I’m using an old Surface Pro 3 i5 running on windows 10, Roon version 1.8. Using it as the core, as well as a display (web display in Edge).
Networking Gear & Setup Details
I’ve got Roon playing over the built-in Chromecast in my amp, connected over WiFi. I’ve got a Netgear RAX 80 router.
Connected Audio Devices
I’m using the Surface as my Roon core to stream to my Primare i15 Prisma amp over Chromecast, powering my Kef LS50’s
Number of Tracks in Library
Momentarily I’ve got my local library (external SSD) disconnected, so I’m guessing my library cannot be the issue
Description of Issue
Hi all,
I’ve been loving Roon, especially since the 1.8 update came through! However, just a few days after 1.8 came out, I’ve ran into some big issues that makes me want to stop using Roon all together.
Whenever I want to play some tunes over Roon, it starts up very slow. This is not the biggest of my problems, but I rarely start up the app anymore without getting the message that ‘Things are taking longer than expected’. The real issue though, is that whenever I play a song or a playlist, it can take up to a minute or two before it starts playing. After about 5 - 15 seconds it starts stuttering, playing on and off for a few seconds. It seems like the song is just not rendering or something. The display by the way is often showing the metadata much sooner than the song starts playing, so I know something’s coming through.
I’m not really sure what’s causing the issue. I’ve got this problem when playing Tidal and local music, but when i’m playing songs from Tidal directly there’s no stutter whatsoever.
Does anyone have a clue what might cause this issue? I’d be very happy to use Roon again, but as of now it’s just not fun to listen to…
Fun fact, I’ve just tried playing over the built in Airplay in the amp via Roon, and that seems to work without stuttering. When I switch back to the chromecast (because it’s capable of lossless) it starts stuttering again. Still no clue as to why!
Perhaps chromecast version on your surface has been updated, try re-instlling chromecast previous version. Also you might want to try hard-wiring with ethernet cable instead of wifi, if incovenient, try at least if the hard wiring improves the lag and connects faster.
I don’t know who did the important work to fix it, but it is.
Note: I only ever used Roon to play 96 kHz material to my ChromeCasts and therefore only ever knew of Roon related issues regarding this. It got solved long ago. At least some of the users that still had issues with it and didn’t quit troubleshooting traced it back to issues with the optical cable (bad fit of the connector, poor build quality).
If the Surface and endpoints are using wifi only then this is likely the issue, try lower bit rates on the track playback 16/44.1 but either way your core is meant to be on LAN connection NOT wifi for best performance
wifi is not a full duplex connection and also suffers much from interference of other networks and devices in the same radio spectrum like BlueTooth, Microwave ovens and most of all other nearby wifi networks.
Thanks for the help guys! I took note of your tips and after getting the necessary cables I connected my amp and core (Surface) directly to my router. I had no idea the difference would be this big! Previously I had only tried connecting my amp, but connecting the amp and the core seems to have done the trick. Sorry for my lack of confidence in the Roon system… Thanks for the help!