Computer playback with remote app questions

[square_wave]

I am relatively new to computer playback so sharing a few experiences for feedback as well as looking for some answers.

Till 2013, I used to play physical cds. I then moved to a naim ndx network player. I used to browse music and control playback using the naim remote app on an ipad. The setup was smooth.

I sold the naim and recently moved to a mac mini. The playback software is Audirvana plus. The sound is a little different from the naim but is very good. I control the playback using a audirvana remote app on an ipad mini.

Now the questions :

1. The remote app is painfully slow. Loading of albums in the browser takes about half a minute and when you switch between different modes in the app, there is always this loading time that you need to wait through. Could this be due to wifi strength ( I have a regular modem) ?

2. Are playlist files universal ? For example, If I switch players ( SOFTWARE) or even start using another network player at some toint in time, will my play lists work with all those ?

3. What is meta data editing? Lets say that I have some ripped albums that does not contain adequate data. Can I edit it and add the right data so that it all works right ?

 

[malvai]

Hi!
I also use the Audirvana Plus via a Macbook Pro (with SSD and 16 GB RAM).... I use the Audirvana remote app on my 6s Plus and I have exactly the same problem as yours!

 

[venkatcr]

1. The remote app is painfully slow. Loading of albums in the browser takes about half a minute and when you switch between different modes in the app, there is always this loading time that you need to wait through. Could this be due to wifi strength ( I have a regular modem) ?

The speed of your application depends on the following:

1. RAM available on you tablet
2. How many applications auto load
3. Wifi connection speeds.
4. Size of the application and associated data.

Applications that manage songs are huge and their data is bigger. If I were in your shoes, I would do the following:

1. Find out what is the max WiFi speed your tablet can handle, and replace your modem with one that can deliver that speed.
2. Delete all un-needed auto load applications.
3. Create a small playlist of songs you would listen to for, say, the next three months. If you listen to 20 songs EVERY day, you will not need a playlist of more than 50K songs. At the end of every three months cycle your playlist.

2. Are playlist files universal ? For example, If I switch players ( SOFTWARE) or even start using another network player at some toint in time, will my play lists work with all those ?

Nope. Playlists are created by the software application. iTunes are kind of universal though and other players may be able to read and understand them. Before you switch, check the features of software you plan to install and see if they can read and understand iTunes.

3. What is meta data editing? Lets say that I have some ripped albums that does not contain adequate data. Can I edit it and add the right data so that it all works right ?

Metadata, also referred to as ID3 tag for song files, is the identifying information associated with your song. ID3 tags contain a lot of information such as the following. These are picked up by the application and displayed during playback.

• composers
• performers
• song title
• title of the album on which it was released
• year released
• track number
• genre
• album art
• lyrics
• producer

This information is added as properties of your file name when you rip a song.

You can always edit the ID3 tag of a song file. There are ID3 tags editors available free.

Cheers

 

[shibashis]

Malvai is facing the same issues on 6S Plus, so the processing capability of the client device should not be in question seeing that 6S Plus is quite a capable device.

Wifi bandwidth is something that requires most attention at this point. If you do not already have own perhaps upgrade to an 'ac' capable router and put both the Mac mini and your tablet on the 5 GHz network to take advantage of the increased bandwidth. Can not also rule out that the app itself is poorly designed.

 

[Nikhil]

Welcome to Computer Audio!

Here might be some things you could look at:

1. Network Switch:
Hardly costs anything for a simple 5 port switch but huge improvement in terms of data flow in our network. A switch will relieve your modem/router from taking on network management plus handles data more efficiently.

2. Wifi Access Point:
Similar to the switch, a wifi access point will take over wifi duties from your router leaving the router to take care of internet connectivity. In your case a nice Airport Express will do for wired. The Airport Extreme will give you a high speed wifi setup. The Time Capsule will give you network storage as well.

Hope this helps!

 

[jls001]

No Audirvana experience but remote apps on Android tablet/phone for both foobar and JRiver work without lag over regular wifi connection for "Wintel" computer. So does Raspberry Pi Android remote app. Ditch Mac

PS: are there metadata editors for wav files? All my recent dBPoweramp wav rips store metadata but my older EAC rips are plain wav files.

 

[arj]

I am relatively new to computer playback so sharing a few experiences for feedback as well as looking for some answers.

Till 2013, I used to play physical cds. I then moved to a naim ndx network player. I used to browse music and control playback using the naim remote app on an ipad. The setup was smooth.

I sold the naim and recently moved to a mac mini. The playback software is Audirvana plus. The sound is a little different from the naim but is very good. I control the playback using a audirvana remote app on an ipad mini.

Now the questions :

1. The remote app is painfully slow. Loading of albums in the browser takes about half a minute and when you switch between different modes in the app, there is always this loading time that you need to wait through. Could this be due to wifi strength ( I have a regular modem) ?

2. Are playlist files universal ? For example, If I switch players ( SOFTWARE) or even start using another network player at some toint in time, will my play lists work with all those ?

3. What is meta data editing? Lets say that I have some ripped albums that does not contain adequate data. Can I edit it and add the right data so that it all works right ?

1. Apps are slow since they load the entire data as you use it. can you try remote logging from your ipad to your Mac ? google it and you will get the process.
Try the ROWmote app which will make your ipad/iphone a simple remote for pausing/fwd etc..it mimics the apple remote as sn option once you start audirvana from above,

2: if they are in the M3U format then yes they are universal. ( Audirvana uses M3U i believe)

3. try using the TAG editor on the Mac. you can edit the files. Wav file may need a separate Cue Sheet .

 

[square_wave]

Hey Venkat..Thanks a lot for the suggestions.
You meant delete all autoload applications from the tablet right ?
Is there a good modem that you would suggest ? I have a 16gb ipad mini.
I will try these out over the long weekend and post back.
Many thanks..

 

[square_wave]

1. Apps are slow since they load the entire data as you use it. can you try remote logging from your ipad to your Mac ? google it and you will get the process.
Try the ROWmote app which will make your ipad/iphone a simple remote for pausing/fwd etc..it mimics the apple remote as sn option once you start audirvana from above,

2: if they are in the M3U format then yes they are universal. ( Audirvana uses M3U i believe)

3. try using the TAG editor on the Mac. you can edit the files. Wav file may need a separate Cue Sheet .

Hey Arj, Thanks..One of the reasons why I did not want to do a remote login to the mac is to prevent access to the actual files / folders. I may have friends who use the system and I do not want to mess up. Accidently deleting or moving entire folders into another folder etc..it can be a problem sometimes. But I will surely explore this.

 

[square_wave]

No Audirvana experience but remote apps on Android tablet/phone for both foobar and JRiver work without lag over regular wifi connection for "Wintel" computer. So does Raspberry Pi Android remote app. Ditch Mac

PS: are there metadata editors for wav files? All my recent dBPoweramp wav rips store metadata but my older EAC rips are plain wav files.

Is there a technical reason why the mac mini will not be smooth with an app ?

I have the same problem with my older rips with EAC :-(

 

[square_wave]

Welcome to Computer Audio!

Here might be some things you could look at:

1. Network Switch:
Hardly costs anything for a simple 5 port switch but huge improvement in terms of data flow in our network. A switch will relieve your modem/router from taking on network management plus handles data more efficiently.

2. Wifi Access Point:
Similar to the switch, a wifi access point will take over wifi duties from your router leaving the router to take care of internet connectivity. In your case a nice Airport Express will do for wired. The Airport Extreme will give you a high speed wifi setup. The Time Capsule will give you network storage as well.

Hope this helps!

The network switch is easily understood. Thanks. Will explore this.

Wifi access point : If one introduce one such device into an existing network which already has a wifi router, how does a device understand which one to connect to. I am little new to networkingperhaps I will just call you talk about this

 

[Nikhil]

See if this article helps - give some basic info.

Computer Audiophile - Network Audio Refresher

An all in one router supplied by your internet provider is good for general use.
Once you start using streaming (within your home) you will get better results by adding a switch to handle network management.

If you want to go with the Apple Ecosystem: http://www.apple.com/in/compare-wifi-models/
Airport Express - gives you decent bandwidth for wifi and wired (no network management)

Airport Extreme - has ability to manage your complete home network incl high speed wifi (has built in switch)
Aiport Time Capsule - Airport Extreme + network storage (has built in switch)

 

[Hassan Khani]

I am using a Linux based Remote playback system. The system is running with Ubuntu Linux Server edition with Music Player Daemon (MPD) server as playback application which is connected via USB to the DAC. I use MPad MPD Client for IPad and MPDroid from Android tablet / phone to control the playback and album selection. I am using this for years now and am extremely satisfied with the quality and convenience. I had tried many other options on windows including foobar etc but finally settled with MPD.

I have fairly large collection of music in FLAC format which are tagged appropriately and the MPD clients also support local album art. Hence the complete library browsing using IPad / Android devices are very convenient.

It takes few hours to set it up and thereafter enjoy music forever!

 

[square_wave]

I was at friends place recently and he was running Audirvana and controlling it with the remote app on his iphone. Smooth as cheese !! He also has some 2tb worth of music all loaded in. His has an excellent wifi router though. So, I decided to ditch my 3 year old d-link and picked up an AC 1750 dual band router as a future proof device. So, I set it all up. The mac and ipad now connect at 5ghz.

It is slightly better, but I pretty much have the same old problem.
I think my friend has all his music in a nas but I have it all in my mac. I too have a nas with all the music in it. I ll try connecting it back in to see how it goes over the weekend.

Will music which does not have proper metadata slow things down ? Half my music are like that. I will try doing some experiments over the weekend.
The good old days .. sigh just pop in your cd

 

[sam9s]

You only have one question in your post ... , and ans is no .. metedata does not improve or slow things down, as far as execution of the data is concerned, metedata is just info describing the data it makes the data easier to organise, search and compare.... thats it ..

 

[saikatbiswas82]

I am using a Linux based Remote playback system. The system is running with Ubuntu Linux Server edition with Music Player Daemon (MPD) server as playback application which is connected via USB to the DAC. I use MPad MPD Client for IPad and MPDroid from Android tablet / phone to control the playback and album selection. I am using this for years now and am extremely satisfied with the quality and convenience. I had tried many other options on windows including foobar etc but finally settled with MPD.

I have fairly large collection of music in FLAC format which are tagged appropriately and the MPD clients also support local album art. Hence the complete library browsing using IPad / Android devices are very convenient.

It takes few hours to set it up and thereafter enjoy music forever!

I have one quick question. As you are already into Linux based music server, have you ever given a thought to use Audiophile Linux?
As I don't have a spare PC, couldn't try it out by myself.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[regeHA]

Ditch Mac

Made me smile...

I am using a Linux based Remote playback system. The system is running with Ubuntu Linux Server edition with Music Player Daemon (MPD) server as playback application which is connected via USB to the DAC. I use MPad MPD Client for IPad and MPDroid from Android tablet / phone to control the playback and album selection. I am using this for years now and am extremely satisfied with the quality and convenience. I had tried many other options on windows including foobar etc but finally settled with MPD.

I have fairly large collection of music in FLAC format which are tagged appropriately and the MPD clients also support local album art. Hence the complete library browsing using IPad / Android devices are very convenient.

It takes few hours to set it up and thereafter enjoy music forever!

Please do share any links and/or video walkthroughs... I've been meaning to try MPD on a PC, but not exactly a geek and know next to nothing about Linux.

Can watch and do though... have been doing with the Pi and Raspbian for a few months now... and have successfully managed a media server, VPN server, and torrent box on the Pi.

But do wish to go further "audiophile" on the PC with MPD.

I was at friends place recently and he was running Audirvana and controlling it with the remote app on his iphone. Smooth as cheese !! He also has some 2tb worth of music all loaded in. His has an excellent wifi router though. So, I decided to ditch my 3 year old d-link and picked up an AC 1750 dual band router as a future proof device. So, I set it all up. The mac and ipad now connect at 5ghz.

It is slightly better, but I pretty much have the same old problem.
I think my friend has all his music in a nas but I have it all in my mac. I too have a nas with all the music in it. I ll try connecting it back in to see how it goes over the weekend.

Will music which does not have proper metadata slow things down ? Half my music are like that. I will try doing some experiments over the weekend.
The good old days .. sigh just pop in your cd

Even if your Mac is limited to 10/100 Mbps and not gigabit ethernet I still don't see it as an issue. That's more than enough b/w for even 4K video streaming. I don't believe you are doing wireless streaming anyways.

ID3 tags would not cause any delays, but if you can then try to convert your content to FLAC (takes overnight at the most, lots of batch conversion tools) and see if that improves. I've always ripped in FLAC and never used WAV, but WAV is 3 times the size of FLAC. That said I don't think it has anything to do with file size, but with FLAC you can always transcode and unpack on the fly to WAV (even my Pi 2 does that). But it will be interesting if the apps find it easier to read data off FLAC or at least are faster in going through and displaying a FLAC library. I've over 40K files and over 2500 albums all ripped in FLAC, using MinimServer on Pi and NAS, and using BubbleUPnP on Android, never any lag even when displaying larger thumbnails. The only issue I ever had was with Moode failing to index my entire library for DLNA playback. It was some issue with MiniDLNA in Moode, but since switching to MinimServer I've not had a single issue.

Also, using multiple devices like audio streamers, network streamers, etc. like Aries Mini, Marantz, Cambridge Audio, Bluesound, Sonos, Pioneer, etc. have never had any issues with my library. This is from a NAS, but previously I was using simple Windows sharing on Windows 7, 8, and 10 without any issues. I've had an AC WiFi network for a while though.

I have one quick question. As you are already into Linux based music server, have you ever given a thought to use Audiophile Linux?
As I don't have a spare PC, couldn't try it out by myself.

I'll try to find the link, but I remember reading somewhere that Audiophile Linux is not recommended. Ubuntu Studio and Fedora were recommended over it, but mostly MPD was recommended the most (which I've been meaning to try, but haven't yet).

 

[Hassan Khani]

My requirements for digital playback are:
1. The system should be as reliable and easy to use as a commercially available CD player with bit perfect playback. It should work all the time. Whenever switch ON becomes ready to start playback, switch OFF stops playback and poweroff properly.
2. Bit perfect playback especially with async USB connectivity to DAC
3. Should be able to play music from local disk, NFS or CIFS.
4. Should have a very good remote control app [Play controls, Local artwork support, Search, Navigation based on artist, album etc.]
5. Wireless network support

I had tried multiple solution including voyage MPD (specifically built for music) before finalizing on Ubuntu based system [faced one or the other problem with other solutions]. I had chosen UBUNTU server LTS edition for its long term support, headless playback as well as stability and reliability. Ubuntu (debian) and MPD along with Mpdroid / Mpad meets all my requirements.

Steps to install the system:

1. Install Ubuntu server LTS version
2. Configure networking
3. Mount remote file systems if needed (nfs along with autofs should work fine)
4. Install MPD if not installed by default
5. Configure MPD (/etc/mpd.conf)
--- Directory where music files resides
--- Alsa section for bit perfect playback
6. For local cover art support install / enable apache web server and the directory in which music is available should be available through the web server also. In each directory (assuming one per alubm, have the cover art with name Folder.jpg or Cover.jpg etc.) The file name is configurable in remote control app.
6. Install Mpdroid for android or Mpad for Ios for controlling

Physically connect the PC to the DAC via USB and enjoy the music.

If you have any specific question on installation / configuration please post here will try my best to answer.

 

[regeHA]

@Hassan - Thanks. Will give it a try over the weekend.

Hopefully... unless Bosch has something to say about it.