Dears,
Sadly I am packing it in with Roon after several months. Cannot get it to run consistently and the house-audiophile has stopped supporting any further investment in time or money (sunk cost of lifetime license going to waste, ouch!) and tells me if she hears one more stutter “roon cannot load” interrupt will delete all digital music and go back to CD’s.
But, what to try instead? Any recommendation of your second favorite system, or what you would use if for some reason Roon failed you? Was considering Max2Play … or stepping back to Logitech … have a fistful of raspberry pi 3’s and hifiberry dacs, a Synology, a few extra gamer laptops for base stations and SSD’s with about 700G of FLAC …
Any recommendations or ideas?
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Nothing else is the same, most a backwards steps if you ask me. If you want multiroom across a broad range then LMS is really it. The pi based server stuff are dreadul and slow. If you want Tidal or Qobuz to then LMS is it or you pay for Volumios cloud based system . Which againnis pants from a user front. It you have one pi then fine but multiroom it’s gash.
What exactly have been your issues? What have you done to troubleshoot? Most issues are generally home network related, running server on WiFi always a bad idea or running on underspecced hardware. Have you asked for advice on here or from support?
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Have you ensured windows firewall is not blocking communications and allowing all parts of Roon though. Try disabling for brief time to see if this helps. Check that IGMP snooping is active on your router if that’s an option on the Amplifi products. I have Unifi from same company and it works flawlessly but not sure how the Amplifi stuff works in comparison.
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Agree with CG that this is most likely a network issue, in which case, simply switching to another steamer isn’t going to help. There are plenty of options like JRiver, Audirvana, BubbleUpnp, etc but it all depends on what you want to do. None do it all as well as Roon and I’ve tried most of them.
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…and network problems will likely continue with other SW
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thanks for the kind suggestions. and for the reference to my overly long tech support submittal. indeed all FWalls off while testing on both machines (swapped roon core different machines). Have wired and unwired everything. and indeed only item that has been ripped out and replaced at some point is my core mesh router (wired connections should be OK, but at this point , who knows) and the Pi-3’s. Wifi is mildly high quality and enabled QOS (not low level enough to check IGMP) … i kept trying things after posting on tech support wall, likely a mistake as my partner is now infuriated by my continued efforts and grumblings ;-). upgrade from this wifi will set me back another 700euros and my regular suppliers are all out of stock (anything less is a simple swap across), and recordings taken while error was occuring indicate low network-load… thanks for the mention, do have a Unifi setup, but is in another country and we are not crossing borders these days …
indeed, i am likely to have to give of on IT based high quality wireless sound and go back to OT tech. She knows her library and when she pulls out a CD and places it in a drawer it is there and sound comes out until the end of the CD. Was always a gamble but kept hearing amazing things about Roon and wanted to switch us to digital. We are not streamers. Pretty basic two-zone system was goal, nothing fancy or complex. the failure is twice frustrating.
Can use LMS, know it, works off my Synology, so indeed thanks CG! will try something simple and effective even if the sound quality is not there.
Maybe can try Roon again after the frustration and embarrassment wears off! (and maybe their support people come back-online after all these disturbances).
Thanks again and all the best!
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The first thing I’d suggest you do is set up a test with the Roon Core/Server and one endpoint completely wired, no WIFI. If that works, it shows the problem is most likely your WIFI network. If it doesn’t it’s most likely an issue with your router. I’ve seen a lot of people buy these WIFI mesh networks but not install them properly. They don’t always understand that the interface box from their ISP (cable or telco) is a router. Most of these mesh networks have a hub component that is also a router. If you put two routers on the same network, you create two subnets and unless you know what you’re doing devices on one subnet, don’t see devices on the other. The answer is to configure the WIFI hub/router to be an access point or bridge (same effect but it gets called different things). I have a feeling you get some local professional help to get your network sorted it will solve your problems without buying anything new or resorting to CDs. This is not a problem you can ask Roon to solve.
ksalno, very kind. did this at one point with Roon Core Laptop to hifiberryDigi. indeed the Amplifi is an idiot-based system and hides almost all configuration from the interface, but if i recall my networking correctly, if subnets unable to see each other nothing flows, yes? my systems all on same dhcp and wifi and gateways and visible/controllable from single amplifi interface (to allow QOS streaming if nothing else). my system setups see each other well, connect to Roon Core, Core is able to configure devices and zones. configuration and all is as easy as advertised. works fine for half a song. sometimes one or two songs. have even managed an album or two. then starts stuttering.
At this point indeed it seems Roon has no interests, for whatever reasons 
and so i ask them nothing … thanks for ideas.
In the past I have used JRiver and foobar2000. To be honest, the interface of Roon is far better than the version of JRiver I had used. The same is applicable for foobar2000, but it takes some additional tweaking of add-ons to get some of the facilities available in Roon. Until now I have never had trouble with Roon in my configuration and I love the additional information and facilities that Roon offers.
Audirvana music delivery is good. JRiver Media Center is also good if you can master the software.
Hardware solutions with their own software work well.
I was having some hiccups in music delivery with my setup, and I requested technical support from ISP. Turns out there were some incorrect settings on their side of the internet service, and in fifteen minutes everything was restored to perfect working order. The tech explained it as improper hierarchies. Might just be your internet delivery.
If your using QOS on your network I would try without it its useless unless all devices support the same wmm protocols it does. If not it may cause more issues than its set to fix.
Are all your endpoints WiFi? Have you tried any of them wired yet? Just one would be a good start to see. What are using as os on the pi’s? Are you using 2.4Ghz to connect to the WiFi or 5Ghz?
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Audivarna is only reliable on usb using UPnP its very flakey indeed.
I’m also a long time LMS user. If you’re playing the same files (e.g., FLAC) to the same endpoint and DAC, then there will be no difference in sound quality between serving files via LMS vs serving files via Roon (unless something is very odd/wrong in your endpoint/DAC setup, which is unlikely).
One thing you might want to check on the Amplifi HD. Is it in bridge mode in front of another router? This behaviour could be the dhcp server colliding with the dhcp server in the other router, either one constantly reissuing addresses. As far as I remember, you can’t disable dhcp in the Amplifi HD when not in bridge mode. Just a thought.
This is what I was suggesting a few post back up the thread but he seems intent on blaming Roon and wants them to fix his network for him. I not sure he is here to get any help, just to complain.
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Desktop application (Audirvana) on computer to USB DAC. It works well for me. I have used it in remote mode with A+ as well. Roon is vastly superior overall.
I’ve seen a few mentions of LMS recently. Spent a couple of hours setting it up and trying it out. Y’all are kidding right?
Anyway, roon is working ok for me (windows file server, windows core and windows endpoints, all on wired ethernet), but I see all these problems being reported, especially with Tidal (thankfully I use qobuz, so no problems there), and no solutions forthcoming.
Makes me wonder if (when) I’ll be next. Every new release with inconsequential new “features” seems to create more problems for some (many?) and QC seems to be an issue. There also seems to be something fundamentally wrong with their development stack?
But I’ll keep using it for as long as it keeps working for me, or something better comes along. I’ve tried them all, and haven’t found anything better yet, warts and all.
So sorry to hear of your problems and I can appreciate your SOs frustration with bad playback. Mine is the same. I have what is probably the most primitive ROON set-up there is. I run the Core on my desktop, which I use for all computer related tasks, including a PLEX server. I have four endpoints, all using either a Chromecast Audio or regular Chromecast as an endpoint. I can play any or all at the same time. I don’t have dropouts or other problems. In my experience ROON isn’t fussy.
Just wanted to weigh in here. Full disclosure, I am a Roon lifer and have been a user since 2015.
IMHO, operationally Roon is not as stable as it should be. My network is gigabit fiber and all RAAT end points have excellent WiFi signal strength and speed. There are no issues with my network.
I run Roon Server on a headless machine with SSD connected directly to my router and reboot the system weekly to deal with possible memory leaks. (BTW, I find the new Tidal logon that shunts you to a browser to be a pain after the reboot.)
I also, on occasion, when Roon is acting up, use Audirvana. I’ve found it to be rock solid on my network when Roon is not. When I am having Roon issues I can immediately switch to Audirvana and play music with no issues. I’ll not opine on SQ differences other than to say that Audirvana seems to have a quieter background to me, but the Roon interface keeps me using Roon as my primary streaming source. I would consider my primary system to be highly resolving.
I know that Roon is not a “lightweight” player as acknowledged by the Roon team. Maybe it should be. By that I mean that perhaps the time that Roon is doing its heavy lifting should be user definable. Perhaps one should be able to specify certain hours of the day when Roon refreshes its database and work whatever other magic It does…say the middle of the night. Then one could choose to have Roon be a lightweight audiophile quality player during primary listening hours.
I like Roon. My fear is that it is becoming bloated at the expense of reliability. Until last fall, it was the only digital streaming player I used. Issues with track loading, skipping and speed led me to find another “just in case” alternative, Audirvana, which I use sparingly.
Let’s hope that Roon keeps getting better. It is a very good product that I have been happy to use and support.
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