Muso Qb

Don't a lot of newer hubs support both 2.4 and 5 simultaneously?  My BT Home Hub 4 appears able to do this given I can set up two separate SSIDs.  When operating in that way does the 2.4 access still degrade throughput of devices connected to 5?  I hope not.

Graham, modem routers support 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz wireless protocols but since they run on different bands they don't interfere with each other. In the 2.4Ghz band, however, we have 11b, 11g and 11n protocols which are compatible but the lowest common denominator rules. So, if you have an 11b device streaming with a mix of other 11g or 11n clients on the same 2.4Ghz network, it will reduce available bandwidth for all devices to 11b rates.

Graham Clarke posted:

Don't a lot of newer hubs support both 2.4 and 5 simultaneously?  My BT Home Hub 4 appears able to do this given I can set up two separate SSIDs.  When operating in that way does the 2.4 access still degrade throughput of devices connected to 5?  I hope not.

I have BT HH4 & yes it has 2.4GHZ & 5GHz.   My laptop is dual band & will select the strongest signal,  when in or near the same room as the HH4 it selects 5GHz, but at points furthest away in the house or in the garden it selects 2.4GHz.  Mrs Mike's laptop is 2.4GHz only & when its on or off or downloading it does not seem to affect my laptop & including when my laptop is downloading or streaming. 

Adrian_P posted:

Graham, modem routers support 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz wireless protocols but since they run on different bands they don't interfere with each other. In the 2.4Ghz band, however, we have 11b, 11g and 11n protocols which are compatible but the lowest common denominator rules. So, if you have an 11b device streaming with a mix of other 11g or 11n clients on the same 2.4Ghz network, it will reduce available bandwidth for all devices to 11b rates.

Ah, now that makes more sense, thanks for clarifying.  Of course devices capable of 5Ghz are likely to also support newer 802.11<x> protocols.

So say you had three devices on a 2.4Ghz network and the first two are 11n, presumably the wifi router would negotiate to the higher speed of 11n.  If you now turned on an 11b, router would negotiate down to that speed.  Now let's say the 11b is powered off.  Will the router remain at the 11b negotiated speed until reboot or does it have a clever way to also negotiate back up to higher speeds/later protocols?

Mike-B posted:

Graham Clarke posted:

Don't a lot of newer hubs support both 2.4 and 5 simultaneously?  My BT Home Hub 4 appears able to do this given I can set up two separate SSIDs.  When operating in that way does the 2.4 access still degrade throughput of devices connected to 5?  I hope not.

I have BT HH4 & yes it has 2.4GHZ & 5GHz.   My laptop is dual band & will select the strongest signal,  when in or near the same room as the HH4 it selects 5GHz, but at points furthest away in the house or in the garden it selects 2.4GHz.  Mrs Mike's laptop is 2.4GHz only & when its on or off or downloading it does not seem to affect my laptop & including when my laptop is downloading or streaming. 

My HH4 is in our office (upstairs, front of house).  Lounge is downstairs at back of house and iPad Mini connection to it was intermittent, causing semi-frequent lockups of the Naim app.  Not sure if it was connecting at 5 or 2.4.

So I installed another wireless access point in the lounge to solve that, but that is 5Ghz only.  Will be interesting to see if Qb can still connect effectively to 2.4Ghz signal from our kitchen, given it's distance from HH4 is about the same as from the lounge.  I wonder if the Qb has a better aerial than an iPad Mini?

Graham Clarke posted

So say you had three devices on a 2.4Ghz network and the first two are 11n, presumably the wifi router would negotiate to the higher speed of 11n.  If you now turned on an 11b, router would negotiate down to that speed.  Now let's say the 11b is powered off.  Will the router remain at the 11b negotiated speed until reboot or does it have a clever way to also negotiate back up to higher speeds/later protocols?

Graham, in the scenario above the router/AP would negotiate back up to the higher protocols when the 11b device is no longer connected. So, streaming devices have the most pronounced impact due to the extended time that they are receiving. When you are listening on the Qb, all your 11n and 11ac devices on the 2.4Ghz radio will be reduced to the Qb's lower data rates, hence the advice to set up a separate AP for legacy devices and ensure that the right clients connect to the right router/AP. 

If you have an old router that you have upgraded to get faster WiFi then you can usually repurpose it for this task. You just need to assign it a fixed IP address, ensure that DHCP is turned off, assign a separate non-overlapping channel (1, 6 or 11), and give it a separate SSID to your fast network.

Adrian, so how does the router/AP know an 11b (or other) device has disconnected?  Is it simply controlled by a timeout because it may not receive an explicit notification (e.g. device out of range, not orderly shutdown etc).

Displaying my ignorance of internet radio, is it easy (i.e doable by a technophobe) to receive say BBC radio 4, Classic FM, and whatever is the local radio station of choice? 

If so, it may lend itself to being a perfect present for a hifi tolerant but disinterested (apart from being able to play her own choice of music) other half. If not, then it won't be...

Innocent Bystander posted:

Displaying my ignorance of internet radio, is it easy (i.e doable by a technophobe) to receive say BBC radio 4, Classic FM, and whatever is the local radio station of choice

Yup, not to mention thousands of radio stations from around the world. All you need is a tablet or smartphone to control it using the Naim app – at a pinch, one of those Android cheapies from the supermarkets or online shops would do it for £50-60 – , and you can search for radio stations and store them as presets.

BBC Radio 4 and Classic FM - yes. Not so sure about the local radio station of choice. What might that be?

It depends how you define a technophobe. You need a mobile device with the Naim app (the original Muso has a remote but I think the app is much easier to use). I presume the QB is the same to use and if so it is straightforward to tune in all the UK internet radio stations and others all over the world. However, I recommend you take your appropriate mobile device into a dealer and have a play to see if it works for you.

Clive

Local radio station is Manx Radio, and for 'technophobe' in this context read someone who wants to turn on, select station/channel, and go.

I tried searching for 'Manx Radio' in Naim Internet Radio on my ND5 XS, but could not find it. So, maybe the unfortunate answer is "No" for this station. 

Can anyone else find it?

The iRadio search facility is a bit of a joke, so you might have missed it, but ManxRadio is there, albeit on a paltry 64kb stream. 

Yes, on the Mu-so so will also be on Qb: Manx Radio 89 FM Live at 64kbps.

Went to Location, UK, All Stations and searched for Manx.

Greetings to the IoM. Very many years since I took the Jazz ship from Liverpool to  Douglas.

I saw and heard my first Qb by chance in John Lewis, Cambridge this morning which was an interesting experience.  I quickly found an assistant who knew how to work it and was able to answer the questions I had about connectivity etc so that was a good start. He showed me how to stream iTunes music (sadly he picked Adele whose voice I loathe ).  I then tried streaming Qobuz on my iPhone to the Qb and that worked straight away with no glitches. Overall, I was impressed by the compactness and solidity of the Qb and the fact that the software worked faultlessly. I don't find the look that appealing but that's obviously down to personal taste.  The tricky question was SQ.  I've heard the original Mu-so many times and have  always been impressed with the sound but to be honest Qb didn't sound great in that open sales floor environment.  No doubt it would sound better at home.