[cubby1]

N50 vs squeezebox duet.

Hi
I am currently using a squeezebox box duet with an external beresford dac playing flac files from a server pc.Will I notice any audio or functionality improvement with the N50.
Any comments will be appreciated.

 

[John R Leddy]

Network Audio Player

I am currently using a squeezebox box duet with an external beresford dac playing flac files from a server pc. Will I notice any audio or functionality improvement with the N50?

Unlikely; I have owned a Pioneer N-50 and would not recommend it.
 
Network Audio Players: http://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/HW/DAP.htm

 

[micmic]

Jukebox radio station streaming

Hi Cebolla
I have problem to stream radio station Jukebox radio [it is at vTuner list and I am registered there] from my N-50 Pioneer player. It was streaming before but no more. Strange is I can stream it from my laptop. Could you test if it is working from other N-50 player or to help me to solve the problem? thanks

 

[Cebolla]

Hi again Micmic,

I did a search for the Jukebox Radio on the vTuner site, the best match I could find was the one from Greece - hope it's the right one. I tested that station on my N-50 and there certainly seems to be a problem. It briefly displays the station's logo, but doesn't play the stream and instead connects and plays the stream for next station on the vTuner Greek station list.

I've also tried both the 320k & 192k official mp3 streams on the N-50, listed on the jbradio.eu site, by adding them to my vTuner member login's Added Stations list. These streams also don't work - get an "Unspecified Error" on the N-50's display. However the 128k AAC+ stream does function on my N-50, so it should also work on your vTuner's Added Station's list:
http://jbradio.eu/links/m3u/128_aac.m3u

BTW, when you manually add a station in vTuner, one of the fields to enter is (stream) Type. For some reason, there's only two choices MP3 & Windows Media - so no AAC/AAC+. However if you select MP3, it doesn't seem to bother vTuner nor the Pioneer!

It may be worth you contacting Pioneer support, since the recent N-50/N-30 firmware update was supposed to have corrected some previous internet radio streaming problems and that 'fix' might now be causing some other problems. It's probably no coincidence that you've noticed the Jukebox Radio stop working if you've recently updated with the latest firmware.

John

 

[micmic]

Sorry, I forgot to qualify the terminology, as it can be quite vague & confusing. By 'network streaming', I meant the streaming of music files by the N-50 over your (home) network from the device that they are stored in (eg a computer or a NAS) and controlled by the buttons on the N-50's box or its remote control or an app running on a device connected to the same network. The method of connecting the N-50 and the music file containing device to the network is entirely up to you, but wireless is not usually recommended for the higher music file resolutions and a wired ethernet connection is always preferable.


The point I was trying to make is that the majority of hi-res network audio players, like the N-50, have no ability of cataloguing the music files on their own. So for network streaming, music file selection is via specialised media server software running on the network device that they are stored in, as it provides the network audio player/streamer with the music library catalogue. The N-50 accessing the files directly from a USB storage device provides no such catalogue.


Unfortunately, your 'vague image' is actually quite an accurate description of the options currently available to you for hi-res music file playback. However, the 'computer' you use as the 'interface' to the network audio player connected to the hifi, can be any network device that can run a media server and directly access the stored music files. A decent UPnP/DLNA media server to use is the excellent free music dedicated MinimServer, which can be installed on Windows, Mac and Linux computers, as well as some NASs:
http://minimserver.com/features.html

It can even be installed on very small cheap low powered computers (which you could still attach a USB storage drive to), such as a Raspberry Pi or a SheevaPlug.

Hi Cebolla

thanks for your replay, meanwhile I had contacted Jukebox radio station help desk directly and fortunately the guy solved the problem. See his response: "As you can see in the log your device trying to connect to the stream first with NSPlayer (it’s like windows media player) and then with WinampMPEG/2.8 which is an outdated version of winamp player and some streamrippers use that as cover.This is the reason why server denied connection.
Anyway i removed it from ban list so you can connect again."

So my favorite radio is back.

Regards

micmic

 

[micmic]

Hi again Micmic,

I did a search for the Jukebox Radio on the vTuner site, the best match I could find was the one from Greece - hope it's the right one. I tested that station on my N-50 and there certainly seems to be a problem. It briefly displays the station's logo, but doesn't play the stream and instead connects and plays the stream for next station on the vTuner Greek station list.

I've also tried both the 320k & 192k official mp3 streams on the N-50, listed on the jbradio.eu site, by adding them to my vTuner member login's Added Stations list. These streams also don't work - get an "Unspecified Error" on the N-50's display. However the 128k AAC+ stream does function on my N-50, so it should also work on your vTuner's Added Station's list:
http://jbradio.eu/links/m3u/128_aac.m3u

BTW, when you manually add a station in vTuner, one of the fields to enter is (stream) Type. For some reason, there's only two choices MP3 & Windows Media - so no AAC/AAC+. However if you select MP3, it doesn't seem to bother vTuner nor the Pioneer!

It may be worth you contacting Pioneer support, since the recent N-50/N-30 firmware update was supposed to have corrected some previous internet radio streaming problems and that 'fix' might now be causing some other problems. It's probably no coincidence that you've noticed the Jukebox Radio stop working if you've recently updated with the latest firmware.

John

Hi Cebolla

thanks for your replay, meanwhile I had contacted Jukebox radio station help desk directly and fortunately the guy solved the problem. See his response: "As you can see in the log your device trying to connect to the stream first with NSPlayer (it’s like windows media player) and then with WinampMPEG/2.8 which is an outdated version of winamp player and some streamrippers use that as cover.This is the reason why server denied connection.
Anyway i removed it from ban list so you can connect again."

So my favorite radio is back.

Regards

micmic

 

[Behrad Babaee]

Hi guys,

I have a N50 which was working fine until today morning. It was connected to a windows 7 pc, i could use it as a DAC, and I also could use airplay without any problem.

Today I decided to update my os to windows 8.1 ... After os upgrade, I installed the new driver for windows 8, and new firmware for N50 and did all the stuffs written in the instruction, but i couldnt get any sound out of the DAC. Interesting thing is that my pc recognise the device, it actually plays the music to it, but still no sound is coming out.

The thing is that my airplay functionality is still fine, so I know there is no problem in wiring or the device itself. Do you have any idea what is wrong?

Cheers,

 

[Behrad Babaee]

UPDATE

I found that if I turn the volume on my amp to max I can barely hear the thing that is playing.
I did check every volume setting on my pc, i can actually see that if i change the output to my pc speakers, the sound will be loud. Also in windows mixer options I can see the output to N50 is at max. (I have to add that I am a computer programmer, i know how computers work dont think I am an idiot)

I also installed both version 2.0 (old one that was working till today morning) and 3.0 (that has windows 8 support) of the device driver on a different windows 7 machine. The situation was exactly the same ... Just a wiz if I max out the volume ...

Any idea? It's driving me crazy

 

[Behrad Babaee]

Solved ...

I disconnected the N50 from the power for 10 minutes. After turning it on it worked fine ..

I did do turn it off several times before, but only disconnecting from the power did the job ...

 

[Cebolla]

Hi Cebolla

thanks for your replay, meanwhile I had contacted Jukebox radio station help desk directly and fortunately the guy solved the problem. See his response: "As you can see in the log your device trying to connect to the stream first with NSPlayer (it’s like windows media player) and then with WinampMPEG/2.8 which is an outdated version of winamp player and some streamrippers use that as cover.This is the reason why server denied connection.
Anyway i removed it from ban list so you can connect again."

So my favorite radio is back.

Regards

micmic

Thanks for the follow up, micmic. Interesting to know now what was actually happening to the N-50, so will watch out for similar symptoms as a sign of it possibly being 'banned' by other internet radio stations.

Shows a lack of decent design from Pioneer if they are using outdated audio players. Also it's not good as it appears they haven't even bothered to identify the N-50 with their own legitimate Pioneer user agent and instead are keeping the default ones provided by the internal audio players it seems to be using.

Excellent response from JukeBox radio, BTW - as well as their music!

 

[Cebolla]

Solved ...

I disconnected the N50 from the power for 10 minutes. After turning it on it worked fine ..

I did do turn it off several times before, but only disconnecting from the power did the job ...

Yes, if in doubt make sure you do a 'proper' cold restart. Probably too many variables to conclude what to pin the blame on, what with the new firmware and driver install. Presumably you checked the music player software you were using wasn't just bypassing the Windows sound mixer and doing its own thing to the output?

John

 

[notfourgo]

Artwork not show on N-30 with lastest FW 1.038 !

I created some files label folder.jpg, cover.jpg with size 160x160 or 300x300 on folder album from HDtracks.

1. First, I test by usb flash on usb front of N-30. It played file fine but no artwork on LCD N-30

2. 2nd, I test by Music server from Serviio. It also didn't show artwork.

Anybody can help me ?

Thx

 

[notfourgo]

Solved : Artwork not show on N-30 with lastest FW 1.038 !

I used Minimserver DLNA. Now cover art showed on N-30.

 

[dmitch77]

ControlApp for iOS 8

Is there any word on a new version of ControlApp for iOS? The iOS 8 update prevents ControlApp from running on iPad at all. (Instant crash on launch.) The app has even disappeared from the Apple App Store, which is not an encouraging sign.

 

[Cebolla]

The Pioneer ControlApp has been optimised for phone use, so the possible reason why you can't see it on the Apple App Store is because you need to search for it on your iPad as an iPhone only app. Can't remember if this feature was always the case, as I normally use the Android version on my Sony phone.

Haven't got iOS 8 installed, but the latest iOS version of the Pioneer ControlApp (3.2.0 - 18 August 2014 update), certainly works ok on the wife's iPad with iOS 7.

 

[danno2000]

The Pioneer ControlApp has been optimised for phone use, so the possible reason why you can't see it on the Apple App Store is because you need to search for it on your iPad as an iPhone only app. Can't remember if this feature was always the case, as I normally use the Android version on my Sony phone.

Haven't got iOS 8 installed, but the latest iOS version of the Pioneer ControlApp (3.2.0 - 18 August 2014 update), certainly works ok on the wife's iPad with iOS 7.

I have been using my IPOD touch lately and all is ok. I just tried the IPAD 4 with ios 8 installed and there was a network error on the N50.
It asked me to set it up again, I did. Closed it down, re opened and it all works ok now.

 

[ES8000]

I have a Pioneer SC-LX78 receiver with many of these features included I think. Would I benefit from buying the N-50.
Thanks

 

[Cebolla]

I don't think you'd benefit from the N-50, unless you only need it for the one feature the SC-LX78 doesn't have - its USB DAC input (for using it as an external DAC to a computer). Even then you're probably better off getting a good quality audio USB to S/PDIF converter and connecting that to your AVR.

Otherwise, on paper, the SC-LX78 can do everything the N-50 can as a streamer, plus more: built-in wireless & bluetooth (which also includes aptX support), DSD file playback, Spotify connect, AM/FM tuner, etc.

 

[xcraft]

Hello everyone. I'm new here and have spent the last couple hours reading this entire thread. Lots of great information but I didn't find what I was looking for. If I decide to use BubbleUPnp or similar app to control my N30, does it affect the sound quality? I'm assuming the answer is no as I believe it is simply sending commands to the player and not actually streaming the music.

 

[Cebolla]

Yes, BubbleUPnP and other UPnP/DLNA control point apps just send UPnP playback commands to control the streamer's music playback, so doesn't affect sound quality. IMO, BubbleUPnP is the best app for this purpose on Android. For iPad, the free Lightning DS app (made for the high-end Auralic Aries streamer, but can be used for other UPnP/DLNA streamers) would be a good one to use.

Only problem is that gapless is no longer supported by the N-30 (and the N-50) if it is not used with its own Pioneer ControlApp. Not a real problem really as you could use the ControlApp for gapless album playbacks and swap over to BubbleUPnP, say, for everything else.