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

The next revision is due last week. But Naim haven't confirmed which last week.

Reminds me of the time I was gainfully employed & my dept was the firm/software final appro stop before release. We would consolidate the field issues (similar to the many pages of forum comments) & agree a priority plan with the developers - & sometimes that included a series of future revisions & frequently spanning months rather than days.

The developers would send the latest & greatest to us for lab & field beta testing & it almost always ended up with a 2nd go-round before release.  

I have every sympathy with Naim & Apple (with a rye smile)  

love the rye smile it is enough to drive you to drink

Lots of interesting replies and a host of issues which, I fello sure ( that is, I hope) may soon be resolved and Karma restored.

It does seem to me to be a bit of a fudge with the new App being essentially one for Muso with added support for the other units rhroen in. 

n-Stream just worked, rarely crashed in my experience and offered nearly everything I needed with only a few little things missed out. Those things are largely addressed in the new App but sadly, as are mostly experiencing, the baby seems somewhere to have been thrown out along the way.

however I look at it I see Muso - an App more hurriedly developed to control Nsim's much lauded new toy. That seems obvious from first opening the App where Muso is written larger! 'Oh and it will control some other stuff but we don't care much about that now we're moving on'!

for sure new software tends to be buggy but much that we are experiencing should have been coded out of n-Stream, it would have been known about and carried forward in a true n-Stream rebuild.

i think we all feel a little let down here as I suspect we became rather reliant on that green button on our 'pads', I certainly decided where to site my setup based on not often having to physically access it And a Uniti, fabulous though it is, hardly boasts the most elegant front panel display.

all will be restored in time I suspect and Naim can't feel too happy about such, well earned it has to be said, negetiveism. I'd certainly think another second or two about Muso given what we are experiencing. Though Muso customers may not be us perhaps?

Anyway, back to the drawing board Naim and please PLEASE put the volume control in a sensible, permanently accessible place!

I spent six years project managing CRM systems for clients in a particular industry. You never stop learning.  But regardless of how much you are charging for the software, even if you’re doing a freebie, if you go out with a demo, let alone a fully-fledged system to demonstrate to a client, and it cashes you will describe a flat trajectory as you exit the building and you won’t be asked back.

Naim have more of a captive audience. Which is just as well because if they were using the new app for a pitch they’d lose and be remembered for it.

Naim will be using the new app for a pitch. Every time someone goes into a John Lewis store and takes an interest in a mu-so the software will need to be used by a John Lewis shop-person/aka partner to pitch the mu-so to the customer. This will not be a captive audience situation! If the shop person can't get it to work, they won't demonstrate it; if it underinspires the customer they'll walk along to the next product.

The captive audience I was referring to is us. The user base who don't have the option to roll back. There's no way the app in its present state could be used as a sales pitch for new custom. 

please please let us know how did you get Qobuz working inside the app????? I'm dying to know as I used to have Musicflow app to airplay qobuz from iPhone to Naim Uniti 2 but after upgrade to ios8 it docent work anymore

Sorry to disappoint you but this is a Photoshop (or equivalent) mock-up.

Yes, it would be great if they could develop Qobuz and WiMP (TIDAL) integration. Sadly, I'm close to selling my NDX as I listen to Qobuz more than 50% of the time and am now fed up with having to use a computer to do this. 

I like the new Naim app though 

Well, I tried and even became used to the New Age flat presentation of N-Stream. I like the ability to have a rummage through my music collection whilst listening to another source too - very nice and long overdue in my opinion. So it's not all bad.

Naim are clearly moving away from green which is fair enough I suppose though I dee feel a little like I am being dumped for a new generation of less 'family' orientated Naim, but that's just silly really.

What I can't stand and, after extensive trials with the new App I am certain this is driving me even more nuts, are:

The semi-hidden volume control!! After all this time it still catches me out, so slow to get to.

The App is slow to respond - even on a latest version Pad.

The addition of all tracks when I hit a song on an album - why when I just press that song?! Infuriating.

These may seem like small issues but, when a music system is tucked away a bit and the App is the only practical interface, it IS, in effect Naim for me and I still hate it.

I will keep my eyes peeled, I am not a Luddite, I just want a simple, intuitive interface that is fast, doesn't crash (too often) and simply works - Oh, just like old n-Stream but flat and monochrome!!

Suggesting that a future upgrade that might lead me away from Naim is not hyperbole! These days decisions are made on the whole package and, for me at least, there are systems out there that compte with Naim now and I'd now take a closer look that before - yes, just because the new App, appearance or now, just doesn't work as well and as logically as the old one.

Re your sixth para, just press the three dots and you can play the single track.

Strange how opinions about the presentation of applications can be so divergent. I am normally not a fan of big changes in style and have been know to rant quite a bit about them (e.g. newer versions of IOS and other similar presentation styles).

I have 2 apple devices (and iPad One and an iPad Air), and chose to upgrade to the new version of the Naim app on my iPad Air fairly reluctantly, and only because I had the original n-stream app on my older iPad to fall back on.

Having read so many negative comments about the new app, I was amazed at just how good it looked and how much I like it. In virtually every respect I prefer it to the old app. In fact, apart from a few minor issues and glitches, I think it is almost perfect for my use. I have recently tried using the old app just as a reminder, and I would never go back to it. I did like it, but for me the new app is so much better all round.

I don't have Naim amps, and so the issues some people have with the volume control don't impact for me. As far as I am concerned, the new app has overtaken Linn's Kinsky as the best control app I have used on the iPad..   

It's understandable that negative comments tend to dominate forum threads - that's just the nature of these things. However, I would like to offer my compliments to the designers of the new app. For me it's a delight to use, and once the odd glitch has been resolved, it will be nigh on perfect as far as I am concerned.  

n-Stream also seems to be much faster and more stable.

Today I installed n-Stream from my Backup to an iPhone 3GS to use it as second remote. What a nice experience. The handling is more intuitive and the navigation is fast.

Compared to the new Naim App on an iPad 3, the new App is slow and is missing something.

Also, I am not a big fan of a dark/black user interface. On an iPhone 5S speed is not an issue but navigation and information is still better in the old n-Stream App.

A am looking forward for the next update.

Ok, so time has passed, updates have happened and one can and should be more objective about the new app. 

I completely understand the arguments about the appearance of the new version, it's very different and is bound to upset some, delight others. I was no fan of the aesthetic of the old one but I did find it more logical.

So what about it now?

i still find the layout odd but I very much like the way we can browse other sources etched whilst the streamer is working - long overdue that.

What I dislike - the logic of adding individual tracks seems back to front to me even after this time, I'm used to it but I dont find it intuitive and automatic and find myself adding half an album instead of a single track. It's slow, very slow at times; I still find myself double checking to see whether the damn thing will actually play after I have added a song or album - it's infuriating and something I hardly noticed with the old app! I may be wrong but the old app had a reset app button that didn't reset playlists but did kickstart things when new material was added - it it seemed to anyway. The refresh image cache was definitely essential for me.

i still absolutely hate the volume control! As I said before, name one decent amp that has ever hidden the volume control under a flap? That is, in effect what nStream does and it has caught me out a good few times when changing sources or even recordings - to have to make two actions merely to change the volume (or as importantly mute a device) is just plain wrong. Apart from changing the noise the thing makes, the volume control is an artistic thing, to set a level commensurate to the recording and type of music etc - it should be on top ALWAYS!

i have run both apps together for a while and see advantages with both and no clear winner frankly, though I am not a fan of the 'flat, style in general, not just Naim.

On balance I am resigned to being at a disadvantage, I hate it but I have to live with it - not the style or aesthetic, the functionality. 

 Daunt has hit the nail on the head here, here's an app deveolped for a £1k player and presented to the £12,790 (NDS) customers as an 'afterthought' control app for their audio gear.   And to put the boot well in, they take away the familiar, WORKING app.   I don't know who's running the marketing department now, but he or she should get out of the office and have look around.   I'm thinking this same marketing department who has done the sales projections for Muso and determined it to be their leading product for 2015 (why else would you put all your app eggs into this one app basket?) should re-do the projections using monetary values instead of units sold - that might change the emphasis.

I have to say that I'm glad the  amps don't need an app, we'd have a Statement tailored piece of software on our ipads... think how useful that would be to most of us (not).

Roger

PS - if you get the feeling I'm not a fan of the new app... you're right.  I just spent a day with a new Naim customer trying to explain how to use it.  Intuitive ????  (not)

PS - thank goodness Naim don't do as that hotel does, fine you £100 for a bad review on TripAdvisor 

can anyone tell me how to remove several tracks at once from a playlist? -- just in case i add them by mistake?

enjoy

ken

I would still happily go back to nStream despite being familiar with the new app. It does look nice but it has abandoned some basic display and usability features of nStream which I fear will be forgotten as we move into the new world of Spotify - which couldn't interest me less but each to our own. 

Firstly let me say that I agree with all the comments indicating that the new app is somewhat frustrating in some of its characteristics. What these foibles have done is make me reacquaint myself with the provided physical remote control. I find that it is much easier to control functions such as switching on/standby, selecting source, changing radio stations, fast forward/rewind etc and probably most important volume. Anyone else using the remote control a bit more?