Synology audio station

I find using a laptop/PC a bit cumbersome,  the app & iPad gets my vote every time. I only use Audio Station when working in the office with the laptop.  My little iPad Mini is far more convenient in my listening room,  its so much easier to "park" while music is playing - plus it does it better  as its got the metadata & Rovi stuff available if required. 

Can completely understand. From my side, the extra screen real estate on a PC gives the artist/album views a nice edge ..as you can see more at once without scrolling. Especially for a larger collection.

I use Audio Station in a browser quite a bit. I have also sometimes used the Windows Phone app.

The only funny thing I have with the DS Audio app is that the sound is different from the Naim app. It is much thinner with a less wide soundstage.

I'm still puzzled by it. Transcoding is off. The DS Audio app on my IPad is just an UPnP controller, just like the Naim app.

I can't say that I have noticed any difference.

With Audio Station you are telling the NAS to push to the streamer.

With the Naim app you are telling the streamer to pull from the NAS.

Why should that make a difference?

Yes, at first I also thought that I could here a SQ difference. But really when it comes down to it - I think they actually both work in the same way. the Naim app passes a command to the Naim to tell it to play a file from a DLNA server. I have a feeling the Synology process works in exactly the same way, as it is just a DLNA control point. So I think both are pulling the file from the NAS. 

I read time ago in this forum (can't find the thread) that "pushing" content to the streamer works for some time but at some point the streamer ceases to work properly and needs to be reset to factory settings to start working fine again. I used JRiver to "push" and stopped doing so after I read that comment. It seems that Naim streamers are just designed to "pull" content, so you need to use Naim app or the remote control.

I have pushed for hours and hours without problems

I have had to reset my NDX twice in the last year and both times have not been related to pushing to it.

I use this approach for operating my Qute in my "shed" as I do not have wireless coverage available and everything is wired, so my iPad cannot act as the controller. I can direct using my PC from the NAS or Spotify Connect as required - works very well.

The problem I had when pushing from JRiver to NDX was that n-Stream would crash and not know the current playlist.

I really do not understand why the sound difference is there. It is very noticeable, I am not the only one hearing it.

from a technical point of view, I do not understand. I would prefer to use the Audio station app, because I prefer its interface over de Naim app. So if I could solve the difference in sound, then I would be happy. But I cannot find any setting that could cause it.

Are you certain that there is no transcoding going on?

I have never heard a difference but I have never done a direct comparison. Maybe I should.

Sinology's Audio Station truncates hi res audio to 16 bit, so you will surely have sound quality issues with those files. Pls check this thread

https://forums.naimaudio.com/to...64#36342540854997964

Also you should make sure that you have MP3 transcoding off

I do hear the difference on cd quality. I have checked every setting I am aware off. So, if other Synology owners can do an A/B test as well and post their experience?

It is not that I have special ears or something, I'm not the only one hearing the difference. So either there is a consistent difference, or somewhere, somehow, the Synology DS Audio influences the sound.

That only happens when transcoding; native file format playback is, well, native format!

My understanding of DLNA playback is that the Control Point pushes the information specifying the  required track (i.e. file) to the media server, which responds by pushing the track data to the specified renderer.

I don't believe either to be a pull operation (even if you use the front panel controls).

The problem I have is that I can't get Synology Audio Station to do gapless playback.  It works with other control points, just not with Audio Station.

Any ideas to solve this?

 i agree that there is a difference.  on CD quality.  this is from memory though since for a day or 2 n-stream plainly refuses to recognise the NDX -all wired up on the same switch with the latest versions of all apps and fixed IPadresses - very frustrating.  DS Audio is my only option now....

Ben00,  if you have an NDX all "correctly" wired on a switch, & the latest app & firmware, & the app cannot see the NDX,  then believe me my friend,  you really do have something really very wrong & DS Audio is not the way to fix that.

First thing you need to do is change all the fixed addresses back to DHCP on everything - back to basics & KIS.  Static IP is not the way to fix discovery issues, you really need to know what yr doing & one small error screws the whole discovery system.

I switch between the Naim app on iPad and BubbleUPnP on a Nexus 9.  Naim app for internet radio and the odd CD I want to play.  BubbleUPnP when I want to put the entire 2000 CD collection on random because Naim streamers using the Naim app can only deal with a maximum 500 tracks and frustratingly when I select random it seems to be the same random selection of tracks.

No biggie, I have Bubble for that.

Odd, that suggests that they're using the same seed value each time; if they are, that's a beginner's mistake.

I finally grasped how Media Server on the Sinology is working. I have configured the Media Server in such a way that it now serves the Naim app the structure that suits me best: I have defined the menu paths from the different entry points, like by album, by artist, by composer etc.

Audio Station seems to do its own thing, which let me to believe that Audio Server does indeed stream the music through its own software, which influences the sound. It seems not to be just a control point for UPnP players, but it can also send music out on Airport for instance.

It is documented nowhere, I have dug through a lot of Sinology documentation.

As simple as the Media Server is on Synology, I like it enough for my purposes. You need to properly tag your music files though to be useful. As such, I prefer using iTunes as an interface much over anything else I know or have used. Sadly, you cannot use iTunes as a UPnP controller, and it probably never ever will be given Apple's preferences to build controlled environments.

True of all DLNA / UPnP systems.

If you just use Audio Station then it doesn't do transcoding. Flac files get sent as flac.

But there is a Media Server menu item. If you choose that then you can choose - at least for me - Media Server or Minimserver. This then presents the structure of that server and passes files transcoded - wav24 from minim for example.

Media server of Synology does do nothing to the files, there is no transcoding going on. At least, what I see is that the Naim app tells me the format and the Kbps of the file playing.

The Audio station app sending music to the NAS, using the iPad app, from the same Synology does sounds different.

It still puzzles me, but like I said, I can send out music from Audo Station to an Airport express for instance.