Muso, QB, Tidal and my experience

Posted by: Wonderland on 12 June 2016

Hi all, first time posting!

Bit of background- After years of avoiding steaming or downloaded music due to what I think is unacceptable sound quality (and i'm a bit of a technophobe) a month ago I decided after reading up on the advances in SQTidal has made that I'd give it a shot. I have a large CD and vinyl collection that isn't well organised and I can never find anything that I'm looking for so I thought for convenience Tidal would be perfect as I'd read a lot of good things about the SQ and it was about time I stepped into the 21st century.

To cut a long story I spend a week lifting floorboards,drilling through walls and teaching myself via you tube how to wire a cat5e network as I definitely wanted the streamer wired. All was ready to just go and purchase a streamer.

At my local hi fi dealer I was instantly sold on a muso for the lounge and obviously a QB for the kitchen, it was in the back of my mind that id be purchasing another QB for the bedroom before the end of year also.

What attracted me to the muso and Qb was a few things- They look great, They sound incredible for all in one boxes, they can be fully integrated into a seamless network for multi room sound and they are ready set for Tidal. Perfect.

The hi fi salesman auditioned them for me with Tidal in the listening room and I thought it sounded incredible.

So i get them home, plug them in to network, straight on to Tidal and after a few seconds silence a pattern which repeated. Tidal was un usable for me.

Then I start looking into Tidal Streaming problems and come across all the negative feedback. 

I looked at my internet speed and decided it was pretty crappy, my provider was Sky and the best I was getting was 5-6 mbps. I thought this is the problem so I moved to Virgin fibre and took out an 18 month contract that guarantees 50mbps. 

When the fibre was installed the other day I eagerly plugged the streamers straight in. Perfect sound for 10 seconds then you guessed it silence etc.. etc...

Speed test was sure enough 50mbps. I spent the day on the phone with Virgin with them rebooting the hub and claiming all was fine there end the problem is the streamers.

I then find the negative feedback about the virgin super hub routers. 

After taking out a more expensive internet service to be supplied with a sub standard hub really peeved me off but i got on with the job of looking into routers.

Finally settled on a net gear r7000. Again got home plugged it in. Set it up with Qos to the streamers, same thing Tidal cannot make it through a song. (spottify does but sounds terrible IMO)

The point of this post is firstly does anyone have any advice for what else I can do to make this work. I am more than prepared to pay the £20.00 a month for hi fi streaming but from my experience and what I have read since Tidal simply does not work.

Secondly is it me or should naim not be advertising seamless Tidal integration because I feel like I was sold the Muso and QB and they are not fit for the purpose I purchased them for. I have basically been left with 2 very expensive radios.

 

Posted on: 12 June 2016 by ChrisSU

If you search this forum, you will see that the Naim/Tidal service has had problems that have resulted in dropouts for many users. Naim are aware of this, and have spent a great deal of time developing a fix. This has involved talking to Tidal, and developing their own streamer firmware. I believe they are now close to a solution, and you should keep your Musos up to date to ensure that you benefit from these changes. 

Note that internet download speed is not the issue here, and unfortunately, signing up to a faster fibre service is unlikely to help. 

Posted on: 12 June 2016 by Martin M

I had the same issue. Switched the Muso to Wi-Fi from wired Ethernet and the stuttered on Tidal ceased. I have no idea why.

Posted on: 12 June 2016 by Docv

Dear Wonderland

I am in a similar situation in terms of dipping my toes into the digital streaming ocean for the first time.

I bought a Cube a few days ago when out with my young adult offspring. The sun was shining and I caved into their encouragement  whilst innocently checking out stuff at Creative Audio Shrewsbury.to while away some time.

Cube now in the kitchen. And so am I. Constantly. It's Iike I have rediscovered music and my hifi hobby. Happy days are here again. Joined the Naim advice bureau and everything else has ground to a halt. 

The Qb is connected to the router upstairs via wifi: willl probably one day connect it via solid copper wires formerly used to power the Eurostar.

We live in a fairly rural area with a variable wifi speed between 1.5 and 3 gbps. Tidal...very impressive...working well on our limited wifi service. Sound quality from the little cute box in the corner? Definitely hifi. Definitely pleasing to the ear. Do I not like that?

Your Tidal problem cannot be a speed issue. Your new Virgin Optical Express is delivering speeds I can only dream about.

Once it is sorted, I am sure that you will be hooked. I am like  a sandboy with a coolbox full of double chocolate magnums. My Tidal favourites folder is slowly expanding into a mirror image of my expansive cd collection. ..and I can find my Tidal titles in a millijiff. Haven't been able to find ELP's Pictures at an Exhibition cd for 5 years; I know that I bought it but where is it?...it took less than 5 seconds to Tidal it.

I am now researching mini macs and chords and SSIDS and more. It's fun. For me, it's the future. 

Good luck and best wishes

 

 

Posted on: 13 June 2016 by Gavin B

Might be worth a call to Naim support just to see what they say.

Posted on: 13 June 2016 by Paul Baker

I have a Mu-So and a qb. I'm kinda feeling like i have two expensive radios too! Bought the Mu-so in December and Tidal has never streamed more than one song without the constant stutter. Switch to using the Tidal app in iOS and it runs perfectly. 

I bought a qb at the weekend as I'm really impressed with the sound and despite the app not operating very well for me I wanted multi-room. I re-registered with Tidal as I had presumed that the stutter would have been fixed by now as I read earlier in the year that a new firmware was in testing. NOPE...Exactly the same for me! All was not lost, I'd just use the native Tidal App, until I realised that linking the Naim streamers was only possible through the Naim app, so I'm stuck with a stuttering service which I can't use.

I have a hard wired Mu-so and I'm using BT fibre at 72mbps. I really thought I would be able to link up the Mu-so and the qb then just play whatever I wanted through them. 

Posted on: 13 June 2016 by Simon-in-Suffolk
Paul Baker posted:. 

I have a hard wired Mu-so and I'm using BT fibre at 72mbps. 

Hi Paul, that is not really relevant to the issue I am afraid. It's down to round trip latency interacting with the firmware. A newer build is imminent which should improve things significantly.

Simon

Posted on: 13 June 2016 by Paul Baker

Thanks Simon. I really hope the new build arrives soon as my wife just shakes her head at me every time I attempt to play some music!!

Posted on: 13 June 2016 by Borders Nick

Paul - I have used AirPlay as a means to get stutter-free Tidal stream to my Muso.  I don't know if you can use the  multiroom function with AirPlay though ?.  Fortunately my Tidal woes have largely disappeared (used to have severe problems up until around 2 months ago when something seems to have changed externally and it is now much much more reliable).  Apologies if you have been down the AirPlay  route already.  N.

Posted on: 13 June 2016 by Simon-in-Suffolk
Paul Baker posted:

Thanks Simon. I really hope the new build arrives soon as my wife just shakes her head at me every time I attempt to play some music!!

Oh dear ... Doesn't sound good 

Posted on: 13 June 2016 by Paul Baker

Hi Borders Nick. Thanks for adding your comments. I have managed a stutter free stream when using AirPlay also, but unfortunately after adding the Mu-so qb at the weekend I need multiroom and Airplay through the app or through apple does not allow for more than one source which is a shame. It does allow it if I do it from my Mac in iTunes! Hopefully the ability to Airplay to multiple devices from iOS will also become available soon!

Posted on: 14 June 2016 by Kulashaker

Maybe slightly off topic but ......

I don't use Tidal - I use Apple Music ( ok don't all shout at once!. I was already heavily into it before my Muso. )So, if Im  playing anything on Muso using the ipad in the kitchen and Airplay, it drops out when the microwave gets switched on.  

Posted on: 14 June 2016 by jasons

I think Naim have issues with their streaming software.

I have had issues when streaming iRadio via ethernet but its faultless on wifi.

I even changed 90% of my home network set up and it was still the same.

After resetting the units back to factory a few times, it seems to have settled down for now.

Not sure what solved it TBH

Posted on: 14 June 2016 by Paul Baker

I've been on the phone to Naim today as the integration between the app and Spotify/Tidal is really poor. The support guy thought that you could multi-room Spotify, but once I open the app and click on connect it gives options for a single source only. I have resorted to plugging in my iPad to the USB port and then using multi-room functionality that way!

Posted on: 15 June 2016 by Paul Baker

Just a quick update. After reading Jason's reply I decided to unplug the ethernet cable from the Mu-So. Tidal (through the Naim App) has now been running since 9:30 am without dropping out once using wifi

......Fingers crossed!

Posted on: 15 June 2016 by Docv

Great result.

I have connected mine via wifi and it is functioning very well - has anyone ever advised that an ethernet connection sounds better?

One thing i should mention - when you download the Tidal app onto a new device eg so that you can add albums to your favourites using your phone if your tablet is elsewhere - don't forget to ensure that the app sound quality settings are set to "hifi" as the default setting is lowfi.

 

 

Posted on: 15 June 2016 by Goon525

I think that our resident expert Simon has indeed often advised that Ethernet is superior to wifi. Indeed, in my early SU days, his postings here convinced me to switch when I was having problems with 96/24 and above.

Posted on: 15 June 2016 by Paul Baker
Docv posted:

Great result.

I have connected mine via wifi and it is functioning very well - has anyone ever advised that an ethernet connection sounds better?

One thing i should mention - when you download the Tidal app onto a new device eg so that you can add albums to your favourites using your phone if your tablet is elsewhere - don't forget to ensure that the app sound quality settings are set to "hifi" as the default setting is lowfi.

 

 

Good shout. As my iPhone was on 'Normal' for Wifi streaming! 

Cheers

Posted on: 24 June 2016 by Docv

For no discernable reason my Qb is dropping out randomly in the sort of paradigm that leads to severe learned helplessness.

When is the software update arriving?

Posted on: 28 June 2016 by audio1946

cable through ndx   no drop outs that i can remember .   muso qb   wireless drops occasionally.   cooker/micro oven at switch on  .  Tidal is ok ,no sure i will continue with it after trial