Alexa integration? Streamers obsolete even before release?

Obsydian posted:

 

Whether Naim want to be the jacks of all trades is another matter and given the Naim app is poor I'd worry at integrating anything more than the current app.

 

indeed, Naim need to get their App working properly first. It's fine on iOS devices but vary flaky on Android.

I should really now post the amusing you tube clip of the two Scotsmen in a voice controlled lift, but I am a luddite and don't know how to do that.

Dozey posted:

I should really now post the amusing you tube clip of the two Scotsmen in a voice controlled lift, but I am a luddite and don't know how to do that.

  There ye go, ken. 

So if you’re playing Turn It On Again on a voice controlled system, what’s the risk Phil Collins keeps it on for ever?

dave marshall posted:

Dozey posted:

I should really now post the amusing you tube clip of the two Scotsmen in a voice controlled lift, but I am a luddite and don't know how to do that.

 

  There ye go, ken. 

Thanks. Absolutely fantastic, this planet would have been as sad place without this kind of humour.

Thanks pal!

tonym posted:

For those dismissive of Alexa/Siri etc. integration, you may change your tune if you were unlucky enough to find yourself suffering an infirmity. At the moment I can control volume, source and mute using Alexa via my Harmony Ultimate remote, which comes in very handy at times. Still early days for the technology, but it's coming folks!

Yes for folks that need, want or desire then technology can be a miracle and extremely happy that it is available. 

I am happy that hearing aids are available for when I need them, I may be excited about self driving motor vehicles some day but not there just yet.....  If I ever have an infirmity that limits a capability I will be extremely happy and grateful that someone had the foresight and ingenuity to invent and bring a cure, an assistive device, a needed comfort.

I was happy that someone made robotic surgery equipment which removed a cancerous tumor without causing damage to a surrounding vital organ/tissue (a vast improvement over the human hand and eye). Happy that a number of technologies are available when needed and serve a needed or wanted service. 

Currently for a streamer I am quite happy with the functionality of the NDX. If the model had integration with Alexa/Siri I am sure I would not use it, and it may have been a deterrent in making the purchase.

I love technology and I also love simple pleasures. At this point in my life not interacting with a computer through voice queries and commands is a simple pleasure. Silent tactile interaction works well for me......at the moment.

DomTomLondon posted:

Obsydian posted:

 

Whether Naim want to be the jacks of all trades is another matter and given the Naim app is poor I'd worry at integrating anything more than the current app.

 

indeed, Naim need to get their App working properly first. It's fine on iOS devices but vary flaky on Android.

Actually I run the iPad as the main remote, but twice in two weeks now the iPad finds the Nova into Tidal or anything else, press play nothing, whatever playlist nothing - my workaround is to swap to my Samsung mobile which works, then the iPad can Takeover.

So bad whichever way you look at it.

MangoMonkey posted:

I guess the point I was making was totally missed. From my perspective, all the bullet-point features that the newer streamers (as well as the uniti stuff) are just not that interesting from a high end hifi perspective.

I would rather have 'timeless' tech isolated from fast moving tech. (Given, nothing is truly timeless, tech moves on etc. etc.). 

Alexa was just one example of the fast moving tech landscape. Roon is similar. I would prefer to have tech that moves fast isolated from tech that moves more slowly - or modularized.

Fast moving tech (streamer/spotify/tidal etc. integration) is perhaps best relegated to a device like the UQ that has a digital out. 

The more interesting question would be how to have these various devices adhere to the master clock in the dac...

Hence the comment about the new streamers already obsolete. They were trying to play catchup - by now having newer features (apple airplay, roon, chromecast etc.). These features are just not that interesting - and alexa integration is just one more bullet point - a feature that is at the same level of gimmeckry as the other stuff I mentioned.

Anyway, enough said - I just don't see one buying a NDS or ND555 level piece of equipment every 5 years. At those price-points, (like the 552, 500), these are pieces of equipment you buy for a lifetime. 

 

Suddently, the Chord Dacs become a lot more appealing. :-) 

They're two different components: control and sink. More sinks such as AirPlay, Chromecast and Roon RAAT are always a good thing, and give you a bit of a pass on obsolescence.

Control is always a moving target, however.

MangoMonkey posted:

I guess the point I was making was totally missed. From my perspective, all the bullet-point features that the newer streamers (as well as the uniti stuff) are just not that interesting from a high end hifi perspective.

I would rather have 'timeless' tech isolated from fast moving tech. (Given, nothing is truly timeless, tech moves on etc. etc.). 

...

Well, I have been arguing for DACs and against the last generation of Naim streamers almost since I have been active on this forum, precisely because I felt that they were a strange breed of rather mature technologies and very limited and essentially non-upgradeable interfaces.

I guess that those who have bought into the last generation of Naim streamers and realized that integrating new LAN streaming platforms like Roon and internet streaming services like Tidal or Qobuz was painful or even impossible will give streaming solutions based on pure DACs (front-ended by small network players or small integrated servers+renderes) a second thought before they invest in the new streamers.

On the other hand, if the front-ends of NDX 2, ND 555 and ND5 XS 2 turns out to be reasonably modular and upgradeable and provide services and sound quality comparable to those that, say, a Raspberry Pi + DigiOne, an ultra Rendu or a sMS-200ultra do already provide now, then I do not see any problem in principle with the new devices. They are now called network players: thus it is reasonable to expect that they will be able to run their own servers, access music libraries on attached drives, talk to Roon servers, UPnP servers, decode Qobuz, Tidal, etc. streams and so on. Perhaps the DAC front-end will be on a module that can be replaced as new technologies become available.

Let's see how the specs of the new devices look like. Until then we might also have a new Naim DAC for those who prefer to keep transport and digital to analogue conversion in separate boxes.