Bluetooth to ND5 XS my only solution?

Streaming Audio
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Why in the world would anyone use bluetooth to a Naim streamer?!?!

I’ve had the ND5 XS with the original Supernait and HiCap DR for many years now, but have moved to a place where the wifi is super unreliable and using an ethernet cable isn’t an option. As long as I’ve had the ND5 it drops the wifi connection constantly (I have a friend with similar set up and he has always experienced the same thing) and so have always been wired in. Now that I can’t wire in directly (the mother in law type unit is using wifi boosters and has no direct internet access), I’m left feeling like I’ve got a near useless Naim streamer. Any options I should consider?

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Wire it to a wifi bridge access point. i.e. a device that connects to the wireless network and provides ethernet socket connection to the network.

1 Like
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Look for an Apple Express on eBay. Wifi to that then short ethernet cable into the streamer. I use one on my Muso Qb first gen.

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When you say you’ve moved to a place “where the wifi is super unreliable” do you mean the wifi system as a whole is bad (poor phone, tv connectivity too) or just that the ND5XS’ connection to the wifi system is bad (I feel your pain - the ND5XS wifi module is problematic)? If it’s the former, you should probably look to fix it by investing in a mesh system. There are several (search the forum); for what it’s worth I’ve been using Google’s wifi mesh for years and it’s been faultless. And you can connect your streamer to one of the wireless access points by ethernet cable. If the problem is just unreliable connection from the streamer to the (ok) wifi system then, as robert_h says, get a network bridge. I recently bought a TP-Link TL-WA850RE to fix just this problem to my 1st gen MusoQb and it works perfectly.

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Well, as you said, the wifi on the ND5 XS has always been problematic. Supposedly the wifi on the XS2 and NDX2 are better.

There is currently a mesh system in place, but was told the drop off between the houses is something like 10x. I think it means investing in a more powerful mesh system. I’m currently looking at upgrading to an NDX 2, so definitely need to figure out how to increase/tighten things up.

Thanks for the help, everyone.

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WiFi systems are all limited in their power output. The problem is relying on “MESH” technology which is poorly understood by most. Get a good WiFi extender, eg Netgear, with a different SSID (so you know what’s connecting to what) and can measure signal strengths at different (extender) locations.

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