Airplay is not coming

Not a surprise really.

From what I recall, it was originally scheduled for the end of last year (as per a post from Paul Stephenson himself. Although it was a "Watch This Space" variety.)

I watched the space. It's still there.

But if they don't, they don't.

Everyone is free to spend their money elsewhere.

Using the terms high-end and airplay in the same sentence is a bit of an oxymoron, the two concepts don't go together. If you really wanted high-end, you'd have a wired system. Also, airplay doesn't do highres, I believe it is limited to 16t/48 at best. If you wanted to stream music wirelessly from a Mac one option would be to get your Naim system of choice and a Sonos ZP90 to stream to wirelessly from your Mac. But even here streaming wired will sound slightly better than wireless. I have a Dr. Gert Volk modded ZP90 running into my Naim DAC/555PS and to be honest it sounds just as good as my ND5XS feeding into the same nDAC/555PS. Sonos is a great solution and what's more its iPad and iPhone control apps are miles ahead of Naim's very rudimentary nStream app. Alternatively you could get an Airport Express to feed your Naim System of choice, provided it has a DAC section. Either you like Naim or you don't. If you do, Airplay should not be a deal breaker. Approaching it from that angle seems silly to me.

Good luck

tp

Sorry if my question looks stupid, but what so great about airplay, in the context of high-quality sound systems? 

I do have an ipad, but even if my naim system was airplay-enabled, I would not stream from my ipad anyway, because my music is stored in AIFF somewhere else, and the ipad is used only for control...and even if the music was physically on my ipad/iphone, it will likely be in compressed format. The only case I see airplay useful is if a friend comes to mine and we want to listen to one specific song he/she has on his/her portable device...this happens once a year maybe, I can connect via cable. 

Maybe I'm missing something important? please help me to discover what's so great behind airplay, in a hi-fi system context. Thanks

As already mentioned if you need airplay sooo much just get airport express or apple tv, connect it to the digital in of your UQ and you are done - I thing the price of either device (89 EUR for AE and 109 EUR for Apple TV) makes this solution very attractive. That's the way I solved this demand for me - Apple TV connected to my nDAC to occasionally stream some test tracks from Qobuz or watching interesting youtube clips on my TV.

Actually it is strange, Naim has had I believe all current products designed to take audio digital out from I devices, surely for a serious price paid to Apple. On the other hand Linn has released open source software that I understand can do the same, is free to develop  and is not locked to Apple, so maybe Naim has changed plans?

Before everyone gets up in arms about this maybe seeking information from the horses mouth (ie Naim UK) might be worthwhile...

Hi , I had emailed the customer relations manager  at Naim HQ UK recently about this question- I wanted to know if airplay would be available as a sotware or hardware upgrade for the SU. He replied  quote- " airplay should be a software upgrade but I cannot give you  a timescale ".

Hope this helps.

BW

I was not aware that Naim has any offices in Germany.  Perhaps your dealer called the distributor, who is not actually part of Naim and may know not any more than any of us do???

@Bart: That could be a reason. Because in the internet I didn't find a hint of a german headquarter. I also panically e-mailed Naim and they said "We hope to include airplay but I cannot give you a timescale." Another user posted that he also asked Naim about this and they said "We have to negotiate with Apple but I cannot give you a timescale". Ok..I think that they won't give us a date is now more than clear but fortunately it seems that Naim is still on its way adding Airplay to their streaming devices. Thanks a lot guys! Now I can sleep well although I would sleep better if I had a Unitiqute with Airplay

This.

To the OP, what's the big deal? I've never understood why people want to use portable devices as sources anyway. Surely you have the music on a computer somewhere?

Airplay is not great for music, if this is a deal breaker for you then naim probably is not for you any how.

I am not sure but I think people want Airplay because they think this will be some easy way to enable upnp-like function to their Macs.

Just get a upnp server for your Mac OS.  There has to be something halfway decent that will support hires and streaming different music to multiple devices.

Airplay is NOT your answer.

-Patrick

Dear guys,

if you like Airplay or not is irrelevant. Concerning the millions of idevices Apple is selling yearly and the numerous requests naim is getting concerning airplay it will just become a standard for audio streaming. And if I buy a streaming device and expect it to be able to play all standard - and that is including airplay. And btw: if upnp or airplay doesn't matter concerning quality. so if they offer streaming devices with upnp, airplay needn't be that far. Got it? Simple as that!

If its not hifi, why be disappointed that you might not be able to use it? Millions of people use am radio, but naim didn't fit that to their tuners. Should they have done?

I use AirPlay from my iPhone or iPad into my 102 via Airport Express. It's ok I suppose while I'm just after some background music, but that's all. I'm certainly not considering ditching my naim system because I can't have AirPlay built in. 

Tony

Airplay will NOT ever be a standard for audio streaming.  Unless by "standard" you mean, it is only used in consumer situations by people who use Macs exclusively. 

UPNP, for now, has a ubiquitous foothold on file sharing and streaming worldwide.

It will be a "standard" just as Firewire was and Thunderbolt will be

Sorry, but this is simply the case.

Question.... what do you want Airplay for?  What are you trying to do that you cannot without Airplay?

Thanks!

Patrick

As Patrick says, Airplay is not a standard but entirely subject to Apple's whim and license fees.

Buy an Airport Express and everything is fine. You could wait for Naim to implement Airplay, but then you would miss much wonderful music in the years to come.

Does anybody remember Sony and how cool they were in the 80s? And now they are almost insignificant. They tried to push their "standards" too, like Memory Stick and MiniDisc.

KR

Jochen

Nobody here knows how much Apple charges for Naim to put aanother Apple logo on our hifi equipment. Also Naim does not seem to have unlimitted ressources in software and hardware development. I would much rather see updated software, DTC for Mac that is coming, updates to the DTC, all the talk about updates to the N-stream, in the real world you cannot get everything at least not from a company the size of Naim and with Naims very high standards!

Claus

I don't mind waiting for AirPlay, but I do find the industrial strength secrecy from Naim around scheduling its launch a bit annoying.

I'm still amazed by the number of intelligent people who think that we want AirPlay to stream lossy mp3s from iOS devices - that's not it… it's to stream lossless files from iTunes on a computer, without unnecessary, intermediate devices like an Airport Express, or hacky 3rd party software, that may or may not be updated with OSX or iTunes or whatever. 

The majority of my music is on my computer, in a single iTunes library, that syncs with my phone and iPad for mobile. When I'm at home I'm either controlling iTunes with iPad Remote, or using the computer directly. Upnp is horribly clunky in comparison, and having another device, the Airport, seems an unnecessary extra complication.

I want:

One computer - a Mac (essential for work)

One media player - iTunes (essential for iPhone/iPad)

One network-enabled hifi - Uniti (essential?)

Everything else is faff. And the only one of those I'd live without is the Uniti.

BTW happy to be corrected, but I'm fairly sure that AirPlay is just as happy wired as wireless. Certainly AirPlay from my computer to router is wired; only wireless from router to Airport Express.

Simon

Two interesting things going on there.

1) So Mac users cant use third party software?  Why would the top available upnp servers be considered "hacky"?  PLENTY in here use Amarra, Pure Music and a ton of other software not developed by Apple.

2)  UPNP may be clunky on a Mac.  If you could only see Jriver, Jremote etc in action. 

It is too bad you are not willing to use the right tool or the job, a $300 PC.  You do it for work with the essential Mac.  Why not with audio?

-Patrick

http://www.jremote.net/

Just a few MAJOR differences from the famous Remote App it emulates:

- WAY faster

- Sexier

- Access to linked meta-data

- LastFM Bio

- Far more control options, e.g. Play Now, Play Next, Add to List, Add Shuffled etc....

- Interface options, e.g. Thumbs, List, List with Art

- Desktop Control, to change into Theater View or use as a "mouse" to do something more complicated etc.

Sweet.  There is nothing like it out there. 

-Patrick

ps- oh, and streaming to the device is coming soon.  For now JRivers browser based "WebGizmo" works like a charm for streaming music, vids, pics etc to iOS devices.  $$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Yep.  AirPlay using iTunes obviously works well on a hardwired PC (or Mac) or wireless to a wired or wireless player.  It aint perfect but iTunes lovers can use the Remote App which seems to be hugely popular.  Now if you REALLY want to stream (again, wired or wirelessly) from your desktop then take a look at Linn's Songcast which is not limited to 16/44 but will play whatever is played on the computer in it's native resolution to the receiver.  Now THAT is AirPlay done right.

"Remote" is essentially instantaneous for me. Faster isn't practically possible.

AirPlay cannot do Hi-rez now, but that's not a huge concern for me at this point.  I want AirPlay because of Remote App + iTunes' usability.  At this point, the nStream is still very clunky.  It's like running Windows NT off a Pentium back in the days.  I do have a relatively large collection of songs (2.5TB+), and the demo at my local dealer seems to have problems even navigating through 1.0 TB of songs.

I'm sure some quality's been sacrificed through the use of AirPlay, but the convenience and the robustness of iTunes as an interface is something I need to have before dropping 3000 quid into a streamer.  So either AirPlay needs to be sorted out, or nStream needs to improve to a better level of usability first for me to sink money into the streamer.

I'm currently using an Apple TV2 with coaxial output (instead of Toslink).  That, to my ears, sounds better than the original Toslink output when I use the Naim DAC.  In the mean time ... my ATV2's named "ND5i" in my network