QoBuz not working with Roon Radio

Core Machine (Operating system/System info/Roon build number)

Roon Nucleus v 1.6, build 416, Roon app running on MacBook with Mojave

Network Details (Including networking gear model/manufacturer and if on WiFi/Ethernet)

NetGear router

Audio Devices (Specify what device you’re using and its connection type - USB/HDMI/etc.)

dcs Bartok using ethernet to connect to Nucleus

Description Of Issue

I’m looking into switching from Tidal to Qobuz, but am running into a problem with Roon Radio. Roon Radio has been great with Tidal, accessing both Tidal as well as my library, which has been a great way to explore new music. Trying to do the same thing with Qobuz has been successful with rock or jazz artists, but when I try to start Roon Radio with a classical artist (like Academy of Ancient Music - not someone obscure) it first queues up a piece (often with multiple parts), but after playing for a few seconds I get “Error: Roon Radio can’t find similar music”, then “Choices will be limited to your library”.

I had read that classical music was supposed to be a strength of Qobuz, and indeed there are 39 different recordings by the Academy of Ancient Music listed in Qobuz, plus innumerable other variations of similar music. Does anyone have any insights why Roon Radio seems not to work with classical music on Qobuz?

Hi @Michael_Turner,

Thanks for reaching out! The team is currently investigating this behavior and we will be sure to reach out once we have more information available.

Thanks for the report, it’s appreciated!

I think what you are describimg is a mash-up of two separate problems.

There are many new reports of roon radio not working at all with streaming services (Qobuz or Tidal) regardless of seeded genre. There are a lot of reports of roon not finding anything similar and resorting to local libraries. I think this is a new problem. Maybe roon is changing things in background preparing for a new release that is not working as smoothly as normal.

The other issue is regardlesss of these version upgrades or tehnical changes. The question is do you have an emotional response to roon radio logic and playback at all? From what we are told this latest radio AI addresses this but I am unconvinced. Most of the time it sounds very simplistic and contrived to me. I am in the process of moving house so it is entirely possible that all I am hearing is the difference between my temporary system and my main system and not roon at all. But I
don’t know. I have been listeming to a lot of CD’s recently (very unusual for me) I was stunned by the difference to the ripped versions TBH. And my wife always said roon sounds rubbish and won’t use it.

Thanks for your reply, Tony. I’ve used Roon Radio a fair bit - mostly with Tidal - and been pretty happy with it. An occasional hiccup, but mostly it’s functioned quite well. This new problem with Qobuz - and only on classical music - is a really odd one. As far as my response to the radio logic, I’ve found it to be pretty good overall. There have been a few times when it went down a path that didn’t make much sense to me, but overall the music it’s pulled up has been relevant and I’ve discovered a fair bit of new music I’ve liked.

CDs vs Roon (and music servers generally) is definitely an evolving capability. It’s until recently been my experience that CDs on a good player have sounded better than music servers (computer clocks, jitter, etc make accurate playback difficult). I recently found a DAC that has caused me to take the CD player out of my system, a dcs Bartok, but I understand there are a few other ones out there that are also really good. But until the Bartok I always used a CD player for any “serious” listening, and had the music server for background music. Now I just have a Roon Nucleus/dcs Bartok source, which I’m really happy with, and vinyl.

Regards

That’s great that roon radio is working for you.

I think I was trying to say something else. I was listening to roon radio a lot as for me this was the main point of a computer audio based system.

However, we are moving house and for various reasons I am not listening to roon or roon radio but the CD’s instead. There is no comparison. The CD’s are so much better.

An update for you, Dylan: this morning I logged out of Qobuz and back into Tidal, then started up Roon Radio. It again worked just fine with Rock and Jazz, but crashed every time I tried to use Roon Radio for classical. So seems like there’s likely something going on with your classical selection algorithms, and that it’s not a Qobuz-specific problem (which, as an ex-software guy, probably makes more sense).

Hello!

I have always this message “Choices will be limited to your library” with Qobuz since a few weeks.

Michael

I have exactly the same issue. see the thread ‘Trouble starting Radio with Classical Albums’.

Dylan

Do you think it makes sense to merge the two threads.

That other thread is dead on the issue - and looks like it has popped up just about the same time I started having the problem. Combining them, or even just deleting the thread I started, would probably make sense.

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