Issues with Marantz NA7004/NAS

[Geoff15]

Hi,

A couple of weeks ago I bought a Marantz NA7004, and since then I've been racking my brains as to why it won't work 100% as it should. The issues I'm having are:

1. Organisation of tracks/albums. Whenever I rip a CD on my computer using Windows Media Player and put it on my NAS drive (a Buffalo CH2 0TL 2TB), the tracks, after a period of time, show up fine if you search for folders in the menus, but if you search for 'Artists', they all go in to the 'Unknown' catagory. In there is track 1 of every album, followed by track 2 and so on.

2. When playing the music files stored on the NAS, there are gaps between the tracks. All the files have been ripped from the original CD's in WAV format. Gapless playback is a must, and it's very frustrating!

3. When playing via Airplay through an iPhone or iTunes on my PC, it works for a while, but then the music stops and the iPhone and the computer refuse to acknowledge its existance.

Any help is appreciated as to why it's not co-operating. Having said all the above, it really does sound amazing for the £380 it cost, and the build quality is fantastic.

Many thanks.

 

[altruistic.lemon]

Doesn't do gapless. As to the rest, no idea!

 

[Geoff15]

I find it hard to believe that it doesn't do gapless playback when it got 5 stars in What HiFi at £600! I admit, it's a hard one for the rest of it! It's quite frustrating though when you get a nice new piece of kit and it doesn't work properly!

Thanks for your help.

 

[The_Lhc]

There's quite a few streamers that don't do gapless, it's surprisingly common. The lack of artists might be because you're using WAV files, it has limited metadata supporting (tagging). Rip a cd in another format, I'd suggest flac (get dbpoweramp of something like that), and see if that appears in the artists list. Try something you've already ripped then you can check to see if you can tell the difference between flac and WAV. I'll be interested to see if you can.

 

[georgecostanza]

Do you have a good quality router ? My 7004 is wired into a network port on my Buffalo router, and have never had a problem with airplay using all 4 of our apple devices.

 

[moon]

you know, it's just my opinion but these streamers are no substitute for a Netbook and good quality DAC. :rant:

 

[moon]

It seems that the only one with relatively few issues is Sonos.

 

[Geoff15]

I've ripped a few CD's now in FLAC, and it now organises them as it should, so many thanks for that! One issue solved!

The router that we use is a BT homehub, and the internet connection is pretty stable, as is the internal network. Do you know if you have to be on any particular input on the NA7004 for the Airplay to work, ie. Music server(NAS), internet radio etc., because there isn't an option to go on to Airplay as far as I can see, and there's nothing about it in the instructions.

Has anyone been able to get their NA7004 to do gapless playback? It just seems to be a rather large omission from a quality, and expensive, piece of hi-fi. It ruins the effect of a live album if there are gaps between the tracks.

Many thanks for ll your help.

 

[Andrew Everard]

AFAICS, problems with the BT Homehub and Airplay are a known issue – see here for some discussion on BT's own forums, and also in this thread on these forums. The answer may be to consider another router.

 

[BenLaw]

As it's such an important issue for so many people, shouldn't the lack of gapless playback be mentioned in the (extensive and comprehensive) review?

 

[georgecostanza]

I've ripped a few CD's now in FLAC, and it now organises them as it should, so many thanks for that! One issue solved!

The router that we use is a BT homehub, and the internet connection is pretty stable, as is the internal network. Do you know if you have to be on any particular input on the NA7004 for the Airplay to work, ie. Music server(NAS), internet radio etc., because there isn't an option to go on to Airplay as far as I can see, and there's nothing about it in the instructions.

Has anyone been able to get their NA7004 to do gapless playback? It just seems to be a rather large omission from a quality, and expensive, piece of hi-fi. It ruins the effect of a live album if there are gaps between the tracks.

Many thanks for ll your help.

If I choose the Marantz in itunes on my macbook or iphone it automatically switches to that input/ switches itself on. It comes up as music server input.

The Buffalo router has a good reputation for handling different streams all at once.