Roon Nucleus Slower, Dropouts,

Support Nucleus Support
1

Roon Server Machine

Roon Nucleus Rev B
Operating System
Version 1.0 (build 259) production

Roon Labs Software
Version 1.0 (build 15) production.

Roon Server Software
Version 2.0 (build 1359) production

Roon Database
98% of 114 GB available.

Internal Music Storage
2000GB, WDC WDS200T2B0A 56% of 1848 GB available.

Networking Gear & Setup Details

Ubiquiti Amplifi Alien Router - Nucleus connected directly to router via ethernet cable

Connected Audio Devices

Several Sonos Speakers -
Stereo Paired Fives - Airplay, Sonos Streaming
Stereo Paired Move - Airplay, Sonos Streaming
Single ONE Models (3) - Airplay, Sonos Streaming
Sonos Port - Ethernet
Cambridge EVO150 - Connected via Ethernet

Number of Tracks in Library

55,265 Tracks

Description of Issue

I notice significant dropouts (audio) - remotes on various devices displaying “Waiting on your Roon Server” messages frequently - (all Apple / iOS houshold) iPads, MacBook, iPhone. Tracks cutting out in the middle. The remote extremely sluggish - taking forever to load tracks and information as well as tracks - leaving several seconds of silence between tracks while loading the next track.

After noticing this getting so bad it was untenable, I did some hunting around and tried to eliminate some issues.

I updated the firmware of the router and rebooted it.
I upgraded the RAM in the Nucleus to 32GB
I noticed the Nucleus was connected to a switch that was connected to the router, so I eliminated the switch assuming the switch might be too busy (8 Port Netgear Switch) and connected directly to the router.
I noticed the Sonos streaming path kept dropping out with Roon stating it had lost control of the audio device. I considered that a Sonos problem - so I disabled Sonos Streaming and only used Airplay.

Things did improve following all these moves - but I was still getting lag from the server and dropouts on the music every now and again (once ever 15-30 minutes or so - just as I noticed the ‘Waiting on your Roon Server’ notification on various remotes - (MacBook and iPhone) - so I believe these things are connected.

I have noticed sluggishness when using the EVO150 as well - not necessarily the dropouts, but it’s a bit late for me to fire up the main system to test it out.

UPDATE:
After further reading - and the problem getting so bad that playback stopped after every track, as the kids say . . . ‘I did a thing.’

I decided I would trash the database, stop the server, reinstall Roon, and start from scratch. So far, I think things have improved somewhat, but I’ll let the software ingest all the files and do the analysis on all 55k of them before I determine a verdict. Perhaps this was unnecessary, but when the darn thing pretty much stopped playing music altogether, I figured I really had nothing left to lose.

Roon has been pretty great up until fairly recently - 6-8 months ago - and it’s getting progressively worse. Please help me lick this problem!

Thank you in advance!

-Urbndwellr

1 Like
4

Hey @Urbndwellr,

Thanks for the update! Could you please reproduce the issue and share the specific date, time and name of the track playing when the issue occurs?

Once you let me know this info, I’ll go ahead and enable diagnostics for your account so I can review the logging for clues.

If you’d rather do it yourself manually, please use the directions found here and send over a set of logs to our File Uploader.

Thanks!

5

Roon Server Machine

Roon Nucleus Rev B
Operating System
Version 1.0 (build 259) production

Roon Labs Software
Version 1.0 (build 15) production.

Roon Server Software
Version 2.0 (build 1359) production

Roon Database
98% of 114 GB available.

Internal Music Storage
2000GB, WDC WDS200T2B0A 56% of 1848 GB available.

Networking Gear & Setup Details

Ubiquiti Amplifi Alien Router - Nucleus connected directly to router via ethernet cable

Connected Audio Devices

Several Sonos Speakers -
Stereo Paired Fives - Airplay, Sonos Streaming
Stereo Paired Move - Airplay, Sonos Streaming
Single ONE Models (3) - Airplay, Sonos Streaming
Sonos Port - Ethernet
Cambridge EVO150 - Connected via Ethernet

Number of Tracks in Library

55,265 Tracks

Description of Issue

I notice significant dropouts (audio) - remotes on various devices displaying “Waiting on your Roon Server” messages frequently - (all Apple / iOS houshold) iPads, MacBook, iPhone. Tracks cutting out in the middle. The remote extremely sluggish - taking forever to load tracks and information as well as tracks - leaving several seconds of silence between tracks while loading the next track.

After noticing this getting so bad it was untenable, I did some hunting around and tried to eliminate some issues.

I updated the firmware of the router and rebooted it.
I upgraded the RAM in the Nucleus to 32GB
I noticed the Nucleus was connected to a switch that was connected to the router, so I eliminated the switch assuming the switch might be too busy (8 Port Netgear Switch) and connected directly to the router.
I noticed the Sonos streaming path kept dropping out with Roon stating it had lost control of the audio device. I considered that a Sonos problem - so I disabled Sonos Streaming and only used Airplay.

Things did improve following all these moves - but I was still getting lag from the server and dropouts on the music every now and again (once ever 15-30 minutes or so - just as I noticed the ‘Waiting on your Roon Server’ notification on various remotes - (MacBook and iPhone) - so I believe these things are connected.

I have noticed sluggishness when using the EVO150 as well - not necessarily the dropouts, but it’s a bit late for me to fire up the main system to test it out.

UPDATE:
After further reading - and the problem getting so bad that playback stopped after every track, as the kids say . . . ‘I did a thing.’

I decided I would trash the database, stop the server, reinstall Roon, and start from scratch. So far, I think things have improved somewhat, but I’ll let the software ingest all the files and do the analysis on all 55k of them before I determine a verdict. Perhaps this was unnecessary, but when the darn thing pretty much stopped playing music altogether, I figured I really had nothing left to lose.

UPDATE 2

Roughly 24 hours since the complete rebuild of the system, and I have to say everything is going pretty well - and Roon seems to be working better - BUT - I have noticed that playback does seem to stop. After one track ends, the next one does not begin. If I were to hit play - it does start playing with little problem, but I cannot figure out why it has stopped playing. I went into settings and noticed a couple of things that perhaps I misunderstood when I was setting things initially.

First - I had the On Demand Audio Analysis speed set to ‘fast’. I assume that takes up some more resources than necessary, so I set it to ‘Throttled’. For now, I also have Background audio analysis speed set to 4 cores whilst the library is still being analyzed, but I may drop it down once the 55K tracks are complete.

I also changed the Resync Delay back to 0ms on the EVO150. I had it at 5000ms, but I realize that perhaps that wasn’t doing what I thought it was - and that’s why tracks were cutting out when I wanted them to crossfade.

Roon has been pretty great up until fairly recently - 6-8 months ago - and it’s getting progressively worse. Please help me lick this problem!

Thank you in advance!

-Urbndwellr

6

Hi Benjamin,

It took a while, but it just happened again. Roon just stopped playing music. It took place on January 30th at 22:20 eastern time. The song ‘Sock It To Me by Colleen Green finished playing. Then, Roon stopped with the song Go Down Moses by Natalie Merchant. It never started the track. It just sat there ready to play it. The Colleen Green track was an AAC. The Natalie Merchant track is an ALAC track.

Thanks for the help!

7

Hi Benjamin,

It took a while, but it just happened again. Roon just stopped playing music. It took place on January 30th at 22:20 eastern time. The song ‘Sock It To Me by Colleen Green finished playing. Then, Roon stopped with the song Go Down Moses by Natalie Merchant. It never started the track. It just sat there ready to play it. The Colleen Green track was an AAC. The Natalie Merchant track is an ALAC track.
[/quote]

8

Just did it again.

Jan 30th 23;34 eastern after REM Walk It Back Roon just stopped. The song Peace Sign by Ride was in the cue, but Roon just stopped.

10

And once more January 31 around 04:30 eastern. Roon just stopped playing after Lovefool by Cardigans, but Funny and Cute by Say Sue Me was supposed to play.

13

Hi @Urbndwellr,

Thanks for the detailed update! We were able to review a fresh diagnostic report from your Nucleus, and see frequent connectivity issues as well as airplay dropouts.

As a next step, can you please test out playback strictly from the system output of your Mac, or another Roon Remote, not using airplay?

Are you able to temporarily test out providing your Nucleus with network priority?

Since you’ve recently setup a fresh database, I’m curious - what does your play history look like? You can find this information under: My Stuff>History

Let me know, thanks! :pray:

14

Thanks for the prompt reply, Benjamin.

I’m not sure what that means - “test out playback strictly from the system output of my Mac or another Roon Remote.” I can use the Sonos output to the same speakers, but my Mac isn’t enabled, and I have never played Roon through my Mac.

What exactly do you mean by ‘what does your play history look like?’? What information exactly are you looking for? There are 376 plays - I don’t know how to export my exact play history.

Also, can you be a bit more specific about the connectivity issues? What kind of connectivity? It’s hard wired to my router - directly, so it’s automatically higher priority . . . at least according to Ubiqiti Amplifi.

What are we attempting to test here? In the past, connecting via Sonos gave me more problems than Airplay, but I can try that . . .

15

Hi Benjamin,

Playing music through Sonos streaming hasn’t reproduced complete stoppage of playback, but dropouts occur frequently at the ends of tracks, largely, but not entirely, when switching formats particularly when switching from AAC to FLAC.

My understanding is this is a known problem with Sonos - which is why I don’t like to use it. It may sound trite, but crossfade is a critical feature to me. When it fails as it does here, it kind of stops me in my tracks.

However it appears, so far, streaming via Sonos doesn’t seem to have stopped playback as Airplay did last night

Thanks for the help!

16

A post was split to a new topic: Roon Server on Macbook Pro running Slowly

17

Hi @Urbndwellr,

This doesn’t exactly fit my initial question - the goal was to test playback from a device not using network-connected endpoints. I mention the system output of your Mac as it has built-in speakers, and it would be good to test if you experience dropouts in this playback scenario.

If you open Roon on your Macbook and use it as a remote, and only stream audio to the system output of the device, do you still experience issues?

18

Ok - I played music on my Mac for a little while last night, starting at abou 23:30 eastern, and played it for about and hour or so. The issue did not repeat in that period of time - however, it was a few weeks before the problem repeated itself on Airplay after I started my database again. Nonetheless - things did appear to be exceedingly smooth whilst playing that way.

1 Like
19

Thanks for trying that out @Urbndwellr, it’s good to confirm the connective issues can be isolated to airplay streaming.

There are a few additional things to test out specific to the Sonos Move which I’ve linked below. You can likely run the same tests on the other troublesome devices as well: