Roon loses control of Meridian zone players

Support
51

Thanks Kevin,

I am more than happy to beta test anything you think may help.

Regards

Simon

1 Like
57

Hi, did anyone test the beta? I would love to give this a try @kevin

Best Regards,
Martin

58

Yes, Iā€™ve tested all the beta versions and no further forward with the Meridian equipment. The problem is identical to before.

59

Hi Simon,

Every two or three weeks this bug is causing a problem. Rebooting Roon (not the 218) eventually solves the issue. To bad that the bug fixes in the beta release apparently is not solving the problem.

@Kevin do you have any updates on this?

Best Regards,
Martin

60

I can reboot Roon as many times as I want and it still wonā€™t work, that is to say either a software or hardware reboot of the Nucleus Plus. However as soon as I reboot the Meridian, 218 or 251s, it works. This definitely a Roon issue as this system has remained untouched since this time two years ago and only started playing up with the last update. The beta update has made no difference at all.

61

Hi Kevin,
Is there any update on this issue?

62

We wanted to give everyone here an update as we know that you are all frustrated by this issue as well as our response to date. @Brian and @Danny asked me to jump in and be the point of contact until we have this situation resolved. Please donā€™t hesitate to respond here publicly or to me directly via PM if you feel the need to do so.

First off, in the interest of transparency itā€™s important to understand how we got into this situation. In October we were contacted by Meridian with a bug report that involved network connections between Meridian devices and the Roon core being mishandled in such a way that playback would fail. This report came with a very clear set of steps needed to replicate the issue and in doing so we were able to quickly isolate and fix the problem. This was a long-standing bug which dated back to the Sooloos days.

At roughly the same time we began to see reports of playback failures involving Meridian devices and as the symptoms looked similar we assumed that these were manifestations of the same bug. As such we informed customers and Meridian that the fix to this problem was forthcoming in our next release.

In the interest of relieving some pain for the users impacted we decided to roll out this fix in a limited release to a small group. Much to everyoneā€™s surprise it was discovered that the fix that we implemented had no impact on the wider problem that has been reported here.

Ultimately, we made a critical error in evaluating the reports coming in and in doing so based our response on a faulty assumption. This is an obvious failure in our process and one which we will take steps to ensure isnā€™t repeated.

At this point we have done a complete reset internally so that we donā€™t get into another situation where a bad assumption leads down the wrong path. We have a plan in place to determine the root cause of this problem and once that is done it will be turned over to engineering with the highest priority.

I would like nothing more than to give you an estimate as to when we think we will be releasing a fix, but any timeframe that I present at this point would simply be me making stuff up. Rest assured that we are truly embarassed as to how this has been handled to date and making a quick recovery to do right by our customers has the team very motivated.

Iā€™ll be posting updates here as we make progress, but donā€™t hesitate to make contact if you feel the need to do so.

2 Likes
63

Hi Andrew,
I have been using the meridian sooloos md600 for the past 5-6 yrs without any issues whatsoever! I almost feel stupid to have switch over to Roon and have a unstable system!

65

Bernard, I can answer that question for you. As an independent Meridian CI dealer, I have not found anything better than Roon, which when it was working (and it was) was doing a great job. I never had an instance of the ā€˜originalā€™ bug that Andrew mentions, but obviously the other bug had manifested itself. That said, assuming that as he says, Andrew and the team at Roon are now looking at this as a separate issue, I have every confidence that they will fix it.

66

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the update, yes itā€™s not what we wanted to hear, but being pragmatic about it these things happen and certainly have happened with other companies in the CI field.

What I would say is that I am very happy to try any beta versions along the way, so please keep us updated on progress.

Regards

Simon

67

Please add me to the beta.

68

Hi @David_Raines

Iā€™ve added you to our tracking list and will be in contact when we have something to try. In the mean time can you please answer the following questions in as much detail as possible.

  1. Please describe the problem you are observing. Please be as detailed as possible as weā€™re trying to find the critical step or action which gets the system into a bad state. Also please describe what is working for you to get the system playing again.

  2. What platform and operating system are you using for your Roon core? (e.g. Nucleus+ / RoonOS Stable 227)

  3. What version and build of Roon are you running (e.g. Roon 1.8 B831)

  4. Please provide a basic description of your network. What router, switch(es), and other network devices are in use?

  5. What Meridian devices are in use?

  6. Are there any non-Meridian devices in use?

  7. Do you have any problems when playback is active or is this only encountered when attempting to start playback to an idle device?

  8. How often are you having this issue (multiple times per day, daily, weekly, etc)?

  9. Does a simple reset of the network interface on the core or endpoint help? By this I mean does unplugging the network cable from your core or endpoint, waiting approximately 10sec, and then plugging it back in allow playback to start?

69

@Bernard_Ang, I thought that we had collected information from you, but it appears that we have not. When you have some time can you please provide responses to the following questions:

  1. Please describe the problem you are observing. Please be as detailed as possible as weā€™re trying to find the critical step or action which gets the system into a bad state. Also please describe what is working for you to get the system playing again.
  2. What platform and operating system are you using for your Roon core? (e.g. Nucleus+ / RoonOS Stable 227)
  3. What version and build of Roon are you running (e.g. Roon 1.8 B831)
  4. Please provide a basic description of your network. What router, switch(es), and other network devices are in use?
  5. What Meridian devices are in use?
  6. Are there any non-Meridian devices in use?
  7. Do you have any problems when playback is active or is this only encountered when attempting to start playback to an idle device?
  8. How often are you having this issue (multiple times per day, daily, weekly, etc)?
  9. Does a simple reset of the network interface on the core or endpoint help? By this I mean does unplugging the network cable from your core or endpoint, waiting approximately 10sec, and then plugging it back in allow playback to start?
70

Hi @AMP Andrew

  1. Meridian 218, ID41 and MS 200 are not discovered by Roon, Meridian 210 is discovered.
    the problem must be linked to the Sooloos protocol. (The meridian 210 is the only device supporting Roon protocol). The problem first occurred only every other week, and rebooting the Meridian 218 device always fixed the issue. Today I installed a new Nucleus + and things did not work from the beginning, devices are not discovered. Rolling back to Roon Rock (the system was powered off for 8 hours) is giving me the same problems now.

  2. Nucleus and Roon OS

  3. Nucleus + 1.8 build 831, but also my old NUC running the Roon core kit same version. No difference in behaviour

  4. 1Gb network, Netgear switches

  5. Meridian 218, ID41 and MS 200 are not discovered by Roon, Meridian 210 works fine

  6. Yes Bluesound Powernode 2i, I have two of them and they work fine all the time.

  7. Problem only occurs when attempting playback at an idle device

  8. At this point I am unable to get the system playing again, it is a serious problem. Any tips on how to get the system going again are highly appreciated.
    **# I just remembered I moved the Roon Rock to the basement, I just reconnected it in the living room. The Meridian 218 and the NUC are connected to the same switch. After power cycling the Meridian 218 it was again visible in Roon, For the network traffic to get to the basement three switches are passed in that journey. I will also try this with the Nucleus + tomorrow.
    ## next day, I replaced the NETGEARĀ® NighthawkĀ® S8000 in the basement for an old HP switch. Nucleus+ now discovers Meridian 218.

  9. Recycling power helps, if they are on the same switch.

I hope you can quickly fix this issue

Best Regards,
Martin

71
  1. Roon with stop playing intermitently! I have to turn the core off and then it will work again
72
  1. Linux 5.6.13-100.sgc.fc30.x86_64,sonic transporter i5(gen3) roon version 1.8(build 850)
  2. Roon Version 1.8(build 831) stable
  3. 1GB, Netgear switches
  4. Meridian 818V3,ID41
  5. no
  6. I have problem when playback is active and it will just stop working without any reason!
  7. Once a day
  8. Just turning off the Roon core and turning it back on - it will play again!
73

Just an update here.

Weā€™re continuing work on this issue with the goal of determining a scenario which reliably reproduces the symptoms in a lab environment.

We have a working theory on what is causing the playback failures, but will need to determine what is triggering this device state in order to replicate the issue. Weā€™ve adjusted our testing protocols to take this into account and are working on replication.

Iā€™m sorry that we still donā€™t have a final answer on this one, but we have made good progress and are continuing to work toward a solution.

1 Like
74

Andrew, if you can push out a beta version to individual accountsā€¦ Why canā€™t you simply give us the previous version that worked and then all of our clients will have music for Christmas. The impact this is having on our business is huge.

75

Hi Andrew,

I have sent you a message with the details of my network, let me know if you need any further information.

Simon

76

This isnā€™t an option as most Roon updates involve changes to the coreā€™s database which make a rollback nearly impossible. Furthermore, we arenā€™t 100% convinced that the root of the issue lies within Roon and the appearance of these problems is coincidental with the release of B831.

Once weā€™re in a position to replicate the issue at-will weā€™ll be able to see if a past change in Roon is triggering the behavior.