Recommended Tablet for Naim APP and Tidal

I would get an iPad. Android tablets are just not that great; I think most of the companies invest most in the higher volume more profitable phones where there is a lot of parity between the various platforms iOS/android etc. In terms of tablets the iPad is clearly ahead of other offerings…

I completely disagree - Apple products are crippled by their inability to play nicely with other products and their refusal to allow basic features such as SD cards, forcing you to pay a ludicrous amount for extra storage that still won’t hold a decent music collection. Why can’t they make an iPad that takes a 1tb SD card and has usb and HDMI connectors? I had an iPad once but I wouldn’t have another - camera connection kit, how is that a good idea? I also had an iPod Touch which was fine as a Naim remote until a operating system “upgrade” made it unable to run the Naim app any more. There may be some poor Android tablets around but my experience of Samsung and Lenovo has been excellent.

The Android tablets as such are not the main issue, the apps are. Most apps simply display as phone apps with increased size, not taking advantage of the larger screen.

In case of the Naim app, it is simply much more polished on iOS. It is slower on Android (in certain cases close to unusable, see further up) and significant features are missing compared to iOS.

The question was about a tablet recommendation for the Naim app, for which SD cards and HDMI ports are irrelevant. And for the Naim app, the best experience by far would be an iPad

The relevance of the SD card is that a 1tb SD card can hold a decent music collection and you can get a good fast Android tablet for less than £500 with that capability and thus you can take your music with you when you travel The cheapest IPad with 1tb is £1399! The HDMI port is useful if you are away and want to stream to a tv in a hotel. Having access to my choice of music and video/tv when away from home is an added benefit that an Android solution can deliver. Android tablets can and do work perfectly well in my experience whereas iPads have unacceptable limitations designed in.
If you look at the original post, the enquiry specifically asked for Android tablet recommendations.

Yes but that’s irrelevant for the OP’s question as it was stated about a dedicated tablet for the Naim app.

which, yes, asked for an Android tablet, but maybe just because the OP was not aware about the Naim iOS app being so much better.

One could get an older iPad for the Naim app, which will still beat current Android tablets with the Naim app, and a cheap Android phone or tablet with SD and HDMI for travel

I think your use case is different and you may be right that the Android tablets suit you better.

But I completely agree with @Suedkiez that the best tablet to use with the OP’s use case, of use with the Naim app, is iPad, for all the reasons he sets out.

If you regard Rovi as a must have then get an iPad but I can’t see any other advantage the Naim has in its iOS version. Android tablets are just as fast and responsive in my experience. This is my last post on this thread and I promise not to hijack any Apple centric threads :grinning:

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Once again, it’s not so much about the hardware, but the apps. As I described further up, with my Galaxy A10 and 2000 Qobuz favorites the Naim app is unresponsive for seconds every time you pick it up. It’s a known issue. It’s better than a year ago, but it’s not great. Had I known, I would not have bought the A10, and if anyone had recommended it to me, I would have to question their judgement.
If it must be an Android for the Naim app, I would go with a Galaxy S (but at this price, iPads are already an alternative and then it depends on the other use cases that require 1 TB or not)

And it’s not just Rovi that’s missing.

As per my post above, you are incorrect. I didn’t need 1TB, but I have a 512G card which I can connect to my iDevices with a $29 Apple Lightning to SD Card Camera Reader. (Yes, the product name is misleading. Also, there is also one for USB-C). All you need then is an app that plays music stored via the Files app.

I can’t speak to HDMI. I have no use for it.

That’s interesting, when on hols I use an ageing iPod line out into a Bluetooth speaker. So presumably I could get an SD card and card adaptor for my iPhone load it with music and Bluetooth it to the speaker. I have a Vox app on the phone which allows me to use Flac files, I wonder if I could access the SD card that way? Alternatively what music app do you use for this function?

I use nPlayer, which is actually a media player. I should note that I converted and transferred all my files as MP3s, as that was sufficient for me for portable use. However, according to the AppStore listing:

  • Supports officially DTS audio codec (DTS HD)

  • Supports Dolby audio codec (AC3, E-AC3)

  • Supports iXpand Drive

  • Supports Chromecast

  • Supports video cast for Smart TV

  • Supports HDMI output

  • Supports video files : MP4, MOV, MKV, AVI, WMV, ASF, FLV, OGV, RMVB, TP etc.

  • Supports audio files : MP3, WAV, WMA, FLAC, APE etc.

  • Supports subtitle files : SMI, SRT, SSA, IDX, SUB, LRC, SUP, MLP2 etc.

  • Supports image files : JPG, PNG, BMP, GIF, TIFF etc.

  • Supports playlist files : CUE, M3U, PLS

  • Supports WebDAV, FTP, SFTP, HTTP, SMB/CIFS, NFS

  • Supports UPnP/DLNA (supports subtitles if DLNA server provides subtitles information.)

  • Supports cloud service (Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Yandex.Disk)

  • Supports in-app web browser

  • Supports iTunes video/audio play (except for DRM contents)

  • Supports videos and pictures in Album

Here’s what it looks like attached to an iPad Mini:

IMG_1981

And immediately after taking the photo I cleaned my screen.

This is a common thing with Apple fans. They often compare their expensive Apple product with a cheap Windows or Android alternative. Is a £2000 Macbook Pro better than a £300 Windows laptop? I should bloomin well hope so! Compared to a similarly priced Windows laptop, things may well be different. Same with tablets, iPad should be better than a cheap Android tablet but an Android tablet costing about the same as the iPad? Much closer.

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Many thanks as I have just discovered this feature due to your post. It’s a nice add on.

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Thanks for that, I’ll look into it…I wasn’t going to mention the screen…honestly!

Chris

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I use an oldish Samsung Galaxy and it seems to work fine, both with Tidal (which I used to use) and Qobuz, which I now use due to Hi Res availability.

Neil

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My world is only Apple :green_apple:

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I am a linux guy and apple/microsoft/android hater. Unfortunately this is a Naim issue, they should improve their android app or (better) alternatively offer a brower os agnostic app.

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A couple of thing occurred to me.

I did not use iTunes to transfer my music onto the card. (I used JRiver). Not saying that you can’t use iTunes. Just that I don’t know.

I don’t think nMusic has an indexing capability for browsing by genre/artist/album etc. Because my file structure reflects my usual music selection process it was a non-issue for me. Other apps may offer this service.

Naim have to get the app certified by Apple/Google so an agnostic app is never going to be possible.

Desktop browser app not need certification . Just point your browser to local naim device and select your music. This functionality could liberate users from big tech companies and is comfortable for the eyes too