I am a severely disabled retired guy living in a nursing home. I currently run a Naim Muso 1st gen from my iPod touch 7 via a usb lead. This is because the home’s wifi will connect to my iPod 7 touch but not to the Muso or the Naim App.
The music service I use is Qobuz studio (cd quality), which tells me I am streaming and downloading at 16bit 44hz and also sending to the Muso at the same rate; though I have no way to verify this.
Because it is too complicated to set up my own wifi in my room, I wondered if I might get a substantial improvement by replacing my iPod touch 7, with a dedicated hi res audio player with built-in wifi and connecting to the Muso via the usb lead?
Thank you all for your patience and understanding. I am new to all this. Since using CDs, I have only ever streamed at 330kbz mp3 or Bluetooth. My current system far exceeds both but music is so important to me, I would like to improve it further if possible.
Any constructive comments gratefully received. Thanks all.
Hi John you can only use the USB port as an input from ipods and possible iPad or phone but not from anything else as it’s not using USB audio class for that port so streamers that runfrom USB would not work. You would need to use either the optical port in or its analogue port.
But with any streamer you going to need to have a network connection to use them as most rely on apps to run them. So your WiFi issue will cause some issues. Not many operate without this these days.
Hello John and welcome.
Your Muso 1st Gen does not natively support Qobuz IIRC.
Your best bet will be to use the Qobuz app on your Ipod and Airplay to the Muso.
As you only have CD and not a HiRes subscription, I think this should be fine.
Thank you so much for your kind reply. So if I bought a hi Res player with built in WiFi, which I know will connect to the homes WiFi to download hi res music, could I then send the music to the Muso via an optical lead? Thanks so much for your kind help.
That is exactly as I run things now. I was just wondering if I bought a hi Res player with built in WiFi and and optical output; could I then download music from a hi Res service via wifi to the audio player, then send it to the Muso via an optical lead? Thanks so much for your kind help. John
I really do not think this is necessary if you are happy with CD quality streams.
You say you run it like this now, but you mentioned a USB lead in your opening post.
You don’t need another streamer, your Muso does that.
Are you saying you want to move up to HiRes streaming?
In that case Airplay will be no good as its limited to CD bitrates.
You could use an android mobile and install BubbleUPNP (not avaiable for Apple devices IIRC)
and stream in hires from there. Im sure another member who is experienced in Bubble will assist you.
I think the issue is that although both Muso and iPod Touch can connect to the home’s WiFi and to the internet, they can’t talk to each other because it’s a ‘public’ rather that ‘private’ network. I have no bright ideas to ‘fix’ though…
Yes but there is no guarantee you will be able to control the streamer from the homes WiFi. If the Muso has issues then it’s likely you will have same problems with any other devices that needs an app to connect. Thee WiFi in the home is likely bloking the traffic needed. Many public systems like this will do this to prevent you hogging it.
Perhaps having your own private internet via a mobile service would give you more flexibility but may be quite expensive to run. You can get routers that run off 4g or 5g signals or you could just use your phone if it’s an iPhone or Android as a WiFi hotspot and connect the Muso to that. But you won’t get hires or Qobuz on the Muso without another source into its optical input. But your then adding in extra costs again.
Or perhaps ask the home to see if they can help in some way. They might have their provider help out?
Hi John
There are certainly some ‘workaround’ solutions that would solve your problem as discussed above.
A neater, but probably more expensive solution would be to sell the Muso and buy a Muso 2. This has Qobuz support built in, controlled from the Naim app. It also has much better WiFi performance, which was a particular weak spot of the 1st generation Musos.
Thanks Andy, and thanks all. You are quite right Andy. The homes WiFi will not accept the Naim local network and allow me to set things through the Naim App, or let the iPod and speaker communicate.
The home’s WiFi speed is excellent so it seems my best bet for trying hi res music, is to buy a hi Res player with built in WiFi, to download hi res music, then send the music via an optical lead to the Muso. In effect, making the audio player the controller of the speaker. Can anyone see any snags to this approach? Thanks all, John
Actually downloading hiRes is an expensive way to listen to music.
Are you set on hiRes?
If not…stick with a cd player/transport connected to your Muso.
Thank you very much. Your advice clarifies things a great deal for me. I have currently downloaded over 100 Gig of cd quality music from Qobuz which I then send to the Muso via the iPod usb dock lead. The iPod controls the music via the Qobuz app and the Naim remote the volume. In the light of your kind advice, I will try to fin a better solution for playing hi Res files. Many thanks.
Thanks having just bought a Muso 1 I would struggle to buy a 2 just now. I think the issue is more around the care home WiFi which is for many people and public. The WiFi at my last care home would not let me connect a Sonos speaker which I trialled for similar reasons. I think I will buy a portable hi res player with WiFi. If I cannot connect it to the speaker at least I can use hi Res headphones.
The problem with care seems to be connecting the speaker to a local network and then to communicate to the source. O
If the source is connected to the WiFi network and the is a wired connection to the speaker from the source, there appears to be no problem.
Have you been able to talk to whoever manages the home’s network to see if there is anything that could be done to allow your network devices to talk to each other?
An alternative, if there is also a wired connection available, might be to connect your own private WiFi router. But I think you may have already considered that.
Thanks, because of the severity of my condition I can no longer use a cd player unaided. I also have to spend much of my time bedridden now. Music is my one great joy. If it is at all possible, I would love to try hi res music. If not I will stick to my iPod 7 and Muso:). I take it the touch 7 does have near cd quality codecs? It says so but I have no way to prove it!:). Oh the joys:). Thanks.
The mu-so is an excellent box and sounds great. We have a couple of the mu-so’s smaller sibling, the Qb. Quite honestly I’m hard pressed to tell the difference between CD resolution 44/16 and high res on the Qbs. I’d gently suggest that you stop worrying about high res and just enjoy the CD quality you are already enjoying.