Airplay 2; Naim supported, Superuniti also?

Hello Frits,

naim currently doesn't support AirPlay2, and most likely never will on SuperUniti (which doesn't support old AirPlay either). The new Uniti range supports old AirPlay and is compatible with AirPlay2. naim announced (together with Apple's initial announcement for AirPlay2) that they plan to support it in the future. And Apple listed the new Uniti range devices as planned to get AirPlay2 support soon in their announcement yesterday.

Regards

Bernhard

I imagine it’s not going to, given that updating the SU is a more involved process than the new streamers.

To be fair to Naim, they’re not the only ones without Airplay support across the range.  Bose on their soundtouch devices gave up supporting old Airplay but strangely plan to support “new” Airplay.  Best answer would be to pick up an Airport Express, but it’s irritating not to have Airplay change the input for you when started. 

What i leaned from this NL site (link), that the following speakers do airplay 2

• Apple HomePod
• ....... (see link)
• Naim Mu-so
• Naim Mu-so QB
• Sonos One
• Sonos Play:5 (tweede generatie/second gereration)
• Sonos Playbase

An following "receivers" (amongst others please ( see link))

• Apple TV
• BeoSound Core
• ...........
• Naim ND 555
• Naim ND5 XS 2
• Naim NDX 2
• Naim Uniti Nova
• Naim Uniti Atom
• Naim Uniti Star

So i am assuming the newer Naim kit wil/might work. 

I hoped superuniti might be next...

The Superuniti is a discontinued product which never had Airplay when it was current. That isn’t going to change. If it’s important to you, best get an Airport, Apple TV or similar. 

Does anyone here use an Apple Airport, with older naim gear, that doesn’t support AirPlay, and are heppy with the results?

I have an Apple TV, iPad, iPhone, and MacBookPro, and am think of getting an Airport to be able to send lossless audio to my SuperUniti via optical, occasionally. Especially to get Radio Paradise in lossless.

ChrisSU posted:

The Superuniti is a discontinued product which never had Airplay when it was current. That isn’t going to change. If it’s important to you, best get an Airport, Apple TV or similar. 

Late SuperUnitis (and other legacy Unitis, NDX and ND5 XS) had Bluetooth and I though those did support AirPlay?

best

David

David Hendon posted:

ChrisSU posted:

The Superuniti is a discontinued product which never had Airplay when it was current. That isn’t going to change. If it’s important to you, best get an Airport, Apple TV or similar. 

Late SuperUnitis (and other legacy Unitis, NDX and ND5 XS) had Bluetooth and I though those did support AirPlay?

best

David

Some of the late naim streamers do have Bluetooth, including the SuperUniti (BT). However, I’m pretty sure they do not support AirPlay. Only the new Uniti range does.

Having just looked at the SuperUniti BT handbook on line, it certainly doesn't mention Airplay!

best

David

You need an airport express as a workaround, it is limited to 16bit/44kHz, indeed use the optical input on your SU. I hope you still can get an airport express. They are discontinued.

DomTomLondon posted:

Does anyone here use an Apple Airport, with older naim gear, that doesn’t support AirPlay, and are heppy with the results?

I have an Apple TV, iPad, iPhone, and MacBookPro, and am think of getting an Airport to be able to send lossless audio to my SuperUniti via optical, occasionally. Especially to get Radio Paradise in lossless.

Yes, it’s a tried and tested workaround solution to get Airplay on the old streamers. 

ChrisSU posted:

DomTomLondon posted:

Does anyone here use an Apple Airport, with older naim gear, that doesn’t support AirPlay, and are heppy with the results?

I have an Apple TV, iPad, iPhone, and MacBookPro, and am think of getting an Airport to be able to send lossless audio to my SuperUniti via optical, occasionally. Especially to get Radio Paradise in lossless.

Yes, it’s a tried and tested workaround solution to get Airplay on the old streamers. 

Agreed.  I even renamed the input “AirPlay” on my NDX, so that is what you see in the Naim app.

David Hendon posted:

ChrisSU posted:

The Superuniti is a discontinued product which never had Airplay when it was current. That isn’t going to change. If it’s important to you, best get an Airport, Apple TV or similar. 

Late SuperUnitis (and other legacy Unitis, NDX and ND5 XS) had Bluetooth and I though those did support AirPlay?

I don’t think so, and Naim never put the old streamers through Airplay certification. I never bothered with Bluetooth, as I could never get it to work reliably without parking a phone very close to the streamer. 

Also now on Naim itself.

Unfort not the superuniti..

https://www.naimaudio.com/news...-so-and-uniti-ranges

But mu-so and qb will get it, and that was not promised originally. However from what I understand from reading the bluesound forum, it is not going to happen tomorrow or next week. All depends on Apple, and they ahave their own way of doing things, and Naim is surely not important in that game. Bluesound is not even telling wich devices will be airplay 2 ready, so less communication than from Naim on this one. If I am lucky I can make a limitted multiroom system with my Node 1 and qb. That would be really cool for the oiccational times when I miss the old fm multiroom setup, before the cable radio and fm signal went out of syncronization many years back.

Does anybody know if Airplay 2 has any changes which affect SQ relative to old Airplay? 

Cheers

David

nudgerwilliams posted:

Does anybody know if Airplay 2 has any changes which affect SQ relative to old Airplay? 

Cheers

David

This is an extremely good question and probably the most important for me.

I've not seen any documentation to suggest it offers better than 16bit/44.1 kHz lossless playback and is more about multi room and allowing a pair of HomePods to work as a stereo pair.

I may be wrong but Apple are a bit dim on the marketing front if they're not advertising any improved audio transmission specs should they exist.

I'm also unsure if Airplay 2 is backwards compatible with Airplay 1 which could be an issue for me.  My AppleTV 4K has just launched an update which I would have waited out for a few days due to me or my son inadvertently pressing the touchpad on its stupid remote as we changed source input on the TV.  Airplay was not backwards compatible with Airtunes I found so I'm wary with a mix of old/new devices.

The only things changed they are talking about is Multiroom from IOS app and Stereo Pairs for the homepod thingy no mention of any SQ difference, Really cant see what the fuss is about myself, but I am not a lover of Cupertinos overpriced walled garden.

SimonPeterArnold posted:

The only things changed they are talking about is Multiroom from IOS app and Stereo Pairs for the homepod thingy no mention of any SQ difference, Really cant see what the fuss is about myself, but I am not a lover of Cupertinos overpriced walled garden.

While I'm a big fan of Apple products, they are I believe quite overpriced in general and Apple's 'our way or the highway' has irked me for years but I do believe that they are inherently more secure on the iOS front for this reason.

I dislike the way we cannot roll back iOS software and their incessant drive for Cloud based syncing which works pretty well in fairness but is often confusing as there are so many facets to enable/disable depending on how much data you want in the 'cloud', especially if you have privacy concerns regardless of how it may be encrypted.

I think the HomePod is potentially one of their better vfm products in terms of production:sale costs, but it's overpriced for the general public and completely stupid in being so reliant on useless Siri and the Apple ecosystem - I mean come on Apple no auxillary input socket or Bluetooth, just Siri control or Airplay?  Really just a vehicle for an Apple Music subscription.

I might just consider a pair to use with the computer now that they've launched the stereo pairing many months after initial release - one of their most beta level product releases in years.

Was not that impressed listening to some tosh on a HomePod in the Apple Store but it was so noisy anyway you had no way to really evaluate their SQ.

Glossy info on Airplay 2

https://www.apple.com/ca/newsr...udio-with-airplay-2/

If people are looking at getting Apple Airport Expresses, get them sooner rather than later as Apple have stopped making them, so once they are gone, they're gone...

https://9to5mac.com/2018/04/26...irport-cancellation/

Isn't the 3rd get Apple TV (w/ toslink & silver remote) a better choice than the Express? I think I recall something like 16bit vs. 24... All of these products are prone to drop-outs though. Especially if your WiFi signal is not robust. It's sad they don't expend a bit more of their significant resources on improving these products. Airplay2 has brought no improvements to my Apple TV's (I use a 4k for video to the tele and a 3rd gen for music to my Naim kit via toslink/Dac). My ATV 4k needs to be restarted nearly every time I want to use it and the 3G gets dropouts every 15-20 min.

I miss Toslink on the current Apple TVs.  I wonder what options there will be for people who simply want to add AirPlay PCM audio to a DAC.  I find AirPlay flexible and reliable with Macs and Expresses wired to the LAN, and their Wi-Fi turned off.  I reserve Wi-Fi for remote controlling wired sources.

Nick

NickSeattle posted:

I miss Toslink on the current Apple TVs.  I wonder what options there will be for people who simply want to add AirPlay PCM audio to a DAC.  I find AirPlay flexible and reliable with Macs and Expresses wired to the LAN, and their Wi-Fi turned off.  I reserve Wi-Fi for remote controlling wired sources.

Nick

 

If a Mac could replace the AirPort Express, and be the AirPlay endpoint, that would be a nice alternative — an upgrade, in fact.  I understand there are third-party apps that add this feature to Macs — now it should be included  in MacOS AirPlay preferences.

Is anybody here using such an app?  Any recommendations?

Nick

e d o posted:

Isn't the 3rd get Apple TV (w/ toslink & silver remote) a better choice than the Express? I think I recall something like 16bit vs. 24... All of these products are prone to drop-outs though. Especially if your WiFi signal is not robust. It's sad they don't expend a bit more of their significant resources on improving these products. Airplay2 has brought no improvements to my Apple TV's (I use a 4k for video to the tele and a 3rd gen for music to my Naim kit via toslink/Dac). My ATV 4k needs to be restarted nearly every time I want to use it and the 3G gets dropouts every 15-20 min.

The 2nd and 3rd gen ATVs used to muck around with stereo audio and up-sampled things to 16 bit 48 kHz without any choice in the matter - you can argue it won't sound different to 44.1 kHz, but I'd rather any processing was done by dedicated AV hardware or in software on a beefier bit of hardware on Mac/PC.  They would also not output with greater bit depth or sample rates even if source material (eg streamed from iTunes using Home Sharing) was say 24 bit 96 kHz Apple Lossless/AIFF or WAV.