I generally use Airplay from an AppleTV 4k to listen to audio from streaming subs or music on YouTube.
Stupidly I updated AppleTV firmware quite soon after applying the firmware update to the Nova.
Airplay seems far more unstable now with sound dropping back to ‘TV speakers’ randomly between songs on YouTube videos or maybe after rewinding a bit of a TV show or movie.
May well be the AppleTV firmware but really impossible to know not being able to revert either.
Just wondering if anyone else has noticed less reliable Airplay compared to playback on the streamer itself?
Today I am using airplay to sttream a paid radio stream from iphone 16 pro to nd555 and before that my first generation qb. No dropouts, but some strange behavior that may be down to the app streaming on the iphone, sometimes not changing the audio send out to qb. This could as you say be down to Apple in this case ios 18 beta or the app I am using, but it has worked better a while back.
I stream here and there from i(Pad)OS to Nova, e.g. for podcasts or a streamed/YT-Videos. Haven’t noticed anything yet, but I’ve also stuck to 17.7 so far - and I don’t have sessions longer than 1 hour so far.
I could use my AppleTV (18.0) → Nova via AirPlay next time I use the TV, but default there is optical S/PDIF. (Which is running perfectly fine more or less always, so I usually don’t experiment there.)
The only reason I use Airplay is that the HDMI goes to a projector and the absence of optical out from AppleTV itself is frustrating. I so wish Apple woul allow me to choose Nova as default audio but it always reverts to ‘TV’ i.e. a tiny projector speaker.
I’m having problems with AirPlay too, on my Atom HE, ever since - perhaps coincidentally - the latest firmware update. Typically, problems occur when trying to stream a YouTube video. Especially when finishing one video and then trying to play another. AirPlay then drops out, won’t reconnect, and I get a blue screen of death on the display, at which point the Atom doesn’t respond to any control and the only solution is to unplug it and plug it in again…but then the same problem occurs again. Never had this issue in more than a year’s use before firmware update, but as I say, this could be a coincidence. Naim support are working the issue as we speak. Will update further when I know more…
I’ve not seen display issues on the Nova, but it happens say if I switch from playing fine in Paramount+ to Prime - the item on Prime fails to play and I eventually get a can’t connect error on the AppleTV video.
Also happens between YouTube music vids especially fi I don’t allow it to auto-play and select something else.
Almost as though the previous app or video doesn’t ‘release’ the Airplay feed for the next item.
Also seem to be the case that frequently the Nova’s display shows it seems to be playing the newer item but isn’t.
The Naim/Focal app will not allow me to play something else either (eg Radio or via USB stick or Qobuz).
Something seems to get ‘stuck’ on what it was playing before.
Interesting point about it getting stuck and almost like it’s not releasing the previous track/video, because I’ve been wondering the same about my issue - considering most of my problems come when trying to move from one YouTube video to another.
Are you using Airplay from an AppleTV or other device?
On AppleTV there seems to be a new ‘feature’ whereby closed captions are shown during a rewinding/rewinded segment automatically even if not enabled (may be a navigation aid without audio?), maybe that’s somehow linked in the audio API.
While I appreciate many will use optical out from TV say to Nova etc that’s not an option for the projector which only has internal poor speaker ro 3.5" analogue audio out (we use that for son’s PS5>Nova - could use that for AppleTV but it’s sonically inferior).
Nope, I’m not using Apple TV. I’m streaming YouTube DJ sets on my iPhone, then casting it to my Atom HE via AirPlay. The Atom is hardwired to my router via Ethernet cable. So basically, I’m getting visuals through the phone and audio through headphones via the Atom. Naim support being very helpful, so can’t fault them on that. Will let you know how the troubleshooting ends up. The Atom has already been back to a Salisbury for an unrelated repair under warranty, so who knows, maybe it’s heading back there again. I’ve got an ND5 XS2 on the same network and have no issues casting to that.
Unfortunately the difficulty is knowing if the issues are due to something new in iOS or tvOS which is buggy or perhaps a change that is not being handled as gracefully by current Naim firmware, though if Naim simply embed Apple’s Airplay API and nothing much related to that usage has changed I’d be suspicious it’s an issue at Apple’s end.
I am also experiencing frustrations with Airplay, on my Uniti Atom, which worked flawlessly before the recent firmware update. I am using the current Apple TV 4K. Airplay now randomly kicks back to the TV speaker, where before it could play all day. When streaming Apple Music from two different Macs, one with Sequoia and the other with Sonoma, the music might play for a brief second and stop/pause. Alternatively, it can appear to still be playing the song, but there is no sound heard and the Atom is not on mute. Similarly my iPhone gives me similar grief. While I have been able to recover sometimes, it usually requires that I reboot the Atom to resolve the issue.
There is some indication that the Atom is not releasing other devices from Airplay. For example, when I turned on my MacBook Pro and launched Apple Music, it showed the Airplay icon in red, connected to the Atom, in spite of the Mac and Apple Music having been shut down since yesterday and only powered back up this evening. When I used Spotify Connect, Apple Music on the Mac, showed the Uniti Atom not with a check mark as active, but highlighted with a minus sign in place of the checkmark. I had never seen any of this behaviour before updating the Atom firmware