Installed this product throughout much of my house last year. I have 50 units in total, of which 24 are for sound in about 7 zones. It’s a state of the art lighting system and sound system. Each light/sound unit is a complete audio system that is now certified Roon Ready. Very sophisticated, with multiple audio systems onboard (Roon, Amazon HD, Tidal, Apple Music, Airplay, Spotify, Radio) and Alexa voice control. Zones can be grouped using Roon or Alexa. Phenomenal sound from a 95mm external diameter unit, primarily engineered by Lawrence Dickie (B&W, Vivid) and Trevor Wilson (Naim) who I assume was involved in the Roon implementation. The whole system is wireless and can be fitted into an existing lighting circuit. Probably the first use of Roon in a home automation product (won the CEDIA 2021 New Hardware award).
I still have a Roon Ready 2-channel system in a music room (Wilson/Devialet/Innuos), but I also have this system in that room (6 speaker units), plus 6 other Zuma rooms/zones and Devialet Phantom in a garden room, so Roon does everything, everywhere.
Looks cool. Does it actually show up in Roon as RoonReady?
@support This device is not listed on the RoonReady partners page. If it is, in fact Roon Ready, then please the least you can do is keep your own reference list up to date.
As announced last year, Roon Ready only works with Roon authenticated products. The system works because the software updated with Roon Ready a couple of days before authentication and it flags as unauthenticated and does not work. I had previously been using these units via Roon with AirPlay, which is not as good for a couple of reasons, not least because these units operate at 24/192 PCM and AirPlay is limited to 16/44.
I have 4 other zones I’ve not connected yet (just got back from holiday), I wonder if there is a limit?
Still not entirely clear to me if it’s Roon Ready or not. Maybe it’s a language barrier thing.
It’s either “yes it is Roon ready and it shows up as such at this very moment and it will as such for any customer” or “no, if you’d get it right now as a new customer it won’t show up as Roon ready”.
Definitely Roon Ready and fully authenticated. Give Roon a chance, their Partner page has been a bit behind before!
I’ve realised we also have a Main Qb2 in the house, that’s 11 zones.
One of the big features of this system is the DSP and dispersion so you get no sensation of a point source, so you get a very even, immersive sound. We bought the Devialet Reactor for the same reason, which became Roon Ready a couple of years later. My wife uses it in her work environment all the time.
That’s clear. Unfortunately we’ve had many manufacturers falsely claiming Roon ready support in the past. The typical response from Roon is “”you should have known this. Check our website”. So forgive my initial hesitation.
@support I’m surprised adding the certified gear to the website isn’t part of the certification process checklist.
Roon can identify unauthenticated software and blocks it from working. It must be pretty vital function. It also blocks running two cores running at the same time, although it only takes a few seconds to switch.
24/192 plays native format (Roon calls it Lossless) and DSD files get converted to 176.4/32 PCM (Roon calls it High Quality), I presume Innuos does that. I have no idea. It certainly sounds better than AirPlay.
I mentioned the authentication just to make the point that Roon’s authentication procedure (there was a thread about it last year) and blocking of unauthenticated systems definitely works! As I mentioned, the development team of this product have done Roon Ready before.
I’ve always assumed a small speaker is a compromise, these are very small, but I’m listening to Shostakovich’s first violin concerto (as it was my sample for the source above) and it sounds very good. For anyone who knows it, the main dramatic staccato theme in the second movement borrowed from Act 3 of Lady Macbeth (in the opera it’s used when Zinovy’s body is discovered chopped up into little bits) comes across very well. There’s a kettle drum at the start of the 4th movement and it actually sounds like a kettle drum. There is a lot to be said with filling a room with sound rather than using point sources for stereo. In some respects it’s more realistic of real live music.
I must apologise for using the term authenticated. A Freudian slip from MQA, which I considered to be a fraud from the very start. The correct word is certification. If a product is not certified by Roon, it won’t work. You get a red flag.
Roon certification is intended first and foremost to ensure that Roon enabled products work as they are meant to, simply and fault-free. That has always been my experience. I’ve used Devialet Expert Pro for 6 years and Roon Ready was the best thing that happened to it.
I would add that spending a few months using Alexa and Amazon HD for voice-controlled music was ultimately rather frustrating. It’s OK until you start to get specific, and it throws up unexpected music quite often. Plus I have a lot of downloads that are not on Amazon. The Amazon HD app is also rather horrible. It’s fine if you just want Mozart or Steely Dan, or very popular tracks. I’m much happier using Roon and have cancelled the Amazon HD subscription.
The Zuma Lumisonic has passed certification and it’s nice to see some positive feedback from a customer. Thank you @Steven44 for posting your personal experience with those speakers. We’re happy to hear that you’re enjoying them.
The units aren’t listed on the Partners page due to pending launch arrangements with Zuma. Thank you @Nepherte and @ged_hickman1 for inquiring about their status. Full details will appear on our website soon.
My primary interest was in the lighting side of this product - it is as advanced as the sound. I installed multiple units in a project that took 7 months. You can buy one unit, expand an existing LED hole to 95mm, connect the supplied 24v transformer to the existing lighting circuit and install the unit. That can be done in a few minutes. It has a patented system to fix the unit in the ceiling so that it can play very loud without rattling (it is screw tight), but can be removed equally quickly without causing any damage. The software will connect the unit in a few seconds.
I’ve been on Roon since my main static Devialet system went Roon Ready in February 2019. If Roon wanted to design a multi-room audio system, Zuma would be it. For sound, the products are made for each other.
The main sound requirement for this project was home cinema, and I use 7 speakers in 2 zones using Airplay via Apple TV+. The Apple TV+ can group zones as easily as Roon.
Zuma has “wellbeing” settings that combine sound and light. It also has a Circadian setting that automatically changes the light intensity and warmth through the day. Maybe Roon could have Circadian sound, changing the mood dependent on the time of day.
Well this is eye opening stuff. @Steven44 did it feel like a gamble investing 7 months of time (and I don’t know how much cash) into a relatively unheard of system? I get the feeling even you were surprised by the successful outcome!
In 7 months we largely rebuilt the entire house, including an extension and replacing every wire and pipe inside and outside the house, starting from the street. This included a new music room for 2-channel. I was originally looking for a new intelligent lighting system and a sensible way of putting surround sound in an open plan space because of the rubbish sound quality from screens and I did not want a soundbar. What were the options? In-wall speakers? Sonos? Lightwave? Lutron? Everything I looked at was a compromise on installation costs, wiring, sound quality and duplication of systems.
Ultimately the system does not compare to anything else as there is nothing comparable. The design and technical team have been working together since they did the B&W Nautilus 30+ years ago. They had a pop-up shop shop at launch so I could see the whole system in operation. (They now sell through independent retailers.)
One of the main features is that it is incredibly cost-effective, much cheaper than putting in something like Lightewave + Sonos, and infinitely better. It is designed to be self-installed, because all you have to do is attach a 24v transformer to the existing lighting circuit. My electrician installed all 50 transformers in half a day. I was going to put the units in myself, ultimately Zuma came round as it was a large installation and they offered to assist. This is how easy it is.
Each unit only draws about 8w, so on one circuit I have 22 units on a ring connected to a single rocker switch. In the image below there are about 16 speaker/lights and about 10 more light units.
They keep disappearing from Roon, they’ll play for few min before Roon loses sight of them and stops playing. Then they’ll come back and I have to press play again. Pretty useless in the circumstances.
I think it may be related to how the Zumas connect to the wifi network - I have a full Unifi wifi network. These are the only devices on the network that seem to have a problem. The closest WAP to the Zumas is only a few feet away in the same ceiling.
When they do work they sound great, much better that the Sonos / Cambridge Audio speakers I have in other rooms.
It must be your network set-up. I have 24 lumisonic and 26 luminaire units and no problems at all. I can stream 24/192 all day long no problem, and have 4 bars on almost every unit.
Things that may help -
Turn off Mesh (I think it is on by default)
Lock onto the nearest access point (see below)
Change the Kleernet in the Zuma app to 2.4Ghz. This should not be necessary.
Another thing to do is go into Roon advanced settings for the zone and reduce the sample rates to 96 or 48 khz. This will make it easier for your wifi.
I have 4 bars on all 4 units and the signal levels are -54, -52 (main unit), -48 and -42
The main unit is 3 feet away from the AP it is connected to.
I did have them locked to the closest AP, but that didn’t help. I locked them to another AP as well, but no luck there either.
I did try changing the Kleernet frequency, but as you expected, that made no difference as I presume that’s the frequency the units talk to each other on and not the AP.
I’m not sure the max sample rate is going to make a difference - I don’t have much content higher than 96, and the units have been dropping out at lower rates too including on online radio stations. They also drop off if I’m using airplay via my phone and not Roon.
It’s got to be the wifi connection.
I’m going to try a full factory reset this weekend.
