I had a Unity Atom demo unit for the last few days and actually just ended up buying it. It's a great sounding and versatile little box - the app on the other hand, is not without issues.
When initially setting up the Atom, I quickly switched from a wireless to a wired connection, as it made things a little more robust and easier to troubleshoot. But I had a lot of trouble getting the app on my phone (Android v7) to find the Atom. To make a long story short, as a last ditch effort, I installed the app on an old phone of mine and there it started working. So, after looking into IGMP snooping and the output of the Net Analyzer app on my newer phone (I skimmed through the forum here), it dawned on me that the VPN that I'm running on my phone could be the culprit. I'm using the VyprVPN app, but it is configured to connect only with unknown WIFI sources, plus I explicitly configured the NAIM app to bypass the VPN. Nonetheless, things only started working after I force-stopped the VPN app. Maybe someone struggling with the setup might find this useful.
Still, in terms of reliability and robustness, the Naim app could take hint or two from the old Squeezebox/Squeezeserver (which I run for years without issues). It often happens, that my UPnP server fails to show up in the app (btw: why does the front panel interface lack the 'server' blob that the app has?). When I force-stop the Naim and restart it, the server shows up again. Sometimes, I can open up VLC on my phone, navigate to the UPnP server (which VLC finds without fail every time), and after that it shows up in the Naim app again. I also hooked up an external hard drive to the rear USB port, but even that sometimes fails to show up. I suspect, this might be due to the HD going into sleep mode and the Atom fails to wake it up (?). Doesn't seem to be an issue with a flash drive plugged in. Also, it's a bit irritating, that the favorites on the app home screen keep refreshing every few seconds. So, if I scroll down the list, I'm back at the top again, when it refreshes.
That little Atom sounds great and is a lot of fun, so I'm putting up with the above issues (I bought it afterall). But would be nice, if it were a bit more solid in the app department.
Posted on: 30 May 2018 by SimonPeterArnold
Welcome to Naim. Yes the Atom is wonderful and sorry the app isn't, especially on Android. Apparently they are hiring devs to work on it but I won't hold my breath. Software and firmware are not Naims forte it seems. I use Roon for my library and Tidal so I can avoid using the app for the most only using it for updating and the occasional power down when I can't find the real remote.
Posted on: 04 June 2018 by David Hendon
I use the IOS app on my iPhone SE and on my IPad Air and they are fully usable. The only problem I ever has is that the app sometimes can't find one of my rooms, but stopping the app and restarting it almost always fixes that in a few seconds and if it doesn't then restarting the streamer always does.
best
David
Posted on: 05 June 2018 by Bouba
We should not have to re-start the streamer, kill the app and restart it. It should just work flawlessly, as did the UQ2 I had when controlling it through the app before the release of the new Uniti range.
And being an iOS user accross Ipad, Iphone and Ipod touch, I can tell you the app is far from being reliable.
Posted on: 06 June 2018 by mctaff
I don't know if it will help, but I just switched to an Asus router, and neither my ND5-XS not the Muso was visible as a "room" in the (iOS) app.
I got advice elsewhere to adjust the Multicast settings from auto to a relatively low fixed value, which immediately fixed the problem. Apparently some products can't cope with higher multicast rates.
Posted on: 06 June 2018 by pipet
Interesting - I have an older Asus RT-N66U router, but that acts as a wireless gateway only. Router duties are managed by my ISPs Actiontec box. But on neither of those units I was able to find a multicast setting that could be adjusted.
Posted on: 06 June 2018 by mctaff
Mine's an AC88U, setting is under "Wireless -> Professional -> Multicast Rate"...
I'd guess it would be the Asus you'd need to set it on, if that's the wireless access point.
This Asus page seems to indicate the 66 has similar settings, including Multicast Rate:
https://event.asus.com/2012/nw...dvanced_Content.html
Have you got the most recent firmware on the asus?
Posted on: 06 June 2018 by pipet
Thanks for the advice!
My router is entirely missing that 'Professional' tab. But more importantly, I actually have a wired connection from the Atom to the Asus router, so I guess, that doesn't really apply in my case.
Posted on: 06 June 2018 by mctaff
Yes, not so sure quite how it works, but guess the app uses the wireless network to find the streamers... my ND5-XS is hardwired, but wasn't visible in the app til I changed the wireless settings.. of course my phone is connecting wirelessly
Posted on: 06 June 2018 by pipet
I wasn't too far behind, but I just installed the latest Asus firmware version, which actually made the multicast option show up (also IGMP snooping - which is disabled by default, though). I set the rate to 12, as you suggested. It's a bit late by now, so I'll have to try tomorrow - but thanks for the great tip and the help!
Posted on: 06 June 2018 by RikkieB
Turning on IGMP snooping on my AirPort extreme raised a lot of issues in my network, like unstable internet behaviour, so off it went and everything was fine. Maybe the implementation of IGMP snooping was the issue, now it works very good, also on my Android phone (galaxy S7)
Posted on: 07 June 2018 by pipet
Wow - that was quite a rabbit hole to go down. Fortunately, I was able to put that Humpty Dumpty together again.
So, I ended up installing the latest Asus firmware, but regardless of the multicast setting, nothing worked anymore. The app would find the streamer, but that was it. The little menu blobs in the app wouldn't show up. When they did, after about ten times foce stopping the app and restarting it, then my UPnP server wouldn't show up. After some more fuzzing around I made it show up once, but then no music would play when I selected a track and on and on and on...
Finally ended up installing an earlier firmware version (that has the more sparsely populated menus that I was used to and no multicast option) and that made things better again.
Posted on: 08 June 2018 by mctaff
Ouch, sorry!
Works great for me on the new firmware, but it did take a few days for me to figure all the settings out. I assume some of the new settings were set incorrectly... there must be default settings in the old firmware, but the newer firmware lets you change them yourself... the asus manual isn't helpful at helping troubleshoot what they need to be though when things don't work.
Posted on: 08 June 2018 by pipet
With the current router malware going around, that was a useful exercise nonetheless.
What is maddening, though, that the Naim app is just so finicky. No matter the router firmware or configuration, multiple different apps on multiple different platforms (phone, Win PC, iPad) have no problem finding and connecting to the UPnP server running on the router. It is only the Naim app that has these problems.
Posted on: 08 June 2018 by mctaff
Agree... for an expensive product set, I expect the manufacturer to fully test their products and app against a variety of routers, and multiple mobile phones / operating systems to ensure compatibility and full functionality. They also need to provide a list of compatible/incompatible routers, plus appropriate settings if non standard settings are required to make the various product / router / phone combos to work properly.
My app and naim's are (so far) rock solid on the new asus... now I've got it working. Always visible in the app, multiroom doesn't randomly drop out like it did with the EE router, and the Muso doesn't seem to drop out when used for internet radio. I've yet to setup VPN however, so hoping it doesn't go belly up when I do!
