I’ve been using Roon for several years now and for the most part I have enjoyed the experience. I do believe it to be the best music engagement software available. Lately my enjoyment is waning. I’m accustomed to coming home from work and pressing Lutron Home button and my integrated home lights up with all the features I’ve programmed.
Recently Roon has become a weak link in this usually pleasant experience. I don’t have a very large library [~8000 albums, ~5000 from NAS, the remainder from Tidal and Qobuz]. Roon is taking several minutes to populate my library and several more to play the selected Lp. It plays Tidal randomly. My remotes are constantly in need of reconnect to Core.
For the past month I’ve switched to using Audirvana because it just works. I enjoy the sound of Audirvana more, its just that the UI is nasty, comparatively. I really want Roon to function as it has in the past years so I can get back to just enjoying the music.
Rant over.
If it’s slow it’s more likely a system performance or networking issue so raise a #support thread and fill in the info requested then you might get some help to determine what the issue is.
You don’t mention what hardware you are using as your roon server. Is it possible the hardware selected back a few years ago, is now more sluggish with the major, and all the minor updates to roon over the years? You never really noticed it until the cumulative impact finally showed up.
I think you have a point @RICHARD_DOWNS. I’m running a 2018 Mac Mini with 8g of ram. It’s being pushed in that its loaded with Audirvana, Plex and Roon. I don’t want to turn it into a support issue bc I’m also running macOS beta Monterey. Considering memory boost or new mini. Waiting for full Montery OS to arrive to decide.
?: i know many here have more, but who in their right mind would consider a library of 8000 albums not ‘very large’ ?? let’s get some perspective here.
and, i do think it’s incumbent upon users to self-diagnose if their issue du jour happens to be largely a result of local network or bandwidth issues, before leveling quasi-accusations at roon.app. it’s not fair to others who are looking to this forum to formulate opinions about how this eco-system works.
Nothing wrong with my mind. Maybe my circle is different than yours. Sorry if I offended.
well. ditto. no offense meant.
Does the performance or Roon improve if you restart the Roon server, then degrade over the next few days? If so this is likely memory related. I’ve found that with even 16GB of RAM (M1 Mac mini) Roon will slow down every few days as more and more memory is used. There are quite a few threads on this subject (don’t have the time to dig them out right now) that suggest that there’s an issue with the way in which Roon manages memory on a Mac.
Next time you’re experiencing an issue take a look at the memory pressure section at the bottom of the Activity Monitor app.
I’m currently in the green - not much running, and rebooted about 18 hours ago - but I bet I’ll be in amber territory in a day or so if I don’t reboot Roon server. At that point, Roon will start to slow down.
When I was considering roon a few years ago, I researched all the available options and decided to go with ROCK on a NUC. My son convinced me what NUC to get and how to outfit it with memory etc. Easily installed ROCK (a self-contained Linux image), and the rest as they is history.
It has been the most reliable combination of hardware and software of anything I’ve built the past ten years. It sits on my sever shelf and just works. Occasionally, I’ll have to reboot it after a power outage, but it is consistently reliable. Roon does a magnificent job of keeping the software updated and except for an occasional update notice I barely know it’s there.
Together, the NUC, ROCK, my NAS, and all my end-points the system is easily the best whole-house digital music organizer and playback system I have used.
ROCK is a solid piece of Linux software, and just keep on rock’n. 
My Roon experience has also changed.
I had almost a full year of frustration, didn’t give up, read and learned a lot and now hope to know enough so that the current fascination remains.
I appreciate the helpful community and had waited too long to accept that help as well.
Much frustration and poor experience I have charged myself and made my life with IPv6, incorrect settings, etc. harder than necessary. If you read a lot here, you get a lot of knowledge to fix the problems, but all the problems in the world no community always solves immediately.
I hope the Roon team stays motivated and committed and can continue to optimize response times. Personally, I would have seen two problems still in further optimization:
- memory structure MacOS / Debian Linux and derivatives.
- speed increase for very large databases based on the most suitable operating system base
However, this is not to be done in the short daily business…
@RICHARD_DOWNS I hear much about the benefits of NUC and of course Nucleus+. However, being the obstinate fellow I am I don’t want to sacrifice the HDMI output of the Mac onto a 75 in screen. The screen may be my problem [sucking memory] though. Going to test this weekend.
Thanks for your suggestion.
Did the issues start when you installed the beta Monterey?
Having been a macOS developer for a number of years, you cannot trust beta versions of macOS to behave!
I always consider the beta OS to be the culprit however I try to over come it. I have Roon accounts at work but only Monterey at home wants to misbehave. Just waiting for Apple to release the GM, and Roon to update to it. Then no more beta for Roon.
Moving Core from your Mac to a NUC running Roon OS will not require you to sacrifice the HDMI output of your Mac to your big display.
Nucleus or ROCK require only two connections: Ethernet and Power. You’ll continue to interact with Roon exactly as you do now via your Mac and 75 in screen. The only difference is that everything will be more stable and responsive.
If you decide to make this change, I suspect you’ll be kicking yourself for not doing sooner, just like me.
Since I have not been around that long, but am making quick and great learning strides in the community, I would like to share an assumption/observation that is confirmed or corrected by others with many years of experience.
further text deleted, because much seems to be simply wrong. I will have to deal with it further.