I am brand new to the forum and have just acquired the new ND5 XS2 to replace a Bluesound Node 2 and pair it to a Supernait 2.
When I started to stream Qobuz via ChromCast built-in, I had the bad surprise to discover that it does not handle gapless playback! The disappointment is huge. It’s a pity that Naim streamers can stream natively Tidal and even Spotify but not Qobuz! It’s a clear regression compared to my Node 2.
Is there anyone who could help me solve this problem? I guess I must not be the only one having to deal with such a problem.
It’s important to note that I use an Apple iPad Pro to stream Qobuz.
If I can’t find a solution, I would have to bring back the ND5 XS 2 to my dealer.
Unfortunately this is a known issue with Qobuz via Chromecast, and while there should be a solution, I couldn’t say what the timescale will be. Only you can decide if you are prepared to wait.
Incidentally, your iPad should make no difference here, as the stream goes directly over your network to the streamer, not via the coltrol device.
I’m not aware of a workaround, but I’m not using Qobuz at the moment. If anyone else has found one, perhaps they will mention it. The old Naim streamers have a workaround way of getting Qobuz, as they don’t have Chromecast, using BubbleUPnP, and the consensus seems to be that it sounds very good with Tidal, Qobuz and local UPnP streams. I haven’t tried this with the new Naim streamers, but I have a suspicion that it doesn’t get around the gapless issue.
As for Tidal MQA, so far I haven’t heard it sounding good enough to get excited about, but no harm in signing up for a free trial.
On the new streamers and. Uniti range you can’t get gapless playback unless you use the Naim App for UPnP control.
Qobuz does not support gapless via Chromecast. So if you want Qobuz and gapless your out of luck, until Naim fix the restriction its put I for no apparent reason.
I was told that Qobuz is now a Naim “partner”,whatever that means. Can it mean that a forthcoming firmware update will include native Qobuz just like Tidal?
I think that’s very unlikely. Naim introduced Chromecast and AirPlay to the new streamers as an alternative to having to implement native support for potentially a regular queue of new services as they arrive. It took them a lot of effort to get Tidal integration to the point where they were happy to release it. Who knows, perhaps they will have a change of heart, particularly if Qobuz are successful in the US, but I wouldn’t bank on it.
Then again, perhaps Roon will do it.
If you install BubbleUpnpServer on your nas , or PC/Mac, you can turn your streamer to an openhome streamer and use the Lumin App , or Linn Kazoo to stream Qobuz
Yes it can but not on the new streamers or Uniti series, only the Naim app can provide gapless via UPnP period. Except for Roon inbuilt Tidal and perhaps Airplay that’s the only way to get it.
Have you tested it to the new streaming kit, they work differently to the old ones? I just downloaded the trial and I cant even get it to see my Atom or other UPnP compatible renderers I have.
There are several threads on the old forum about this.
Naim changed something with the new streamers (Uniti series onwards), which I believe means the newer devices don’t handle a possibly deprecated command for the next track, so they don’t begin to preload the next track until the first one has finished hence the gapless fails. Can’t say for sure it’s not the Qobuz app, and I reported this to them ages ago.
I’ve not had much success with any attempted workarounds (that shouldn’t really be necessary anyway), and I’m amazed the products ever saw the light of day with no one realising that gapless doesn’t work properly via Chromecast built-in - lack of gapless ruins a large number of works, classical or otherwise.
If you are only playing CD quality streams use Airplay, it works surprisingly well and handles gapless perfectly from the Qobuz app. You could use it for hi-res too, but AFAIK those streams will get converted to CD quality. Unfortunately Airplay 2 was all about multi-room, and there were no improvements designed for hi-res audio playback which is perhaps not surprising as Apple don’t even offer us CD quality from iTunes/Apple Music.
Personally id take back the streamer and get the DAC v1 or Naim dac or another dac of your choice and look into raspberry pi streaming, done right it’s better than blue sound Darko audio has a very good vid on the tubes about it