Roon Skips and Stops With Mixed RAAT Zone Playback (ref#W2DVOP)

[Marcelo_Bulgueroni]

What best describes your playback issue?

· Music stops playing unexpectedly

What type of Zone is affected by this problem?

· *Network Zones* are affected.

Is the affected network Zone connected with Ethernet or WiFi?

· WiFi

Does the issue affect all file formats?

· The issue affects *multiple/all* file formats.

Does the issue happen with local library music, streaming service music, or both?

· *Only streaming* music is affected.

Please select the streaming service(s) with which you're encountering playback problems.

· TIDAL, Qobuz

Have you tried logging out and back in again to your streaming service in Roon Settings?

· Logging out and back in had no impact, the issue remains

Do you have an approximate timestamp of when the issue last occurred?

· tested again today (May 1st 2025 - 4:48 PM just now I reproduced the error)

What are the make and model of the affected audio device(s) and the connection type?

· As described before, 2 raspberry pi zero 2w running ropieee connected through USB with zorloo ztella DAC (wifi 5ghz with usb dongle); 1 Raspberry pi 2 (ethernet) connected to usb meridian explorer 2; same raspberry pi 2 connected through headphones out

Describe the issue

Roon skips songs and then stops after around 3 seconds when playing on a RAAT group of zones.

It is more frequent when I mix the zones, like:
- Three ropieee (raspberry zero 2w) wirelessly (5ghz) connected to zorloo DAC by USB
- One zone running dietPi on a raspberry pi 2 through ethernet, with a USB Meridian Explorer 2 DAC (this zone has convolution DSP but even with convolution disabled the problem happens);
- One zone running dietPi on the same raspberry pi 2 above through the headphones output (no HAT)

Although it is more common with all the zones mixed it can happen with only two zones. Only way to avoid this is using NO DSP whatsoever in any zone, but that brings a lot of problems of audio synchronization among zones (learned that keeping frequencies upsampled to the same value helps that).

I tried modifying buffers, re-sync delays to no avail.

I even have singled out three songs from TIDAL which almost ALWAYS allow to reproduce the issue. Yes, the problem occurs MUCH MORE frequently on Tidal then when listening to local songs or Qobuz.

I have moved from chromecasts investing on raspberries pi zero hoping to use Roon at its best using only RAAT zones. It has been a nightmare so far... chromecasts were always in sync and I had no dropout issues on the same network...

Describe your network setup

Mesh network with Deco M5 as main router, with a non-managed switch from Linksys. Only two Decos of 5 are not connected through ethernet

Here are the songs from TIDAL which trigger the issue commonly:

Album Artist	Album	Disc#	Track#	Title	Track Artist(s)	Composer(s)	External Id	Source	Is Dup?	Is Hidden?
Ólafur Arnalds	For Now I Am Winter (10th Anniversary Edition)	1	8	Only The Winds (Remastered 2023)				Tidal	no	no
David Garrett	Rock Symphonies	1	2	November Rain				Tidal	no	no
Ludovico Einaudi; Jeroen van Veen	Ludovico Einaudi: Clouds	1	4	Stanze: IV. Calmo				Tidal	no	no

When the first song stops playing, the second one (November Rain) is skipped and the third (stanze) starts playing only to stop on 2 - 3 seconds.

[vadim]

Hello @Marcelo_Bulgueroni,

Thank you for reaching out to Roon Support — it’s nice to see you again in our community!

@Marcelo_Bulgueroni

Is the affected network Zone connected with Ethernet or WiFi?

· WiFi

@Marcelo_Bulgueroni

• Three ropieee (raspberry zero 2w) wirelessly (5ghz) connected to zorloo DAC by USB

Could you kindly clarify if the issue persists when the wireless zones are excluded from playback?

Additionally, do you experience any interruptions when grouping only the wired zones?

Is the affected zones connected to the Deco’s access points connected through the wireless coneection ?

@Marcelo_Bulgueroni

Only two Decos of 5 are not connected through ethernet

Additionally, here are a few suggestions we’d like you to try:

• Temporarily connect at least one of the Raspberry Pi Zeros via Ethernet (using a USB-to-Ethernet adapter) if possible, to test whether that stabilizes playback.
• Create a group of only wired and wireless zones and test the same tracks — this will confirm if the issue lies with WiFi or mixed transport.
• Test with DSP fully disabled in all zones, and then reintroduce upsampling alone (without convolution), to see which specific DSP features are most impactful.
• Test with DSP enabled on the wired and wireless zones separatley

[Marcelo_Bulgueroni]

Thanks for replying @vadim ! Here are my answers:

@vadim

Could you kindly clarify if the issue persists when the wireless zones are excluded from playback?

Yes, the issue persists.

Additionally, do you experience any interruptions when grouping only the wired zones?

Yes, the same behavior occurs, BUT there is a difference: I receive a message that “Tidal media is loading slowly” - but the behavior is the same.

Is the affected zones connected to the Deco’s access points connected through the wireless coneection ?

Only one zone is connected to a Deco which is not wired. the other two wireless zones connect to a deco which is hardwired through gigabit ethernet.

Additionally, here are a few suggestions we’d like you to try:

• Temporarily connect at least one of the Raspberry Pi Zeros via Ethernet (using a USB-to-Ethernet adapter) if possible, to test whether that stabilizes playback.

Done that just now, around 4:13 PM Brazilian Time. Ethernet connected to “Quarto MMs” zone. The same problem occurs, although I receive a message that Tidal media is loading slowly (and it even interrupts the first song, it seems worse now).

• Create a group of only wired and wireless zones and test the same tracks — this will confirm if the issue lies with WiFi or mixed transport.

It seems the problem may lie here (mixed transport) - I was not able to make the raspberry pi 2 work with any wifi dongle, but removing the meridian explorer2 and adding to the other raspberry pi zero 2w connected to wifi yelded no errors at all. Interestingly mixing the zones with the headphone out of raspberry pi 2 also did not appear to have problems. Only when I re-added the meridian to the raspberry pi 2 the problems started happening again (obs: I have used before a raspberry pi 3B for the same ethernet connected meridian and headphone out with the same results). These testes were around 5:00 to 5:27 PM Brazilian time

• Test with DSP fully disabled in all zones, and then reintroduce upsampling alone (without convolution), to see which specific DSP features are most impactful.

Happens with both.

• Test with DSP enabled on the wired and wireless zones separatley

Happens with both, the same

Let me know if I can do any further tests

[Marcelo_Bulgueroni]

@Marcelo_Bulgueroni

• Create a group of only wired and wireless zones and test the same tracks — this will confirm if the issue lies with WiFi or mixed transport.

It seems the problem may lie here (mixed transport) - I was not able to make the raspberry pi 2 work with any wifi dongle, but removing the meridian explorer2 and adding to the other raspberry pi zero 2w connected to wifi yelded no errors at all. Interestingly mixing the zones with the headphone out of raspberry pi 2 also did not appear to have problems. Only when I re-added the meridian to the raspberry pi 2 the problems started happening again (obs: I have used before a raspberry pi 3B for the same ethernet connected meridian and headphone out with the same results). These testes were around 5:00 to 5:27 PM Brazilian time

Just an update - today I have tested more extensively with mixed wired and non-wired zones as well as wireless only zones and dropouts occur on both combinations. Happened today, may 4th at 11:53 am, then around 12:09 pm.

Sometimes disabling volume leveling helps, sometimes not. Only way to have it playing without interruptions is no DSP whatsoever. But the the lack of audio sync starts to kick in after some songs rendering it impossible to listen to any songs.

[benjamin]

Hi @Marcelo_Bulgueroni,

Thanks for the extensive report so far!

Just to confirm the things that do work so far:

• Wi-Fi-only playback using simpler endpoints (e.g., headphone out).
• Explorer2 works fine when used on Pi Zero 2 W (on Wi-Fi).
• Playback is stable without DSP, although it loses sync.

A few additional things to test:

• Try moving the Meridian Explorer2 back to the Pi Zero 2 W, where it worked — and leave the Pi 2 as a separate zone (headphone out only).
• Avoid running the Explorer2 on older Pi boards (like Pi 2 or even Pi 3B), which may not supply stable USB power or enough processing for DSP.

Verify network quality:

• Ensure low jitter/latency on both Wi-Fi and Ethernet.
• Try running a continuous ping or iperf test to test for Wi-Fi consistency.

Disable all DSP then reintroduce one setting at a time:

• Start with volume leveling off, headroom management off.
• Then add back only volume leveling and see if issues return.

@Marcelo_Bulgueroni

I tried modifying buffers, re-sync delays to no avail.

To confirm, did you check resync delay settings in Roon for each zone? Increasing by a few hundred ms (e.g., 300ms) to buffer better across devices can often times be useful.

Lastly, in Roon Settings: Enable “Clock Master Priority” for the most reliable zone (e.g., Pi Zero 2 W + Meridian) to help stabilize sync.

• Try grouping zones only with identical transport types (e.g., all on Wi-Fi, all USB DACs, or all analog outs).

Let me know how the above goes!

[Marcelo_Bulgueroni]

Hello @benjamin !

Thanks for your return and suggestions, I did some more extensive testing and will try to reply everything here:

@benjamin

Hi @Marcelo_Bulgueroni,

Thanks for the extensive report so far!

Just to confirm the things that do work so far:

• Wi-Fi-only playback using simpler endpoints (e.g., headphone out).

Wi-fi and Ethernet works fine with any endpoint, simple or complex. Problems only arise when endpoints are grouped, and they happen regardless of the endpoint kind.

• Explorer2 works fine when used on Pi Zero 2 W (on Wi-Fi).

Works fine with pi zero 2 w and a raspberry pi 4 as well until it doesn’t (when grouped with any kind of DSP)

• Playback is stable without DSP, although it loses sync.

Yes, and after sync is lost it seems it (sync) grows worse after each subsequent song (like a compounding effect)

A few additional things to test:

• Try moving the Meridian Explorer2 back to the Pi Zero 2 W, where it worked — and leave the Pi 2 as a separate zone (headphone out only).

Done that, moved to a ethernet connected Raspberry pi 4 running Ropieee and the problems are the same when playing on grouped zones

• Avoid running the Explorer2 on older Pi boards (like Pi 2 or even Pi 3B), which may not supply stable USB power or enough processing for DSP.

Done that with raspberry pi 4. No improvement.

Verify network quality:

• Ensure low jitter/latency on both Wi-Fi and Ethernet.
• Try running a continuous ping or iperf test to test for Wi-Fi consistency.

Did all testes, there was indeed a little latency on wifi due to one of my mesh points using wireless backhaul instead of an ethernet connection to the main router. Modified that and now all mesh points are connected through ethernet to the main router, latency problems gone, but the issue with grouped zones playing persistys.

Disable all DSP then reintroduce one setting at a time:

With ALL DSP disabled all groups, any groups, mixed or not, play flawlessly although start losing sync

• Start with volume leveling off, headroom management off.
• Then add back only volume leveling and see if issues return.

Issues always return, the difference is the more processing I add to a certain zone the quicker the problem appears, until it is occurring all the time when switching songs (for example with convolution activated)

To confirm, did you check resync delay settings in Roon for each zone? Increasing by a few hundred ms (e.g., 300ms) to buffer better across devices can often times be useful.

Yep, tried from 300 ms to full 6000ms, the problem still happened.

Lastly, in Roon Settings: Enable “Clock Master Priority” for the most reliable zone (e.g., Pi Zero 2 W + Meridian) to help stabilize sync.

Did not help much but maybe I did set it wrong. Which priority should I assign?

• Try grouping zones only with identical transport types (e.g., all on Wi-Fi, all USB DACs, or all analog outs).

Did that for an experience:

Zones:
1: Wi-fi - Raspberry pi zero 2 w - ropieee with Zorloo Ztella USB DAC
2: Wi-fi - Raspberry pi zero 2 w - ropieee with Zorloo Ztella USB DAC
3: Wi-fi - Raspberry pi zero 2 w - ropieee with Zorloo Ztella USB DAC
4: Ethernet - Raspberry pi 2 with Dietpi - headphone out
5: Ethernet - Raspberry pi 2 with Dietpi -USB DAC (meridian explorer 2)
6: Ethernet - Raspberry pi 3B with Dietpi - headphone out
7: Ethernet - Raspberry pi 4 running ropieee with USB DAC (Khadas Tone Pro 2)

Playing grouped zones 1+2+3 with any DSP = skips
Playing grouped znes 4+5+6+7 with any DSP = skips (a little less frequent than with the wifi zones)
Playing grouped zones with all zones in the same group = skips
Playing any combination of zones without any DSP: plays fine for hours, loses sync after a time. If I hit pause and play again the sync is automatically restablished.

Let me know how the above goes!

I think we can establish by that that the problem does not lie on the kind of connection or RAAT device… there is something going wild amid DSP (and curiously it is much more frequent as well with Tidal songs than Qobuz or local ones).

Hope these tests will help us get to the bottom of this… Thanks again

[benjamin]

Hi @Marcelo_Bulgueroni,

Most excellent work with all your testing - thank you for this!

@Marcelo_Bulgueroni

Did not help much but maybe I did set it wrong. Which priority should I assign?

In Device Settings > Advanced > Clock Master Priority, choose the most stable and least-processed endpoint (e.g., Pi4 + Khadas or a clean Ethernet-connected endpoint). Make sure other grouped zones have lower priorities or defaults.

@Marcelo_Bulgueroni

Issues always return, the difference is the more processing I add to a certain zone the quicker the problem appears, until it is occurring all the time when switching songs (for example with convolution activated)

Can you run grouped zone tests with DSP applied one feature at a time? Only volume leveling, only headroom management, only convolution etc? How long sync is held before breaking?

This could help pinpoint whether it’s convolution specifically, or DSP in general, that overwhelms grouped RAAT streams.