NaimUniti: does firmware update address Upnp Gapless issue?

Great news about aiff coming to the Uniti - really like the way that Naim seem to be listening to their customers or zealots if you like - cool

Tog

Alamanka,

quote:

What do you mean by

a) the ripping engine that ripped did a good job and the rips will actually join together"

As far as I understand, only certain lossless formats support accurate gapless files.
Lossy formats like MP3 rely on the ripping process interpreting and marking the end of the track, so that it can be correctly (as far as possible) stitched back together by the media player.
Remember, the CD has to be gapless to begin with

EAC should be cope with the ripping fine, although i don't know how Foobar handles the files when you are using it as a control point. It works fine as a standalone player.

This thread gives a bit of info for EAC ripping
EAC gapless ripping

quote:

Originally posted by Alamanka:
"c) Use either the front panel GUI or the nStream iPhone/iTouch/iPad compatable app to control it. "

Several of us among Uniti owners are using:

- Foobar2000 UPnP as a controller
- Andromote (Android app) as a controller

So I guess our expectations is that it will work with those tools.

The answer is in c). Gapless will work only if you use the front panel GUI or the nStream app.

The thing required for proper gapless playback is that the renderer (Uniti) has to know what is the next track after the current playing track. This is the job of the Control app to inform the renderer what the next track is. It is little known that regular UPnP AV provides a way to do that, but the for some reason no Control Point supports it and thus no renderer supports it. Or maybe it is the other way round, nobody knows.
Linn solved the problem introducing an UPnP extension that allow to store a playlist on-device (thus at any point the renderers know the next track). There's several Control app that support that extension by now, including foobar2000.
But I guess the Uniti do not implement it.
If naim document how to instruct the Unity what the next track is (if it is different from the regular UPnP AV method), then it can possibly be integrated into other Control apps.

Thanks for that clarification. Hopefully Naim HQ are taking notice and can help with this.

It's good to know that gapless playback is finally being implemented in the Uniti, and that it will work from the front panel interface.

So, if I understand correctly, gapless playback is implemented within Naim proprietary controls:

- Uniti front panel buttons and classic remote
- nStream Iphone/iToutch/iPad application

This is good news.

That said, there is currently:

- No Naim Windows-based application
- No Naim Android-based application

Therefore we have to rely on third party applications such as Foobar2000 UpnP and Andromote to control the NaimUniti.

I think it would be a service to us users if Naim could help the authors of these application by providing access to the documentation for the Gapless API.

Documenting Api and interface is normal practice in the software world.

This is UPnP after all: things are supposed to work together, right?

In all fairness to Naim they never said that they were providing Android or Doze control points. After decades of being a Mac user I am used to finding workarounds for life in Uncle Bill's playground.

Tog