Roon folks… I love Roon… when it works. Which is not often.
Core:iMac M1 running macOS Monterey, 8GB of Ram
The core is connected over wifi. wifi speeds are several hundred Mbps
Endpoints: Naim Muso 2, Naim NDX2, Naim Uniti Nova
I consistently get devices dropping. I have to restart the computer often. While playing, music will stop.
I was excited to see Roon ARC. But it doesn’t work for me.
The library is all Tidal. I don’t have local files.
I want a platform that I don’t need to tinker with. I just needs to work.
The Naim app is horrible for music discovery and navigation is terrible. But it never drops.
Please help. It just needs to work, with zero fuss. I pay good money for it work.
Give at least a trial with ethernet cables for both, the roon server and the endpoints. I would not be surprised, if Wi-Fi is a root cause of your outages
It is hard to compare Roon streaming with what you do with the Naim app
I can’t because of where the core is situated. But my point is that with 300+ Mbps of wifi speeds, it should just work. I get that its a complex piece of software, but it should be zero fuss.
Yes, it should work.
But testing with cables is meaningful.
Just get some long Ethernet cables and lay them over the living room floor, up or down stairs, whatever you need to do. This is just a temporary test. Doesn’t matter if it is ugly.
If that fixes it, you can look at various ways to permanently fix it.
Pulling Ethernet cables inside walls or under floors, or outside the walls (!).
Or switch to a better WiFi system — I have used Eero and swear by it, although I now have a wired house.
You don’t consider jitter and delay, as well connectivity dropouts, changing channel conditions or radio environments. I can endlessly write, why Wi-Fi could be “bad” for applications like Roon.
Agree with everything - except the ‘jitter’ bit. Interference, clutter, congestion, just about any common Wi-Fi problems could be causing this - except jitter. Jitter has nothing to do with Wi-Fi.
I used to have all sorts of issues too until I got my Core hardwired to a switch .
Like you I was reluctant to go to these lengths ……but if you don’t you will probably always have issues .
No! Powerline adapters can also cause issues.
A straight wire connection end to end is the only test worth doing initially to get wifi out of the picture.
I’m fortunate to have a fully wired network. But my WiFi is rock solid using a Unifi setup. I can lock equipment to access points and much much more. I can run my core and endpoints and 15 other WiFi devices all on my WiFi without issues.
If the OP means 300mbps WiFi, then they need better WiFi equipment
well, core should be on direct ethernet (at least CAT5) but DAC can be via power adapter-ethernet.
other ‘end points’ such as Bluesound devices - speakers can be on WiFi
It has less to do with your gear-setup. The radio environment, powerlevels, the channel conditions, interference who changes, even if you move sender or transceivers just a bit etc. count way more, how bad or good the wireless throughputs are…
I have a Naim Atom on 5 GHz wireless and a Nucleus+ wired to my wifi router. I can’t remember the last time it dropped, though I don’t have Tidal. My closest neighbor is about 200 feet away from me, so I don’t have much if any wifi interference from anyone else.
I did have more dropping issues in the past though. I thought older versions of Roon may have been at fault, but I can’t say that with certainty. I eventually discovered (with many hours of testing and luck) that my wifi router was troublesome.
I thought my wifi router was rock solid. It worked for everything else - web, video streaming, vpn for work, etc. and I never had a single issue. However, I found two songs that would always drop on the Atom at nearly the same time when played via Roon. Since my router was quite old, I finally decided to just get a new one. That resolved my issue, and those two songs now play all the way through. If your wifi router is old, you may want to consider a new one. Before doing that though, definitely try some of the other suggestions in this thread first if you can.
Your experience should definitely better than it sounds. Hope you can figure it out.