What is the downside of using the core machine as the main music player?

The upside for me is that playback is rock solid compared to all the drop outs I get from the remote. I know it’s just a wifi thing but I have the latest firmware, and that’s all I know to do.

As far as I’ve experienced, there is no downside to using the core machine as as a main music player.

I don’t think there are any downsides to connecting endpoints to the Core instead of a Remote. Connecting endpoints to a Remote may be convenient depending on the layout of the system and the house.

The processing is always done in the Core, which is why storing files on the Core or in a NAS connected by Ethernet to the Core is best.

If you are storing files in a Remote, connecting to an endpoint off the Remote and connecting to the Core by WiFi then you will have problems because you are asking the WiFi to simultaneously transmit the audio in both directions. Ethernet can do this, but not n WiFi and probably not ac WiFi.

What kind of WiFi are you using and where are your files located ? It may be that something can be done about the dropouts.

The wifi is 802.11n, provided by AT&T through a 2Wire modem/router. I have been using a Surface Pro 3 as a remote. All other wifi tasks seem to be trouble free. My files are on an NAS (WD MyCloud) attached to the router. When using the remote I get fairly frequent dropouts with ripped cd’s and absolutely can’t get through any albums with higher resolution rates.

I think I am stuck with the router AT&T gives me. I have a digital subscription, but that’s for TV, nothing to do with wifi I think.

But I am ok using the core laptop in my main system, although I wish the fan would shut up! When Roon will work with my squeezebox touch I’ll be happy, but in the meantime I am using it in the living room to play my files and tunein radio. It won’t talk to my NAS, but it will get files off of the 1T external drive I use to back up my music on. And I am looking forward to Roon coming up with some Sonos-type solutions.

You could bridge the 2Wire modem to a new ac router and see if that improves the wi fi. Your connection to the internet will still be only as fast as the 2Wire and AT&T provide, but your LAN performance might be significantly better.

I second @andybob. Get the provider provided equipment out of your home network internal topography. That equipment is usually not the best.

Well, any advice about how to bridge the modem to a new ac router? I’ll study up on it but I really have no idea.

Most modems have a setting you can access from their configuration page. It just turns off some of the LAN functions on the modem which will now be done on the router. There’s a lot of tutorials on the Web and YouTube and there should be one or more for your particular model. Here’s one that might be close (you can ignore the stuff about removing the IP address for the AirPort).

Thank you. This might be a project for the future but for now I am going to use the core machine hooked up to my main system. I might even put all my music files on the core machine and take wifi out of the equation, except for the Tidal part.

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