I’m having issues with playback 24/176 and 24/192 music to a Digi+ PRO, in my 2nd system. Basically playback sputters and stops a few seconds later. The issues only arise when the Roon Remote app is opened.
When I play a 24/176 or 24/192 album and close the Roon Remote app, there are no issues with music playing fine. It’s only when launching the Remote app.
This is different to my previous Support issue where launching Roon Remote app killed the WiFi for all wireless devices in the house. That issue has been solved as discussed with @Eric previously
The issues are very rare when I limit max sample rate to 24/96 so I’ve left it at that for now but would prefer to disable the max sample rate setting.
We have the same setup as previously discussed with Eric.
All Roon Remotes and Roon Cores are running the latest V1.3 and Build 200.
Digi+ PRO is connected to a 2GBPS TP Link powerline adapter upstairs.
Downstairs the sonicTransporter i5 and Netgear modem are connected to a TP Link gigabit un-managed switch, all connected to another TP Link 2GBps powerline adapter.
As mentioned, playback is fine with the Roon Remote app closed, even 24/176 and 24/192
When I open the remote app on my Surface Pro 4 or Android phone or iPad, the music sputters and then stops.
It’s fine when I make Roon cap playback at 24/96 though.
I’ve just moved the sonicTransporter i5 into the Digi+ Pro listening room. The TP link powerline has 2 ethernet ports so I’ve plugged the sonicT into this 2nd port.
No issues when I open up Roon Remote apps now.
But I’d rather not have Roon in the listening room - that’s a strong Roon recommendation I remember reading.
Which is technically the lesser of two evils? Roon Core in the same listening room or downsampling 24/176 and 24/192 down to 24/96?
Of course I’d prefer to know why launching any Roon Remote app is doing this when the Roon Core is downstairs.
That was the next thing I was going to ask you to try
Not sure why the ethernet-over-power is screwing things up. I’ve heard enough weird problems with them to have a general sense of distrust. I know @vova (our QA lead) has only negative feelings about that approach too.
Most of the benefits result from audio + computer on a separate power supply with ethernet in between. If the core machine has a fan, that’s a big reason to kick it out of the room, but the ST doesn’t. I’d favor ST in-room + no downsampling over downsampling to 96kHz.
I don’t know what your home looks like, but a plausible evolution of this setup at some point in the future might involve a mesh WiFi system (Orbi, Eero, Google Home, etc). Some of them include ethernet ports at each base station. These seem to be nearly as good as ethernet, with none of the weirdness of trying to accomplish networking over noisy power lines.
Say no more my friend. The sonicT stays in the room then with no down sampling.
I’ll try and keep the most distance between ST and Dac I can.
Btw, I thought Roon is very anti WiF broadcasting in the listening room? Surprised you mentioned a wifi mesh? Or are wifi mesh units different to typical Wifi routers and Wifi bridges?
Unless you mean you prefer a Wifi bridge/mesh system to noisy powerline adapters? Another case of the lesser of two evils?
Having WiFi directly on the device handling the audio is a tradeoff, but ethernet is a decent way to isolate. There’s WiFi signals flying around your house regardless. If they didn’t penetrate walls, they wouldn’t work–so if you’re concerned with passive EMF associated with WiFi, you’d be turning the whole thing off…but no-one does that.
Sure, a 100% ethernet network including the iPads is theoretically “best”, but it’s not practical. Running cables is awful. I’d trade almost anything to avoid a couple of days crawling around the attic fishing wires…
Mesh WiFi seems to be where things are going–it will increase quality of life in other ways too, especially as the number of WiFi only devices continues to increase. I don’t think it’s any worse than having a “normal” WiFi network in your house.
Completely understand that WiFi penetrates walls and that we need it. But I was talking more about having broadcasting devices in the listening room. I remember reading that @danny had seen and done measurements at Meridian and advised against having a wifi router inside the listening room (not completely off of course). If that wasn’t possible, then next best was as far from the Dac as possible.
That’s what I meant by lesser of two evils. If we can’t run ethernet anywhere, do you prefer WiFi routers inside the listening room compared with powerline adapters? Assuming the powerline adapter works of course. Which it is now. In my case I’ve moved the ST to the listening Room but still rely on powerline adapters to control playback, and that’s working fine now. In this case, would you still recommend a wifi mesh system, from a noise/technical standpoint?
I will do whatever you recommend. You have way more experience and knowledge with this stuff than me.
Yeah, those measurements are real…I was involved, but this is an optimization problem–resources in, quality out. No absolutes.
Powerline adapters are making bigger audible defects than anything else (dropouts), so this is really more about ST+powerline in listening room vs mesh WiFi bridge in listening room. There are plenty of components in that equation that didn’t exist when those measurements were done.
I think your current setup with ST in listening room should sound very good, and it costs you nothing that you haven’t already spent. So that’s what you should do.
When mesh WiFi makes its way to you–and it will somehow…it’s what the next generation of WiFi infrastructure looks like…you can A-B test and decide which works better for you.
I was hoping you wouldn’t drop the ‘do the A-B test’ thing ! Of course that’s the over arching rule for everything but I wanted to know what’s your recommendation based on stuff you’ve seen and know.
But I completely understand, lot’s has changed from those measurements as you say and there are so many variables in each user’s home. It’s impossible to make a blanket recommendation with so many networking devices out there.
I was trying to see how far I could stretch you until you dropped the A-B thing lol. You did well though and I sincerely thank you for your recommendations and insights
Yes music is playing uninterrupted now with no downsampling which is great and I have a couple meters distance between the ST and Dac, which is better than nothing I guess. And no WiFi router in the room.
Thanks again Brian. Happy for @support to close this now.
I’m not so sure. I currently have an eero mesh network at home (it replaced an Apple Time Capsule with Airport Express extenders). It looks like I have solid signal everywhere all the time and speedtests show internet traffic to be blazingly fast (i get 100mbps from my cable system). That’s the good news. The bad news is that Roon wireless streaming is virtually impossible. I get dropouts every 10-20 seconds both to my laptop in the same room as an eero access point and to a squeezebox in the same room as another access point. The old Apple system had terrible coverage and slow internet, but I could stream without dropouts.
Sorry to hear that. Hope the fantastic Support can help you fix that - @support
I love Roon and the team do an insanely amazing job. But the launching of remote apps for me places a massive strain on our network or some weird network interaction. The actual streaming itself is no issue for me. Just the launching of the remote apps, after it’s been closed after playback has started. While it’s a non issue in my main system now that the core is in there, it’s an issue for the Digi+'s and Dac+ we have around the house, for anything above 24/96.
I know powerline adapters get a bad wrap but we have 100% reliabilty with them all over our house for Netflix streaming with Apple TVs. Launching Roon Remote has some strange network interaction for us for anything above 24/96.
The endpoints that need to have downsampling to 24/96 aren’t for critical listening but I really wish we didn’t need to downsample. And from your experience it seems like the mesh may not be the immediate answer either although we are both just one example, so I shouldn’t jump to conclusions.
Of course that’s the over arching rule for everything but I wanted to know what’s your recommendation based on stuff you’ve seen and know.