Problems with Roon and Meridian Devices

Hello - I am having problems with Roon and my MERIDIAN devices. After 2-3 seconds (sometimes a few seconds longer) the music stops on both the 861 V8 and the 818 V3. If I choose different endpoints in the house (multiple B&W speakers, Apple HomePod’s, the old MERIDIAN G65/3000/33 devices, etc.) everything works fine and the music plays. CD/DVD/BD via OPPO no problems, LP via 818 also perfect. Only the Roon connection is on strike. ROON Core is a MAC Mini M1. I had the problem earlier also but only rarely, since the music interrupted and started again after a few seconds. Since I have a brand new 861 V8 as a replacement device in the system it got worse. Now I can no longer stream Roon to the M devices, it is also not the Internet, which runs fine and fast. The problem is also with the albums stored on the SSD hard drive, the music goes away after a few seconds, more often the endpoint disappears for a few seconds and then appears again without me having to do anything.
Regards stefan

Stefan you are not alone having trouble with Roon and Meridian devices. Last October after a Roon firmware update, Roon lost control of Meridian endpoints (218, ID40 etc). The Roon team is aware of the problem and we all waiting for a solution. Until then you will have to use any other non meridian Roon endpoint to listen to your Roon music. Roon loses control of Meridian zone players

Hi Georgius - Thanks for your reply and the not very encouraging information. It seems that the Roon people are no longer very connected to the MERIDIAN people and their customers!

I have had multiple Meridian end points (two id40’s four ms200’s and an Ensemble with four zones)connected for a few years without issue. Originally connected through Mac mini and now Nucleus with Zyxtel gigabit switch.

Did you resolve this? I am having the same problem! M218 clicking on and off and disappearing from Roon Nucleus+. Works fine with Apple HomePods.

I’m running roon from a mac via usb into an 818 v3 and no problem

Hi Norman - I am also very happy sonically with my M-System and Roon. Only the ID 40 of my 861 V8 and the ID 41 at the 818 V3 are susceptible to interference in my network. So I always have interruptions when listening to music. All other Roon audio outputs (Total 13 speakers or systems in the house and studio) Since I have given the two MERIDIAN devices fixed IP addresses it is somewhat better, but still not interference free, often interrupts the music and the M device under the falls out of the audio list.
Greetings from the deep Winter in the Swiss Mountains stefan

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There’s a good chance that your network switches (and/or router) are not Meridian-Sooloos friendly.

The Meridian-Sooloos protocol is UDP and the cards are IIRC 10Mbit (i.e. very low). A good number of switches do not handle the Gigabit to 10Mbit UDP transition properly, and packets are dropped.

Hi Joel - thanks for your contribution. Do you have a recommendation for a more compatible LAN hub/switch?

I need 12 ports. Thanks and kind regards stefan

I can see that it says 100/1000Base-T Port on the front of yours. It could be an omission – who uses 10Mbit? – but there’s no “10”.

I don’t run 8+ port switches these days, preferring to spider from room to room. Both my ID41 and 218 are directly connected to Apple networking gear (an Airport Express and Airport Extreme respectively).

I used to use D-Link DGS-1008D switches, but I honestly can’t remember if they worked or not. If you have the opportunity to borrow a switch, you just need to insert it between your current switch and the Meridian endpoint.

I had a similar problem several years ago. I didn’t know about the slow speed of UDP then. I was told that using a wireless network connection was not recommended. After some trial and error and adjusting IGMP Proxy and Snooping settings on my Router, it has been running without a problem (#jinx). I have a Qnap RAID running my Roon server.

I have a MC600 (feeding 4 zones) and 861v8 with ID41 card. Roon could always see the MC600’s endpoints, just not the ID41. I could see the ID41 over the network but it would not play or would stop playing quickly.

I use a Draytek router 2927 and a series of Draytek AP903 access point/range extenders with an unmanaged Cisco switch. The router and access points form a Mesh network. All my wired ethernet is connect to the Cisco Switch with one jumper to the Router.

In my Meridian ID41 connection case, I have a wired jump to an AP903 in my ID41 zone room and then a wireless jump in the same room (with a fixed connection to the wired AP903 in the same room - it used to try to connect to the Router directly which produced a poor result). It now works like a dream. Sadly the ethernet location in that room would otherwise need to be moved or run surface mounted cable - both unlikely to be allowed!!

If you have a really long ethernet cable try connecting it directly - it will probably work - you can then work out how the rest of your network is impacting thereafter.

I like the Draytek gear because they upgraded the firewall processing speed and wireless transmission speeds - better matches my Ultrafast 1gb internet connection. Plus it makes my Roon connection into my ID41 card work!!

Hope this helps.

I always had problems with my music and 7.1 home theater system with the reliable integration of my MERIDIAN (861 V8 and 818 V3 with ID41) devices. Both kept getting interrupted while listening to music over ROON and not being found for a few minutes. I have 14 endpoints spread around the house (all MERIDIAN DSP‘s, B&W and APPLE HomePod’s, a lot of hightec in 260years old Farmhouse :smirk:) however the interference was only with the MERIDIAN 861 and 818 devices. Now I connected to the Ethernet cable from the router first the new 8port NETGEAR switch GS108E-300PES and connected only the two MERIDIAN devices and the MacMini M1 music server as ROON endpoint. From there an Ethernet cable goes to the old 18 port Zyxel switch with all other sound and picture sources. And lo and behold - the disturbances are solved, no more music interruptions! Once again a problem solution that is actually not explainable and logical, but works! Thanks for the suggestions on this forum.
Best regards from the Swiss mountains. stefan

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