Sledgehammer to Uniti Nova

Just a disappointing update to this - I decided to power cycle the Nova as every track was going silent at the beginning. Obviously my playlist was lost, now when I try to add songs to playlist, selecting the ‘Queue next’ option stops playing the current rack and plays the one I want to play next..

and it’s cutting out ... and the Naim App on the iPhone is showing ‘Not playing’ while it’s playing the track...

Either your Nova is faulty or it is not set up properly. Either way it is time to involve your dealer whose job it is to get it working perfectly in your home. 

The Nova can work perfectly - mine has for nearly a year now, so something is wrong.

I think it’s a network set-up / configuration that is causing these drop-offs.

Could the OP describe how the network is set up, please?

Has to be network. Mine is wired connection and admittedly I use Roon rather than the naim app and I gave no problems whatsoever 

Mine is hard wired and is wonderful, paid £140 to run som cat6 cable around the side of the house by my Home alarm company...money well spent.

Thanks guys, I’m using Powerline Ethernet (D-link mains over Ethernet adapters), I know it’s not ideal, Cat 6 is recommended, etc. But this worked beautifully with my SU before, and works just fine with the Nova, some of the time!

Doppy1977 posted:

Thanks guys, I’m using Powerline Ethernet (D-link mains over Ethernet adapters), I know it’s not ideal, Cat 6 is recommended, etc. But this worked beautifully with my SU before, and works just fine with the Nova, some of the time!

Ethernet over mains is most likely where your issues stem from.

Have you tried WiFi, the wireless performance of the new streamers is much better than the SU?

I’d suggest this is a router issue, you need a reasonably good one for reliability.

Doppy1977 posted:

Thanks guys, I’m using Powerline Ethernet (D-link mains over Ethernet adapters), I know it’s not ideal, Cat 6 is recommended, etc. But this worked beautifully with my SU before, and works just fine with the Nova, some of the time!

Hi, this almost certainly is causing issues. You really should use Ethernet or Wifi. These powerline products really are quite compromised for anything rather than rudimentary network use... they are not Ethernet and don’t have the capability of Wifi.. as well as they introduce relatively  huge electromagnetic and RF noise levels in your house cobbling your sensitive audio electronics (AV and radio as well). Just try turning on a shortwave radio in your house ..(  ensure volume is set low so as not to damage its speaker however )

Although Naim have tried to make their software more robust to work with consumer compromises and kludges such as powerline systems, there is only so much you can do here especially as you need the network more and more to support operation. By their nature powerline systems are highly variable  and inconsistent. .. and underneath the covers almost certainly the poor software and network stacks will be grappling with lost data, variable latency, unreliable multicast / broadcast data etc leading to a challenged user experience.

These devices are designed to be used with Ethernet or Wifi.. anything else it really is at consumer’s risk.

Hi,

buy Apple airport and your problem most probably will be solved. I use Apple airport with SU never had any drop outs anymore. You can find the Apple airport on amazon second hand. 

CP62 posted:

Hi,

buy Apple airport and your problem most probably will be solved. I use Apple airport with SU never had any drop outs anymore. You can find the Apple airport on amazon second hand. 

The wireless performance of the new streamers is a great deal better than it was on the SU, and I don’t think an Airport Express would improve it. I would be more concerned about the performance of the wireless base station at the other end, especially if it’s a cheap ISP supplied router. Using an AirPort Extreme here can improve things, and has worked well for me. This is old tech now, and there are probably better alternatives around, but still worth considering, and very easy to set up. 

Most current ISP routers have reasonable Wifi technology support..and yes probably technically outperform the aging Apple products now. However to really advance Wifi capability you need multiple access points ... prefereable wired. Unfortunately in consumer land the term ‘Mesh’ has been adulterated by the marketeers and causes confusion... as the term is being used to describe different things... therefore it appears  a new consumer term has appeared called ‘wired mesh’, or what I refer to  as multiple wired overlapping access points with a common management system.. this is what you ideally want to use ... and not a single Wifi router/access point in the corner of a room somewhere, no matter how capable. 

Google, Ubiquiti, Linksys etc all make suitable products. What you need to be wary of is un wired access points in your mesh.. these need careful planning and positioning if not to provide compromised performance in your Wifi network.

Simon, yes, many ISPs are now providing better WiFi in their routers, but if you are shopping around for the cheapest broadband deal, you are still likely to get something poor.

As for using multiple wired WAPs, if you’re prepared to run the cables, you can wire up your streamer too while you’re at it. 

Thanks all, will give Roon a try over the Naim App as the iPad issues with the app are too annoying.

ita strange as I’ve been listening to internet radio (Absolute radio) all morning and it’s been absolutely fine. I guess it comes down to bit-rate, tidal being higher bit-rate than Absolute radio, so the power line gives problems.

i’ll look into Wireless/AP/mwah options, thanks for the responses everybody - great having a forum where frustrations can be vented and problems resolved :-)

ChrisSU posted:

 

As for using multiple wired WAPs, if you’re prepared to run the cables, you can wire up your streamer too while you’re at it. 

this could be true.. but I totally get it’s easier to wire access points in hallways and landings rather than in furnished rooms for many.

I have a Uniti Nova with a wired connection back to my switch.  I also have a Uniti Atom wired back to my switch.  And I have three Mu-Sos, one wired and two wireless.  I don’t think this is an issue of multi-room, though I do think that multi-room needs further refining and improvement.  All Ethernet connections are separate from “mains”.  Power and Ethernet are totally separate.

I experience the exact same thing on my Nova (with or without multi-room) and only when playing Tidal.  The issue is that the Tidal tracks appear to be playing visually through the iOS app (the timer/scrubber progresses) but no sound play until several seconds into the track and then the rest of the track plays flawlessly.  The next Tidal track starts and no sound for several seconds and then all of a sudden you hear sound and the track play flawlessly.  Fast forward to the next track, same thing.  This does not happen all the time (although it does happen often), but when it happens, it is maddening!  I can assure you that my home network is very robust with a very fast Internet connection with very low latency.  I used to have a UnitiLite using this exact same physical connection and I never had this issue!  I even thought perhaps that the issue was with the older iPad Mini 3 that I’ve been using to control my music so I upgraded to a new 12” iPad Pro.  This did not solve the issue.

Interestingly, when this happens, I will often switch to Roon and play Tidal tracks through Roon and I can play the entire track in its entirety, uninterrupted from beginning to end.  Roon plays back Tidal tracks flawlessly.  But then when I switch back to native Tidal playback on my Uniti Nova, the issue continues.  My personal belief is that the Tidal implementation in the Uniti firmware and/or app is flawed.  I think there is more work to be done to flesh out bugs that exist and given just how expensive this equipment is, I would expect nothing less.  I read these forums on a very regular basis, and I must admit that I get irked when I read others suggestions that their equipment needs to be returned/replaced as one of the first solutions.  That shouldn’t be one of the first responses to solving some of these issues.  I’ve sent video to NAIM of the issue happening and the answer I got was take it to your local dealer.  First, that isn’t always possible to do.  Second, I don’t think it should be the default answer to some of these problems.  And third, I feel like there should be some function that can dump/output diagnostics that can be easily sent back to headquarters for analysis.

In short, the issue that Doppy describes is real and we should not dismiss it as a faulty unit.

Thanks very much for this - i trialled Roon yesterday and it played perfectly, but I can’t justify the cost when I only really use Tidal as the source.

ive emailed Naim support about this issue too, with two of us raising it I’m hopeful they’ll resolve - and I do t have to spend hundreds on Roon and/or wired connectivity!

I’d be interested to hear how they respond.  Fingers crossed!