Please Naim, can I go back to the n-Stream app

Who cares about the balance setting?!?!

how does he get the spotify and Qobuz add-on on a UQ2, that's what I wanna know!!!!

btw, I like the new app very much

Yesterday, I saw that N-Stream was to be updated and that it required IOS7, which I have on my two iPads and my iPhone, so I updated. I saw no warnings applicable to me.

The app worked fine wrt to iRadio but although I could browse my flac directories on my NAS, it could not control my original Uniqute.

Only when I scroll all the way down, I mean all the way down, do I see that the app does not support Uniqute and that I should not have updated. No warning, just an omission.

So, I had updated both iPads, had not updated the iPhone but now the challenge is to prevent the iPhone from updating and how to go back to the old app.

For Naim to have handled this as a universal update and completely and utterly ignored the interests of customers who bought the Uniqute in good faith is totally and completely wrong and has made nothing but a mess for me to fix and correct.

And, now for the end of time, I have to make sure I never hit. "Update all" on my iPhone and all because Naim can't figure out how to operate in the 21st century. Will certainly add to my view of Naim brand equity.

Phil Harris has already addressed this in the other thread https://forums.naimaudio.com/to...17#41551091817911617

The application is compatible with all Naim streamers

If there is any way in which nStream can be made available to roll back to, I'll happily take it also. 

Quite apart from the interface which I think is mostly useless, and feature poor compared to some of the screen grabs I've seen,, I've had to reinstall it twice after one  crash which it would not recover from and the spontaneous disappearance of the volume control from it's little uPnP window. Exasperating! And starting to get in the way of musical enjoyment.

Please, please, please can we have an option to revert to nStream?

Here's how you can do it, supposedly, but I haven't tried myself as I haven't upgraded yet:

How to Save iPhone & iPad Apps & Downgrade an App to a Previous Version

The main problem, depending on how your updates are configured, is to find the proper n-Stream 3.6.7479.ipa file.

It once was in the Music/iTunes/Mobile Applications folder in your user directory if you're on a Mac. Now, after having been updated to 4.0, the 3.6.7479 version may resides in your Trash can, or somewhere in your Time Machine backup or any other backup provided you ever had one.

This is for people who use iTunes to manage their iOS devices. Now if you rely entirely and solely on the iCloud beast, I have no idea.

HTH

Maurice

I'll follow up on my own post; I am indeed incorrect about the UQ1 being orphaned. My mistake, absolutely. Its just a matter of finding that part of the set up menu, which is not obvious, but it is there. 

I was warned that the new n-Stream App was a bit of a disaster but forgot!Sadly I have backed up via iCloud so haven't got the original to fall back upon - I am now scuppered! And why?

Because the new App is profoundly flawed. It looks neat on the face of it and adds a feature I really like and have wanted for some time - that is it allows you, for instance, to play internet radio music and simultaneously search your server for the next track you want - I love that.

What it does wrong? Almost everything else and makes my not inconsiderable investment in Naim boxes seem wasted as controlling them is now an unpleasant, counter intuitive exercise - it's almost better using the less than adequate remote control.

I accidentally played a track at rather too high volume - well fine, just turn it down - except this is now a semi hidden control - really?! A primary function relegated to a secondary role. If all tracks were recorded at the same zero level reference this might make some sense, but they are not and the volume control should be at the top ALWAYS!

Touch a song when in album view and all the tracks are added to the playlist! Why? I touched ONE song - to select that or to add it to a playlist is now a secondary function - madness.

The interface when in folder views looks remarkably 'Windows' like clunky and cheap. Cosmetic I accept but so un-Naim as to make horrid to see. The way the files are presented is naff too - what exactly I am looking at when I see the folders presented to me? What does CD Collection refer to? All my Unitiserve including downloads or just the CDs I have ripped?

I have come across interfaces like these on another life and, as a rule, they are written my clever computery people and hardly tested on mere mortals. As I can't get to the old app now I am saddled with this mess and will just have to pray that Naim will address the criticisms placed very firmly at their door.

I love Naim, I have used it for 30 years and now, in one hit I feel insecure in continuing the affiliation and would, in all seriousness consider selling up and moving on if this is the new world at Salisbury!

Really, you'd consider changing from Naim becuse of an app? I know change is sometimes unwelcome, but keep a sense of proportion. I think the new app is super.

A photochop.  Phil LOL'ed at it in another thread a few days ago.

I'd bet that it's hyperbole.  

Then again, I am thinking of quitting my job because they changes from Coke to Pepsi in our in-house cafe.  I feel insecure in continuing my affiliation.  

Hi.

About the volume slider, I agree. It should maybe be visible at all times. 

Touch a song in album view and it plays from that song? Yes, that would be the expected behaviour and I think also the way most apps like this work. And, in the old app everything was a secondary function - if you pushed a track you'd have to make a choice: play only this track, play from this track and so on. So, is it really that hard pushing the three little dots and selecting what you want instead? You had to make a selection in the old app too.

What do you mean with "CD collection" - is that a folder on your server? In that case it shows you the name of the folder, since you are in folders view. The app doesn't name stuff for you, it presents what the server is.. serving.

Sorry if I seem like I don't think you have a point (or several), because you do. But this just seems so over dramatic. Some controls are now in a different place in the app and some things re done differently, yes. But I'm betting most, if not all, who use it for a while would find the old app really strange if they suddenly changed back. 

I can tell you this: as a new customer, spending a considerable amount of money on a streamer, being presented with the old app I felt cheated. Really. It was designed in many ways opposite of most other apps and took some time to get used to (and I never liked it). This change, to a more modern look and feel, is required if Naim wants to stay on top of the streaming audio market. The app is that important today.

This is a new release of course there will be improvements as I'm sure you have seen in the other threads.

Same here. Although I'm only in my 14th Naim year. 

In fairness the flaky app is a small straw for me but a significant one. My top flight audio system has turned out to be remarkably unreliable and on top of all this I'm stuck with an app which doesn't work properly and keeps crashing. The musical portrayal still has a kind of visceral magic that always brings a smile to my face but the ownership experience really is feeling hair shirt - but at Rolls Royce prices.

If there is any way that a download of nStream can be made available to those who would prefer it, I would be very grateful.

I like the new App. I actually like the fact that it adds the entire album when I select a song - it's tricky to get the default write.

I haven't turned automation on, so don't care about the volume slider. :-)

I am serious and I DO think the new App is terrible for the reasons I expressed. The simple things aren't an issue really, the cosmetics is a thing of personal taste, though I do know someone who finds the fonts etc less legible when using the phone version in particular.

The zero level issue is, I think, an important one and whilst it IS true that Naim kit without remote control of volume don't benefit from the ease of access that the App gives, to have instand access to volume is, I think vital. If all recording were created equal I'd agree that the swipe up nature of this control would be a minor point. I work in Broadcast so perhaps I have a certain bias, but, for instance the reference level of Alt-J recordings are significantly higher than John Strong (A Linn recording which is sadly also rather compressed, but that's another issue) - the volume control is therefore almost the most used one on the App for me so hiding it is a nuisance.

I think choosing new kit is a complex issue and whilst I love the sound of Naim and have done for as long as I can remember I also feel the ergonomics of it are important too. Naim has never been the most ergonomic kit but it didn't matter so much when all there was to fiddle with was volume and input. Of course I wouldn't throw out all my black boxes because of an App but it would perhaps make me look a little harder at alternatives if and when I upgrade.

I am now holding my pad AND my remote control merely to adjust the level when I listen to my glorious system - perhaps that is the way ahead, knobs and switches?!

As for Coke in the workplace - I somehow feel that decision is a bit like being asked whether you want to be hung or shot! I'd have moved on ages ago if Vimto hadn't been available!!

@MangoMonkey - I am a browser listener, I rummage around my collection, so being able to add individual tracks easily as I go on my personal odyssey is useful. As you suggest, all the little variations are harder to do now which is fine if you are fully Naimed up as it were. It would all be more tolerable if the bits you wanted were able to be brought forward (Whatever happened to fuzzy logic). Other apps can be customised, why not this one. It would be fabulous if the app could access the up-down buttons on the devices - now that would change a lot for me!

I've done the iPad AND remote forever, as I've yet to enable system automation on my 'main' system. I guess I'm used to it.  But as my grandfather used to say, "If you hang long enough, you get used to that too."

No Vimto here on this side of the Pond, at least not at mainstream retailers.  

Unfortunately Mrs Number 7 went ahead without me knowing and migrated to the latest version of this app on an ipad. Tried to undo it, but no luck. We have 2 iphones still with the nstream app. Is there a way of transferring this older version to the ipad? Any very simple explanation for a technical numpty would be most appreciated. 

Daunt, you have probably seen it, but if not, take a look at the thread highlighting the fixes and changes coming in the imminent revision of the app:

https://forums.naimaudio.com/to...for-ios-next-release

Volume as an 'ever present' has been raised also by others.

Not in this revision, but hopefully in the next?

In my case you'd bet wrong. Helen and I are becoming sick of it. The app is a small straw but could prove to be a significant one. We've had the "it sounds great but it doesn't work reliably enough" conversation today. We'll be picking it up in a showroom tomorrow.

Still, at least we are looking at the opportunity of auditioning some alternatives while the 552, or the 500 or possibly (but less likely) the NDS have to go back to base. I think that will get us into double figures for breakdowns and faulty equipment. It's just not good enough and the app continues on this theme.

This is typical of the forum. Some people are struggling with deal breaking problems and what they get is ridiculed and sneered at. Well, possibly not for much longer in some cases.

@ChrisH - I haven't seen that and will look. The page I liked, cos I am sad technologist, was the stats page - bitrate etc and it's still there - except there is a bug so it only flashes up long enouh to not be read - hopefully this will be fixed.

@Harry - I adore Naim, always have, always will, what it does it does fabulously which, of course, is why these small things are so annoying because they rob us of part of a nice experience. I am using the new app all the time and nothing, I am afraid endears me to it at all. Some think it's wonderful, I can't see it, but they, of course are entitled to their opinion. My upgrade path, because I am a little boxed into a corner, would be a £12-14K one and with that sort of contemplation I'd look towards alternatives as well as Naim and that's where the app's shortfall does have a bearing, albeit a small one!

No ridicule intended, just a suggestion that a sense of proportion is required.

Phil has offered to help all those with real problems, and yet the moaning keeps on coming. If it doesn't  work, contact Phil - it's what he's there for. If he is unresponsive or cannot fix it, that's the time to moan. If I as a 53 year old who is hopeless with technology can master it, anyone should be able to. 

Harry I'm sorry you're struggling, and have to believe that the repeated repairs to the NDS have at least in part contributed to your overall very unpleasant experience.  I suspect that the NDS issues have been 'bad luck' as we've not heard (at any rate) of such a dismal record as being very common.  But bad luck, or whatever -- most unpleasant indeed.  We all have our patience run out at some point.

All the best,

Bart

The only useful way to list music, to my mind, is in Albums, alphabetically by Artist name. Itunes has it, surely nstream can too?

iTunes is very good. I would use no other current method given the electronic card index it offers. 

ATB from George