What exactly can the Arcam Songbook iPhone and iPad app actually do ?

[stuartayling]

:quest: What exactly can the Arcam Songbook iPhone and iPad app actually do ? The instructions don't say much http://www.arcam.co.uk/_ugc/file/tor_files/Apps/Songbook%20Arcam/SH251.pdf can you stream music that is on an iPhone or iPad via wifi to the Arcam Solo Neo? I've got an Arcam Solo Neo coming soon and as my iPhone 5 isn't compatible with the rWand due to Apple's new lightning port I'm wondering how to stream music to the Neo other than upnp from PC as I don't want to have to have the PC on. Thanks, Stuart

 

[macrotech]

I think you should be able to.

But, and it's a big but, I recently borrowed an airDAC which sounded good, but the app was so bad that Arcam lost the sale. The airDAC was hard wired into my network, for streaming from a NAS drive. It worked perfectly with Linn Kinsky, so there was no problem with the network. (Unfortunately Kinsky could only play one track at a time).

Sorry to say, the Arcam Songbook app was one of the worst I have ever seen. It could browse my server no problem, but hung and crashed so frequently that it was unusable. I don't think even the most basic testing has been carried out on it. For example, on an iPhone, if you manage to play a track, then go to browse the server, there was no way I could find to get back to the "Playing" screen. I could navigate to the palying queue, but clicking on any track caused a crash.

The music just stopped dead if you went to a different app on the iPhone.

I don't think it supports gapless playback either.

If you give it a go, I hope you have better luck than I did.

I reported my problems to Arcam and did get a response the same day, but it wasn't particularly encouraging. They were sorry to hear I didn't get on with their "fabulous airDAC".