I have been using network audio streamers for at least 6 years and currently have several in operation in my home. While I assiduously read the reviews in What HiFi, I find them limited in many respects because although they faithfully investigate the sound qualities of these units they fail in two (for me) important areas. For my 60+ year old ears the variations in sound quality can be marginal at best and as electronics improve, almost impossible to distinguish (and none of my family or friends can do so either). However I would suggest to the reviewers in WH that two areas that are in general limited to a couple of throw away comments should be covered in more detail.
First – Firmware upgrades. Depending on the unit this can be done up to 4 or 5 times a year. So how it is done becomes important. I have one £2500 piece of kit (only a year old) that got 5 stars in a WH review that comes with a sheet of A4 instructions (that are modified with each update), requires a Windows PC or laptop, and needs you to stick a ballpoint pen or similar object in the back of the unit while connecting the power, waiting for a popup window on your PC (which may or may not appear depending on your version of Windows and the thoroughness of your virus scanner) copying a file across and then going on to stage 2. I use a Mac so have to borrow a friend’s laptop (it says nothing of this requirement when you purchase the product). I also have to disconnect all cables to get at the back of the unit and then reconnect (a process which takes a while because of where the unit is situated).
I have another unit which takes 25 minutes to upgrade but at least requires no user intervention. The best is one that does a check for firmware upgrades on power up, notifies the user on the unit screen AND App screen, completes the upgrade in under 2 minutes, reboots and away you go.
Second – Control Apps. You only realise the limitations of these apps after using them for a while. For the units I have they vary considerably. One well known brand only supports NAS and PC folders to a depth of 4. So If you organise your files well e.g. MusicJazzTradArtistAlbums then the content of the Albums folders are not displayed on the App and cannot be played using it. Some Apps do not rescale to larger screen sizes and so you are stuck trying to read minute text (difficult with all the info on a Classical album). Some do not allow favourites to be deleted. Many apps vary in functionality between Apple and Android. In many cases these difficulties can be overcome by using BubbleUpNp a great control app (for Android only), but my £2500 unit does not support Bubble (all my others do).
The availability of a good control App is important and would influence my final decision in purchasing a product, but review coverage is sketchy at best.
So please WH can we have more detailed coverage of these two areas?
First – Firmware upgrades. Depending on the unit this can be done up to 4 or 5 times a year. So how it is done becomes important. I have one £2500 piece of kit (only a year old) that got 5 stars in a WH review that comes with a sheet of A4 instructions (that are modified with each update), requires a Windows PC or laptop, and needs you to stick a ballpoint pen or similar object in the back of the unit while connecting the power, waiting for a popup window on your PC (which may or may not appear depending on your version of Windows and the thoroughness of your virus scanner) copying a file across and then going on to stage 2. I use a Mac so have to borrow a friend’s laptop (it says nothing of this requirement when you purchase the product). I also have to disconnect all cables to get at the back of the unit and then reconnect (a process which takes a while because of where the unit is situated).
I have another unit which takes 25 minutes to upgrade but at least requires no user intervention. The best is one that does a check for firmware upgrades on power up, notifies the user on the unit screen AND App screen, completes the upgrade in under 2 minutes, reboots and away you go.
Second – Control Apps. You only realise the limitations of these apps after using them for a while. For the units I have they vary considerably. One well known brand only supports NAS and PC folders to a depth of 4. So If you organise your files well e.g. MusicJazzTradArtistAlbums then the content of the Albums folders are not displayed on the App and cannot be played using it. Some Apps do not rescale to larger screen sizes and so you are stuck trying to read minute text (difficult with all the info on a Classical album). Some do not allow favourites to be deleted. Many apps vary in functionality between Apple and Android. In many cases these difficulties can be overcome by using BubbleUpNp a great control app (for Android only), but my £2500 unit does not support Bubble (all my others do).
The availability of a good control App is important and would influence my final decision in purchasing a product, but review coverage is sketchy at best.
So please WH can we have more detailed coverage of these two areas?
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