Roon + Bluesound problems [fixed by BluOS update]

Support
101

@danny has had quite a bit to say about this before. Anything to add here?

102

No. I’ve said all I can.

103

As a potential customer on trial this makes both Roon and Bluesound less likely a purchase. It seems the only way to listen to Roon is with computers (which means Rasberry Pi too) which makes the whole ecosystem a bit geeky for me.
The great thing about Bluesound Flex was the convenience, the 5 buttons on the top, the volume control. RPi is fine but…fiddly. And no physical volume control.

1 Like
104

Hi all,
please allow the question why Bluesound should invest a lot effort in a Roon integration?

  • Their solution framework supports a large number of streaming services like Amazon, Deezer, Qubuz, Spotify, …

  • Bluesound has a working MQA implementation for streaming and local files

  • They have more than one internet radio integration

  • Their multiroom / multichannel option works ok

Don’t get me wrong, but even as a Roon lifetime member I assume Roon / the small number of Roon customers are just not relevant / attractive enough for Bluesound compared to the required investment to adapt the new API / SDK.

Roon is missing a couple of “core” features (e.g. other streaming services) to remain / become relevant.

Sorry

bye
Markus

105

Hi Markus,

I think that’s a very reasonable question to be asking in terms of their business model. The difficulty though is that they have already chosen to go down this path, happily taking (perhaps a small number of) customers with them, and they seem fairly ambivalent about leaving them stranded.

1 Like
106

I had Bluesound (and other devices) in use before we added Roon, so I’m not disappointed here. But if it would have been the other way round …

1 Like
107

I have two Bluesound devices and I think they sound and work great. I am prepared to wait for the final software finish which will sort the MQA through Roon issue. They have been pretty rock solid for me otherwise. If MQA decoding comes to Roon first, it will be a fairly mute point, so it’s win/win really. (I know it won’t be fully unfold)

108

Hi Markus,

As @dhusky mentioned, BlueSound has already chosen to be a Roon Ready partner. This means that they have committed to have their products “Roon Ready”.

In my opinion multi-room playback is core Roon Ready functionality, so with the current syncing issue we can conclude BlueSound is not “Roon Ready”. This might be misleading for new customers that see BlueSound listed as a Roon partner.

Now for me personally, I had my Node2, Pulse Mini and lifetime Roon sub before the Roon/■■ partnership. I’m still very happy with both Roon and my BlueSound devices, even with the syncing issue.

I just think that users should know multi-room playback from Roon to BlueSound doesn’t work. BlueSound should either commit to their partnership by fixing the issue, or end the partnership. Hopefully they will choose to do the first because I think their partnership does make sense.

3 Likes
109

Hi dibb,
absolute fine for me.
We have near to zero issues with sync, and/or can use the Bluesound grouping, so I have no presure here.
I’m not 100% sure, but if I remember right, the multiroom option with Roon and Bluesound was already working fine with one of the previous SDK versions - this was my “trigger”. Why should they fix something what was already working? They may not benefit from the new SDK version!?!
The MQA story is a complete other topic with a far more complex dependency tree - I’d prefer not to comment on this one here.
Removing the “Roon Ready” lable would be just fair for the moment.
bye
Markus

110

@dibb staring that multiroom playback with roon does not work is not entirely correct. I for one have 0 issues with multi room syncing ising a powernode2+pulse Flex. It seems the issue pops up with specific devices in the mix…not all are affected

111

Steve, can I ask if you have tried syncing with a non Bluesound end point? For example grouping Pulse Flex with a non bluesound Roon End point? If so, do they stay in sync in your system?

Cheers

112

Hi @stevev1,

My assumption here that this isn’t some kind of edge case, but an issue affecting a substantial user base. This assumption is based on the number of people complaining (here and over at BS). The number of people actually being affected is probably larger than the number of people taking the effort to complain about it.

Although I’m glad it works for you and hopefully many others, I think there are just too many people complaining to say the feature “works”.

113

@Yiannis_Kouropalatis Yes it works

1 Like
114

True but it also means that probably it works for many others as well.
Have you tried grouping in BluOs app and then playing through roon? This seems to often help those affected

115

You’re probably and hopefully right.
Yes, grouping in the BluOs app is the workaround I’ve been using. That works for me. :slight_smile: Thanks.

116

Ah so there IS the possibility of BS and Roon (non BS) endpoints staying in sync!
As an experiment I raised a support ticket about the sync issues with Bluesound and they said it is network dependent.

117

I was told the same thing by Bluesound. This was about two months ago.

They suggested that the sync problem I experience is due to “Roon’s heavy network loading during playback”. I proceeded to hard wire everything via Ethernet and problem persisted with Node 2 and Pulse Flex. This ruled out (I think) the possibility that the sync issue is network dependent. Bluesound support then suggested that I should contact Roon for a solution to the problem.

118

And Roon possibly provided a solution with their RAAT update which BlueSound did not implement.

2 Likes
119

Precisely.

120

What about the Auralic Aries Mini?