Leaving aside the question of which sounds best, digital or analogue, multi-room listening (to the same source, which I assume is what the OP meant) is May not be quite so easy/good, depending on the amps used:
Assuming the other room(s) want independent control of volume, there would need to be a separate output from either the source or preamp (maybe tape output from preamp for one room?), but unless either a) the other room is adjacent allowing a very short cable run (perhaps through the wall), or b) the respective outputs and inputs use balanced cables, noise pickup (e.g. him) becomes a significant risk. The effect of electrical characteristics of the cable are may also become more significant as length increases, potentially affecting the sound.
Hi, @Innocent_Bystander. I agree that a botched installation may sound sub-optimal. Done right, wired analog sounds demonstrably better, to me, than Naim Party Mode, done right.
It does not cost crazy money to do either, I find; nor does the analog solution cause any compromise at zone one I that can detect in A/B tests, isolating zone one from, then engaging it with remote zones, in my system. And I can play FM and LP to all zones as a bonus, which Party Mode cannot.
I do multi-room but not using my system. Instead, I stream content (BBC Sounds or iTunes) from the iPhone to four Apple HomePods in the Kitchen, Living room, Bedroom and Office using Airplay. I did consider going for Naim QBs but couldn’t justify the extra cost for what’s really only background sounds while I’m at home doing jobs or working from home.
I’d prefer to put the extra money into upgrades for the main system.
Hi @RackKit. I admit my decisions in remote zones do not impact my Zone One, other than that I require delivering to other zones must not reduce Zone-One SQ, such as it is, with my ridiculously-modest, yet ridiculously-capable KEF Q-50s. (I have tried, more than once to replace them with something more respectable.)
I have noticed recently that multiroom has stopped working with my system of legacy Unitiqutes and NDS.
Has this function been disabled or do I need to delve deeper?
I thought it might be a server problem, but it’s the same issue whether I’m drawing music from my Qnap NAS running Asset or the Audiostore black box running minim.
I’m sure Naim have no intention of disabling multiroom performance on legacy streamers. Have you updated their firmware or your Naim app recently? If not, maybe a network issue?
Just checking …
Naim app uptodate, 5.14.4
Firmware: 4.7.00
Error: a maximum of 0 multiroom clients is supported.
The NETGEAR firmware is also uptodate.
I’ve dropped a line to Naim asking for advice.
I can’t think of any obvious reason why that shouldn’t work. As Adam says, some Hi-Res formats will not play over multiroom, so if you have inadvertently tried to play anything at 24/96 or higher, or DSD, that could be the issue. Matbe try a CD rip or something from Tidal or iRadio?
With a fairly recently bought Unitiqute 2 + a QB, I’ve always had this ‘a maximum of 0 multiroom clients is supported’ issue when trying to initiate multi-room from the app.
It’ll work fine if initiated from the remote on the UQ, but never from the app.
Should initiating multi-room work from the app, or is it possibly an issue with the Unitiqute (which I updated to latest firmware)?
It should work from the App. I have a UQ2, a 272 and two Qbs and multiroom can be initiated from any of them, as can party mode where all four play in perfect sync. All of mine are wired if that makes any difference.
I think that message usually relates to a Multiroom session that is already active. So,if you have initiated Multiroom from a device to a second, to add a third you need to add it from the intial device which is the “master”. I’ve never seen it in any other context.
It will say that when multiroom is still engaged on another of your boxes. So if I’m playing multiroom from the 272, it finishes and then I try to start multiroom from something else it will say to start from master ie the 272. If I then stop multiroom on the 272 I can then start it from something else.
First QB2 added at Christmas. Wi-Fi from the start has been flawless. Set it up on my iPhone 7. All other iPhones and iPads show it without additional setup. Party mode working well. Happy.
It turns out I had the multi-room input set to ‘off’ on my Unitiqute 2, which stops it being initiated from the app, though it’ll still send to another room from the remote.
Once enabled, I could do everything from the app with no issues. Silly me
