Newbie Questions

Posted by: NeilF on 29 September 2014

Hi all, bought my first ever bit of Naim kit on Saturday and just joined the forum today. I've had a quick search around but can't find any obvious answers to a few questions, so thought I'd ask here. I've got a brand new Unitilite and it's a doddle to use and sounds lovely. Questions are about the Naim App - it's different to the App I used in the shop and when I first started it up I wasn't sure it was meant for the Unitilite at all. But I can't find any other Naim apps so presume there only is the one.

 

1. Is there a Help facility anywhere on the App? Some of the options that can be selected in the setup pages could do with an explanation, as I don't understand what they mean. For instance, there's a tick box for "Use Streamer's Language". I've ticked it and everything seems to work, but why might I want to use a language the streamer doesn't understand?

 

2. Getting the App to find my Unitilite seems to take about half a dozen goes before it appears. Is this normal?

 

3. I've put the App on two iPads. If I've been using one the the other can't find the Unitilite. Is that normal? If I select "stay connected" on one iPad will it completely lock out the other one?

 

4. How do I get the album artwork to display? It's all there on my Synology NAS and it works perfectly on my little Marantz streamer. 

 

5. Is there an easy way to search for radio stations? I've tried just putting the station name into the search box but that doesn't seem to work. And now I've lost any means of getting new stations - just a blank page on iRadio so no way to select country/genre.

Posted on: 30 September 2014 by nudgerwilliams

Here are a couple of answers for you.

 

The app looks different because they released a new version last week with a completely different look.  It is the only app for controlling streamers.  There is a very big thread discussing the changes, merits and demerits if you are interested.  There are also some bug fixes and enhancements coming hopefully this week.

 

1. No Help facility that I have found.  The Use Streamer's Language thing is, I believe, so that if you have set the streamer to display French on it's display you get French on the app.  Never tried it but I think that is what it does.

 

2. Not normal.  Probably a future of your network.  All routers are not equal.  What router are you using?

 

3. Yes normal.  In my system you can only have one iThing connected ie showing the app at a time.

 

4. The artwork is pushed by the uPnP server.  There is an option in Settings / Input Settings / uPnP for compatibility mode.  Try selecting that and see if the images appear.  The aforementioned thread about the new app has quite a lot fo content about people finding this a problem.  The new release coming in a few days has some server compatibility fixes wihch may help also.

 

5.  Don't know.

 

Enjoy the Uniti!

 

Posted on: 30 September 2014 by hafler3o
Originally Posted by NeilF:

Hi all, bought my first ever bit of Naim kit on Saturday and just joined the forum today. I've had a quick search around but can't find any obvious answers to a few questions, so thought I'd ask here. I've got a brand new Unitilite and it's a doddle to use and sounds lovely. Questions are about the Naim App - it's different to the App I used in the shop and when I first started it up I wasn't sure it was meant for the Unitilite at all. But I can't find any other Naim apps so presume there only is the one.

yes the app had a facelift!

 

1. Is there a Help facility anywhere on the App?...

No but there should be, I asked Naim for a glossary of terms but just got the one eg. I quoted explained rather than a commitment to EXPLAIN STUFF!

 

2. Getting the App to find my Unitilite seems to take about half a dozen goes before it appears. Is this normal?...

No. The network may settle down and that behaviour disappear. Things that bugged me in the early days have gone away, strangely, touch wood!

 

3. I've put the App on two iPads. If I've been using one the the other can't find the Unitilite. Is that normal? If I select "stay connected" on one iPad will it completely lock out the other one?..

We have two iPads and three Naim Uniti devices and there is no lockout. If my wife wants to pause my listening, she can.

 

4. How do I get the album artwork to display? It's all there on my Synology NAS and it works perfectly on my little Marantz streamer...

No idea, all I know is how to play music, everything else is a bonus. Currently I use WAV which is top quality sound but primitive metadata.

 

5. Is there an easy way to search for radio stations? I've tried just putting the station name into the search box but that doesn't seem to work. And now I've lost any means of getting new stations - just a blank page on iRadio so no way to select country/genre...

Sorry streaming music and digital in from DVD is all I use.

 

Welcome and bon chance!

 

Posted on: 01 October 2014 by Solid Air

1. There's no help on the app, or most iTunes apps actually. Maybe in a future release.

 

2. Shouldn't happen. Check everything. Try shutting down everything at once and bringing it all back up again, starting with the router, then NAS, then UL, then app. Once it's all ok it'll probably stay ok.

 

3. This seems to vary. It might depend on the NAS or the streamer, not sure.

 

4. If you're using a format with good metadata (eg FLAC) then this should work fine. It's pushed from the NAS, so the data has to be there for the app to display. Depending on how many tracks you have it might take some time to populate. If it's not working you'll have to check the metadata on the tracks using something like Mp3tag. I believe the cover image has to be embedded in the actual track file, not just as cover.jpg or folder.jpg in the album folder.

 

5. I haven't tried searching for radio stations on the new app, but it was fiddly on the last one. I think - not sure - that if you scroll to the top of the list there's a search function.

 

Alex