Tell us about your problems with the Presto streamer here and I will try to help.
Yes I often used the Presto app on my iPhone to play music that I had bought from them. It’s not only CDs but also downloads including hi res downloads that you can play that way. And you don’t need a subscription for that.
Thanks for your great efforts with this.Please allow me to add a few dot points.
The streamer not staying connected to the app. Play and album at night and fine, get up next day and the streamer is missing from the app
I use two platforms to measure the status of wifi to various devices. The Gateway for the modem. This shows link speeds amongst other diagnoses. The second is Naim app. network scan which gives a simple bar graph of each connection. Both show the Presto to be way below every other device close or farther proximity. I have tried a NETGEAR extender set to 2.4G to match the Presto and the same with the iPad. No difference.
I use an iPad with the iOS app. Also a MacBook Air M1 with the Presto Mac(Apple Silicon) app. I have found that the two are not mutually compatible. If I PLAY on one then PAUSE or choose another track on the other device it can freeze the Audio Output and upset the playback display on one or both devices. I now use only one device and this is going well, but is limiting in my opinion. I have learned that if there is a problem with finding the Streamer in the app. the best solution is to hit the “add a Presto Streamer button”>press the WPS button on the streamer until it flashes. Have the WiFi password in Autofill then change the Streamer name to alert to the change on other devices. It is a drag but I find it way quicker that hunting for other causes. Also like resetting or restart ing any device it seems to work better with less dropouts
Presto is a great classical and jazz asset. I couldn’t recommend them more highly. Unfortunately their Streamer doesn’t live up to their high standards. The Search Engine is also rather backward.But great music with album booklets.
Same here.
I use an Apple AirPort Extreme that I had lying around. This is set to establish a new WiFi network which I call Presto and it’s connected by Ethernet to a switch on the house lAN. The Extreme is literally a few inches (less than 6) from the Presto streamer and the IP address comes from the main house router. Only the Presto streamer knows about this network and it’s the only network it does know about of course. My iPhone/iPad connects to the main WiFi in the house. This all works fine as I said before. I would much rather use Ethernet of course.
You can reboot the Presto streamer by pulling the power out, waiting just a few seconds and restarting it. This takes only 10 or so seconds to start up and connect.
Thanks David, that’s made me think. I’ve got BT Wifi Anywhere and I can still get another disc before hitting the maximum allowed - I’ll contact BT. Compared to the SuperUniti, the Presto Streamer is pretty good and does perform reliably up to and icluding 96kHz 24bit. Presto support are being very helpful and have offered me a refund on the streamer if I’m not satisified. I’m a bit too attached to it now so will perservere.
Thanks for your tips David. However your proposal involves using an obsolete piece of hardware and a great deal of expertise to install. The Netgear AC 1200 likewise is old and unsupported. Not many Presto customers will have access to these extenders. Nor should they have to. The Presto p10 user manual states “The following step needs only to be done once for the streamer. Once this step is done all installations of the app on different devices and computers will be able to see and control the streamer.” From the Presto website.“It also allows streaming at up to 24 bit,192kHz, …” This is way off my experience. I would love to hear the thoughts of others. I have no trouble with any other streaming service audio or video. I have an internet download speed of around 130Mbps.
I worry that unless Presto improve with things like playlists, the search engine, the functionality of the apps and of course the Streamer hardware, then people who are now loyal will drift off to other platforms and Presto Streaming will fold.
I just wish Naim would add it to their streamers, I came within micro seconds of buying a NodeX and Qutest DAC as an alternative to my ND5XS2
You could use any up to date WiFi access point. I used the AirPort Extreme because it was right there in a box under my desk and ready to go.
Personally I think Presto did make a mistake using such a weak WiFi module in the streamer, but another poster said here that the hardware was off the shelf, so no doubt they just went with what they could get at their price point.
Anyway you could let Presto know what you think, so they consider changing it whenever the next opportunity occurs.
Some of the very basic streamers like the original ChromeCast Audio support UTP over the usb power socket.
It does look like the WiFi module in the Presto Streamer is at fault. Mine sites next to a WiiM Pro which always reports a strong signal and can play 192kHz 24 bit with no problems.
Definitely worth reporting problems to Presto as it would be good to see them succeed.
Depending where your router is relative to your hifi, you could also try a longer optical fibre cable to connect the digital output of the streamer to your DAC with the Presto streamer located closer to your WiFi source. Of course you can try that without actually connecting the output of the Presto streamer to anything as you can easily see the buffeting in 192/24 files in the Presto app, if there is a problem.
I’ve found a location for the Presto streamer where the BT app shows its signal strength as excellent and so far so good. I notice that it connects to the 2.4GHz band though, whereas you can force the WiiM Pro to connect to the 5GHz band. I guess this could make the WiiM stream more reliable?
Yes it only connects to the 2.4 GHz band and using the oldest most feeble protocols. I suspect it’s the protocol that makes it unstable, unless you have a very busy 2.4 GHz environment where you are. In our house I use 2.4 GHz only for the one or two things that insist on it, so all the traffic is on 5 GHz, but the Presto streamed wouldn’t work properly only 3 metres line of sight to the WiFi Access Point.
Presto have just put out a summary email of all sorts of things relevant to their streaming service and streamer. They have fixed a few bugs and there is a new version of the phone app.
I won’t provide a link as Richard would probably object. And the content of the email is not on their website as far as I could see. So without a link, here is the substance of the update email.
Presto Music Streaming Update - August 2024
Welcome to the start of a new regular update on all things Presto streaming. Whether you are an existing streaming subscriber, or someone curious about what we are working on, we hope you’ll find this useful.
General updates and fixes
Series links from Album ‘explore’ section:
We have fixed the series link, so now when you are browsing albums within a series (such as the wonderful Romantic Piano Concerto series on Hyperion), you can use the link in the ‘explore’ tab to view all the other albums in the same series.
Desktop App
Support for Dragonfly DACs
The desktop app now supports Dragonfly DACs in exclusive mode, allowing bit-perfect streams up to 96kHz (the maximum supported by Dragonfly). We suspect some other DACs which may have not previously worked will be resolved by this fix also.
Support for PreSonos DACs on Macs
The Mac desktop apps now supports PreSonus DACs in exclusive mode.
Presto Hi-Res Streamer
Thanks for all the lovely comments we’ve been receiving about the streamer, especially those commending the awesome sound quality, which is something we’re particularly pleased to hear.
We’ve been working on a few bug fixes recently which have just been deployed in-app version 2.18.2
Issues resolved
Fix for playing ‘Coming soon’ albums
Thanks to the customers who flagged this one. There was a nasty bug where if you played a coming soon album to the end (ie. all the available tracks), in some situations the streamer would enter an error state which could only be resolved by a hard reset (holding the button on the back down for 5+ seconds and then setting up afresh on your wifi network). This has now been resolved in release 2.18.2. The Mac desktop apps now supports PreSonus DACs in exclusive mode.
Support of multiple streamers
The app now switches happily between multiple streamers, both on the same wi-fi network (such as in different rooms) and streamers on different networks (such as one at home and one in the office).
Issues ongoing
For customers who use the streamer with a separate DAC, we have discovered that some DACs are limited at 96kHz through the optical input. Our streamer delivers the highest quality available, so if we have a 192kHz master then this won’t play through DACs with a 96kHz optical limit. We don’t currently have a nice solution for this as the streamer doesn’t currently have any ability to resample down. Our suggestion for now is to use the analogue output on the streamer directly to your amplifier when playing 192kHz files, which at least will allow you to listen to these albums (using the streamer’s onboard DAC rather than your separate dedicated one).
Coming Soon
There are always a number of tweaks, improvements and bug fixes being rolled out, but these are a couple of the bigger features currently occupying our team:
User-generated playlists:
We began offering our Presto curated playlists earlier this year, and the natural progression is to allow users to create their own. We’re starting work on this imminently and hope to release this feature later this year. This has been a much-requested feature, so we are excited about getting to work on it!
More Hi-fi integrations
Building on the success of the BluOS integration and also our own streamer, we’re actively pursuing further Hi-Fi integrations. Discussions are already underway with a number of major and specialist Hi-Fi brands, and we anticipate having more news to share over the coming months. We welcome your suggestions on which brands to integrate with. Additionally, it would greatly assist us if you could reach out to manufacturers directly, requesting Presto Music integration.
Any Questions?
We love to hear from you, so if you have any questions, suggestions or requests please contact us at any time through [streaming@prestomusic.com]
Not tried our streaming service yet?
If these latest updates have tempted you to to give us a try, you can begin your 30 day trial now, completely free of charge.
Hmm I’m suddenly getting buffering on 96/24 high res streams from Presto.
Everything looks ok here. I wonder whether there is a problem with their server or the routing to it. Anyone else seeing this today?
I continue to get buffering with high res using the streamer.Not all the time but enough for it to be tedious. I have started to listen via the Mac Silicon app on my Mac on “exclusive” mode. This is connected via USB to a Cambridge Audio dac100 which is connected via RCA to my Uniti Atom. This is the best sound and the most usable solution I have found. No buffering whatsoever, no problems changing albums. None of the grating digital sound of the streamer. I never change settings on the MacBook. I occasionally check with the streamer via my iPad to see if it has improved but alas not even the August update with all its promises do I see something I want to use. I have wasted so much time trying to get what Presto claims that I truly wish I had never bought the device
Interesting. Well yes it’s not a lot of money anyway.
I haven’t had any buffering since I set up an old Apple AirPort Extreme as a Presto only WiFi access point and positioned it about two inches from the Presto streamer. But yesterday I noticed immediately that it was buffering and restarting the streamer and the Apple Airport didn’t help. This morning I also restarted my router, again with no improvement.
Then I told the streamer to forget my special WiFi access point and instead told it to connect to my router which is a Virgin Media Superhub 5, different from what I originally tried to get it to talk to, and that seemed to be better, despite the router being much further away from the Presto streamer.
Anyway I’ll give it a go like this and if the buffering doesn’t sort itself out, then I might leave Presto to it for a while and go back to Qobuz. Or I might buy a Bluesound Node and try that…
To me it’s not the initial cost of the streamer. It’s the time and effort involved which ends in frustration and disappointment.
I love the Presto streaming service and am happy to be able to listen as described above. One day with luck an update will solve the issue but that will require Presto admitting they have a problem that needs fixing
I will add my shoulder to the wheel tomorrow. I must say though that they are markedly slow at providing any sort of substantive response to an emailed enquiry.
Very interesting streaming service, I am interested. The issue is that the output toslink max bandwidth is 96/24, the other problems with wifi and buffering can be sorted out, and I think it won’t be a long term issue.