I own a NAD C368 network receiver that connects through my router to the DS 1618+ using Roon software over wi-fi. For over a year it has worked flawlessly. For about 10 days now it has been very spotty and mostly can’t connect. Spent a week with NAD support on this issue but can’t find the cause. The error I keep getting from Roon is this. “Roon lost control fo the device.” Please help me find the issue.
The “Roon lost control of the device” error means that the device has stopped Roon Ready playback without Roon having requested it.
Since Roon is not requesting this stop, I’m not sure what we could do to resolve this issue for you. I recommend continuing troubleshooting with the NAD support team.
Additionally, I’ve scheduled some testing with our in-house NAD C 368 to see if we’re able to reproduce this issue. If we note any issues, we’ll be sure to reach out to the NAD technical team with our findings.
Thanks for your help. My hunch is NAD’s wifi tech is not so good, or I have a defective MDC module that does not fall withing specs on the wifi end of things. Why do I think that? I took a Chromecast Audio puck and placed it in the same location as the NAD wifi dongle and hooked it into line 1 on the amp and it works just fine. If a $30 Chromecast device can get a good wifi signal why can’t the C368? NAD keeps telling me that there is something environmental about my wifi reception where the C368 is. It is 20 feet from my router. Every other device I’ve put in the same place gets excellent signal strength. I feel the C368 either needs to be hard wired, or in my case, I decided to use a Synology MR2200ac and its ethernet port to give the C368 the signal it needs and so I can play MQA. So there is a work around that’s not too expensive, but I’m not pleased that NAD can’t do wifi right.
Any testing you can do to validate my hunch and any work you can do with NAD is appreciated.
I am getting a significant number of Roon has lost control messages on my NAD gear in recent weeks. Control becoming sluggish as well compared to Bluesound app. M10 and C658 seem to be bearing the brunt of it. Not enough of a problem to reach out to NAD yet, as a second press of the play button seems to solve it. I realize to two pieces I mentioned are not Roon certified yet - but I thought a reply here was warranted in that both pieces are connected via Ethernet to a very stable WiFi network. So WiFi may not really be the thing.
My issue is a bit different. Only when I’m on wifi do I have issues and the C368 disappears from the list of devices to stream to. But if I connect it to ethernet with a cable it works just fine.
I have notice NAD does not list Roon as a feature on their products page. They list MQA on some products and Apple Airplay, but not Roon. Perhaps they want customers to use their own BluOS platform. That would be a shame. Roon is so much better.
We tested the NAC C 368 in our QA lab via ethernet and did not note any issues during our testing. It’s difficult to extrapolate these results to your issues via WiFi, it’s simply impossible to emulate the specific wireless conditions of your environment. If you can use other WiFi audio devices without issue in the same location, I’d be sure to let NAD know so they can troubleshoot why the C 368 is struggling in the same environment.
Thank you John for doing testing in your lab. I’m not an expert on wifi, but the NAD C368 and an ELAC Discovery Z3 I owned for a short time lead me to believe some audio companies have a ways to go to provided good WiFi technology. I doubt any of them are deploying WiFi building the tech from the ground up. They are probably licensing existing technology and incorporating that into their products. In the case of the NAD and Elac, they both had much greater connectivity issues than my iPhone, or Apple TV, Arlo security cameras, or even Chromecast Audio.
For Roon to work, you need either ethernet throughout a house (not realistic for many of us) or you need endpoints that work well with WiFi when the signal is less than ideal. Given that, I might suggest a testing regimen where you test products with a few standard and controlled WiFi situations where the signal is less than ideal and receives some interference such as a microwave oven. then grade the products so consumers know how well a product plays with WiFi. Or suggest additional equipment may be needed to obtain a stable operating situation.
For me, the NAD C 368 has unreliable WiFi even thought I have excellent signal strength and the unit is less than 20 feet from my router. However using a Synology MR2200ac acts as a WiFi extender and allows me to connect an Ethernet cable from the extender to the NAD and solves the issue. I now have excellent connectivity and it removed the issue of lost connection when running my microwave oven.
Since Roon requires either Ethernet or WiFi instead of Bluetooth I think this is an important area to focus on.
Again, thanks for all your help. Appreciate this level of customer support!