More streaming questions...

Posted by: Steeve on 12 October 2009

Hi

I am using a Uniti with a QNAP219P NAS with Twonky 4.417 pre-installed.

Question 1:
It's been working fine and I decided as I was away for a few days to power down the Uniti and the NAS (in accordance with the instructions). Upon restarting it up, whenever I play an album it starts with the first track and then plays the rest in random order! I've checked my Twonky Media Configuration and no randomising functions are selected. I also have Foobar2000 loaded on my laptop and the same thing happens when using this. Any ideas what's going on?

Question 2:
I have currently ripped most of my CDs using dbPoweramp. I understand that, at the moment, it isn't possible to save the gap information which means when playing an album like, say, Abbey Road, a few seconds silence appears between each track. I have tried ripping the same disc with EAC and creating a CUE sheet. When I played the file through Twonky last week (prior to the problem in Q1!) this just resulted in the last fraction of a second of the track repeating, followed by a silence followed by the next track! If I play the album back using Foobar2000 through the laptop it plays perfectly. I tried to play the same tracks through the Uniti via Foobar today but couldn't really prove much because of the randomising problem I am getting. Does anyone have any experience of playing tracks with the correct gaps through the Uniti?

Help please! I am going slighty mad...

Steeve

Posted on: 15 October 2009 by garyi

The only issue with linns own software is just how terrible it is. This is no complaint on them, they have found out the hard way, as I suspect naim are finding, that the demands from the user on the quality of software is in some ways more important than the ultimate sound quality.

People are not prepared to use shit software anymore just because its in a good audio box.

Naim have got the uniti right IMO, it works, and its simple. Its a great product, with one caveat it does not do gapless playback, because UPNP does not do gapless layback.

Remember in order for UPNP to work the way people are wanting here, i.e. gapless, it will involve server software that is able to deliver the requirement. As far as I can work out that would mean at the point between tracks the server would need to be delivering two tracks one being played and one cuing up for playback. This is outside of the UPNP protocal so is basically going to need hacking, just like linn has done. I have not heard a lin nplayer in action but I have used the software on mac. Its the most terrible peice of software that I think is possible to make, its ability to do even the basics is beyond Alpha stage right now.

Posted on: 15 October 2009 by Tom_W

I absolutely agree with Garyi regarding importance of the software. The user's experience is now influenced by many factors, and hardware quality is only one of them.
Usability of these sort of complex music solutions is paramount if we're going to really enjoy using the extended features promised. I hope sufficient significance is being placed on the software interface by Naim, because this can easily kill a great idea if not done well.
Witness the poorly thought out early UI on BMW's iDrive for a well known example.

Posted on: 15 October 2009 by likesmusic

I agree with garyi too about the importance of decent software - and it's probably a good idea not to try too hard, and make something that is robust and simple rather than laden with features that don't deliver. Adequately replicating playing a cd would be a good start!

I wonder if the tie-in with Apple gives NAIM options - building 'airport expressness' into a DAC for example.

Posted on: 15 October 2009 by Steven Hopkins

Gapless playback is on the wish list, UPnP does not support gapless, it is one of the most asked topics on the Web

Posted on: 15 October 2009 by Steeve

Thanks Steven.

Be sure to let us Uniti owners know if there's anything we can update!

Steeve