Latency and Synchronization Challenges in Mixed-Endpoint Setup (ref#WRDET1)

Support
1

Hi! What’s not quite right with Roon?

· None of the above quite fits

None of the above quite fits

· None of these quite match

Tell us what's going on

· Hello Roon Support Team,
I would like to clarify a latency and synchronization limitation in a mixed-endpoint Roon setup.
Setup
Roon Core: [your Core device]
High-latency endpoint: StormAudio processor running Dirac ART (multi-channel FIR / inter-speaker processing)
Low-latency endpoint: Bluesound (Roon Ready)
Endpoints are used in different rooms and occasionally grouped
Observation When grouping the StormAudio (with Dirac ART enabled) with the Bluesound zone, there is a clearly audible delay/echo between rooms.
From a DSP perspective this is expected, as Dirac ART introduces significant system latency (FIR filters, look-ahead, group interaction).
Background In earlier Roon versions (pre-1.8), manual per-zone delay offsets were available.
This allowed compensating slower DSP-based zones by delaying faster endpoints and worked reliably for this use case.
Current state
Manual per-zone delay offsets are no longer available
“Resync delay” only affects buffering on format changes and does not influence inter-zone timing
Bluesound does not provide a usable delay control for Roon streaming
As a result, high-latency DSP endpoints (StormAudio + Dirac ART) cannot be time-aligned with low-latency Roon Ready devices
Questions
Can you confirm that manual per-zone delay offsets were intentionally removed and are no longer supported?
Is this scenario (high-latency DSP endpoints vs low-latency endpoints) a known design limitation?
Is there any supported workaround today?
If not, could this please be logged as a feature request for advanced DSP systems (StormAudio, Trinnov, FIR-based processing, Dirac ART)?
I fully understand the technical challenges (dynamic latency with ART, grouping stability).
I would mainly appreciate an official confirmation and documentation of the current design constraints.
Best regards,
Armin Hoh

Tell us about your home network

· All endpoints connected via ethernet , main listening zone: stormaudio core 16 with Dirac ART, other zones : 2x bluesound node (w/o Dirac), 3x B&W flex in stereo , roon Server on Intel NUC with Linux

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Hello @Armin_Hoh !

We’re sorry to see you are having a problem with syncing your devices in group.

Grouping of the devices using different protocols (USB/HDMI & RAAT) can bring noticeable delays.

However, we’d recommend you to take a look at the setting in device set up called “Clock master priority”, it will allow you to manage which device’s timings should be observed as a main device.

Also, the option to delay the device playback in zone is not gone, it’s there and called now “Zone grouping delay”.

If you want to deal with it manually, just enter the setup page of your StormAudio device and set it to start playback with desired delay.

let us know please if you have any questions or problems with setting it up.

Regards

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