Yes, they do. I really don’t see what the issue is here. Unless you have opera glasses you can’t read the screen from across the room and it’s all there on the phone if for some reason you need to check what’s going on. Maybe it’s because I play whole albums that I feel no need for the track information.
When you are listening to Internet radio is when track information is important. Many streamers from other brands have larger screens and are readable from the sofa.
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Luckily internet radio’s not working. Problem solved! But yes, I see what you mean.
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My internet radio is playing away right now. On my 17th trip to the screen to see what was playing (which is what prompted me to come look on here!).
I can read the screen from the other side of the room and ironically, it’s the phone I ignore.
I think with these lifestyle things the use case is different - I just stick the radio/streaming radio/playlists/playlists shared from friends (one of the reasons I use Spotify over the fancy audiophile ones) on when I’m doing something (playing computer games in this case).
Just as I type this, Return to Innocence by (I can’t tell you without walking over to the machine because all I can see is the Radio Parrotseyes logo) has just come on which I haven’t heard for over two decades. That’s the joy of radio/streaming services. Random, not album music that I don’t own.
@PhilippVH Yeah that button with the music note on, it displays it for a few seconds. However I would like it to be a bistable choice. That’s where I started, perhaps that wasn’t clear.
I don’t want people to feel I’m being argumentative but whilst in the olive era I told people “I really like track 5 on [album]” but never really knew the name(!) I feel like I cant even do that anymore yet we have so much metadata applied to each track. I can’t help being a young, power user of that. I still have so much music yet to discover.
Equally, to show how balanced I am - I don’t see the point of the massive volume knob as mine is hidden by being under a shelf. I can’t use it. But it’s there for some people. I just thought what I was asking about was something that would be there.
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I see.
Yes, considering the built-in display is a very versatile piece of hardware with a lot of possible use cases programmable in software, Naim is not making the most of it. (Or even offers users a few settings to more flexibly choose from the available options.)
Haha. This is something some users have wanted (including me) since the beginning of Star. I also do not understand why Naim does not want us to give the option to see the detailed song info instead of large art. They introduced in the app the ability to switch the screen off so they could introduce the option to ‘freeze’ the display so it only displays the artist/song. I get the point that from a longer distance it may not be easily readable for everyone but for some it can be (I think such decision should be left for the user). Also, large art is sometimes distracting (bright). Such option (having text displayed) would be perfect when listening to internet radio and would save a lot of ‘phone time’ for example.
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Well spotted. I’m sure I tried that but there are times when it doesn’t even detect that I’ve inserted a disc which is also unusual. I wonder if it works then…
If I can moan about this a bit more…even the design and proportions of the screens when not in full cover art mode is questionable. These pictures show it all. The biggest element on the screen is the one that is the least important - the pictogram/symbol – not sure what to call it. The second biggest element is the input name and this is not as important but still in quite large font. The most important thing such as: for the DAB input - the station name and the station info - for the currently played song - the song title, progress bar, time and stream quality are in the smallest font possible just to make sure it is unreadable from any distance (could the font BE any smaller?). Besides, half of the screen is empty. If the font selection were different i.e. the important information in a larger font and things like pictogram made small – the screen would be very useful and readable from sofa distance. I know this because I have a cd player and its screen is small but large enough to be easily read from 3 metres (Cd-text). Why this was not sorted – no idea but it makes me cringe each time – so easy to make it right and user friendly.
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Matthew Perry would be proud.
You would get much better quality from Radio 2 if you used FM or Internet radio and forgot about DAB, as you are in UK. Radio 2HD on iradio is 48 kHz 335kbps AAC, which is considerably better than DAB, although it’s true that the rather dire programming isn’t improved.
Hi, yes i know. I only showed as an illustration of the problem i was describing.
Hello @woj, I completely understand this. Whilst I am totally aware that programming and designing user interfaces ar separate arts (I’m reminded of the classic meme of the backend developer who was asked to design a front end… and the picture is a beautiful, strong horses bum progressing to a neck, head and front legs that were drawn by a 3 year old), I do have those “what an amazing, colour display” thoughts which are then followed by “what a shame no one has done anything with it”.
I think a portion of this comes down to the effort put into the tablet/phone app (which I barely use - music time is time away from the computer). But again, there’s still that huge screen! And I don’t think track information on internet radio adapts or scrolls like I feel it should either. Presently have “Something for the weekend” by Divine comedy on Absolute Radio which just stops at “Something for the weeken…”
It doesn’t make me angry as such, but the joy of computers and software updates means you can bring value to a product that you couldn’t when all the code was in a PIC16Fxxx. After all, this promotional picture of a Uniti Star: https://signals.uk.com/product/naim-uniti-star/ shows a perfect use of such a screen. I don’t think that exists in real life though.
Maybe I should apply for a job 
haha.
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It doesn’t. And clearly is just a mock up as it seems to show menu dots on a non-touch screen…
I would maybe copy those images and upload separately within your post, as I’m fairly sure Richard will kill your link….
BTW, I agree with a lot of your observations re the UI and current design and use of the screens in the Unitis and streamers….I have my doubts it will substantially change, unfortunately….
SC
Hello, I am not angry. Apologies if my post came out as angry.
I should say that otherwise Uniti players are very good, nearly perfectl I would say. I love the volume dial, these 4 buttons on the right to the screen which offer essential but intuitive functionality. I like how the app is arranged particularly the favourites and presets and the fact that the user can combine differnt input in there. I have testes several devices recently, inluding the NAD M33 and its the user interface , however fancier, is confusing sometimes. I will not even mention the remote controller whoch is impossible to use. Uniti remote is excellent in my opinion…maybe thats why I am a bit bitter.
Does anybody know the problem with ‘gaps in CD rips’ has been fixed yet with the Unity Star yet?
Yes, it was fixed last year and so be sure your firmware in up to date. Obviously if you were affected then it won’t “fix” old rips. They will need to be re-ripped.
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Cheers. I didn’t find out until I had ripped over 200 of my CDs. I have since deleted that collection. I have been considering reripping because of the alarming amount of recordings disappearing off the streaming platforms.
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