Hi all,
I am having tremendous problems with a few Soundbar 2i. I have been able to get them working stably with my WiFi network (After over a year of pulling teeth) and they now work perfectly when connected to a local HDMI source and with the BluOS app.
However I just can’t seem to get them working reliably with Roon. Most of the time things fail to play at all. If using internet radio I often get the message that playback has failed to load the track or more commonly that playback is not possible and that the address may have changed. If selecting a local track or streaming from Tidal and Quobuz I usually get that the media is loading slowly and there may be a problem. In pretty much all circumstances things appear to play for 10-15 seconds before stopping with no audio being heard. On the odd times when things work the audio is uninterrupted and without glitches. Sometimes I can find a period of a few hours where I don’t get any error messages but tracks are slow to load and often miss off the first few seconds of the track. Every time after using Roon it fails to release the device and I have to manually select the HDMI input should I want to use that rather than it auto-selecting on a signal as it does once I have used the BluOS app.
Recently Roon will no longer see one of my soundbars but BluOS plays fine with it.
My network consists of Cisco SG300 managed switches and Ubiquiti HD wireless access points. The APs are configured not to block multicast traffic between wired and wireless clients. The switches are configured to be as dumb as possible. All devices are on the same VLAN, IGMP/MLD snooping it set to off so multicast traffic should be flooded out of all ports, flow control is disabled, spanning tree is turned off and there are no port restrictions at all. The firewall is a Unifi security gateway will all IDS/IPS and QOS disabled along with deep packet inspection set to off. There are no outbound restrictions and inbound connections are blocked subject to stateful inspection. There is double NAT’ing involved though once on the gateway and once on a Draytek router that also has all security and traffic management disabled.
However even local tracks from a QNAP NAS that is also hosting Roon server fail to play. Roon indicates that audio files are slowly loading and it briefly looks as if a track is playing, without audio, before quickly skipping to the next track.
I have a Flex 2 (Not 2i) that works much better but is still kind of laggy and slow. Anyone have any ideas or suggestions?
Thanks in advance,
Anthony.
Hi @Anthony_Howard,
I thought I’d write as I am also using a Bluesound Soundbar 2i and a Flex 2i (I realise you have the previous version). I had very similar problems when using them with Roon. Music drops after a few seconds, long delays (15+ seconds) for playback to start, disappearing from Roon altogether etc etc. I am using a Synology RT2600ac and the Flex 2i is 6 ft away (line of sight). The soundbar is at the next room. Roon support was very helpful as always but in the end they referred me to Bluesound support which in the end bounced me back to Roon support… you get the idea. Not a pleasant experience.
The only way I found that resolved the problems was to use powerline adapters and connect the bluesound speakers via ethernet that way. The problems have been completely resolved. I know this is not a solution to the WiFi issues but a way around the problems. If you can find a way to accommodate this solution I strongly recommend it. I struggled for over a year with the WiFi issues when using Bluesound and Roon together.
Hope you get things working as painlessly as possible
PS: I would recommend you completely avoid the Bluesound support experience.
Thanks for your response. I had secretly resigned myself to that but thought now I have wireless working fine with the BluOS app that someone may have been able to point out something basic that I had overlooked in getting Roon to work.
My feeling is that although the BluOS app works that the issue is still with Bluesound and not Roon. It has taken me a long time to get a few 2i soundbars, one with two Flex 2is in a HT group, to work with any reliability at all. My experience with Bluesound support was so bad it caused me to go elsewhere when I expanded my whole house experience. Even though I already have them I am still sorely tempted to just throw my current Bluesound devices in a skip and replace them in keeping with the rest of the house.
Either way I think Roon has a responsibility not to list the 2i devices as compatible given the sheer amount of issues reported. Or failing that at the very least caveat that the Bluesound might need to be wired.
I will run some cables through over the next few days and hopefully I will be able to use Roon the way it was intended.
I totally agree with you Anthony. I am certain you will find that Roon works well once you connect the Bluesound devices via ethernet. I don’t have experience with the Flex 2i as surrounds though.
Like you, I had such a terrible experience with Bluesound support that I wanted to have nothing to do with the devices. For a while I did not use them at all. I came back to them because they are the only truly compact solution that offers Roon alongside Spotify and Airplay 2. The latter 2 are mandatory for family members (i.e. everyone but me) who will not go near Roon.
I find that RPi3 with Volumio is a lot more stable and reliable for Roon operation, even with WiFi alone. Unfortunately, when considering whole home audio (e.g. Kitchen counters, bedside tables etc), an RPi3 +PSU + dac + amp + speakers … is not feasible. Great for the main hifi / desktop system but not possible for whole home audio.
So that leaves us with Bluesound as the only solution for the purpose. Alternatively you have Sonos but if you want to use Roon and be able to group all end points for synced playback, you have to go all the way with Sonos. Sadly, if you do that then you cannot apply Roon DSP. In addition, the ‘Roon lost control’ situation does pop up with sonos every now and again. The upcoming Sonos S2 is also a concern … will Roon continue working? will there be instability with it? who knows… Not that I trust Bluesound. For all we know, a new bug may pop up after a firmware update and then it is back to the Bluesound support ping pong.
it will be great to get an update when you get the chance to try a solution.
Cheers
I now have two identical systems consisting of a Soundbar 2i, 2x Flex 2i and 2x Pulse Subwoofers both in HT groups with identical configurations except device names and fixed IP addresses on the same subnet as my Roon core. Both are hardwired to identical Ethernet switches for the Soundbars and the flexes to identical remote powerline extenders connecting to the same extender plugged into one of the switches.
Only one can be seen by Roon. The one that can be seen performs much better than wireless but still has a few glitches of things not starting without play being pressed a few times and general laggy behaviour. I have given up on Roon and just use the BlueOS controller app that seems to work fine.
I am replacing all my switches next week so might try Roon again at that point but honestly I am fed up of the whole Bluesound experience and Roon doesn’t help with that given the BluOS controller works much better.
Hi Anthony, really sorry to hear about the problems you are having. I can understand the frustration.
My setup is less complex than yours with only powerline ethernet connectors involved (no switches). I imagine you already know this but just in case… I found that the powerline extenders need to be plugged directly on the wall socket for the system to be stable. I once tried to plug the TP Link powerline ethernet on a 4 socket extension and that introduced connection issues. I am certain you already know this but just worth mentioning. My TP Link extenders are controlled via an an app (tpPLC) which shows the connection ‘health’ / strength between each ethernet unit and the router. I notice that the longer the distance from the router, the higher the degradation of the connection speed / strength. I also notice that if I connect my laptop to one of the ethernet units and run a speedtest, the ping sometimes doubles (as compared to wifi direct with the router). It does all work in my case but I can imagine there may be issues if the distance to the router is great. If you are not totally fed up with trying things, it might be worth plugging one of the Bluesound Flex 2i speakers directly to your router to see if it then becomes visible through Roon. If yes then i would plug a powerline ehternet extender somewhere close (ish) to the router without a switch. Thus gradually ruling out variables…
Best
Yiannis
I don’t think the Flexes will show up by themselves as the are part of an HT group. They are connected to Devolo Magic 3 powerlines with about 200mb stable. Pings are usually 1ms with the occasional bump to 2-4ms but no more. The Soundbars are connected to Ethernet switches and can see all the other Bluesound devices in the diagnostic page. I get no reports from the controller about the HT group failing so that all seems to be working fine especially as the rears and subs are active when using the HDMI input.
All speakers are on the same subnet so don’t go near my router at all which is on the other side of a Unifi security gateway. The Devolos go into the same switch as the working HT group with a single link to the other switch which has the Core and the non working group attached to it. They have a power profile specifically for VDSL 17a so shouldn’t have any problems there.
Everything works fine in the BluOS controller so I am inclined to leave it be until I have replaced all the switches.
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Ah yes, sorry I missed that bit regarding HT setup. I understand why you prefer to wait for the switches