The Linn DS / DSM thread

[acalex]

Still need to play a little bit with configuration of Akurate, any advice? Something I shouldn't forget to activate/change?

What I find a bit annoying is the playlist function. I mean it is a very nice function but I would like to be able to click on album and play it straigh away instead of the album going on the playing list. This is how it worked with Squeezebox, I had also playlistes which I could activate but the standard way of functioning was...I click and the system plays...if I wanted to change song/album/artist what I had to do was looking for whatever I wanted to play and just click play....

On another note...heard yesterday a Sneaky DSM driving a pair of Vienna Acoustics monitors on stands with some nice Neodio cables...it sounded incredibly good and I am thinking I will be taking this set-up for my office...simple and sweet...and all within 2000 eur (cables excluded). Very impressive

 

[CnoEvil]

Still need to play a little bit with configuration of Akurate, any advice? Something I shouldn't forget to activate/change?

What I find a bit annoying is the playlist function. I mean it is a very nice function but I would like to be able to click on album and play it straigh away instead of the album going on the playing list. This is how it worked with Squeezebox, I had also playlistes which I could activate but the standard way of functioning was...I click and the system plays...if I wanted to change song/album/artist what I had to do was looking for whatever I wanted to play and just click play....

On another note...heard yesterday a Sneaky DSM driving a pair of Vienna Acoustics monitors on stands with some nice Neodio cables...it sounded incredibly good and I am thinking I will be taking this set-up for my office...simple and sweet...and all within 2000 eur (cables excluded). Very impressive

I'm not a great person to ask, as I don't do a lot of investigation. I'm still on Cara 9 because I like the way it sounds....and probably an older version of Kinsky. I also use Chorus DS on my son's old iPod Touch that I mooched.

I do have a few playlists made up and saved.

I listen to either Radio Paradise or Linn Radio (which is remarkable quality and is worth trying just to see what is possible from 320 kbps)

I keep saying on here that the Sneaky works as a stand alone source/amp....so I'm glad you heard it. Linn have also upgraded their Sekrit, which now looks like a "Sneaky Plus": http://www.whathifi.com/forum/hi-fi/new-linn-sekrit-dsm

 

[acalex]

Still need to play a little bit with configuration of Akurate, any advice? Something I shouldn't forget to activate/change?

What I find a bit annoying is the playlist function. I mean it is a very nice function but I would like to be able to click on album and play it straigh away instead of the album going on the playing list. This is how it worked with Squeezebox, I had also playlistes which I could activate but the standard way of functioning was...I click and the system plays...if I wanted to change song/album/artist what I had to do was looking for whatever I wanted to play and just click play....

On another note...heard yesterday a Sneaky DSM driving a pair of Vienna Acoustics monitors on stands with some nice Neodio cables...it sounded incredibly good and I am thinking I will be taking this set-up for my office...simple and sweet...and all within 2000 eur (cables excluded). Very impressive

I'm not a great person to ask, as I don't do a lot of investigation. I'm still on Cara 9 because I like the way it sounds....and probably an older version of Kinsky. I also use Chorus DS on my son's old iPod Touch that I mooched.

I do have a few playlists made up and saved.

I listen to either Radio Paradise or Linn Radio (which is remarkable quality and is worth trying just to see what is possible from 320 kbps)

I keep saying on here that the Sneaky works as a stand alone source/amp....so I'm glad you heard it. Linn have also upgraded their Sekrit, which now looks like a "Sneaky Plus": http://www.whathifi.com/forum/hi-fi/new-linn-sekrit-dsm

Yes I have heard that Cara 9 is probably the best souding firmware they had....wondering if there is any way to go back and check it out.

 

[CnoEvil]

Yes I have heard that Cara 9 is probably the best souding firmware they had....wondering if there is any way to go back and check it out.

I think the general consensus is the right version of Davaar is better (not sure which one, without reading up on the Linn DS Forum). I 'm frightened to change (even if I could figure out how), in case I couldn't change back....so I leave well alone.

I don't think your updated ADS/1 can retrospectively be made work on Cara as it was brought out with Davaar......there is a section on the Linn Docs that list all the versions. If you join the Linn Forum, they will answer any questions you have.

 

[pgoody]

It is possible to downgrade. This link should be usefull.

http://docs.linn.co.uk/wiki/index.php/BetasDavaar#What_if_I_want_to_go_back_to_Cara.3F

If you want to play albums / tracks right away just toggle the button from "play later" to "play next" or "play now". You can find the button im the lower left corner in the ipad app.

 

[CnoEvil]

It is possible to downgrade. This link should be usefull.

http://docs.linn.co.uk/wiki/index.php/BetasDavaar#What_if_I_want_to_go_back_to_Cara.3F

If you want to play albums / tracks right away just toggle the button from "play later" to "play next" or "play now". You can find the button im the lower left corner in the ipad app.

Thank you for the clarification.

It must have been comments like this (post.2) that led to my confusion: http://forums.linn.co.uk/bb/showthread.php?tid=11892

 

[pgoody]

The HDMI board on my DSM didn't work at the beginning so I downgraded the software to see if it was a fault in the new Davaar. It was pretty straight forward. Can't think why it shouldn't work with the Akurate. Also there is a resett button on the back side. Wipes everything clean when you press it.. If the older version does not work just press and hold down for 10 sec or so and you can install the newer version again from the configuration program.

Turned out the HDMI board was faulty and I got a new DSM a week later.

 

[pgoody]

Makes sense. He'll just have to try..

 

[CnoEvil]

The HDMI board on my DSM didn't work at the beginning so I downgraded the software to see if it was a fault in the new Davaar. It was pretty straight forward. Can't think why it shouldn't work with the Akurate. Also there is a resett button on the back side. Wipes everything clean when you press it.. If the older version does not work just press and hold down for 10 sec or so and you can install the newer version again from the configuration program.

Turned out the HDMI board was faulty and I got a new DSM a week later.

i am not good with this stuff, but my understanding was that all DSsss are upgradable with the new firmware, but "may" not be able to go backwards to previous firmware that existed, before the model was brought out.

There is talk on the thread I linked to, that the ADS/1 was brought out with Cara 10, so might be OK. Your M DSM would certainly work with both

 

[acalex]

I am still in Davaar 9 so I guess it is not an ADS/1 yet. 1 year old I guess is still a ADS/0...

 

[acalex]

I am still in Davaar 9 so I guess it is not an ADS/1 yet. 1 year old I guess is still a ADS/0...

Nope, it's definitely an ADS/1, checked on the box just to make sure

Now need to figure out why I still have a Davaar 9 instead of a Cara 10!

 

[acalex]

It is possible to downgrade. This link should be usefull.

http://docs.linn.co.uk/wiki/index.php/BetasDavaar#What_if_I_want_to_go_back_to_Cara.3F

If you want to play albums / tracks right away just toggle the button from "play later" to "play next" or "play now". You can find the button im the lower left corner in the ipad app.

Great!!! Thanks a lot for the info. Trying to figure out now what's the latest release of Cara as on the link there are only versions and not names

Is there also a way to tell my akurate to automatically wake up the NAS when I want to play? As it was a very handy optionwith the squeezebox touch I had

 

[CnoEvil]

Nope, it's definitely an ADS/1, checked on the box just to make sure

Now need to figure out why I still have a Davaar 9 instead of a Cara 10!

Cara is now "out of date" with less features. The ADS/1 was designed with Davaar in mind (I think), so imo you are better with what you have. Generally, it's the older DSss that people prefer Cara on, and even then it's open to debate. I think the majority with the ADS/1 prefer Davaar. If in doubt, ask the question on the Linn Forum.

The clean, detailed but musical presentation of Davaar / ADS/1 should go very well with Jadis + SF.

Remember, Black Ravioli "should" bring further improvement.

 

[acalex]

Nope, it's definitely an ADS/1, checked on the box just to make sure

Now need to figure out why I still have a Davaar 9 instead of a Cara 10!

Cara is now "out of date" with less features. The ADS/1 was designed with Davaar in mind (I think), so imo you are better with what you have. Generally, it's the older DSss that people prefer Cara on, and even then it's open to debate. I think the majority with the ADS/1 prefer Davaar. If in doubt, ask the question on the Linn Forum.

The clean, detailed but musical presentation of Davaar / ADS/1 should go very well with Jadis + SF.

Remember, Black Ravioli "should" bring further improvement.

You are right...

Now I have to find a solution for waking up my NAS via software as it is annoying having to get up, go to the other room and press the button on the NAS to power it on

 

[michael hoy]

Acalex,

If you have a apple device there is an app which i use called WakeUp, it costs $0.99 and works very well.

You will need to make sure your NAS can use magic packets (wake on lan), your network card properties should show this.

 

[acalex]

Acalex,

If you have a apple device there is an app which i use called WakeUp, it costs $0.99 and works very well.

You will need to make sure your NAS can use magic packets (wake on lan), your network card properties should show this.

Thanks a lot. I actually use Mocha WOL which is free and through MAC address of the NAS can send a magic packet...was wondering if any of the DS controller software had this option included already as this is a no-brainer for whever is using a Linn DS to have a NAS with all music library stock and not having the NAS in the same room as the hi-fi system :doh:

Btw thanks a lot for the suggestion, I will check out this app!

 

[Neuphonix]

Hi Alex,

I have Davaar on mine which I am able to configure using Konfig on the PC.

At the moment I'm using Twonky on the NAS controlled via Kinsky on my ipad, which works OK. There is a fair bit on the Linn site about changing the tree struture in Twonky to a custom one which seems to provide an improved viewing system, especially when there is large collections involved. I started off with not to much on my NAS, but recently dumped a massive amount on there & Twonky seems to struggle with it a bit (could be the NAS processor as well?)

Also another mediaserver on of the guys has written call minimserv, which seems to be fairly popular. Alot of comments seem to indicate that it has some benifits over Twonky. Haven't played with this one yet.

Have tried using Songbook which is OK. But I can't really see the advantage of paying for an app like this when itunes/songcast/kinsky already works. if it was $5 I'd probably be willing, but at around $50 for the whole suite it seems too much.

Would be interested to know what you come up with on the NAS wake up, I haven't looked into this yet. I would have though that the NAS itself had an option to sleep & then wake on LAN signal? It needs a specific signal from the other networked device?

 

[Macspur]

O my word! I'm sure it'll be great when sorted, but this is exactly what would put me off ever going down this route.

Good luck Alex.

Mac

 

[pgoody]

Hi Alex,

Which NAS and which Software are you using on it? My Synology NAS goes to sleep when not in use but wakes up automatically when I start playing music.

There might be a funtion in the NAS Software you have to activate.

 

[acalex]

Guys, slow down...the setup is super easy and I could be up and running in no times (it was basic a plug&play process). The question I am asking now it's already a more "advanced" question to optimise the use. If you have all your library on pc you won't have any of this problems.

Neuphonix, yes of course my NAS has an automatic sleep and awake function based on time of the day...so it automatically turns off at 1 in the morning for example but I don't like to turn it on automatically as most of the times in the morning I am not at home. And yes the NAS has also a Wake on Lan function which is activated.

Now, as you correctly said, you need another software to send the "magic packet" to your NAS (using your nas mac address) in order for it to activate by itself. Now with iPeng (the software I used for the squeezebox, which is not free just to be fair) once you open the software it automatically was switching on the NAS sending the magic packet.

Unfortunately Kinsky does not implement this function yet (wonder why) and to do that you need another software. So basically when I want to listen I use Wake on Lan or Mocha Wol to switch on the NAS and then I open Kinsky....while before I could do these 2 actions with iPeng

 

[acalex]

O my word! I'm sure it'll be great when sorted, but this is exactly what would put me off ever going down this route.

Good luck Alex.

Mac

Mac, which part is putting off to go down this route? This is just an advanced configuration, I was able to listen after 5 minutes

 

[acalex]

Ah, I am actually using Logitech server with my Akurate as it works very very well also. So I don't need to install another server software on my NAS but I can keep using the one for the squeezebox also with the Akurate. Ah, btw, Kinsky also can detect the squeezebox on the network so I could pilot my bedromm system (squeezebox + actives) with the same Kisnky software...very handy.

Pity iPeng cannot detect the Akurate DS as I find iPeng still to be the most userfriendly software for piloting streamers. The dealer where I bought uses ChorusDS HD on iPad which is a 37 euro application. It really needs to be much better than Kinsky to be worth switching to it....any experience so far?

He honestly admitted is a bit faster than Kinsky but it blocks more often....also ChorusDS does not have a WakeOnLan function....can't understand how programmers cannot think about that as any DS streamer is ment to stream from a NAS... :wall:

 

[acalex]

Hi Alex,

Which NAS and which Software are you using on it? My Synology NAS goes to sleep when not in use but wakes up automatically when I start playing music.

There might be a funtion in the NAS Software you have to activate.

My Netgear NAS goes to sleep but it can wake up automatically at a defined time of the day...not when you start playing music. Which software do you use to achieve that? So basically when you open Kinsky the NAS wakes up automatically? Could you explain a bit better?

Thanks you!!!

 

[pgoody]

The Software on my Synology is DS212J is Synologhys own "DSM 4.1". My NAS goes into stand by if it is not in use (only blue standby LED is on). When I open Kinsky on any device and press play this automatically wakes up the NAS from stand by (takes a couple of seconds).

This is a bit different from Wake on Lan (WOL) where you can turn of your NAS and your Device can reboot it over LAN. Does your Netgear NAS power down over night or only go into stand by?

 

[acalex]

The Software on my Synology is DS212J is Synologhys own "DSM 4.1". My NAS goes into stand by if it is not in use (only blue standby LED is on). When I open Kinsky on any device and press play this automatically wakes up the NAS from stand by (takes a couple of seconds).

This is a bit different from Wake on Lan (WOL) where you can turn of your NAS and your Device can reboot it over LAN. Does your Netgear NAS power down over night or only go into stand by?

Ah ok...now I understand. My Netgear powers down during the night. I am not sure I have a proper stand-by mode, I have disk spinning-down mode which reduces a lot the power consumption but I do not think I have a proper stand-by. This is what you mean by standby?