Squeezebox 2 Classic - Roon looks like it's playing but no sound

Support
1

Found this thread while searching Roon forum for a solution to my own issue: connection problems with Squeezebox version-2 classic device (SB2-classic), while SB-version3 device (SB3-duet) connects without issues to roon Core v1.8 hosted by a QNAP QGD-1600 nas/switch with 32gigs ram running the latest QTS-v5 OS.

After much testing, I suspect Roon Core does not treat SB2-classic devices in the same manner as SB3 type devices. Years ago I worked for a US defense contractor in their computer systems engineering dept and have experience debugging hardware/software systems issues. Skills are rusty but not entirely dimenuted.

SYSTEM SETUP: My two SB2 devices are type = classic, with blue vacuum florescent displays. Their connections to the Roon Core host are hardwired ethernet on the same local subnet. Both SB2’s work well when the same QNAP host device runs LMS v8.2. With LMS disabled the Roon Core connects fine to my SB3 (duet) device and plays music well, also using an ethernet connection on the same subnet as the host and SB2 endpoint devices.

PROBLEM Description: My SB2-classic devices are “seen” by Roon Core (v1.8) and when selected, display the Roon circular logo on their blue florescent display panels. Attempting to play music on my SB2 devices, which Roon incorrectly identifies in it’s config window as an “SB3” device, the song title of the MP3 file is displayed and play time in seconds incremented on the blue VFD, however no audio signal leaves the back of the SB2 DAC RCA connectors, verified by trying two amplifiers and headphones. With no physical changes to this setup, when LMS is enabled, both SB2 devices play music just fine and are correctly identified by LMS as SB2-classic devices.

I am aware that SB2-classic’s have output audio signal attenuation issues caused by degraded electrolytic capacitors in the DAC output stage signal path, which I haven’t gotten around to addressing yet (signal loss is approx 40% … still usable somewhat on the modest quality amp they drive, while my SB3-duet with no signal attenuation issue drives my Martin Logan SL3’s via an AB amp). As mentioned, LMS has no problems generating audio from the SB2-classics, while Roon Core can not do the same with the same physical setup. I am pretty sure the SB2-classic’s were pointed to the Roon-Core “music library” and switched back to the LMS music library, but my notes do not make that as clear as I would like.

Wondering if any other Squeezebox SB2-classic owners running Roon-Core are able to successfully play audio ? Can Roon-Core integrate both SB2-classic and newer SB3 devices into the same multi-room music network ?

Ultimately, I would like to also include my inexpensive Insignia WiFi portable (internal LiON powered) chromecast speakers into my multi-room music network synced with the Squeezebox endpoints. LMS v8.2 with the CastBridge v1.80 plugin can do this, though admittedly the setup is tricky and understandably there is a slight delay playing sync’ed music on the Insignia WiFi speakers compared to the amplifiers driven by the SB2 and SB3-duet devices. I can live with some delay on the WiFi speakers which are in rooms further from the main music system: my metal shop in the garage, guestroom …etc.

Roon seems quite full featured in the third day of my 14-day free trial window and I would like to purchase it to replace LMS, though the Material-Skin plugin helps update LMS reasonably well IMHO. If LMS is the only music server able to drive my older SB2-classics, SB3-duet and the odd collection of Insignia Portable WiFi chromecast speakers then I need to stay with this older system. The Martin Logan SL3’s don’t care, so I should be grateful I’ve been able to keep them in good repair thru the years and just enjoy the wonderful music they produce.

Thank-you

2

Hello @Mark_Early ,

Welcome to the forum, and thanks for reaching out! I’ve moved your post to its own thread, as the previous one was from a while ago.

Let me check with the team to see if we’ve done testing on older Squeezebox models and get back to you. In the meantime, can you please confirm if performing a factory reset on the SB2s changed anything? Also, we have the following Squeezebox documentation, perhaps this helps:

Please note that since Chromecast is a different protocol, you would not be able to group it with your Squeezebox zones.

If you are looking for an inexpensive endpoint, may I suggest looking into Rasberry Pi’s with DietPi or Ropiee OS? These endpoints are running RAAT and can be grouped with other RAAT endpoints (USB / Roon Ready / etc. The specifics of what zones can be grouped together can be found on our Zone Documentation.

Hope this helps!

3

Thank you for your help and facilitating the move to a newer thread of my recent post regarding Roon-Core connecting to older Squeezebox-2-Classics.

Confirming here that I did indeed disable LMS and rebooted the QNAP-QTS-v5 host which was also hosting Roon-Core before starting Roon-Core and searching for my three Squeezebox players: two SB2-classics and one SB3-duet endpoint all on the same subnet of my local LAN via ethernet.

Roon-Core found the SB3-duet quickly and played MP3 files without problems, however as mentioned in my earlier post, my two SB2-classic devices displayed the Roon-Core circular logo on the SB2-classics and then MP3 song titles I tried to play, advanced a song seconds played counter for these songs but generated no actual audio signal from the SB2-classics for any MP3 file I tried. When I reversed the process without changing any other test configuration: disabled Roon-Core, rebooted the QNAP QGD-1600 host running QTS-v5 (32gigs RAM), enabled LMS on the same QNAP QGD-1600 host, the LMS music server found all three of my SB devices and played MP3 music files as it had before the Roon-Core testing.

With Squeezebox Inc and last owner Logitech no longer officially supporting the SB product line I am hesitant to do a full factory reset of my SB2-classic devices. I do remember it was “a-bit-involved” getting the SB2-classics to use a static IP address on my subnet and configure my router to use MAC address → to → IP address assignment for these devices. I will try searching the existing SB forum community (very good resource) for ways to safely factory reset such old SB2 devices. If Logitech still supported the SB2’s and new device drivers for the SB2’s were available, your troubleshooting suggestion to factory reset them would be perfectly reasonable.

Disappointing, but not unexpected, that current Roon-Core is not able to simultaneously group Chromecast end-points with SB end-points. In my experience LMS can send synchronized music files to both types of devices in the same session, but has to use a third-party plugin: CastBridge to add this functionality. My three SB devices are attached to the subnet via ethernet, while the Insignia Chromecast endpoints use WiFi, so the slight out-of-sync music delay between the two device groups is understandable. However, within their own device group: WiFi Chromecast speakers, or SB ethernet end-points each device is perfectly synced with others in the same device group.

Roon-Core looks to be a great product with many more features than I am familiar with using LMS, however I might have to stay with LMS as Roon-Core must focus on more modern hardware endpoints still in production, which my SB2-classics obviously are not … quite understandable that, no worries. It is a sign of Roon’s excellent dedication to supporting Roon customers, that you have tried to help those of us with old music device hardware, no longer in production as best you can.

I have already built a Raspberry Pi 3B running Max2Play OS supporting a digital AMP & DAC “hat”. Did not mention this earlier because it wasn’t included in my initial Roon-Core testing with the SB2-classics. From your post, I suspect since the RPi3 is listening for LMS hosts using a newish version of squeezelite player(?), Roon-Core would be able to send music to this endpoint just fine as it does other RPi music endpoints. Great to hear that Roon supports this device option.

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Roon Core Machine

Roon Core v1.8 hosted on QNAP QGD-1600 running QTS-v5 , x86_64 cpu with 32gigs ram.

Networking Gear & Setup Details

Roon-Core v1.8 host connects with wired ethernet on the same subnet as the Squeezebox SB2 and SB3 endpoints… my semi-managed switch on the LAN is fine, the router and pfSense are not an issue either.

Connected Audio Devices

Squeezebox SB2-classic (lovely blue Vacuum Florescent Display) and newer SB3-duet headless. Both use wired ethernet on the same subnet as the hosted Roon-Core running on QNAP QTS-v5

Number of Tracks in Library

33k tracks, mostly MP3’s no FLAC

Description of Issue

Searched and read other threads on the Roon Forum regarding Squeezebox/Roon issues for a solution to my own issue: connection problems with Squeezebox version-2 classic device (SB2-classic), while SB-version3 device (SB3-duet) connects without issues to Roon Core v1.8 hosted by a QNAP QGD-1600 nas/switch with 32gigs ram running the latest QTS-v5 OS.

After much testing, I suspect Roon Core does not treat SB2-classic devices in the same manner as SB3 type devices. Years ago I worked for a US defense contractor in their computer systems engineering dept and have experience debugging hardware/software systems issues. Skills are rusty but not entirely dimenuted.

SYSTEM SETUP: My two SB2 devices are type = classic, with blue vacuum florescent displays. Their connections to the Roon Core host are hardwired ethernet on the same local subnet. Both SB2’s work well when the same QNAP host device runs LMS v8.2. With LMS disabled the Roon Core connects fine to my SB3 (duet) device and plays music well, also using an ethernet connection on the same subnet as the host and SB2 endpoint devices.

PROBLEM Description: My SB2-classic devices are “seen” by Roon Core (v1.8) and when selected, display the Roon circular logo on their blue florescent display panels. Attempting to play music on my SB2 devices, which Roon incorrectly identifies in it’s config window as an “SB3” device, the song title of the MP3 file is displayed and play time in seconds incremented on the blue VFD, however no audio signal leaves the back of the SB2 DAC RCA connectors, verified by trying two amplifiers and headphones. With no physical changes to this setup, when LMS is enabled, both SB2 devices play music just fine and are correctly identified by LMS as SB2-classic devices.

I am aware that SB2-classic’s have output audio signal attenuation issues caused by degraded electrolytic capacitors in the DAC output stage signal path, which I haven’t gotten around to addressing yet (signal loss is approx 40% … still usable somewhat on the modest quality amp they drive, while my SB3-duet with no signal attenuation issue drives my Martin Logan SL3’s via an AB amp). As mentioned, LMS has no problems generating audio from the SB2-classics, while Roon Core can not do the same with the same physical setup. I am pretty sure the SB2-classic’s were pointed to the Roon-Core “music library” and switched back to the LMS music library, but my notes do not make that as clear as I would like.

Wondering if any other Squeezebox SB2-classic owners running Roon-Core are able to successfully play audio ? Can Roon-Core integrate both SB2-classic and newer SB3 devices into the same multi-room music network ?

Ultimately, I would like to also include my inexpensive Insignia WiFi portable (internal LiON powered) chromecast speakers into my multi-room music network synced with the Squeezebox endpoints. LMS v8.2 with the CastBridge v1.80 plugin can do this, though admittedly the setup is tricky and understandably there is a slight delay playing sync’ed music on the Insignia WiFi speakers compared to the amplifiers driven by the SB2 and SB3-duet devices. I can live with some delay on the WiFi speakers which are in rooms further from the main music system: my metal shop in the garage, guestroom …etc.

Roon seems quite full featured in the third day of my 14-day free trial window and I would like to purchase it to replace LMS, though the Material-Skin plugin helps update LMS reasonably well IMHO. If LMS is the only music server able to drive my older SB2-classics, SB3-duet and the odd collection of Insignia Portable WiFi chromecast speakers then I need to stay with this older system. The Martin Logan SL3’s don’t care, so I should be grateful I’ve been able to keep them in good repair thru the years and just enjoy the wonderful music they produce.

Thank-you

5

Hey @Mark_Early,

I am dismayed it took us no more, no less than two weeks to see and get a chance to reply to your post. Clearly, this is not the welcome we would have wanted you to have on the Roon community, nor an accurate reflection of the type of support we want to help.

Would you still be interested in finding a solution to the problem you’ve experienced? We’d love to help and get you started with Roon. Please, just let us know :nerd_face:

7

No worries, holidays consume time in unexpected ways, appreciate your reply.

Quoting from my earlier post: “Roon-Core looks to be a great product with many more features than I am familiar with using LMS, however I might have to stay with LMS as Roon-Core must focus on more modern hardware endpoints still in production, which my SB2-classics obviously are not … quite understandable that. It is a sign of Roon’s excellent dedication to supporting Roon customers, that you have tried to help those of us with old music device hardware, no longer in production as best you can.”

Have uninstalled my Roon-Core test. Am looking at upgrading my LMS music server app to the newest version supported by the QNAP QGD-1600 host and QTS-5. The LMS community has a vested interest in continuing to support my ancient but still working SB-2-classics and a few newer endpoints like my Raspberry-Pi and the Insignia WiFi Chromecast portable speakers, which LMS can drive in the same device collection as the SB3 and SB2’s.

Would still recommend new users try Roon-Core for their music server needs, lots of features, just not the best for my use case with older endpoint hardware.

Many regards, stay safe.

9

Hi @Mark_Early ,

Thank you for the additional feedback here.

Sorry to hear that you’ve decided that Roon is not a good fit for you due to the Squeezebox 2 Classic device issue.

We haven’t done any testing on SB2 Classic as far as I and QA are aware, so it’s hard to say what the expected behavior here is.

If you wish to give Roon another try in the future, we can certainly set you up with a new trial, please just let us know by flagging @support or emailing contact@roonlabs.com.

Thank you!

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