just invested in a NSS 333. New to streaming and signed up to Qobuz.
I am told that I need to use the native Qobuz support within the Naim app rather than using the Qobuz app (at least to play music through my NSS333).
I like to explore music by searching for an artist’s albums.
Unless I am doing something wrong, here is where the Naim app is pants.
Two examples :-
Swim Deep
Clicking Albums from the Swim Deep artist page within the Qobuz app gives me 7 results, Clicking on Albums on the Swim Deep artist page within the Qobuz section of the Naim app gives me 38 results
Radiohead
Qobuz app shows 13 results
Naim app shows 183 results !
It is SO much harder to find what you want using the Naim app, at least if you are looking for an album. The album results are mixed in with singles and EPs, often with the same picture that the actual album has.
It’s a shame that a brand which has such a (richly deserved) fantastic reputation for quality hardware has such underwhelming software. This is something that Naum should address in my book.
My dealer says I am not doing anything wrong - it is just how the Naim app is.
He also tells me that Qobuz Connect is currently in beta testing and when released will enable us to use the Qobuz app rather than the Naim app to stream through our Naim gear.
Bring it on …
You could also explore Audirvāna as a music player with an app and integrated Qobuz via upnp to the 333. It sounds better than via the Naim app and has better search.
According to Wiki, Swim Deep have released 4 albums. All 4 albums show up on the Naim App when I search Swim Deep. Personally I find the Naim App much more friendly than the Qobuz App which I really only use in the car.
I tried using Qobuz with the Naim app once to see if I could get rid of Roon. No chance. It was too painful. The Roon iOS app is much better, and I can also use the Roon controller on my MacBook Air, iPad Pro or Mac Mini; which is what I mostly do.
The is the challenge in qobuz; qobuz shows 7 albums, 2 versions of 1, plus 2 that are actually eps. So 4 is correct for “swim deep”.
This is why I use roon, which separates albums and eps more accurately. Particularly for an unknown discography when I’m finding new music.
When I’m interested in a new band/artist I check their discography on Wiki or wherever and play that against Qobuz. Does it really need to be any harder than that?
Ok so Swim Deep have four albums. Seeing 7 results in the Qobuz app is much better than seeing 38 results in the Naim app, and I can handle the tip to favourite in Qobuz and then pick the favourite in the Naim app so thanks for that. I subscribe to Qobuz and I’m playing through my Naim gear. I’m not interested in using yet more software like Roon or Audirvana, I want it to be simple. So thanks for the Qobuz favourite tip !
I must admit I have never really thought about the Qobuz experience being good or bad via the Naim app, probably because besides having a play with a friend’s Spotify account a few times some years ago I had never used a streaming unless you count the Bandcamp one. Getting all the options can make finding what you want a bit harder but the converse is that you might stumble across a gem you didn’t know was there. Another example of the silver lining to the cloud effect is the way I would think about it, focus on the positive aspects and not allow the down side to impact you negatively.
I agree with what you say about coming across material that you didn’t know about and which is a nice surprise, but the point here is that I’m specifically searching for ‘Albums’ in the Naim app and getting loads of stuff which isn’t an album in the results. In Qobuz there are different options for Albums, EPs and singles, and Live etc. which work MUCH better than the Naim app. However we are currently forced to use the Naim app to stream music through our Naim gear.
I have been given suggestions in this thread to workaround this issue, which is great but really I’m just pointing out that the Naim app is underwhelming for such a top brand.
To add - others have mentioned alternate options like Roon, Audirvana etc and they may well work much better, but I really don’t want to have to interact with and get my head around other software or tools. I just want the Naim app to be better than it is, or Qobuz Connect to come out which enables direct streaming through our Naim gear without going through the Naim app.
Remember, any 3rd party manufacturer trying to utilise and incorporate another service such as qobuz is completely tied in to whatever api capabilities have been provided. Just because the qobuz app can do it doesn’t mean another app can do it. Eg qobuz would publish their api with certain capabilities, perhaps the search function is limited. Who knows? Roon for example get around this by completely ignoring qobuz meta data and using their own. So if an album is incorrectly classified as an ep or vice versus by qobuz, that could affect search results by Naim but not search results by roon.
If qobuz were to publish an all singing all dancing api, another party could utilise that to build the best app for qobuz ever. However I bet qobuz don’t.
Without knowing the api offering it’s difficult to surmise whether the Naim app integration with qobuz could be better. I’d put my effort into supporting qobuz connect instead - when it’s ready - and let qobuz build their own app.
Really ? Maybe I am doing something wrong then !
I open the Naim app, click Qobuz, then click the search icon (magnifying glass) at the top (on the same line where it says my device NSS33) and I enter ‘Swim Deep’.
Then I click Swim Deep under the Artists section.
Then under ‘Albums’ on the Swim Deep page it shows the first 8 or so and has a ‘more’ option which when clicked shows 38 results !
If you are only seeing 7 results maybe it’s a config setting I need to adjust ?
By the way I see 7 results in the Qobuz app, but 38 in the Naim app as described above
