Dropouts and other audio issues

[Bruce_Elwood]

@support
I am experiencing frequent dropouts and other issues with Roon. These issues include

• track stops playing and blue light goes back and forth on slider bar;
• playback stutters;
• playback skips ahead to the next trap;
• playback stops altogether
• connection is lost between Remote and Core;
• Remote can’t find Core;
• connection is lost between Core and Roon Ready output
• Core can’t find audio zones

System:

Core: MacBook 12 inch, 1.2 GHZ Intel Core m5, 8 GB SDRAM, 500 GB flash storage

I’ve also tried using a dedicated Mac Mini (2.6GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5; 8GB SDRAM; 256GB Flash Storage). Purchased brand new, and now returned because it didn’t help.

Output: Main listening room: Naim Atom, Roon Ready
Two other zones: Airport Express to analog amps.

Remotes: iPhone X and iPad

Wireless: Airport Extreme connected in bridge mode to ISP provided router

An ethernet network is not feasible (at least not without rewiring our house).

Our network is fast and stable for all other applications. Tidal plays flawlessly though the native streamer in the Naim Atom. Netflix streams in hi def on our smart TV.

Problems occur with Roon playing both Tidal and my own library.

I have tried both native storage on the Core and USB for the library.

Problems occur when I am the only person on the network, and all wireless clients are powered off except those directly serving the Roon network.

Problems occur at all times of the day (I’ve even tried at 5:00 am before there is any traffic).

Rebooting establishes connections, but does not solve the problems.

All firmware and software is up to date.

Please help. I enjoy the Roon UI, but the performance issues are ruining the experience.

Thanks

.

[mike (Mike Fass)]

Hey @Bruce_Elwood – thanks for the detailed report. Makes it much easier for us to help.

If these issues have persisted across two different Core machines, that points to something going on with the network, and since everything seems to be running on wifi (right?) that’s where I would look first.

We’ve had a lot of bad experiences resolved by replacing Airport Extremes, and we generally recommend against them. You can find some good information about resolving that in this post.

I know replacing wifi routers isn’t always the easiest process. If you want to try some other troubleshooting first, I would do what you can to work around the wifi – move the Airport Express closer, move the Naim temporarily and connect it over Ethernet, etc. If things get more stable with wifi out of the picture, at least we’ve localized the problem.

Let @support know how you’re doing and we’ll make sure we get this stable for you Bruce. Thanks!

[Bruce_Elwood]

Thank you for the reply and the suggestions.

I can try moving things around temporarily, but ultimately, the location of the router and my audio equipment are dictated by room layout and other uses for the network. I need a wireless-based solution.

I am reluctant to replace the Airport Extreme because (a) it is almost brand new and a big improvement on the ISP-issued router; and (b) it works just fine for everything except Roon.

I am not using the Airport Express as an extender. Only for Airplay.

Bruce

[eric (Eric Stewart)]

Hi @Bruce_Elwood ---- Thank you for the follow up and the feedback, both are appreciated!

continuing forward, I wanted to check in with you and see if you were able to give any of the advice offered in @mike’s previous post a shot. Additionally, I want to add to his suggestions and kindly ask you to verify what the experience is like if you play directly out of the MacBook’s internal speakers via the “built in output” with “exclusive mode” enabled.

Looking forward to hearing your observations!
-Eric

[Bruce_Elwood]

Thank you for following up. I have not had an opportunity to give Mike’s suggestion a try. Moving the router and the Atom close enough to connect by ethernet is not very practical with our setup.

Playback through the Macbook in exclusive mode suffers from the same issues listed in my first post.

Bruce

[eric (Eric Stewart)]

Thanks for getting back to me @Bruce_Elwood, the continued insight is very appreciated!

These types of issues are usually caused by something in the environment and are almost always network related, which is why I would strongly recommended giving the tests proposed by Mike a shot. The testing we are suggesting is temporary and meant to help localize the issue so we can try to identify the variable (or variables) that could potentially be having an impact on your setup.

Additionally, I want to also confirm with you what version of OSX is being ran on the MacBook hosting your core machine. Is it fully up to date? Was the mentioned MacMini running the same OS?

-Eric

[Bruce_Elwood]

I have replaced the Airport Express with a Linksys Velop mesh wifi system. The audio playback issues appear to have been resolved by this upgrade. No dropouts so far. Although I have yet to fully test the full system under heavy traffic conditions, playback through the Atom appears stable and high quality.

The only remaining issue right now is that my iPhone and iPad still lose connection with the Macbook core periodically. Sometimes this can be resolved by quitting and reloading the Roon Remote; sometimes the device just won’t find the core.

The Macbook and devices are all fully updated with the most recent OS.

Thank you for the advice on the wifi router. So far, the Linksys Velop is performing brilliantly across our entire network. An expensive solution, but highly recommended to anyone experiencing dropouts over wifi.

Bruce