NDS - Smart Phone via USB and Multi-room Support

Posted by: Adrian_P on 11 April 2014

Hi,

 

I tried using my Android smart phone connected to the NDS USB input to see whether it supports playing music stored on the phone. According to the manual:

 

Most UMS (Universal Mass Storage) USB devices are compatible with the NDS USB audio input. Such devices might include portable digital music players, smart-phones, tablet computers, USB memory sticks and memory card readers.

 

When I connect my phone (a Galaxy S2 running Android 4.1.2) to the USB input using the cable that came with the phone, the NDS display indicates that it is busy for a few minutes and then eventually reports "Source error". On the phone, a dialog is displayed saying that no software was found on the remote computer (i.e. the NDS) that can access the phone as a storage device. The same cable works fine when I connect the phone to my PC, which I can then use to browse the files on the phone.

 

Are there any limitations to this USB support that are not specified in the manual? Do I need a special cable?

 

Secondly, I'm aware that the Multi-room support does not work on the NDS as Naim state that it adversely affects sound quality. I would have thought that a reduction is sound quality was an acceptable trade-off to have the feature available. Is there a more fundamental reason why this wouldn't work on the NDS? Assuming that isn't the case, would other NDS owners find this a useful feature if it were enabled in a future firmware update?

 

Thanks,

Adrian

Posted on: 16 April 2014 by Adrian_P

No takers on this one. Smart phones are obviously not a high-quality source for music to an NDS :-)  However, for casual listening particularly for guests, it would be useful if it worked.

 

I figured out that you have to turn on USB Mass Storage, at least on my version of Android (4.1.2):

 

Settings > Wireless and Networks > More > USB Utilities > Connect storage to PC.

 

However, turning on UMS makes no difference: the NDS scans the device as before and reports the same "Source error". I will log this with Naim support for comment.

 

Adrian

Posted on: 17 April 2014 by rjstaines
Originally Posted by Adrian_P:

I would have thought that a reduction is sound quality was an acceptable trade-off to have the feature available.

Adrian,


"You cannot be serious !"

 

(just quoting an American tennis player of course)

Posted on: 17 April 2014 by DavidDever

Bubble UPnP would certainly work, as a means to get mobile device content to play through the NDS over your Wi-Fi network.

Posted on: 17 April 2014 by Bart

When we talk about the "quality" of a source, I think that it's too easy to confound the quality of the hardware with the quality of the media itself, and what makes what impact on the playback.

 

If one were to believe that all UPnP servers sound the same, then using a mobile phone as a UPnP server might be just as good as using a nas box.  But what media files are you serving?  Lossless ALAC or AIFF? 128kbps AAC?  128kbps MP3?  Flac?  

 

Case in point - my car accepts usb storage devices for its audio system.  I purchased a tiny little 64gb usb stick that is barely bigger than a usb 2.0 connector.  My buddy asked me how it sounded.  IMHO, all usb sticks sound the same, and I could not address his question as he asked it. But with a little digging I realized that he was not asking about how that piece of hardware sounded, but was wondering how I choose my media, what format, etc., to get what I consider to be 'good sound.'  He knows I'm picky because the last time I was in his new Audi S8, he had the bass cranked all the way to max and it sounded awful; I could not resist adjusting.

Posted on: 17 April 2014 by Adrian_P
Originally Posted by rjstaines:

"You cannot be serious !"

 

(just quoting an American tennis player of course)

 

RJ,

 

I should have qualified that statement to say that I would find a (small) effect on sound quality acceptable only when multi-room is enabled. Obviously, a negative affect that affected all replay at all times, regardless of whether multi-room was on or not would not be aceptable!

 

David, I use Bubble and UPnP Play on my devices but I'm thinking more about guests who turn up with an Android (or iPhone) device and want to play some music, as happened the other day.

 

Bart, I'm not too concerned abput quality of the media for this use case. As I mentioned, it's for casual listening only. My own CDs are ripped to FLAC on a NAS and transcoded to WAV24 using Minimserver. Sounds great on the NDS!

 

 

Adrian

 

Posted on: 17 April 2014 by David S Patterson
Hi Adrian as i said on another post ,my galaxy note2 alows my to switch on DLNA in settings. It linked with my ND5 and ipad immediately and played my phone music in seconds.