Roon with stereo homepods

Roon Software Discussion
1

So I used Roon with stereo Homepods and muted the left channel going to one and the right channel going to the other. This worked great up until about 2 SW releases ago, now the muting no longer works. As a result both homepods are playing a stereo signal and go in and out of phase with each other. I tried muting both channels to both, they still play music. On my main system the channel mute works fine. Is this deliberate to stop people using homepods in stereo without using Airplay2? I’ve gone back to playing Qobuz from my phone, but of course now I have two libraries. Most annoying.

2

Use Roons DSP Procedural EQ and mixer to do the stereo split it’s what others have done to get it to work I believe rather than muting.

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3

Do you have any details on how to do this? If I send all channels to left or right, I would get full stereo on both homepods, although synced. How can you mix just the left to the left pod and right to right pod?

4

I’m surprised Roon and the Homepods don’t automatically work as a stereo pair. Isn’t there a mode to link the pods together which makes one the left and the other the right channel?

5

Yes but both will receive a full stereo signal. To send left to left and right to right you need Airplay 2 or a work around. Roon can group them but treats them both as seperate stereo devices (as if they were in different rooms or something)

6

Hi,

This is what I’ve done and it works well. It’s actually got more reliable with the HomePod and Roon updates, not that it was bad before.

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7

Alan, try the following. Mute BOTH channels (left and right). When I do sounds is still coming out of both homepods. Mute ALL the channels, still got sound. So is muting really creating the stereo pair?

8

Figured out - muting doesn’t work if they are already grouped…so your instructions are correct

9

If you have a Mac, a method I use is to set up my HomePod Minis as a stereo pair on my MacBook Pro using the Home application. Then I set the pair as my default or system audio output on the MacBook from the sound menu or the settings menu. In Roon I set an audio output to the System Output of my MacBook, and the HomePod Minis then play as a stereo pair from Roon.

Alternately if you are using iOS on iPhones or iPads, once the minis are paired in the Home app, you can set the iPhone or iPad output via AirPlay to the paired Minis. Then set Roon’s output to the iPhone or iPad and the Minis will play in stereo.

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10

Here’s some info:

Also, in the Home Setup app, make sure the accessories (paired HomePods) are set according to the thread attached.

Mine worked very well after I found this thread.

Good luck.

T.

11

BRILLIANT. This worked for me perfectly…