All credit to FR who gave me this advice too.
1 Like
Just curious Nestor, as you have an Nd555. Is native Qobuz much better vs Mconnect Qobuz or very minimal better?
1 Like
Have you got an impression of the sq of native Qobuz vs MConnectHD Qobuz?
Just spotted that you have a new gen Naim streamer.
No wonder you do not need Roon.
You have native Qobuz and Tidal available.
I now have Qobuz and Tidal Hires transcoded via MConnectHD app and my Old 
laptop.
I can flick easily between the 2 services.
They both sound wonderful.
For almost zero Incremental cost into my 272.
Just compared GoGo Penguin Control Shift 24/88 on Qobuz with the same track at 24/44 on Tidal.
Maybe the former was a bit more engaging, but the difference was well within my ability to kid myself.
But the improvement of both over native Tidal was clear.
I have deleted Roon, Lumin, Kazoo and Audirvana from my devices.
Very very happy with MConnectHD.
At some point Iāll probably swop the laptop for a cheap, small, low noise headless computer of some sort to run Bubble upnp server.
Perhaps just a good nas in the end will be bestā¦
I will have the fiber installed next week. Probably my WiFi will be stronger. But some say itās not sureā¦
I will try Mconnect again and see if I have still drop outs as before.
Hi, just without doing a specific comparisonā¦but as soon as the naim app started to incorporate Qobuz, I was so happy with the sound that I stopped using McConnect, because of the benefits of the integration in the use (selection, favorites, etc). However I believe that Mc Connect HD Sound Quality is roughly equal (probably marginally lower but I didnāt really notice a difference)ā¦
1 Like
Good luck with that.
Itās a great sound for cloud streaming, on the occasions when you want to do that.
1 Like
The issue with Tidal and Qobuz is that the quality of the recordings is so variable.
I know thatās well known, but now my system is working very well, the differences between good and poor recordings are becoming obvious.
I had a retro night a couple of days ago:
- the copies of Electric Ladyland on Qobuz sounded wonderful - by far the best Iāve ever heard it, opening up new aspects of the sessions.
- but the hires āremasteredā version of Led Zeppelin I tried on Qobuz sounded pretty poor, as did the various versions of In the Land of Grey and Pink and Thick as a Brick.
Itās quite a minefield of crappy recordings
1 Like
Are you using MConnectHD?
I have both MConnectHD and MControlHD on my iPad.
Are you running it on an ipad or an iPhone or what?
MConnect requires the app to be open and active in my experience (Android). If I close the app, the music stops. Iām guessing that Mconnect transcodes on your tablet/phone and passes that on to your streamer. Iām not excited by that.
The BubbleUpnp app on your phone/tablet sets up the stream between Tidal/Qobuz/NAS and your player and then walks away from and just monitors the stream. You can shut down your device or app and the band plays on. This is much better imo.
@dknk
Really?
Now Iām confused.
I thought that MConnectHD on my iPad is just a control device. That the MConnectHD app on the iPad uses wifi to tell Qobuz and Tidal what files to send to my 272, but that the actual music files are transcoded en route by Bubble upnp on my laptop, which they get to via ethernet cable - and that the music files never travel via wifi and never enter the iPad.
(I donāt think the music files could be sent direct via wifi or bluetooth to the 272 as I donāt have the wifi or bluetooth aeriel in the 272).
(AFAIK I cannot get a Bubble control app as I donāt have an Android phone - in fact use a Nokia non-smartphone).
But am I wrong about that?
Is it possible that the actual files are being sent by wifi to the iPad and then back by wifi to my router and into the 272. And that Bubble upnp isnāt involved??
You are correct, Mconnect is not using BubbleUpnp server. It uses Upnp, not Openhome. Shut your laptop down and see for yourself. Also close mconnect on your Ipad and listen to the music end.
OK
So the actual files will be travelling to my router from Tidal and Qobuz servers - then via wifi into the iPad to be processed by MConnect - then via wifi back to my router - then along ethernet cables into my 272 (via a couple of Cisco switches)?
If the files are doing 2 wifi legs, and passing twice through the router, itās amazing how good they sound after that.
If it sounds good, then that is a great result. To be clear, you have the path described correctly imo. Your tablet is doing what BubbleUpnp server can do (except transcoding!). But, you certainly are not using BubbleUpnp server on your laptop via Mconnect.
Actually, after playing a few songs via Mconnect on Android it is not even transcoding the flac files to wav, itās just passing the flac stream along to your player. May as well just use the Naim app.
Thanks very much.
Itās important to me to understand how it works.
Iāll test it later as you suggest.
But thinking about it I never actually told MConnect that the Bubble upnp Server SW or the laptop even exist, so itās unlikely to be going via that.
The only devices MConnectHD recognizes in the list of things to āPlay toā are the iPad itself and the 272.
And - yes, I think youāre right that MConnectHD isnāt transcoding either. Because last night the MConnectHD app was showing all FLAC files - WAV was never mentioned. e.g. those versions of GoGo Penguin āControl Shiftā at 24/88 on Qobuz and the same track at 24/44 on Tidal were all FLAC files.
I do both one does not stop the other. As long as we discover new things it doesnāt matter what we use or how we do it. Everyone to their own. But itās great to find new stuff without even looking and this is a benefit to me and what Roon offers.
Like others I have a mixed hifi eco systems so no other music software can bring them all together under the control of one app, group them for all round house playback and have one unified library that anyone can operate. I can swap and change where I am playing on any control device and not worry about playlists they are server based not control point based. Itās all about flexibility for me.
1 Like
Mconnect is really flakey I was using it before Roon added Qobuz and yes it goes from your phone to the streamer it wonāt see bubbleunp server. The best I found with bubbleserver outside of its own app was Lumin, but God itās a horrible experience to use. Try AudiVarna itās UPnP might work better for you, it was awful for me.
Thanks CG.
Lumin never worked at all for me.
I tried it about 3 times, but it never connected properly with Bubble.
Stragnely the MConnectHD app has been very solid and sounding very good the last few times Iāve used it.
Iāll update here if it plays up in future.
I think it worked well for Nestor too.
But do you think the MConnectHD sends the files direct from the iPad to the 272 (which doesnāt have a wifi aerial in it now) - or do they go via the router? Or both!? If the 272 is just an IP address to the iPad then it presuably takes whatever route is open at the time?
Should I add the wifi aerial to the 272 then? But that might make SQ worse as the wifi unit in the 272 will probably spread EM noise inside the 272.
cheers
Jim
Not actually because I had too much drop outs. My WiFi is not strong enough. But maybe after the fiber installation, it will be better and i will try again Mconnect.
I canāt imagine that the files go to the iPad then to the 272. It would sound crap.
But i may be wrong.