16-Jun-2019, 09:42
I will apologise in advance for what may seem to be an off topic post, the last thing I want is to derail this thread. The point is though, I have noticed some odd behaviour in Roon over the last few months, which just might be relevant.
I normally run Roon via HQPlayer to a sMS-200Ultra, but the behaviour I am describing here applies equally if I run Roon direct to the sMS-200Ultra, or indeed if I run Roon direct to the Devialet in it's Roon Ready mode.
What happens is that I start my Windows 10 PC, set up whatever playback mode I want to use, either the sMS-200Ultra, HQPlayer or the Devialet. To be clear, it does not matter what mode of playback I use. I then start Roon, select the appropriate zone for my method of playback, select a track and select play. What happens next is nothing appears to happen, no music plays, no error messages, just a delay, then after maybe two to four minutes, music starts playing. After this, Roon works fine. For example, once playing, if I select a new track and hit play, the new track plays within a second. As I said before, this happens if I use the sMS-200 in Roon mode, or if I run Roon, HQPlayer, sMS-200. Indeed, I get the same behaviour if I use the Devialet's Roon Ready mode direct. As an example, I tried the Devilaet Roon Ready mode this morning, I started Roon, selected a track, and it took over three and a half minutes before music started playing. Selected a second track, this played within about a second, normal behaviour. Interestingly, when selecting a third track, I got some stuttering and the dreaded "audio file is loading slowly message", from then on Roon appeared to run as it should, at least until I finally stumbled across a 24/192 track which stuttered. Back with the sMS-200Ultra, all is fine, 24/192 tracks work perfectly, same network, same PC, so there does seem to be a problem unique to the Devialet's Roon ready mode in my set up.
The point is, irrespective of which of the ways I use Roon, I get this curious behaviour of it taking about two minutes or more to play the first track, sometimes as long as four minutes. This seams to me to be a fairly trivial thing for Roon (or any music player) to do, from a perspective of processor load once Roon is loaded and up and running. So maybe not directly related to the audio file is loading slowly problem, but maybe it is? I mean, what exactly is Roon doing for almost four minutes before playing the first track? This seems odd to me. I think we have a tendency to blame Devialet for this issue, but it seems to me that all is not as it should be in the latest release of Roon, at least in my set up. So maybe off topic, maybe not, consider this food for thought whilst we wait for this issue to be sorted out.
I normally run Roon via HQPlayer to a sMS-200Ultra, but the behaviour I am describing here applies equally if I run Roon direct to the sMS-200Ultra, or indeed if I run Roon direct to the Devialet in it's Roon Ready mode.
What happens is that I start my Windows 10 PC, set up whatever playback mode I want to use, either the sMS-200Ultra, HQPlayer or the Devialet. To be clear, it does not matter what mode of playback I use. I then start Roon, select the appropriate zone for my method of playback, select a track and select play. What happens next is nothing appears to happen, no music plays, no error messages, just a delay, then after maybe two to four minutes, music starts playing. After this, Roon works fine. For example, once playing, if I select a new track and hit play, the new track plays within a second. As I said before, this happens if I use the sMS-200 in Roon mode, or if I run Roon, HQPlayer, sMS-200. Indeed, I get the same behaviour if I use the Devialet's Roon Ready mode direct. As an example, I tried the Devilaet Roon Ready mode this morning, I started Roon, selected a track, and it took over three and a half minutes before music started playing. Selected a second track, this played within about a second, normal behaviour. Interestingly, when selecting a third track, I got some stuttering and the dreaded "audio file is loading slowly message", from then on Roon appeared to run as it should, at least until I finally stumbled across a 24/192 track which stuttered. Back with the sMS-200Ultra, all is fine, 24/192 tracks work perfectly, same network, same PC, so there does seem to be a problem unique to the Devialet's Roon ready mode in my set up.
The point is, irrespective of which of the ways I use Roon, I get this curious behaviour of it taking about two minutes or more to play the first track, sometimes as long as four minutes. This seams to me to be a fairly trivial thing for Roon (or any music player) to do, from a perspective of processor load once Roon is loaded and up and running. So maybe not directly related to the audio file is loading slowly problem, but maybe it is? I mean, what exactly is Roon doing for almost four minutes before playing the first track? This seems odd to me. I think we have a tendency to blame Devialet for this issue, but it seems to me that all is not as it should be in the latest release of Roon, at least in my set up. So maybe off topic, maybe not, consider this food for thought whilst we wait for this issue to be sorted out.
1000 Pro - KEF Blade - iFi Zen Stream - Mutec REF10 - MC3+USB - Pro-Ject Signature 12
