Problems with Bluesound Integration

[Chris_Fay]

Hi,

@support

I started a Roon trial to get the best out of my Bluesound system.
I had issues from the start and it got so complicated I cancelled my trial.
A helpful Roon sales team member offered to extend my trial so I could try and sort out my issue/s with the help of Roon support.

Without help from support I managed to get a few weeks of blissful ROON/Bluesound integration. Then suddenly, without having changed anything in the way of hardware or software, Roon failed to recognise my Bluesound equipment.

All my Bluesound endpoints work fine playing when accessed through the Bluos Controller, but Roon said the were no audio devices available. I tried uninstalling Roon Core and the Roon Remote, but this didn’t do much.

If I unlug the Powernode, then plug it back in, the Roon recognises it. The speakers, Pulse 2 and Pulseflex don’t get recognised, but I don’t know if they are supposed to or not, am pretty sure all my audio devices showed in Roon previously. I can play Roon through the devices if I control the output to the speakers via the Bluos controller app.

I was up and running again, then after some hours, music stopped, and it appeared to be because the Powernode had disappeared from the Roon device list again.

Tried connecting with ethernet cable and wireless, doesn’t seem to be any performance difference.

Now I am new to Roon and Bluesound, so it might be me, and know bit about computers, but not really software configuration, so any help needs to be in a simpleton’s language.

Here’s my equipment and configuration details:

Roon Version 1.6 (build 390) stable (64 bit)
Bluesound Powernode
Bluesound Pulse 2
Bluesound Pulseflex

Roon remote: HTC M One 9 mobile device

Roon Core: HP Envy dv9 laptop
Intel Core i7-3630QM CPU 2.40 GHZ, 8GB RAM, 64 bit OS

Software: Windows 10 Home, Version 1803, OS Build 17134.523

Modem: Netcomm NF4 2.4 GHZ, 802.11n, Intel Centrino Wireless N-2230

Hopefully someone can assist, I have one week left in my trial and would really like to have the confidence in Roon to actually fork out money as I long as I know I’ll be listening to music (fun) and not trying to configure software/hardware (not fun).

Thanks

Chris

[dylan (Dylan Caudill)]

Hi @Chris_Fay,

Please accept our apologies for the delay here!

First, can you confirm whether or not there is any other networking hardware in use?

Can you also confirm that your Bluesound devices are on the latest firmware version?

On the Core machine do you have any active antivirus or firewall? If you temporarily disable them is there any change in behavior here?

[Chris_Fay]

Thanks for the reply Dylan

There is no other netwrking hardware in use
All Bluesound equipment has up to date firmware.
The Core machine has no active antivirus but does run Windows Defender Firewall.

Two days ago I had everything running perfectly through Roon.
Yesterday, came home, tried to listen to music through Roon, no devices found.
I rebooted everything and half an hour later, things were running again, and listened all evening with no issues.

Confidently, then I tried grouping my Powernode/Pulse 2/Pulseflex. I then had each of these showing with the separate controls,replicating the Bluos Controller. Trouble is, increasing the Powernode volume slider also increase the volume control for the Pulse 2 and Pulseflex, adjusting the volume controls individually for these had no effect. Am I misinterpreting the grouping function? I want to have all Bluesound endpoint controls showing and being adjustable individually without having to go into Bluos to do this.

Now, fast forward to this morning - I played an album, only to have tracks only play for 34 seconds, then a message popped up saying Tidal was loading slowly and there maybe be a networking issue. It would then play the next track for 34 seconds, display the same error message,then skip to the next track,and so on.

To test, I uninstalled Roon, played the same album through Tidal in Bluos, with no issues.
The I reinstalled Roon, played in Roon, problem reoccured. Then in a light bulb moment, I removed the grouping of the endpoints, and hello, problem went away!

I know it’s hard trying to troubleshoot, especially when I keep getting different issues occuring.
Sometimes it’s hard to know if the issue is with Bluesound/Tidal/Roon/Network a combination of these or elsewhere,

Hopefully the above descriptions might provide a clue?

[dylan (Dylan Caudill)]

Thanks for the info here, @Chris_Fay!

Can you verify how your Core machine is connected to the network (Ethernet vs WiFi) as well as how the Bluesound devices are connected? As mentioned in our networking guide, we always recommend connecting your Core via Ethernet for optimal performance. Same goes for networked devices if possible. For the purpose of our troubleshooting here, having things connected via Ethernet would be a great place to start!

Now, fast forward to this morning - I played an album, only to have tracks only play for 34 seconds, then a message popped up saying Tidal was loading slowly and there maybe be a networking issue. It would then play the next track for 34 seconds, display the same error message,then skip to the next track,and so on.

To test, I uninstalled Roon, played the same album through Tidal in Bluos, with no issues.
The I reinstalled Roon, played in Roon, problem reoccured. Then in a light bulb moment, I removed the grouping of the endpoints, and hello, problem went away!

So just to verify, when you ungrouped and only played to one device, things worked okay? When you’re grouping the Bluesound devices are you doing this in Roon or in the Bluesound app?

When you re-group the devices do the TIDAL playback issues reoccur?

In the past, we have seen TIDAL performance improve by using Google DNS. Can you give that a try and see if that helps with grouped playback at all?

[Chris_Fay]

Hi Dylan

Core and Powernode are Ethernet, Pulse 2 and Pulseflex are wireless.

Chris

[dylan (Dylan Caudill)]

Hi @Chris_Fay,

So just to verify, when you ungrouped and only played to one device, things worked okay? When you’re grouping the Bluesound devices are you doing this in Roon or in the Bluesound app?

When you re-group the devices do the TIDAL playback issues reoccur?

In the past, we have seen TIDAL performance improve by using Google DNS . Can you give that a try and see if that helps with grouped playback at all?

[Chris_Fay]

Hi Dylan

Well every day I use Roon there seemed to be a new and different issue arise. So wasn’t really able to answer your questions properly…but I have had a weird solution present itself. For some reason Roon completely ignores some of my Bluesound end points, regardless of rebooting etc. One day it will recognise only my Pulse, next day, the Powernode, then the next day Powernode and Pulseflex but not the Pulse, However when, say ,only one of them shows in my player list, when I actually play music, the music does play from all my end points. For the last few days, there has been some consistency, with the only zone that displays in Roon being the Pulse. When I play through Roon, It shows only one Zone, and therefore one volume control etc, but I can then open my Bluos App and control the individual zones through that as Bluos always recognises all my connected players. So if I want to play music through all my zones, I just set the individual volumes through the Bluos app, then I can adjust the volumes for all of then at the same time, through the single volume slider in Room, in affect making it work like a grouping function, If i only want one or two end points operating, I just reduce the volume levels in Bluos and control the remainder through Roon.Seems to work fine that way for me.