I’m currently just using the Naim app on my phone to stream Qobuz files via the wifi to my Nova. My broadband is fast enough and I have no problems. But I’m not content with Qobuz importing as I have an irrational desire to ‘own’ music - so I intend to move to buying and downloading hi-res music from Qobuz. I’m rather ignorant about how to proceed from here. I downloaded an album and put it on a laptop, but I can’t figure out how to play it from the laptop (other than via Bluetooth, which is no use at all). Will a laptop even do the job satisfactorily, or do I need a specialised music streaming device. Separately, even though my broadband/wifi seems fast enough and I get no buffering, would there be any gain from changing to a wired connection between the laptop and the Nova (and if so, how would I do that)? Apologies for asking such basic questions but I don’t see an source of this kind of info.) If all is explained anywhere in a manual, I’d appreciate a link.
The easiest way to get started is to put the music on a usb stick and plug it into the back of the Nova. The issue with that is that when you want to add more music you must move the stick to the PC to add it. A more sophisticated approach is to buy a NAS, install server software on it - Asset is the go to solution here - and then put the music on the nas. Connect the nas to the network and the Naim app will find it.
All very true but the OP can install Asset on the laptop until such time as they have a NAS.
OK - thanks guys. I want to try out the USB drive approach. I copied some music files onto a (non-powered) Toshiba external HDD and plugged it into the front USB socket on the Nova. In the Naim app, I’m having trouble switching the input source to USB: I tap the USB button and it displays a folder icon with the word ‘Front’. I tap that and it lists the music files. I tap one and nothing happens. (The app is still set to Qobuz as input source - I don’t seem to be succeeding in changing it.) What’s Asset? And do I need it on my HDD?
Try the servers input rather than USB.
You may have issues with an unpowered HDD.
Do you have a pendrive you can try?
If you Google asset server software you will find it. You need it if you want to stream from a nas or your PC, but not if you are playing direct from a usb drive.
thanks again. Back to the laptop scenario. Could I use Media Monkey (which I’m familiar with) instead of Asset? To connect the laptop to the Nova, it looks like I need a USB-A-to-USB-A, rather than a regular A-to-C cable? (I’m wary because connecting devices A-to-A seems irregular.)
I don’t know about media monkey and whether or not it’s a upnp server. Certainly with asset, you install it on the PC and run it over the network. Either on wifi or wiring the PC and ideally the Nova to the router. There is no direct connection between the two - it’s all over the network. That’s the joy of streaming, especially if you have a bad, which you can hide away somewhere. You just choose albums on the Naim app and the nas wakes up and serves the music.
A NAS is so accessible that even I can do it. You can get a reasonable Synology single disk NAS for not a lot of money and a 2TB NAS disk isnt breaking the bank either. Id recommend a NAS in due course as theres no need to keep plugging things in and out. Just drag and drop any download or cd rips to the NAS music folder. Simples.
Others prefer QNAPS NAS, but whatever keep it cheap and cheesy with a backup of your music on the pooter and you cant go too far wrong.
Id happily buy a 2nd hand NAS, and the savings can be used for a new disk to put in it.
As with all things, have a backup or better still two. I think I can no longer downloan my old QOBUZ files, though others may correct me, so QOBUZ purchases can disapear it seems.
Or a 2 disk NAS in RAID for backup covers disk failure, but possibly not NAS failure.
Synology NAS have cloud backup built in, so NAS failure isn’t a concern.
Our entire digital collection is backed up automatically to Google cloud. Any music we drag onto NAS is uploaded to cloud overnight. The benefit of this is not just disaster recovery but we have access to our entire music collection anywhere we have WIFI (gym, friends houses, foreign holidays etc.)
I’d presume QNAP offer something similar.
I suspect you haven’t enabled the DLNA/UPnP server in Media Monkey. Without this set up correctly the Nova will not be able to see your music library.
Hi Chris. I think it is enabled - there’s a tick next to “Accept input/control of Media Monkey player via UPnP/DLNA”
I don’t know MM but after a quick google this option sounds like the other way around from what you want. I don’t think you want to control the MM player with UPnP, you want MM to serve files to other players with UPnP.
It looks like you must…
- Verify that the server is running and configured correctly:
A. In MMW, click Tools > Options > Media Sharing, and verify that a server is enabled and running. If it isn’t, enable it.
More here, I believe:
https://www.mediamonkey.com/support/knowledge-base/mediamonkey-upnp-dlna/mediamonkey-upnp-server-inaccessible/
I’ve never used Media Monkey, but if it has a proper certified UPnP server running it should be visible in the streamer Server input. Perhaps you just need to figure out the correct settings.
If you can’t get it working, Asset is a tried and tested alternative.
For a small collection USB storage should work. I don’t know why it hasn’t for you. Maybe try a different drive. Any old USB stick should work, but check that is is formatted correctly in either NTFS, HFS or FAT32
Another thing to check: the Qobuz download process can be a bit confusing. If you choose to download as a TAR file you need to unzip it before you can access the music.
Finally there could be a network issue if your streamer can’t see your laptop. Do you have any additional routers, extenders etc. that could be causing issues?
I use and have been very pleased with MinimServer running on a two drive Qnap NAS. I would strongly recommend a NAS as a more secure long term storage device. Raid 1 and cloud backup are implemented on my setup.
It looks to me like ‘Media sharing’ in MMW is all about other devices accessing the media within MMW, whereas I want to connect to the Naim device from MMW. Anyway, on MMW, Media sharing is enabled – IP Address is “Automatic:11511” and Status is “Stopped”. Double clicking on that, you get 4 tabs. The first is ‘Clients’, beneath which is a list of ‘Devices’ but it’s empty (column headings are ‘enabled’, ‘MAC address’, ‘IP address’, ‘Name’, ‘last access’). The second tab is ‘Server’, which has ‘IP address’ (blank) and Port (11511), beneath which is ‘Status’ (column headings ‘Date’, ‘Status’, ‘MAC address’, ‘IP address’, ‘Client name’, ‘Requested file’, all of which are blank.
OK thanks very much everyone. I’ve got it working now. Only thing is, it doesn’t seem possible to drive the Naim from the laptop. I’ve got the Naim accessing the media on the laptop, which will have to do. (It’s just that the MM app is so much more capable where it comes to selection/filtering of music) FWIW, MMW seems to offer a lot more than Asset.
Thanks and yes, after altering a setting in MMW, I’ve now got exactly where I wanted - controlling the Nova from MMW. This means that, for example, if I search in MMW “floyd echoes”, the Nova immediately starts playing the track “Echoes” from the Pink Floyd album “Meddle”. You can’t do that in the Naim app. Anyway thanks again to everyone - I’ve learned a fair bit on the way
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