I think I’d call that shaky, and avoidable. 
If the server is wired, which is doable–even if those affected are unwilling–by connecting the server directly to the router many problems would go away.
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Absolutely zero issues with the Nucleus One! The “definitive” Roon solution.
Always on, always ready, always up to date! No delays, no buffering, no “network issues” My 600 plus digital albums, 10 thousand tracks and Tidal from home or anywhere via ARC. One cable to my ethernet the other to my Mcintosh C53 DA 2 module’s DAC USB port. Any format, any sampling frequency. Best 700 dollar (including the 4 TB SSD). Ever! I spent an additional 150 bucks for a tablet to serve as a dedicated handy remote and thats it! Compare that to the 30k I spent on my turntable set-up to occasionaly find a record that sounds “nearly as good” as all my highrez files sound (still magical though) and you gain perspective real fast!
On a final note, after those 10k tracks of which about 500 are high rez, the drive is still 96% empty! Unbelievable!
Lest I forget! Even my Roon backups are a breeze automatically backing up to a microthumbdrive connected to the second USB port.
Boom!
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Hello,
I’m a long time Roon user (7 years or so) and experienced many connection hiccups and server unreachable issues by the past…
Clearly the worst case was when I first ran the server under a Windows 10 PC using WiFi. Plenty of unexplainable dropouts or transient problems then.
I then switched to an Intel MacMini almost dedicated to Roon server usage. Still using WiFi. Roon server stability then greatly increased, but was not quite fully stable yet. Still need to reboot the MacMini once a week minimum (due to OSX constant need for updates?… Problems seemed to arise at the same pace any OSX/App update was requested)
I’ve finally bought a fanless NUC installed Roon ROCK and connected it to the network through Ethernet.
It was 2 years ago. Not one single issue since then! 
Hope this can help.
(EDIT: forgot to mention my Roon library is about 17k tracks, located on a NAS. The NAS and the NUC are connected to two different Netgear ORBI satellites, themselves connected through WiFi mesh)
I’m a new user to Roon for about 1 month now. I use it everyday and it’s been floor less. I’ve been through every feature and every setting and haven’t had any issues. So far loving it. My library is 204 albums now. 2740 tracks. Guessing that is small compared to other people out there. I use Roon with Tidal. Multiple end points all through wifi. All playing through a usb hard drive connected to my Apple M1 Mac mini. Everything is instant. No slow down. No reboots. ARC works remarkably well moving from wifi to cell phone and for everyday use in my car. Hmm. I just re-read this post title before sending this message, but oh well, sending it anyway. Maybe there is a discussion group with people who are happy with Roon…??
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Hi Jason, I’m a happy Rooner, I’m listening to music!
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I have no idea for how many people it does not work out of the box. I don’t believe that “most people” out of 300k Roon users have so many problems because I think the forum would look different.
I can say that it did work out of the box for me, but I know my way around computers. It’s not that I did anything special at all, but like I said further up, have a simple home network without mesh, vlans, or subnets, and I know in principle what I’m doing. (Plus I’m not trying to load a million tracks or something like that against all reason).
Nevertheless, I can imagine that for people who don’t know where to enter a network path in Windows File Explorer - as we are seeing so many times on the forum - it can be a challenge to set up. Same with mesh networks beyond people’s comprehension. I would not recommend Roon to the computer illiterate. But then, I don’t recommend much computer stuff to these people - apart from the most basic stuff if someone asks me - because they tend to alway create problems out of nothing and then it becomes my problem.
And finally, it’s clear that some configurations can cause weird problems (in particular slowdown / temporary freezing) in Roon software although everything seems in order, and these problems are terribly hard to debug for users and shouldn’t happen. But I don’t believe that they are so extremely widespread.
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I think it’s quite the opposite. Given that Roon stated there were over 300,000 users a few years ago, and the forum represents a small percentage of total Roon users, I’d suggest that it’s most likely the opposite. Roon works for the vast majority.
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Never mind. Always a waste of breath and effort to say anything to the contrary even when taking the effort to enumerate areas for improvement. I’ll delete my post.
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Well you could provide some reasoning for why you think that Roon doesn’t work out of the box (whatever that means precisely) for most of 300k people and why we are not really seeing this on the forum.
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I enumerated a set of issues and possible ways to address them. I didn’t invent that list of issues out of thin air. Those were some of the key, recurring sources of issues for people. I wish it surprised me that the first couple of responses to my post discounted what I wrote without even acknowledging the validity of the specific issues I discussed. It doesn’t.
@Suedkiez and @mjw - I sincerely appreciate your contributions to this community. They far outstrip my own. I don’t need to make your days worse by injecting negativity.
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A list of issues that happen, some continuously to a never ending stream of new users, as real as these issues may be, isn’t really evidence that Roon doesn’t work out of the box for most people.
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Don’t underestimate the impact of Word-of-Mouth. There is a world out side this community. That is where the real battle is.
Have a nice WE
Torben
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Sure, but there also isn’t a piece of commercial software in the world for which there isn’t a forum where people complain how bad it is.
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Sure, but that is not the point. It is al about user recommendation or not recommendation. That is where the real power is - not the community.
Everybody could ask them self a simple question: Would I recommend Roon to my best friends? Even the ones that is not that tech.
I am very happy with Roon - most of the time But I am not sure if I could say YES to above.
Torben
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My experience with Roon may shed light on why some of us find it so frustrating.
I am a lifetime subscriber and would say i was a HUGE Roon advocate. I even invested in the Nucleus.
However I moved home just under 5 years ago and started having issues.
I started a thread on this forum and took advice that I needed to improve my Network.
So I went to some expense to get an electrician to run cables through my walls so that I could have my Nucleus hard wired to a Network switch.
It worked and I was a happy Rooner once again. It worked for quite a long time too.
Then bang, ARC!! This release unfortunately for me has made Roon a frustrating experience again. It is not all of the time , but it happens enough to make me seek alternatives.
Slow loading of albums the main issue…moving to a next track, sometimes its instant , other times there can be long delays.
For me music is my relaxation time I want a snappy quick interface and not laggy performance.
So I went to an effort and expense to improve my Network , only for a new Roon software release to mess things up again. Do we need to look at optimising our networks EVERY time there is a new release? I mean thats not what I want to do.
I am still pleased I purchased a lifetime subscription, as I have more than had my value out of it, but I will probably stop using Roon too.
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But I don’t recommend Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, or any apps for any of these OSes, or NAS devices, or LMS, etc., to my non-techy friends, either.
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You are missing the point. Without OS nothing works. You don’t need Roon to listen to music.
Torben
You don’t need a computer to live, either. The point is that non-techy people who aren’t interested in learning will mess up anything with computers, and that’s not a great way to measure how poor the software really is.
And by its nature, Roon has more inherent complexity than Spotify Connect. It’s not required to use it if one can’t live with that.
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But recommendations rate is.
Torben
I don’t get it. Like I said, none of the things I listed are good recommendations.