support." Roon will then handle all decoding itself and send a clean PCM stream at 88.2kHz to the LS60, bypassing the renderer handshake entirely.
  2. Check for a KEF LS60 firmware update: The RAAT__SOURCE_SELECTION_PLUGIN_STATUS_TIMEOUT errors suggest a bug in the LS60's source-selection plugin. KEF may have addressed this in a newer firmware.

Thank you! :+1:

6

Hi Benjamin

Thank you for your detailed reply.

I have made the adjustment in the Roon Audio settings and will let you know if I have any further problems.

I have checked my KEF firmware which it is telling me is the latest version. Would it be worth me forwarding your email to KEF support for their reference or will this be sent directly from Roon?

Once again thank you for your speedy solution.

kindest regards

Julian

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Thought I’d jump in quickly to share a similar issue I’ve had since installing ls60’s (replacing 1st gen ls50w’s). It manifested itself with intermittent and brief static pops in the secondary speaker only. Everything hard wired. The primary speaker was connected to Ethernet via cat 5. Never happened with the ls50w’s. Swapped out to new cat 6a shielded cable and the issue has since subsided. Just an fyi. Cheers. Andy.

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Hey @Julian_Mullins,

Thank you for the update, and it is good to hear you have already made the adjustment in Roon Audio settings. Since your KEF firmware is already reporting as current, yes, it would be worth forwarding this to KEF support for their reference. Hearing from you, as the direct customer, will carry more weight with their team. Please let us know how it goes.

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Continuing the discussion from Distortion with KEF LS60's when using iPhone as Roon Remote (ref#95HTQ2):

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Hello @Julian_Mullins

Thank you for reaching out to Ronn’s support. It would be great if you could provide some additional context regarding your request. As far as I see, the previous topic was finished on the step where you reached the KEF support.

12

Hi,

initially it seemed that the problem was linked to MQA, however the digital clicking happened again yesterday. I played Lady Writer by Dire Straits from Tidal, then tried a track from the Ethiopians also via Tidal. The ‘clicking’ was immediately obvious. I then tried several other streaming tracks without problem.

I have also forwarded the previous thread to KEF and they say they have updated their firmware.

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Hi @Julian_Mullins,

Thanks for the update. It sounds like the clicking is still showing up intermittently, and that you have already passed the earlier thread along to KEF. The KEF support team is in the best position to review the logging from your device directly for the case, please let us know if you hear back from them or if you need any input from our side, thank you.

15

Hi,

I have been in touch with KEF and they have sent the following response:

Re: Product Support - Firmware Update - LS60 Wireless [ thread::tBBfg8-bBwmhPCqlwdi0_hQ:: ]

Hi Julian,

Thanks for your reply.

We understand the issue is more likely within Roon/Tidal’s compatibility, We will escalate this matter to our product development team to investigate with Roon/Tidal developers. We will keep you posted once we receive updates. Please keep an eye on https://assets.kef.com/pm/pm_firmware/release_notes.html#kef-connect-iosfor further updates & hot fixes.

In the interim, please let us know if there is anything noticeable or if you have other questions.

Regards,

So I’ll just have to wait and see if either side can solve this issue.

Regards

Julian Mullins

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Hi @Julian_Mullins,

Thanks for the update! I’m curious - have you tested out using a different CAT 5 or 6 cable as @Andy_Mikita mentioned earlier?

This could be an easy troubleshooting step to test in the meantime.

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Hi @Julian_Mullins,

Just checking in on this. Have you had a chance to try a different CAT 5 or CAT 6 cable, as we mentioned earlier, to see whether that changes anything? If you did test that, let us know what you found, and we can keep working from there, thanks.

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Hi

I have tried different cables, but as the problem seems to be intermittent and track dependent have not been able to recreate the clocking issue. However I have not had much time over past week for extended trials. As soon as I have any further issues will let you know immediately and see if cable changes at that time make any difference.

Thanks

Julian

19

I have multiple audiophile systems. I have Roon upsampling everything to dsd256 and in my main system, everything works perfectly. Everything in Roon states the signal going to the ps audio airlens is dsd256 and I can play raw dsd files perfectly too.

In my 2nd system with my Kef ls60’s being streamed from Roon, the signal is 24/192 not dsd256, I get either distortion or static in the speakers, and when I play any dsd file, Roon states an error and refuses to do anything else, won’t skip to the next song. I have to turn off the Kef’s, restart Roon on either the iPad or iPhone, and Roon will play any song that’s not a dsd. Both Roon and the Kef’s are at the latest level of updates

I use Audioquest vodka Ethernet cables and I swapped them between systems and it’s not the cable

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Reading some of these posts don’t make any sense. When you use your iPhone or iPad to play music, your device will never have any bearing on the sound unless you are using something like airplay from your device. Your iPad/iphone just tells the roon server to play this song/album and then you can shutdown your iPhone/ipad and the music will continue to play. Even each audio device is defined thru the server, not your iPhone.

Am i missing something here? I have started roon to play an album/playlist from my iPad/iPhone and then immediately turned my iPad off and roon still plays.