MuSo app so poor

What media server are you using?  

I have no discovery issues at all with my ND5XS or Muso Qb.

Synology NAS

really quite poor not to be able to play a song, navigate back to an album list, and then play a different one from another album without navigating right back to start of app & then back in again.

Like I say, in retrospect, overall experience poor. Would in no way recommend.

Do you have a UPnP server, such as Minimserver installed on your Synology NAS?

I'm not familiar with the Muso, but if I want to play music directly from my NAS to my streamer, there needs to be UPnP server software present on the NAS.

Yeah there's the Synology UPnP server. It's not that the Muso never works, it does. But it is such a clunky process to play a series of songs that I often give up on it. Usual experience is...

1. Start up app. Play a few songs from an album.

2. Decide to play a few songs from a different album. Navigate back to the list of albums to find blank screen.

Then either 1) have to right back to the room screen in the app & go back in from there or 2) have to restart phone.

Tonight (hence the rant) I've had to completely restart both the MuSo and the server to go from one album to another. Totally unacceptable.

I'm able to navigate ok. I use Asset on a QNAP.  Control pad is Lenovo Android. 

Well there you go. Mine is an HTC phone android, previously Huawei android with same poor results.

OK if you think its the app,  question is which app,  iOS or Android,  Android has been a bit rubbish from what I read on the forum.   iOS has been pretty well 100% OK.  

Are you wired or wireless & how is your router set,  DHCP or Static IP 

Re the UPnP software,   I used the iOS app with Synology UPnP 'Media Server' for a long while on NDX,  never had a problem other than the Media Server software is a waste of space if you try to browse anything with the art involved,  that said its slow but it does get there.  I eventually forgot the art stuff & only used  Folder View & thats rock solid.      Minimserver is a whole load better.    I'm now using beta Asset UPnP for Synology & that is better still - still in beta but I expect it won't be long before its an official release.

Android app.  Just the basic 'media server'. Not slow for me but basically doesn't work. Might try that Minimserver.

Cheers for replies.

This is a common issue among android devices in my experience, seems to happen when leaving the app/letting the device display go to sleep, the app seems to get stuck after re-connecting.

You can try the 'Stay Connected' function, found under the settings cog > other settings. I believe that this does drain the battery a bit quicker.

It’s strange how the Android app seems to give such a variable performance, perhaps due to the range of different devices it has to run on. A have an Android device I used to run the app on occasionally, and it was every bit as stable as the iOS version. 

CraigD posted:

Been.....now.

1. App is crap. I play a song from an album, and to get back to the range of albums I have I need to go right back to the room setup. Can't ever seem to go straight back to album list.

2. .....Really poor.

I found the same until it dawned on me that the back key takes you back to previous level and was what was missing. On my cheap Samsung phone it is the righthand key bottom of the screen. Have a play it can get lost I agree but may save frustration.

Have to agree that the app in my opinion on both ios and android can be frustrating. The reason I put up with it is purely because of the sound quality of the hardware. Over time I've got used to the idiosyncrasies of the app and no longer get to frustrated. No way would I put ease of use over sound quality, but that's just me! Rich 

Many years after its release, the Android app is indeed still appalling.

• It has been riddled with bugs (connection issues/lag, defective upgrade process, problems with Tidal, etc.), some of which have been fixed only to reappear later – have they not heard of unit/integration tests??
• It has terrible ergonomics – have they even bothered consulting, let alone recruiting UX people?
• Its features are definitely below par. A few years back an iOS user requested controls on the lock screen, which seemed indeed like such a glaring omission. I do not know whether this was finally implemented on iOS but it certainly was not on Android.

I wonder how unfussy those users who have rated it 5 stars on Google Play are. Still, they are vastly outnumbered by those who have given it 1 star. I know developing for Android is not easy but as it turns out, Naim’s iOS app is just as poorly rated on iTunes. Incidentally, if you look at the ratings of the Sonos apps, it seems that it is actually possible to make a good app on both platforms…

This is such a shame when you consider how great Naim’s hardware actually is.

And yet Naim does not seem to care much (unless they are unable to do any better?): the updates are very slow and the improvements often marginal, not to mention the frequent regressions.

And if this was not bad enough, when you report a problem to support, they tend to try and put the blame on your installation straight away (so indeed do some undoubtedly extremely knowledgeable users on this forum) only to announce a few months (sometimes years) later a firmware which provides a fix for said problem.

I was once considering buying a pair a Muso Qb but given how dire the Naim software situation have been, this seems pretty unlikely to happen now.

ChrisSU posted:

It’s strange how the Android app seems to give such a variable performance, perhaps due to the range of different devices it has to run on. A have an Android device I used to run the app on occasionally, and it was every bit as stable as the iOS version. 

Range of devices AND range of Android versions within the user sphere.  

Bart posted:

ChrisSU posted:

It’s strange how the Android app seems to give such a variable performance, perhaps due to the range of different devices it has to run on. A have an Android device I used to run the app on occasionally, and it was every bit as stable as the iOS version. 

Range of devices AND range of Android versions within the user sphere.  

I know it's heresy for some, but given that the iOS user experience with the Naim app is so much better (at least as reported anecdotally), I'd buy a refurb iPad or the like for short money and run the Naim App on that, even if I were an Android phone devotee.

As I mentioned earlier, it turns out that the iOS app is rated just as low as the Android app, which is actually rather surprising.

The Sonos app on the other hand has good ratings on Google Play and very good ones on the Apple Store.

I've given up using the Android app. I don't know all the reasons why it's such a PITA, it might me, or my network set up or Naim's inability to make a good Android app, or a combination, or something else. All I know is, it's crap. I have moved an old iPad into the zone where I used to use (but mostly swear at) the Android app on my Galaxy, and hey presto! It's not crap any more. 

Naim seem to do very well, particularly in the comics, despite it's mediocre software. It's a weak point that most people seem to forgive. I certainly do, because my music sounds so good. It doesn't put me off the brand.  But I do wonder if they are ever going to get it together properly. There is obsolete legacy Linn software which is better than Naim's current offering. But at least Naim don't charge for it any more. Been there, paid that. £25 IIRC.

Or maybe it was £15. 

£24.99 on 9/1/11 for me. 

That was for N-Serve. 

Just looked up the receipt. 

N-serve still better than the Naim App in my opinion. 

So there’s progress. 

The Crestron app costs over £70.....

The Naim app works fine for me on IOS. 

Thanks John. Yes, nServe here too. 

I share your opinion on which is better.