This should be a quick one just to confirm what I already think I know:
Moved my UQ1 to the lounge and plugged it into the wifi access point. Have about 200 CDs ripped and sitting temporarily on my MacBook Air. When I play a CD track via UPnP from the MBA, the music stops every minute for about 5 seconds. I’m now listening to RadioParadise and no issues whatsoever. Assume the problem is the speed / buffering on the laptop or WiFi. Anyone here experienced the same?
I’m eventually going to get a dedicated music server so this is just a temporary issue. Annoying, but temporary…
Is seems to me, and I’m as technical as a newt, that with RP the signal has to go from your router to your Atom. With upnp, the signal has to go from your MacBook to the router, presumably wirelessly, and then from the router to the Atom. So it’s doubly reliant on the wifi. If you wired the MacBook to the network you’d then be in the same position as with RP. As you say, you are going to get a proper server, which should deal with it. If you can wire both the server and the Atom, it would be they much better.
UnitiquteWiFi performance is not great, so there’s every chance that if you use a different UPnP server or NAS the problem will remain. What you really need to do is put the Unitiqute on a wired Ethernet connection if WiFi is your problem, as that is almost certainly the weakest link in your home network.
Wired Ethernet is nearly always a safer bet than WiFi for stability, so yes, if you can manage that for your NAS (which I assume in this case is your Mac?) that’s what I’d try.
When you say that your Qute is wired to a wireless access point, there is presumably another wireless leg from WAP to router. I would try wiring the Qute directly to the router, at least temporarily to see if that eliminates the problem.
On very old protocols yes, newer wifi protocols can be advantageous over Ethernet for clients like streamers etc. not having to worry about audiophile switches, fibre and twisted pair etc.
Alas Naim don’t use these more modern wifi variants yet (as far as I am aware) perhaps a limitation of the NP800 board which is getting on a bit at the moment.
Indeed, my first Naim streamer used 802.11g and that was after 802.11ac was introduced. Frankly I would say that it wasn’t fit for purpose and would have been better with Ethernet only.
My 2nd gen streamers, on the other hand, have been rock solid on WiFi and wired.