So I Tried Out Roon Tonight...

OK. A couple of hours later and all of the dropouts have stopped. Didn't make any changes so I am going to assume the initial poor performance was the result of initial indexing or something like that. My impressions have changed completely. Just listened to the first few songs without dropouts and they sound wonderful. Nice to be able to control everything from my phone as well. If I can get away with using my older macbook air as the server and only have to put out for the cost of the software I think it will be a no brainer for me. Will likely start with the yearly subscription when my trial expires but for about 10 bucks a month this could be an addition I will be happy to make. Providing of course that the reliability continues.
 
If I can get away with using my older macbook air

The hardware requirement isn't too steep, just i3 processor and 4GB of RAM, with OS10.8 (Mountain Lion) or newer. That's 2012 MacBook Air performance, so you should be good to go unless your machine is older than that.
 
The hardware requirement isn't too steep, just i3 processor and 4GB of RAM, with OS10.8 (Mountain Lion) or newer. That's 2012 MacBook Air performance, so you should be good to go unless your machine is older than that.
I think it is still indexing which was killing the performance. Had it working great for about an hour. Now can't connect from android phone. I will wait it out to see how it goes. My MacBook air would be around 2014 or so which according to your specs should be fine. It is a bit frustrating but when it is working I really like it.
 
Back to having major problems with drop outs. Very frustrated at this point after spending several hours troubleshooting. Time to quit for the day and approach fresh tomorrow. I don't know if the split install is adding complexity and potential networking issues but it was ideal with the way my home network is set up. I don't really want a dedicated computer in stereo rack as I also like to be able to hear youtube and other audio and movies from my desktop computer through my stereo and the split install allowed me to maintain these options. Oddly enough it seems fairly stable streaming from Roon to my Sonos units upstairs but is not working well to my desktop end point with Resonessence Herus dac.
 
If I read correctly, the server is the laptop and the endpoint is the desktop PC with the DAC. If the laptop is using WiFi, try an ethernet dongle and use a wired connection to the network if possible. Ensure you turn off wifi if this test is possible. See if that changes things. Variable wifi may cause issues.
 
If I read correctly, the server is the laptop and the endpoint is the desktop PC with the DAC. If the laptop is using WiFi, try an ethernet dongle and use a wired connection to the network if possible. Ensure you turn off wifi if this test is possible. See if that changes things. Variable wifi may cause issues.

Thanks. Will try that today. I did have ethernet connected to the laptop (server) at one point but did not try turning off wifi. The odd thing though is that the performance to the Sonos (upstairs via wifi using roon) is much better than the two computers which are in the same room as the router. This doesn't make sense to me. Also, my music folder is on a nas device but I am having issues both streaming Tidal and playing local music so this does not seem to be the issue. I have been reading a lot of support messages on the errors I am receiving and there are a huge number of reasons that could be causing it so if I really want to put in the effort, it could be a lot of potential issues to look at. Could be network issues, NAS issues, compatability issues, settings, etc. Don't want to sound too down on Roon because it is excellent when it is working for me and I know if I had a bunch of money to throw at the problem I could resolve it by updating my NAS, updating to a Mesh network in the house, and building a dedicated roon box for my stereo but my old setup without roon was pretty good and worked perfectly in my environment.
 
I think I finally have this Roon system sorted out after about 8 hours of playing around with it. Was able to determine that the dropouts were only occurring on the windows desktop endpoint and that all other endpoints played well without interruption. Also realized that I wasn't seeing all of the configuration menu options on the phone and that there was a series of menus to the right of the main screen which pointed me towards the solution. Finally found some articles online about issues with WASAPI playback and when I was able to go into the configuration of Roon I noticed that my desktop endpoint was using WASAPI while there was another option to use ASIO. So I changed this and it has been working perfectly since. Now I get to really see what Roon is capable of. Very happy to see that I won't require any hardware upgrades if I decide to purchase Roon.
 
I've been a Roon user for a couple years now and love it. Not only is it a fantastic information rich interface that lets you seamless slide back and forth from local content to Tidal to Internet radio (any formats), but it also sounds great and is very flexible with lots of platform and control options. I control it using an Android phone, a tablet, laptop or even a wireless keyboard and large remotely located HDMI monitor. I output audio to my main system using various DACs, an HT system via HDMI out of a net PC or portable speakers via a laptop.

I'm not sure why it would be 'stuttering' in a few of the above uses but I suspect indexing or WiFi use. I've used it on an old and slow laptop, on a low power/low dollar net-PC and on a high-horsepower dedicated PC built to push the limits with the Roon/HQplayer combination (which is really something special), and have never had a problem with stuttering or dropouts. I don't know Mac but these where all Windows PCs (Win7 & 10) using Ethernet and the only time I've had a drop-out was in using WiFi (streaming DSD from my server) or when pushing the limits with some of the real CPU battering filters available in HQPlayer.

Straight-up Roon - even doing DSD upsampling - does not seem to be too demanding on hardware and the real shocker of all I've tried with Roon and various DACs was the level of performance I got with that cheap little Zotac mini-PC into the $800 MP-D2 tube DAC; stunning performance with Roon at it's heart.
 
I'm not sure why it would be 'stuttering' in a few of the above uses but I suspect indexing or WiFi use. I've used it on an old and slow laptop, on a low power/low dollar net-PC and on a high-horsepower dedicated PC built to push the limits with the Roon/HQplayer combination (which is really something special), and have never had a problem with stuttering or dropouts. I don't know Mac but these where all Windows PCs (Win7 & 10) using Ethernet and the only time I've had a drop-out was in using WiFi (streaming DSD from my server) or when pushing the limits with some of the real CPU battering filters available in HQPlayer.

The dropouts were definitely related to the default "Use Exclusive Mode" toggle on the windows endpoint. It worked perfectly once I was able to figure out that the issue was related to a single end point and switched from WASAPI to ASIO (an option I hadn't seen until I recognized that there were more menus to the right of the screen on my phone and I actually swiped to the left to reveal them). I did some further playing around and try to get the WASAPI going and turning off Exclusive Mode also had the same effect. All I can think of is that it created some conflicts with other applications on the desktop endpoint or something like that. Now I am enjoying it thoroughly although not trying anything too intensive. Just streaming Tidal or playing files from my NAS.
 
Roon vs Rune... Hmmmm. I've been poking around for a digital ripping/storage/streaming solution and stumbled on your thread. They can be PRICEY. I've seen a few components that were north of $6,000. So, Roon and Rune seem to be quite a bit more affordable. I've got more reading to do on both...

Thanks for posting your thoughts and trouble shooting journeys with us.
 
Put me in for a satisfied ROON customer as well. Going on over a year now.

Using a Sonore UltraRendu (renderer) into an Audio Note DAC... Sound quality is the best digital I've had in my house.

It is a bit of a struggle setting up, but... if I can do it. I had to migrate a huge library. After set up, its a joy.

Also in the "rendering" chain: Synology NAS, Windows I3 PC, Ipad, Iphone, ART-Legato SPDIF/USB, Cisco Ethernet Switch, Blue Jean Ethernet Cable, and Tidal.
 
I purchased an early birthday present for myself, a lifetime Roon license. I think it’s the first software I’ve ever purchased that has made things easier while bringing so much joy. It’s fairly straightforward and even a computer lightweight like me can manage my way through, for the most part.

I haven’t even begun to use its full capabilities. I download music, rip CD’s to hard drive, play Tidal. It finds all my music easily, makes recommendations through Roon Radio, upsamples and even has a parametric EQ function for room correction (I haven’t ventured there but will). Love the reviews and the “liner notes” on so many albums.

Highly recommended!
 
Has anyone looked into the new Plex service I've been hearing about?

I don't think Plex is in the same league as ROON for music management except it may be adequate for smaller catalogues.

But when it comes to managing whole house Video Content... it may be the best, from what I have read (and not experienced, so, take it for what its worth).
 
I just purchased a lifetime subscription to Roon. I have a Lumin U1, NAD M10, PS Audio Directstream DAC with Bridge 2, and two Sonos Amps. Roon works great outputting to all of the above devices. Now instead of four computer apps (Lumin, Bluesound, MConnect, and Sonos I just use Roon. WOOT!
 
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