Blaming home Wifi performance is the go to excuse.
I wonder if Naim take any measures to make sure wifi dependant equipment is only beta tested by people who use a basic router, as supplied by ISP.
Results from a high performance router or mesh network will obviously be bogus.
That would be interesting to find out Fatcat.
My experience in this is very limited simply because all my routers over the years have deliberatly been kept simple (K.I.S.S.) and I’ve experienced so very few problems other than self inflicted.
Current is BT SmartHub-2 with its specific BT extender disc and in the 4 plus year I’ve had it … zero problems.
A friend who is a A/V & HiFi enthusiast (bordering on madness) is constantly changing routers and extenders, always top end ‘spec’ and definatly not ISP spec. I’ve lost track of the problems …
Boxed up my Naim so there will only be the offspring with their QB. Weird feeling but have then deleted the app on both devices. Would take something extraordinary to reverse that.
Same set up here. No problems using app with NDX2 (wireless), Nova (ethernet into mesh disc) or Muso Qb Gen 1 (wireless). Using Android.
The Android app has always been a poor cousin of the iOS app.
The app is no worse than the current Sonos offering. Both are inferior to the constantly improving Wiim app.
There have been numerous threads on this over the last couple of years.
The app was rewritten recently, but the same old complaints seem to persist, judging by forum posts:
The Android app was always buggier than iOS in our experience.
Thankfully there are various alternatives:
Don’t hold breath for improvement.
This post will be met by lots of comments about how great the UI and usability of the naim app is.
Seriously, compare it to the Tidal app for same content. No contest.
Hugely ironic as the Sonos app was one of the reasons they made huge headway in the market. Now, at the precise moment they’ve real competition, they put that out. Oh dear.
Well underneath the covers Sonos uses (or did when I last looked) an adapted and customised UPnP protocol, and Naim use a somewhat less customised version of UPnP.
UPnP uses standard network techniques such as SSDP for discovery. This uses network capability that is just a little bit more involved than reading web/social media pages. Some consumer home network product perhaps assumes many just use Facebook and collapse with more specific protocols… and then guess what things like SSDP fail. SSDP uses multicast group addressing and IGMP. If consumer network products screw that up, the Naim app will struggle as it relies on that.
Some of the better ISPs provide advanced broadband routers like the later versions of the Smart Hub from BT, that have helpers in built to try and compensate for attached less capable network equipment… in this case they include an IGMP querier which helps prevent devices being takes off group address lists… so things like the Naim app can continue to see servers and streamers over an extended time.
I have no issue at all with the Naim app, on iOS. I used to use a IGMP querier built into my Cisco switch, I have now switched that off and use my BT Smart Hub instead. I never did have an issue, but the querier helps speed up discovery so it is effectively instantaneous in the Naim app.
However home network equipment has improved in recent years so as to support home automation and IoT which can sometimes use more involved protocols… albeit that is no help if you have a home network product that is tripping itself up.
I think that when the app updates, it defaults to showing / enabling Spotify. I see it again too . . and just disabled it (again).
The Naim app has been solid for me for a very long time now . . . no issues at all, through the various updates over the past few years. Zero connectivity issues with it for me on my home network.
I never had issues with it to be honest.
But now since a week or so lots of issues and no information from Naim.
I do have tidal and qobuz.
Only tidal artists or tracks or album show in the app. Same with the playlists that I made.
In the presets I can find the qobus playlist. Lucky I stored it there. And it also plays!
Secondly…I cannot enter settings in the app. After pressing that button i come in a screen with a rotating arrow. This is the same with entering account an services.
So when I touched the qobuz logo in the app strange message accour. Could not login.
I deleted the app twice.
The second time every thing seemed normal.
But after a hour or something complete chaos again.
Ndx2 is on the latest firmware. Connection wired. Not changed either.
My phone samsung S25 latest firmware
The app latest firmware
Everthing has been working okay. But the last week or so nothing but trouble.
And I have seen more posts with more or less the same issues.
If someone can help feel free.
Sounds like similar issues to me. I have Samsung S23 Ultra. Ipad works fine with ndx2. Android is useless.
Yep. It’s very close to becoming garbage.
One advantage that the iOS app has that it only has to successfully run on about 25 different hardware devices. the Android app is being expected to able to successfully run on tens of thousands of different devices.
The other reason there are problems with the Naim app is that is does real time monitoring and control over WiFi. This means that the app is critically dependent on the timing of messages via WiFi. The processing power of most ISP supplied routers in absolutely minimal and one of the compromises they make to keep the cost down is that the don’t expect messages with really critical timing to come via WiFi. (WiFi’s not really designed for that purpose - that capability was a later add on.) Using a much better WAP designed to only be a WAP and not a load of other things that also take processing time away from the WiFi (e.g. DNS, DHCP, IGMP, Firewall, Router, fibre (or ADSL) bridge and TA - yes ALL those are running in your “router”!), allows it to concentrate on just doing one job and doing it well without other distractions taking time away from responding to the WiFi!
So in addition to a better WiFi signal this is why a separate dedicated WAP (or better still properly designed mesh system) works so much better.
So is this a problem that NAIM has getting the app to work with Android?
Do iPhone, iTablet users not get these outages?
That doesn’t say a lot for the coders at NAIM. I’m not aware of any other established apps or streamers from other manufacturers that have these problems.
Is the long-term solution that I now have to invest in an Apple product just to get a decent service? I suppose that would be cheaper than a non-NAIM streamer.
I’m extremely disappointed that a former “gold standard” company is now looking at being an object of ridicule as it does little more than issue excuses via it’s unofficial online mouthpiece for a rubbish service.
I have no issues with any Naim app.
90% use is with iOS, 10% with Android
I also beta test the iOS
I suspect, as others have said, its a network problem. (see S-i-S post #29)
Mine is BT SmartHub-2 and its BT extender disc - its simple & has very few items to fiddle (screw up) with.
Never had any problems with the Naim app - connects quickly and doesn’t lose connection. That’s using various Apple products running iOS.
For what it’s worth the Naim app has been more reliable than other apps on my home network such as Auralic, Sonos, Spotify etc. But most of the wrinkles with other platforms have been caused by multi-room systems using mesh wifi. I’ve been able to overcome these by upgrading the wifi hardware and software (Omada) which allows you to access settings so you can for example force devices to connect to specific clients.
Duncan from Naim Support has asked me for details.
I presume there is an issue with the Android version of the app, as I understand from this thread that iOS users have no issues. Although some suggest it may, I don’t believe it’s network related. I feel there is some code in some of the latest Android patches that doesn’t work well with the Naim App or vice versa.
I was asked to provide:
Naim unit
Product:
Serial Number:
Firmware/System Version:
Naim app
Naim App Platform:
Naim App Version:
Mobile Device:
Mobile Device Firmware Version:
Additional Information
Location:
Does the reported issue happen regularly, or is it intermittent:
Can the issue be reliably recreated:
If so, what steps are taken to recreate the issue:
Notes
Any additional information that may prove useful in recreating the issue
Well if it’s a “network problem” it’s odd that everything else I use my WiFi for works perfectly well.
Exactly. I have a simple network i.e. ISP supplied Modem/router/wap that works seamlessly with every other device in my house.
Naim app with Andoid is now junk. App just crashed and i had to reenter my Qobuz details and get thus nessage
I have no idea what it means, but Qobuz not talking to naim app now. I can cast via Qobuz app though.
