I find Roon and Naim pretty much as equally ‘cluttered’ or not as the case might be on the iPad. I think its what you are used to - and I am used to both and am equally at home with both. Both Roon and Naim with Qobuz have specific advantages over each other.
I see there’s a new naim ios app available today - it states its to fix a bug as some Tidal users were being asked to login when reopening the app - I wonder is that a typo and they actually meant Qobuz?
Yes I think the way that I use and interact with Roon has evolved around its interface, etc, which makes trying to do the “same things” or use a different app for the same things difficult and takes some getting used to. I don’t find it cluttered at all on my iPad Pro - normally I go to my album listing, which curates everything from Tidal, Qobuz, and my server and sorts them in order of play count. Then I will start by adding a few favorite tracks to start a queue and dynamically go back and add more songs for maybe 20-30 minutes of playtime before I go back and pick more songs.
It would be great to use the Naim app in that way, hopefully those kind of sorting options are in there, but if not it will at least take some time to get familiar with the interface in the same way I am with Roon. Of course with anything other than Roon, it may be tough to remember WHERE a song or album is (Tidal or Qobuz, etc) because the different sources are not co-mingled in the app. (“Where is my Santana record? Oh, it’s on my server and not in Tidal,” etc)
More of a bother is figuring out why the Naim app won’t release control to Roon when I switch back to Roon to do an A/B comparison (or just get tired of trying to figure out the Naim app, ha).
I just installed the update you referenced. It did not fix my Qobuz username login issue. I deleted and reinstalled the app. No change.
Time perhaps to write to Naim directly. They will help you.
Agreed. I have been working with Naim support since the issue was identified yesterday.
How does everyone get Naim’s attention so quickly? I submitted an issue I have with system automation back in December. I received an automated response to say they got it, and have yet to hear back otherwise.
Give them a call or better still get your dealer involved. I always-go through my dealer after a poor experience.
If they haven’t responded within a few days, after allowing for weekends and holidays, then they probably aren’t going to ever. So in that situation I think chase them. Or ask Richard to help.
Best
David
I guess because I prefer to use an iPhone as a remote, I like the way that the Naim app does everything on it. With Roon, their iPhone is fine for basic controls, but once you use a computer, you’re faced with an interface that has, to my mind, a cluttered screen full of features, info, icons you can click on, icons you can’t click on, etc. and I find that OTT. Perhaps an iPad would be the happy medium.
Do you have your ticket number? If so, I’ll drop an email to Naim to see what has happened.
I found my email with the ticket number, and replied to it, noting no one ever followed up.
I use an iPad Pro for the Roon controller and it works great. It’s the best UX I have for playing Qobuz. The Naim app on iPad leaves a lot to be desired, IMO, and I hate the lag it has activating when I open it. Roon comes up instantly: it sometimes may need a second to refresh, but that’s all the delay I ever see from it.
OK, I have done another couple of comparisons between Tidal, Qobuz and locally streamed ripped CDs.
First, Oleta Adams - Circle of One, all in 16 bit but Tidal & Qobuz in flac and local stream in WAV. Result: all very similar, although I believe Tidal didn’t quite match the other two for SQ. That is a good result for Qobuz as it matches SQ of local streaming, on this album, which is a decent recording (on CD), but not the finest.
Second, Bruce Springsteen - Western Stars in 16 bit for Tidal and local stream, but 24 bit for Qobuz. Top for SQ was the local WAV 16 bit CD rip, a close second was Qobuz 24 bit flac stream and last the 16 bit flac Tidal stream. This surprised me a bit as I thought the 24 bit advantage of the Qobuz stream might just pip the local 16 bit rip.
This might be showing that Naim streamers prefer WAV over flac files or simply local streaming still has the advantage over subscription streaming or a bit of both. The other variable of course in the…err…variability of the masters/album versions the subscription services use and how they compare with the versions we own/rip for supposedly the same album.
The usual disclaimer here, these results will be peculiar to my system, my rips and my ears.
Not aware of any issues that would be different from the variability of distribution masters used to manufacturer CDs etc.
The Streaming providers will be using media content obtained and sourced from the main media distribution companies - in the same way as vinyl, CD, and video distribution is managed.
The old days of dodgy hires copies from questionable sources such as upsampled CDs and pirate tape copies are long gone - this is multi million pound business and the main revenue stream for the music labels and distributors.
What is is becoming increasingly clear is ripped CDs/CDs are often inferior downsampled versions of the native distribution media otherwise available … sad but true for some. Luckily technology has finally moved on for media transport. In these days of Youtube and video promotion and layout as well as AAC streamed feeds, 48kHz or multiples thereof is increasingly become the default sample rate for general distribution masters and mix masters
I personally don’t like too much that way of comparing. It’s a bit stressful. But perhaps the most accurate, I am not sure.
Track 1/ 2 mn on Qobuz / then 2 mn on local / then 2 mn on Tidal.
I was doing that before, but found this method ( tune method) a bit stressful. You can’t really relax on music, must focus a lot, and you loose perhaps a global perception of the music.
So now, when I compare 2 cables, or Tidal vs Qobuz…etc, I prefer to listen 15 minutes to one, relax, and feel how I enjoy globally the music. Then switch to 2, and same during 15 minutes.
It’s less precise but perhaps more emotionally truth.
FWIW: Last night I played a 16/44.1 Bill Frisell album from Qobuz both via Roon and via the Naim app. Offhand, they sounded pretty much the same to me. If one is better than the other then the difference is really quite subtle, IMO.
That is my experience too - with Tidal and Qobuz on 44.1/16/2 for the same distributor/label and album (product code) they sounded identical… I would not be surprised if somewhere in the chain there might be a very good reason for that
Yes, my use of the word ‘masters’ was misleading. What I mean is that there is often more than one version of the same album on CD (and vinyl), sometime several, so as consumers we could own different versions/issues of the same album, which we will compare to the version the subscription providers have used to create their files for streaming.
I will admit I do not know how the subscription providers create their music files and if this can introduce any variability. But as consumers we will certainly own and hence rip different versions/issues of the same CD, for some albums at least. This surely is a source of variability.
indeed this is so, so you do need to compare product code and label.
Services like Tidal and Qobuz often have several master versions of popular albums - and they can often sound notably different in terms of Eq and compression