I use Airplay, it’s OK but would just prefer full Roon Ready compatibility.
I’ve got a few other pieces of hardware that I can link to the QB to give me a better quality source that works with Roon but I’d just like it to work out of the box without the faff.
If you want Roon, you will need to wait for a QB2 to appear. The old version isn’t going to get it as a firmware update, and even if Naim wanted to do this, I don’t think the hardware would be capable.
Am I missing something here? I control my Qb via Roon, works really well. It appears to use the Airplay connectivity as opposed to RAAT, and appears in my Roon zones etc.
No he just wants RAAT not airplay, which is not possible.
Ah ok, I wonder why
Simple, all music sent via Airplay is down sampled to 44.1, I would rather it wasn’t, especially higher resolution sources.
The Qb only goes up to 48kHz via Wi-Fi anyway so very little difference.
I don’t use it wirelessly.
It can deliver up to 192/24 which is quite a bit different to 44.1/16.
Does the Qb really sound any different with hi res?
It is debatable whether there is any audible difference on top level systems, different mastering undoubtedly accounting for some of the differences sometimes heard, probably all the distinct differences, and that different character would remain when downsampled to 48kHz. Otherwise where mastering is known to be the same and people do discern a difference it tends to be described as something subtle, maybe greater ‘air’ or something like that, which is hard to imagine being very evident on a relatively basic small one-box wireless speaker.
Love to answer that but Roon is forced to down sample everything to 44.1/16 so pretty hard to test.
Put Hi Res files in USB stick and insert it into Qb, this is the best case you can hear from Qb, then do the test if you want.
Another option for Roon is Google Chromecast Audio if you can get one. Through Toslink you get 24/96 resolution. Roon did a very good job on CCA SQ.
I see, actually Airplay supports 44.1 and 48 kHz sample rates, so yes if you were above this then downsampling (decimation) occurs. For my ears 44.1 / 48 kHz PCM is more than enough for the Qb,… but sure if you want native RAAT then you will need to wait… but then again who is to say even with RAAT that decimation won’t occur? RAAT supports multiple sample rates, and these, so I believe, don’t have to be supported by the end point, in which case the Roon Core would handle that resampling for you, much like it does currently with the Qb.
The 48kHz supported by airplay applies to audio which accompanies video. Audio only content is downsampled to 44.1. This is slightly ironic as the quality of audio that accompanies most online video is incredibly crappy quality.
I would simply like the choice of using the maximum capability of the QB when it is applicable. Airplay doesn’t offer that choice.
You sure about that… fairly certain my old Apple Airport Airplay device which had an optical out, always sent the audio as 48kHz, even if natively 44.1kHz, which I agree is not ideal… but suggests, if I am right, 48kHz is not solely limited to video sound tracks…
Absolutely 100% certain.
Hi there
I wonder if you could educate me a little please . I am aware of the Sonore option you describe but not the free LMS to UpnP option you talk about - what is involved in getting this to run please ? Does it allow you to group with other Naim devices running Roon natively
Thanks in advance
Yes, I agree, if by poor you mean totally non-functional and useless… It does work great with Ethernet, but did require holes in the wall and wiring I was not expecting initially.
Take a look at this thread https://community.naimaudio.com/t/howto-roonify-non-roon-streamers-lms-to-upnp/751
If you want to group the devices it’s best done using the Naim app, you just select the multi room options as you do now and they will sync perfectly.
Thanks for this much appreciated
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