Roon core and ALAC archive together on NUC8i5BEH?

You might want to change two parameters in your Device setup for the Sonos. First, you might want to increase your Resync Delay. It is often set at Zero. That basically gives Roon and the Device a short period to negotiate the transfer of a new format. Second, you could increase the buffer size.

Thanks! I assume that is (or can be) done from the iOS app for Sonos? Will have to dig into that.

No, that’s through Roon!
Settings>Audio
Select the endpoint (in this case there should be an icon for Sonos, or Airplay…), then click on the gear icon and select Device Setup. You’ll see Resync Delay, and below that there is a toggle for advanced settings where buffer is found.

Hmm, when I get to Device Setup for the Sonos, the visible options are only Volume Control and Volume Limits. If I click on Advanced, the only item added is Multichannel Mixing. No Resync Delay or Buffer Size.

The Sonos pair, incidentally, is shown in the top menu as two different endpoints – one as Sonos via Airplay, and the other as Sonos via Sonos Streaming. However, the device setup options noted above are the same either way.

Sorry about that. I guess if they are not Roon Ready they don’t have those options.
As was said before, this one might need a Support Ticket. It seems to be a common error (Search “Audio File is Loading Slowly”) and there are a zillion different causes/solutions.
The Support guys are very good. They are methodical which frustrates people wanting an instant magic bullet. But that approach invariably gives a solution. They also have tools to query what is wrong on your server.

Yes, I looked at device options for our Bluesound Node 2i’s, and see Resync Delay. Maybe what I’ll do is play around with it all for a few more days to see if any other issues appear, and check out various threads here, and then get in touch with Support. Thanks again for the help.

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ROCK has plusses and minuses. Ont he plus side, its simple and self-updating/managing. Set it and literally forget it. Setup is a bit involved though. Its also optimized in terms of low CPU background load.

On the other hand, as noted, it runs Roon and nothing else. Want to use the same computer and DAC input/cable for Amazon prime music? Nope. To play a great performance on Youtube? Nope. To use the native inetrface of radio paradise to your DAC? Nope. For pandora, Apple Music, etc? Nope.

So, trade offs.

I have roughly the same NUC you bought running ROCK. I do like it. But in terms of sound and performance i get almost identical sound and performance from an 11-year old MacBook Pro with a single drive. Note this is in a system that would retail for over $35,000 if most of it was not prototype equipment either from my own firms or partners or self-made. So all this jabber about power and background noise is just that - jabber. Maybe the one exception is if you are using very heavy SDP apps, btu i then ask “why?” and “have you really evaluated the trade offs?”. Its very very good, but DSP is not sonically transparent.

G