I appear to have stumbled upon something rather interesting. I have the Naim App on my Iphone. If I play music from my Iphone using the Naim App via USB cable into the NDX it plays as you would expect. However if I then pause play, select the Qobuz App (free trial) on the Iphone and choose an album it plays through the NDX and it sounds VERY good. The NDX displays the album, stream info etc from the last album played through the Naim App but the Qobuz App tells me it is streaming " Lotus Night - Kazumi Watanabe, Mike Mainieri and Warren Bernhard" in HiRes 96.0kHz. I can’t verify the stream info but it certainly sounds rather special.
While Naim chose not to add Airplay to the original Naim streamers, they were officially Apple certified “Made for iPhone” devices, which meant that connecting an iPod or iPhone to the USB input would work. In practice, it worked well with iTunes, but not so much with non-Apple apps. (To put this into context, this is a streamer that was designed when iPods and iTunes were all the rage, and the huge range of streaming services now available were in their infancy, if they even existed.)
As you have discovered, it’s usually possible to coax a non-Apple app to work. Playing from Apple Music on the phone into the Naim USB, then switching to the Qobuz app, usually works too.
I remembered that this was possible, but now I find I can’t make it work, either with my Android phone, nor my work iPhone.
My Innuos went off for a PS upgrade (which I was using as my Roon Core) so now I’m left with a Qobuz subscription in the meantime but am unable to play it through my NDS.
Could you remind me again if there is a certain sequence I should use or special cables to plug into the USB input on the NDS?
(Eg. Set something playing on the Qobuz app, then connect it with the white lightning -> USB lead to the front USB on the NDS (which didn’t seem to work when I tried it btw))
The Innuos will be back in a week or so, so not too long to wait if worst comes to the worst.
What’s worked for me in the past was to play something from Apple Music on an iPhone. Then, without pausing, switch to the other app you want to play from, i.e. Qobuz, Radio Paradise, etc. and play something from there. Then play continues to be routed to the streamer.
Sometimes it just works straight from the Qobuz app without doing this, but not always.
That’s great, thanks @ChrisSU and @Thruster04, I had forgotten to set Apple Music running first to trick the system.
I knew the only album I have on my iPad in Apple Music would come in useful one day…U2 - Songs of Innocence
