Playback through AirPlay

No. But you can make it work.

Spend $100 for an Airport Express. Connect that to a digital input of any Naim DAC-enabled device.

Hi Eugene -

I, personally, have not had very good luck with Airplay. Tried an AE, and had enough dropouts to make it unusable (6-12 per night, often just for a second or two, but every once in a while it would simply stop altogether and require a power cycle to start working again).  Also tried an ATV. It worked a bit better for dropouts, but if I left it alone for more than a day or so, it would freeze for lack of input for some prompt or pop-up.  So then I would have to hook up a monitor and keyboard to get it going again. I tried turning off automatic updates, but that did not solve the problem (and, besides, while the dropouts were reduced, they were not eliminated).

So, long story short, out with the Airplay and in with the Bluetooth!  There is now a new generation of Bluetooth Music Receivers with digital optical output. I paid $69 for one made by Rocketfish, and I saw there is one in the UK as well (QED U-Play).  Mine has worked flawlessly -- no dropouts, and perfectly acceptable sound quality for my intended use (Spotify 320kbps or quick and easy streaming from guest's smart phones).  Just note that Bluetooth has limited range, and IME, it works best when the sending device is in the same room as my receiver.

Good luck!

Hook

Eugene,

A contrary experience to hook. I have several AEs around the house and they allwhat've worked flawlessly for the last couple of years, have never had to reset them and hardly ever get any dropouts, even using my iPhone to stream radio from the Internet to the AE. IMHOnthe Apple AE is one of the best devices they have ever produced, so versatile.

Cheers, Paul

Although I have not connected my AE to my Qute to use airplay I have used my AE connected to another setup and stream using airplay from my PC to my outside deck.  Used it for several hours just yesterday and had no dropouts.  An excellent device for sure.

AirPlay encompasses many possible configurations.  If you wire the AE to your network, turn off the onboard WiFi, and play iTunes from a computer wired to the network, that is AirPlay, too, and very reliable IME.  You can control that computer remotely using an iPad etc.  

Making it possible for visitors to throw content from their devices is a nice capability to have, though I do not find many occasions to use it at the moment, but that could change.  Eugene did not seem to be asking for that particular function.

Nick

I think the older AEs may work better, but the new ones definitely have dropouts with their optical output. There are a number of threads on other forums discussing this and, so far, firmware updates have not resolved the problem. It has also been discussed here, including why it happens (according to a designer from Cambridge Audio):

https://forums.naimaudio.com/to...89#23389351211073389

Other engineers, including the designer of the Audiolab MDAC (over at the rosy hued place), have also written extensively about this problem.

Not trying to be overly critical of Apple here, but I do think it is fair to point out that dropouts appear to be pretty comon, at least with newer AEs on their optical output.

Hook

Well called, Hook.  My experience is limited to the older AE.  

I wonder if this tendancy to reset is merely a defect, done for some purpose.  Hard to imagine what purpose.

Nick

I have several Airport express, some older some newer, all hardwired to the network, no dropouts at all, works flawless.

A proper, good setup network with a good router is a good way of making it work as intended.

Why Naim have choose this approach against AirPlay is not known to man..

Presumably there's an Apple licence fee?

Presumably it isn't out of Naim's range, since everyone else is supporting it. There must be reasons other than cost that Naim won't add it.

How well does it handle 26/96 material?  How about 24/192?  This may be important to Naim.

I believe Airplay is limited to 16/44.1 audio (I could be wrong), and it doesn't support FLAC.

exactly my point.

Really now? Then why do they support lossy iRadio streams?

Last I checked my Uniti could also deal with DAB and Internet Radio, neither of which is anything like 24/192 standard.  Correlation doesn't equal causation.

Simon

Because they have no choice with that.  They do not manage the sources.  They do however control the streaming bits and OBVIOUSLY they dont want to implement it or they would have a LONG time ago.

I am just trying to reason why it doesn't already exist.  Do you have a better reason other than:

-Cost

-Longevity of the Airplay technology

-Poor quality

Any one of the above, or a combination of 2, or all.  Takes your pick.

-p

Sorry pcstockton, you're just wrong.

- Cost can't be an issue. Even el cheapo devices implement Airplay. Naim's streamers/dac are equipped with Apple ID chip already (iPhone/iPod digital interface requires this). So, as they're already paying Apple, upgrading to include "AirPlay license" (if such is even required?) can NOT be a cost issue.

- Longetivity? Oh please... "As of September 2012, Apple reported that total number of iPods sold worldwide was 350 million. -wiki" And that's not even counting the phones. Trust me, the thing won't be going anywhere soon. Besides, the streaming software is just that, software. Software engineers puke out updates all the time (well, not at Naim ) and AirPlay specs can be updated just the same. It's not hardware, unlike the 24/192 upgrade boards ("providing Airplay compatibility") they sold us...

- Poor quality? Well, AirPlay beats bad CD-transports easily and it's convenient as hell for casual wireless audio. Way worse quality is already enabled with iRadio and horrid 128k streams.

Why it's taken so long NOT to get implemented is the real question here.

It could be just really bad marketing but I'm starting to lean on software development's inability to produce a working feature.

Murkku

+1

Furthermore as to cost Linn's software engineers did  reverse technology and implemented their own version of Airplay which works- thus cost equals ZERO.

Let's hear your reason then...  I was just postulating.  It has been YEARS since they said it would be available MAYBE at some point.  Still nada.

It doesn't appear Naim is interested in implementing it at all.

So then, why do you think that is?

-patrick

If you'd taken the time and actually read my post, you might've found my take on the delay already.

I read your post.. every word.  I just read it again.  TWICE.  I don't see your explanation for the delay/ignoring.

Sorry.

Maybe rather than being a dick about it you would simply Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V the response.

-p

Nah, I think I'd rather be a dick than waste another point on your childish crusade.