Is there a glossary of terms used in Digital HI-Fi

Posted by: Peter Lambert on 09 March 2017

Streamers, Renders, Players etc the terms are not clear to me, are they defined anywhere ?

Posted on: 09 March 2017 by Cbr600

If not, there should be

Posted on: 09 March 2017 by SAT

As a technophobe it took me a while to get beyond FUBAR and SNAFU!

It was worth the effort though.

Posted on: 09 March 2017 by ChrisSU

I'm not aware of anything comprehensive, although the Unitiserve reference manual has a glossary that covers the server side of things. Slightly out of date now, though.

Posted on: 09 March 2017 by Adam Zielinski

Page 24 onwards - here is the link:

https://www.naimaudio.com/site...ish%20Issue%204c.pdf

Posted on: 09 March 2017 by Peter Lambert
Adam Zielinski posted:

HI, thankyou but the link does not seem to work

Posted on: 09 March 2017 by Adam Zielinski
Peter Lambert posted:
Adam Zielinski posted:

HI, thankyou but the link does not seem to work

https://www.naimaudio.com/product/unitiserve

This is the link to the UnitiServe site. Scroll down to the manuals' section.

Posted on: 10 March 2017 by Eloise
Peter Lambert posted:

Streamers, Renders, Players etc the terms are not clear to me, are they defined anywhere ?

Part of the problem is that terms are not well defined and can vary with different manufacturers / users.

Posted on: 10 March 2017 by john s

I found the Gramaphone article on Listening Wirelessly quite useful...it has a glossary as well.

https://www.gramophone.co.uk/f...listening-wirelessly
Posted on: 10 March 2017 by nbpf
Peter Lambert posted:

Streamers, Renders, Players etc the terms are not clear to me, are they defined anywhere ?

You will hardly find definitions, the terms are used with slightly different meanings in different contexts. But after reading the "getting started" section of http://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/, you should be comfortable with these and other notions. Best, nbpf

Posted on: 12 March 2017 by Peter Lambert

Thankyou useful lists but they do not really define the three key components I am a bit unclear on, Streamers, Renderers and Players.

Posted on: 12 March 2017 by nbpf
Peter Lambert posted:

Thankyou useful lists but they do not really define the three key components I am a bit unclear on, Streamers, Renderers and Players.

In a nutshell and according to my understanding:

1) a streamer is a device that implements a renderer and a DAC. For example, NDS and Chromecast Audio are streamers.

2) A renderer is a software or device consisting a UPnP client and a player. The UPnP client is the process that sends requests to a UPnP server and is controlled by applications like Kazoo, Naim App, Lumin, etc. 

3) A player is a generic term denoting a software that manages a play queue, accepts pause, stop, resume playback command and, very often but not always, controls access to local music files. Examples of players are Audirvana, MPD and the many "players" running on mobile devices.

If you have access to an Android mobile phone or tablet computer it is a good idea to install BubbleUPnP. This is an application that allows you to select a UPnP server in your LAN and stream to a renderer (also in your LAN). You will see that the application gives you the possibility to also stream to a "local renderer" which is part of the application itself. This shows you that a control point and a renderer can run on the same device and, in fact, be part of the same application. In much the same way it is possible to have a UPnP server and a renderer running on the same device. 

It is perhaps also useful to keep in mind that operating a streamer-based solution involves running 3 processes, typically on 3 different devices: a UPnP server on a NAS, a renderer on a streamer and a control point running on a mobile device. Operating a player-based solution involves running 2 processes: a player typically running on a music server and a control software running on a mobile device.

Thus, for instance, operating the Core (connected to a DAC via SPDIF) as a player only involves running the Core and the Naim app. But operating the Core as a UPnP server involves running the Core, the Naim app and a streamer.

Best, nbpf

Posted on: 12 March 2017 by banzai

I think the term "renderer" is too confusing, it is probably a marketing term.

Posted on: 12 March 2017 by nbpf
banzai posted:

I think the term "renderer" is too confusing, it is probably a marketing term.

The picture at http://www.lesbonscomptes.com/upmpdcli/index.html is quite illustrative, at least of (one way of understanding) the role of a renderer in a streaming solution. The renderer itself works flawlessly by the way. It allows you to implement a complete and very reliable streaming solution on a Raspberry Pi or on any low-power fanless microserver of your choice.  As Eloise pointed out, the terms are not well defined.