20-Feb-2015, 18:37
The Nano makers are being a bit cheeky bit claiming all sorts of services for the Nano such as Tidal/Qobuz streaming etc. when it's not actually their unit or software providing any of this. The Nano as far as I can see is a simple UPnP renderer and you need to seek out the software to make this stuff happen.
That said there's not really a shortage of software ranging from basic (i.e PlugPlayer, Kinsky/Kazoo) to feature-rich (JRiver Media Centre which can send to a UPnP renderer). I personally quite like this apporach because it's generally a bit of a disaster when a small hi-fi company tries to do client/server software. The money/effort and ongoing support required is generally greater than the effort they make in designing the hardware and the results are generally pretty hopeless! Even the likes of Apple & Microsoft don't even get this stuff 100% right so the chances of a 100-person hi-fi company doing it is optimistic.
There is a bit of a caveat with UPnP though. The basic standard is quite crude and gapless playback is not part of the standard. There are standard extensions - OpenHome being probably the best and most well-known. Linn's DS players have OpenHome extensions built in to provide the features which are expected nowadays - gapless, multi-room etc. Some manufacturers provide their own extensions which IMHO is a bit of a mistake (Simaudio do this with the MiND I believe). I don't know whether the Nano accepts any extensions but if not, BubbleUPNP running on a NAS can provide a server which can give you OpenHome capability. I've been using this with my Cubox lately as I got a bit tired of the MPad/mpd functionality.
Also if you have Android the BubbleUPNP/BubbleDS clients give you OpenHome without the need for a separate server. I just wish they'd bring it to iOS!
That said there's not really a shortage of software ranging from basic (i.e PlugPlayer, Kinsky/Kazoo) to feature-rich (JRiver Media Centre which can send to a UPnP renderer). I personally quite like this apporach because it's generally a bit of a disaster when a small hi-fi company tries to do client/server software. The money/effort and ongoing support required is generally greater than the effort they make in designing the hardware and the results are generally pretty hopeless! Even the likes of Apple & Microsoft don't even get this stuff 100% right so the chances of a 100-person hi-fi company doing it is optimistic.
There is a bit of a caveat with UPnP though. The basic standard is quite crude and gapless playback is not part of the standard. There are standard extensions - OpenHome being probably the best and most well-known. Linn's DS players have OpenHome extensions built in to provide the features which are expected nowadays - gapless, multi-room etc. Some manufacturers provide their own extensions which IMHO is a bit of a mistake (Simaudio do this with the MiND I believe). I don't know whether the Nano accepts any extensions but if not, BubbleUPNP running on a NAS can provide a server which can give you OpenHome capability. I've been using this with my Cubox lately as I got a bit tired of the MPad/mpd functionality.
Also if you have Android the BubbleUPNP/BubbleDS clients give you OpenHome without the need for a separate server. I just wish they'd bring it to iOS!
