We recently noticed that closing the tablet app during playback improves sound quality. Connecting a tablet with a low quality wifi connection yields dropouts.
Perhaps it makes sense to offer an option to disable the progress bar. Otherwise it could be made an asynchronous function so that sound quality is not linked to the network quality of the tablets wifi connection.
I have to say it’s not something I have noticed using Meridian MS200’s
I have a PC, Andriod Tablet and Android Phone for remotes.
Sound quality is always consistent and excellent.
Chris
Hi Larry,
Would you be able to provide some system details, including the zones you were sending audio to in order to help the devs to replicate this. Were you using an Android tablet and sending audio through the tablet ?
Hi @Larry_Mitchell,
Roon’s time critical audio processing is all handled by the RAATservice which is independent of the GUI and administrator functions … handled by Roon.
I’m struggling to understand what might be going on here so I’ll leave a tag for @brian to follow up.
In the meantime, can please provide a brief but accurate description of your current setup as seen here.
The tablet is not in the audio signal path at all. It’s purely a remote control.
I agree, we need a more complete picture of the setup in order to make a better guess here.
@support, take note.
It’d also be good to note the specs of the machine running the Core.
SQ is impacted on a SSD booted Win 10 home i7-6700k, 16gb ram PC running Roonserver/HQplayer upsampling at DSD512, with music sourced from a wired NAS or Tidal. There is a dedicated wireless router and subnet for the audio network with the above tablet, PC and NAS hardwired as the only nodes.
During playback, sound quality is enhanced whenever the display is turned off on an Apple Ipad or Android tablet. In normal operation adding physical distance between the router and tablet lowers wifi signal quality, and at around 2 bars, the sound starts to stutter. Turning off the tablet display stops this behavior.
Please let me know if there is anything else you need to know. I have friends with similar setups at several locations that have made the same observations.
Hi again,
For a complete picture, what DAC are you using and how is it connected?
This issue has been observed with two USB DACs an IFI microIDSD and T+A DAC 8 DSD.
You need a simple faraday cage around your tablet to see if this is leaking electrical noise. Screen on/off sure sounds like it.
Your kidding right?
Sorry, in a hurry when I wrote that… skipped past the stuttering, and thought you were getting buzzing due to the symptom of screen on/off… I once put two mesh strainers around a phone to find the bad buzzing in the presence of phone when it’s screen was on.
Ignore my suggestion 
Lol! No worries Danny.
Any other information I can provide?
‘Turning off the tablet display solves it’ - turning it off completely or simply not having the Roon remote app showing? (Eg using another app unrelated to Roon)
Speaking strictly as a computer guy - your PC needs more memory
Simply not having the Roon app on the display seems to solve it, at least on the iPad. I haven’t played with the Android app much.
+1 for sound impact when using remotes. To clarify, I don’t mean the actual sound quality that plays, rather that the playback sometimes stops when a remote (iPad or iPhone) comes back from sleep mode. I have noted two different behaviours:
A slight nudge on the progress bar kicks things off again. No nudge, the music is paused indefinitely.
The music pauses and then re-commences on its own
Using a Windows 10 PC i7 processor 12GB memory. Wired LAN to 1 Squeezebox Touch, Wireless to another Squeezebox Touch. These are grouped. An old Squeezebox is wireless in a separate group. Here the WiFi is rather weak but works fine most of the times.
Hi @Larry_Mitchell ----- Thank you for the report and the feedback. Both are appreciated. I just want to make sure I have all the correct information based on your posts.
Issue = You are noticing sound quality issues when your display is active on your remote devices. You turn the displays off and the sound quality improves. You have also observed dropouts in audio based on the strength onf the Wifi connection. Correct?
Your setup:
SSD booted Win 10 home i7-6700k, 16gb ram PC running Roonserver/HQplayer upsampling at DSD512, with music sourced from a wired NAS or Tidal.
Remotes = Apple Ipad or Android tablet
DACs = IFI microIDSD and T+A DAC 8 DSD
Can you please provide a description of your network configuration/topology, as well as providing insight into any networking hardware you may be implementing in your setup.
Have you always noticed this behavior with these remote devices OR has this issue only surfaced recently? If this is indeed a recent observation can you think of anything that may have changed in your setup?
Can you confirm if this same behavior is present when using a remote device that is not being accessed through Wifi?
-Eric
Hi Eric,
Thanks for reaching out. Here are the answers to your queries.
Yes, turning off the display enhances sound quality, at both short and long distances from the wifi router. The difference is that sound quality is really bad in the second case until the display is shutdown.
My tablets are an Apple Ipad Air 2, and a Lenovo Tab 2 A10-70. I have observed the same behavior on a friends Ipad mini.
Yes, you have the setup correct. Additionally,I have personally observed the behavior on 3 different networks and know of people in several other locations with the same behavior. My network here is plain vanilla, cable modem>house wifi router (NETGEAR - Nighthawk AC1900) and subnet #1>music wifi router (ASUS RT-N66U) and subnet #2> player PC
No, this behavior has always been there and probably exists in every Roon installation that runs HQPlayer.
I don’t have a remote device that is not accessed via wifi. How do I do that?
Thanks for your support,
Larry
You can download Roon and install it, running as a remote, on a Windows PC or a Mac.