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.
· 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
What are the make and model of the affected audio device(s) and the connection type?
· EVO 150 Cambridge Audio, B&W Wedge, B&W Zeppelin
Describe the issue
Dear Support, since 2-3 weeks, I am having issues with playing Qobuz to my Roon devices. I am having problem with playing to my B&W Wedge, to my Cambridge Audio EVO150. When I play directly from Qobuz (via Google Chrome cast) or via the B&W App, it all works fine. It is annoying that I keep on getting this message that Roon is loading slow. Switching a track takes 10-12 seconds before it starts play or it doesn't start at all. When I play Qobuz on my EVO it plays instantly. I have the impression that this happening since the last update of ROON on my NUC. I have tried clearing cach, rebooting the roon server, nothing helps. I have just renewed my subscription for a year, so I am disapointed that this is happening. Kind regards, Geert , Belgium
Describe your network setup
Roon NUC is connected directly to Ethernetport on Router, EVO150 via Wifi, B&W Wedge via Wifi, but all are streaming fine when using directly Qobuz or Spotify.
Thanks for reaching out! I’ve activated diagnostics for your account and looking over your logs it looks like there are indeed several dropouts across multiple zones. I see the buffer usually be ok (so the track is downloaded to the NUC, but then the dropout occurs between the NUC → Endpoint. Are you able to reproduce the issue with local files connected to the NUC as well? Have you tried to use a different Ethernet cable/port on the router?
Hello Noris,
Thanks for looking into this ! and great that you have a possibility to view this remotely. I have done 2 seperate things
I have changed the port on the router where my NUC is connected
I had an Ethernet over 220V connection made in the past, so I could connect my NUC to the router that way. Since I have moved the NUC close the router that is no longer needed; The DEVOLO also had a wireless networ. By removing those I have also removed 2 wireless networks as these DEVOLO’s also had an access point 2.4 & 5.
I am now testing on my ROON end point (EVO150) and that was slugish to load before (but that not break /skip too often as it is on 5 Ghz) That loading now seems to go much much faster.
I am gonna try also as of Monday (when I am working in the room where the B&W Wedge is located, to see if that is now also significantly better. I will keep you updated
I dont have any local files on my NUC but might look into that one if needed on how that can be achieved.
Would be great if you could somehow keep monitoring this one a bit as well over the next days or so. Thanks again for your help much appreciated !
Dear Support, I have tested the more and the issue is still appearing. Some days it is working fine, some days I am having very long delays.
I have tried on my mobile iPhone → slow
I have tried on my iPad → most of the times OK but also still some slowness
I have tried an old iPad mini → same result
I do get the occasional QOBUZ is slow to load style message. But sometimes it takes 10 seconds before a song starts. This is very very annoying and not the user experience I am expecting. $
Can you please evaluate the logs again over the weekend? Is there anyway I can see these logs myself to detect what is going on at the moment there are delays?
Sorry to hear your issues with Qobuz playback persist!
As a next step, it would be worth testing out an updated DNS server on your ROCK - we have seen users have a better experience in the past if they change their Router’s DNS servers from the ISP provided ones to Cloudflare DNS, Quad9 or Google DNS. Can you please give this a try and let me know if it helps?
You can update your DNS settings via the webUI of your ROCK - here’s more info on this:
This has already been tested with multiple DNS servers as you describe. the one from my ISP, the 8.8.8.8 and that is not having any impact on the performance. The previous analysis done by your team, also seemed to indicate that the loading itself is NOT the issue, but the transmision form the ROCK to the Roon endpoint is the potential issue.
Dear Roon, Any news? Roon is getting more & more unstable, and really I feel like I am paying for a service which no longer works ? Roon has even stopped working completley this morning, and during the day, I can hardly play some albums. Appreciate your earliest reply !
Thanks for the follow-up. Updating the DNS often times helps with Roon communicating with its upstream servers - I’d keep your DNS settings set to Google or Cloudflare moving forward.
From a recent diagnostic, we’re still seeing local network-related errors that ultimately lead to dropouts and the stoppage of playback from Qobuz. The system detects “too many dropouts (>3s dropped out in the last 30s)” and terminates the stream, transitioning the endpoint to the “Prepared” state:
Warn: [Worker (4)] [Office BD] [zoneplayer/raat] Too many dropouts (>3s dropped out in the last 30s). Killing stream
Trace: [Worker (4)] [Office BD] [zoneplayer/raat] too many dropouts. stopping stream
We see an entry [7568] FTMSI-B qo/2642F93D download status: AllBlocksDownloaded accessTimeout:True that shows that while all audio blocks for this file were downloaded, the system still encountered an accessTimeout.
Additionally, [7569] allocated bw changed from 51200 to 0 kbps suggests that the bandwidth allocation for the file was reduced to zero. This indicates the system deprioritized or halted further streaming to this endpoint.
Any other simplifications you can make to your network and audio chain may help speed things up further. Eliminate wifi if possible, and see if you can allocate additional network bandwidth to your Roon Server machine and any audio equipment.
THanks for this feedback. It is really strange that when I use the B&W App and stream to exactly the same device, the speed is very very fast, no waiting time and no fails. Really looks like the ROON side of things. It has been working fine for 2-3 years and the last 2-3 months it is so bad.
Hi Support, it is getting worse, because now when trying to switch from one song to another song, the first song stops, there is small gap, then a bleep of the first song, and then it starts loading the new song. This is even more annoying. Could this be the diagnostics? Does this have an impact on the performance? how can I switch it ON/OFF myself or is this something you can only do remotely? It is a confusing topic. When I play directly from Qobuz (on my streammagic or B&W App) it is very responsive, so it really points towards the ROON Server. Thanks again for helping out !
Hardwiring has been tested before and did not solve the problem. It was connected via a ethernet over power. And the problem was the same
The interesting part: when I am having problems with drop out and I use a phone and the B&W App, it all works fine, responsive no drop outs
I don’t have possiblity to put ‘network priority’ to ROCK and B&W in the router
Related to the diagnostics: how do you as Roon Technical have access to the roon server? How can I see the same log files as you are seeing so I can see that it is ‘loading the files correctly’ but it is the network that is an issue?
You can check out your logs from your Mac computer by opening Finder and navigate to smb://ROCK/Data and use Guest as the username and password. You should then see the RoonServer folder. The log folder can be seen there.
I noticed you mentioned trying to hardwire with ethernet over power. Unfortunately this is not the same as a direct ethernet connection and ethernet over power is very susceptible to interference. To test can you temporarily use an ethernet cord to directly connect the B&W device to your router?
Dear Support, I have now configured my whole system and using a Mesh High Performance network.
ROCK is connected to TPLink Gateway 1 , which is also connected to the Router
B&W is connected hardware to TP Link Gateway 2, which is part of the Mesh Wifi network.
I can also give priority to the ROCK & to the B&W in a QoS setting. They have highest priority. And what I noticed is that I can also monitoring my bandwidth from the ADSL Line. I can see that when I start playing from QOBUZ on my ROCK, that on some songs high res the bandwidht jumps to 30 MBs which is the maximum that my ADSL has. This is working perfectly fine for netflix 4K etc.
The performance is much better, but still every now and then I have disconnects. And at the moment of the disconnect the bandwidth is at 30 MBs download speed, maximum out.
So my basic question: how come that a Roon ROCK is pulling 30 MBs for so long for just playing high resolution music? And if it is does, why does it break playing the music ? Appreciate your feedback and further analysis of the log file you have access too.
Hi @Geert_Diels,
I took a look at the logs, and it looks like Roon’s connection is dropping well below 30Mbps. Since audio streaming requires a stable and high-speed connection, this could be affecting performance. If possible, upgrading your internet plan or optimizing your network setup may help improve playback. Let me know if you’d like any tips on troubleshooting your connection—I’m happy to help!"
Dear Daniel, the problem is not with the network, and not with the ADSL line either. I can stream 4K video without problem, I can play music via B&W App from the same source with QOBUZ. And the ROON NUC I have has worked flawlesly till about September 2024. I have also upgraded my wifi network (300 Euro) into a mesh wifi network on which I can do QOS and give my ROON Server priority. Still controlling it from either an iPad or an iPhone it takes a good 3-4 minutes before I can actually start ot listen to music: Screendumps with te rotating ROON ican for minutes. Something has significantly changes since Septemer/October with the ROON server firmare which makes the solution totally not usable anymore. It is more frustration than pleasure to listen to music.
Upgrading my internet plan: it is already at the maximum in my area at 30 MBs download which as mentioned: works flawlesly for Netflix High Resolution, Video streaming from the TV provider, day to day home office of large Excel Files & Video Conferencing etc.
Optimising my network setup: already done
Before : ISP Router RJ45 - PoE ehternet - ROON Server - i Pad or iPhone as controller
Before: ISP Router - ROON Server (RJ45)
Now : ISP Router - RJ45 - WifiGateway (with Router RJ45 connections) - ROON Server (RJ45) - iPad or IPhone as controller on high quality mesh Wifinetwork
Still takes 2-3 minutes from starting to Rool in my iPone/iPad before I can hear music.
One major thing is also : you click on PLAY button on the App, and you have now feedback at all. You don’t know if you have clicked it or not, and because it takes so long, you click maybe twice/ 3 times even resulting in MORE delays.
The whole user experience is really not good, upto the level I am even concidering to ask a REFUND fo the expensive ROON subscription I paid for a full year again.
I just wonder: what has changed that my ROON NUC worked flawlesly till September/October 24 and the changes at that moment cause all the delays, bad user experience?
I’m also getting terrible hi-res performance from Qobuz with a similar broadband speed. I have no problems with local 24/192 tracks. Qobuz hi-res tracks crap out - the remote loses connection to the audio source (I don’t get any network messages) and then reconnects. Done multiple reboots and DNS experimenting. My core is an hardwired NUC running ROCK. Dropping streaming quality to 16/44 prevents drop outs, but why is Roon so hungry when normally a 9mb bandwidth should be sufficient for hi-res. Utterly frustrating.
The problem is not related to the Qobuz or high resolution. When Roon is so sluggish it works absolutely fine when I use Qobuz high res directly to my streamer. It is really ROOn which tries to download so much that I hit the 30 MBs per second download limit ! Totally ridiculous! There is something that Roon tries to download instead of throttling! So frustrating this experience! It was OK till the version in September 24 and all went downhill afterwards
Hi Daren, I have been experimenting more with QoS (Quality of Service) settings on my routers & wifi network. I have the impression that it works better in the following configuration
the NUC Roon Server needs to have the Priority Setting in QoS settings
the device which is the Controller (iPad or iPhone) needs to have Priority Setting in QoS
I also made sure that the maximum bandwidth in the QoS setting really corresponds to my ISP data: 30 Mbps download and 10 Mbps Upload. Before it was on 100 Mbps because that is the theoretical max speed according to the ISP but the 30 Mbps / 10 Mbps is the REAL maximum as it is an ADSL line to the home, no fiber.
The music renderer is NOT the culprit in my case, so I have removed those from the QoS. It is the NUC Roon server (who is pulling all the music from Qobuz FIRST) and the ‘Controller’ who needs to have the priority. And that is ONLY with the ROON application. I guess it is because the NUC pulls in all the data and then transports it to the ROON Renderer.
Maybe this is something that might help you in further investigating ! Good luck !! I will keep this post also updated to see if my reasoning is helping in the next days. I seem to have a lot more responsive ROON now ! (for now)
I’ve played around with QoS but not prioritised my remote. I’ve used adaptive QoS, which still allows prioritisation. I know how to set classic QoS where the bandwidth can be specified (although Chat GPT says I should set at between 70-80% of the maximum to leave some headroom). I’ll try prioritising my iPad first.
I’ve also spoken to my ISP today and my modem is now plugged into the test socket for monitoring. They are also sending me their modem/router for testing….
