[John541]

I've been using the BR-20 for about a couple of months now and would like to provide some constructive feedback on various aspects. These are personal opinions and other folk might have different views. I hope it is OK to post this here but I am also very happy to communicate privately instead.

1)   It would be extremely useful to be able to filter the Qobuz/Recommendations by Genre. For example, if one is interested in, say, classical music or jazz and wanted to browse the New Releases [Edited] – the albums of interest will be completely swamped without being able to filter by genre, making these options very tedious to use. (It also means that there are much fewer entries shown for the desired genre as there is a limit to the total number of albums shown.)

2)   For classical music, please can the name of the work be implemented. It is provided by the Qobuz API specifically for classical music. Many classical albums contain more than one work and quite often there isn’t an indication of the work in the track “title” – that can make the Manic Moose Qobuz implementation pretty awkward (and sometimes impossible) to use.

In order to illustrate how the name of the work can be implemented I’ve taken screen grabs from an iPad of 3 examples comparing MDP-Manic Moose and the LMS-iPeng implementation (using Squeezelite [Edit]). Note – I am not advocating LMS-iPeng (though I find it very useful) but just using it as an illustration. In order not to litter the thread with images I’ve uploaded the examples to my Google Drive.

For each example there is a screen grab of Manic Moose and separate screen grabs in LMS-iPeng of (i) the album as shown when selecting the album from Qobuz (in example 3 this extends to a number of screens) and (ii) the Playlist once the album has been selected.

Examples 1 & 2 are relatively straightforward, Example 3 a bit more messy.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1HqqopIzJEyNQddKRtTzUZ1zC7BY79x0-?usp=sharing

3)   Sometimes additional tracks are automatically added at the end of the playlist, as the tracks are playing. Personally, I find this irritating. Perhaps some folk appreciate this feature but at the very minimum please can it be made optional, with the ability to switch it off.

4)   Please can the option to “Add to Qubuz Favourites” (and “Remove from Qobuz Favourites”), for a selected album, be implemented. This would be very useful and, as far as I can tell, both Add to Favourites and Remove from Favourites are  supported by the Qobuz API. (This is also illustrated in the above examples.)

[Edited (some) typos & made clear "LMS-iPeng" refers to Squeezelite]

[Clive197]

I’ve got the same issue with points 3&4. This is down to poor programming and is disappointing for a program that admittedly started life over a decade ago but should have been sorted by now. I’m looking forward to Manic Moose’s replacement which we were told would be this summer but as far as I can tell has now gone down a Black Hole.

[stereoal]

I can't get qobuz to stream with manic moose on my 3.14. Every time I try to stream a song, I get an alert saying the song is not available until April 2023 or in some cases May 2023. I've tried dozens of songs. What am I doing wrong?

[zeeman]

Just use Roon.  Problem solved.  A much more organic and immersive user experience that will pay dividends the longer you use it.  Every high end audio company recommends it over their own software for a reason.  Any comments about Roon sounding worse are crap, IMO.  I've directly compared it to Bluesound, Sonos, etc, and Roon is as good or better.

[John541]

I can't get qobuz to stream with manic moose on my 3.14. Every time I try to stream a song, I get an alert saying the song is not available until April 2023 or in some cases May 2023. I've tried dozens of songs. What am I doing wrong?

April and May seem to be around the time when Qobuz went live in Canada - so perhaps you live in Canada.

It sounds like this is a Qobuz permission issue rather than a Bryston problem. It might be that Qobuz haven't updated the Canadian permissions for the albums, etc that interest you, or that they have fallen through the cracks some how. I would do a test by searching for a "classic" album from one of the major record labels. In my case it might be something like Carlos Kleiber Beethoven Symphony No 5 and 7 (DG Label) or Previn Rachmaninov Symphony No 2 (Warner). I understand that Qobuz are responsive to DMs on Twitter or Facebook if necessary.

I was hoping this thread could be used to provide suggestions as to how the (partial) Qobuz implementation could be improved but am happy to give whatever (very) limited help I can.

[unincognito]

I've been using the BR-20 for about a couple of months now and would like to provide some constructive feedback on various aspects. These are personal opinions and other folk might have different views. I hope it is OK to post this here but I am also very happy to communicate privately instead.

1)   It would be extremely useful to be able to filter the Qobuz/Recommendations by Genre. For example, if one is interested in, say, classical music or jazz and wanted to browse the New Releases [Edited] – the albums of interest will be completely swamped without being able to filter by genre, making these options very tedious to use. (It also means that there are much fewer entries shown for the desired genre as there is a limit to the total number of albums shown.)

2)   For classical music, please can the name of the work be implemented. It is provided by the Qobuz API specifically for classical music. Many classical albums contain more than one work and quite often there isn’t an indication of the work in the track “title” – that can make the Manic Moose Qobuz implementation pretty awkward (and sometimes impossible) to use.

In order to illustrate how the name of the work can be implemented I’ve taken screen grabs from an iPad of 3 examples comparing MDP-Manic Moose and the LMS-iPeng implementation (using Squeezelite [Edit]). Note – I am not advocating LMS-iPeng (though I find it very useful) but just using it as an illustration. In order not to litter the thread with images I’ve uploaded the examples to my Google Drive.

For each example there is a screen grab of Manic Moose and separate screen grabs in LMS-iPeng of (i) the album as shown when selecting the album from Qobuz (in example 3 this extends to a number of screens) and (ii) the Playlist once the album has been selected.

Examples 1 & 2 are relatively straightforward, Example 3 a bit more messy.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1HqqopIzJEyNQddKRtTzUZ1zC7BY79x0-?usp=sharing

3)   Sometimes additional tracks are automatically added at the end of the playlist, as the tracks are playing. Personally, I find this irritating. Perhaps some folk appreciate this feature but at the very minimum please can it be made optional, with the ability to switch it off.

4)   Please can the option to “Add to Qubuz Favourites” (and “Remove from Qobuz Favourites”), for a selected album, be implemented. This would be very useful and, as far as I can tell, both Add to Favourites and Remove from Favourites are  supported by the Qobuz API. (This is also illustrated in the above examples.)

[Edited (some) typos & made clear "LMS-iPeng" refers to Squeezelite]

Hi John,

Theres not much I can do about 1 & 2 in Manic Moose as the original web ui as you point out doesn't take into consideration of classical music lovers.  There is intention in OS3/Nutty Narwhal to either have more granular sorting/search or perhaps even a dedicated view for classical music.  As for issues 3 & 4 I can comment and my comments may or may not be accurate but they are for 3 I think your enabling the infinite track feature, this button is an infinite loop and pictured below.  When this feature is on the player will attempt to add a track that it believes is similar to what is currently playing.




As for issue 4, the feature does exist albeit in a hidden/unconventional location.  While a track is playing media player will attempt to find additional data about the currently playing track, when playing from Qobuz it goes to Qobuz for this data and the information can be found buy clicking the cover art in the center.




From here you can favorite either the artist or the album using the little star



Its not immediately available and if you want to use media player to unfavorite the album you'll need to play one of the tracks and repeat the steps.

Thanks for the feedback and I hope this helps,
Chris

[Clive197]

All very well having a fix for points 3&4 but on my iPad I haven’t got the infinity symbol or tapping the artwork for point 4 does nothing. So still awaiting OS3 for possible fixes.

[John541]

All very well having a fix for points 3&4 but on my iPad I haven’t got the infinity symbol or tapping the artwork for point 4 does nothing. So still awaiting OS3 for possible fixes.

Clive, it might be worth checking which version of Manic Moose you have as I get exactly the behaviour that Chris described. I am using Manic Moose 2.45 with iPad 4 / iPad 10 / PC browser.

[John541]

Hi John,

Theres not much I can do about 1 & 2 in Manic Moose as the original web ui as you point out doesn't take into consideration of classical music lovers.  There is intention in OS3/Nutty Narwhal to either have more granular sorting/search or perhaps even a dedicated view for classical music.  As for issues 3 & 4 I can comment and my comments may or may not be accurate but they are for 3 I think your enabling the infinite track feature, this button is an infinite loop and pictured below.  When this feature is on the player will attempt to add a track that it believes is similar to what is currently playing.
....
....

Chris,

Many thanks for your very helpful response - I'm sure you are very busy without having to deal with pesky individuals like me on the forum.

Of course my item (1) isn't really about classical music per se but about functionality in general as, from what I  I understand, the Qobuz genres include:     Pop/Rock,   Jazz,   Classique,   Chanson française,   Électronique,   Soul/Funk/R&B,   Metal,   Hip-Hop/Rap,   Blues/Country/Folk,   Bandes originales,   Musiques du monde,   Reggae, Enfants (using the Qobuz names for the genres).

Item (2) - one possible problem with this is trying to shoe-horn everything into a predetermined screen layout. Which I guess is also part of the issue with (1).

I'm afraid to say that I am in the process of cobbling together some non-Qobuz feedback. Once again my intention is to be helpful rather than otherwise - although, of course, these will be personal views.

[Clive197]

Clive, it might be worth checking which version of Manic Moose you have as I get exactly the behaviour that Chris described. I am using Manic Moose 2.45 with iPad 4 / iPad 10 / PC browser.

Hi John, I’m using an iPad Pro with Manic Moose 2.45 2022-10-05.

[John541]

Hi John, I’m using an iPad Pro with Manic Moose 2.45 2022-10-05.

I know no more than you but might it be possible that there is an issue with the Manic Moose 2.45 running on your kit? Perhaps due to a partially successful upgrade or possible corruption? Chris is the source of all knowledge of course.

[unincognito]

Hi John, I’m using an iPad Pro with Manic Moose 2.45 2022-10-05.

Could be the feature for it is turned disabled as the feature that drives it is optional, by default turned off on existing hardware and should on by default on hardware that shipped with the feature.  If its turned off it shouldn't be able to query the required database.

You would need at minimum these options turned on to make use of the "add some song" feature to be active.



Thats not to say there isn't a bug that im unaware of that could be causing it

Chris

[unincognito]

Chris,

Many thanks for your very helpful response - I'm sure you are very busy without having to deal with pesky individuals like me on the forum.

Of course my item (1) isn't really about classical music per se but about functionality in general as, from what I  I understand, the Qobuz genres include:     Pop/Rock,   Jazz,   Classique,   Chanson française,   Électronique,   Soul/Funk/R&B,   Metal,   Hip-Hop/Rap,   Blues/Country/Folk,   Bandes originales,   Musiques du monde,   Reggae, Enfants (using the Qobuz names for the genres).

Item (2) - one possible problem with this is trying to shoe-horn everything into a predetermined screen layout. Which I guess is also part of the issue with (1).

I'm afraid to say that I am in the process of cobbling together some non-Qobuz feedback. Once again my intention is to be helpful rather than otherwise - although, of course, these will be personal views.

constructive feedback is always appreciated, not everyone has the same priorities as myself

Chris

[SoundGame]

Is there an updated to Manic Moose expected in the near term to optimize the UI? 

On this thread, I too, have found though I'm running the latest MM 2.45 and accessing via my iPad 8th Gen OS v.16.5.1, I don't have the ability to tap the album artwork while playing the album to change / control favorites.  This is despite me confirming that I do have: Enable Bryston DB and Enable Music Scrapper selected. 

I use Manic Moose as my primary player interface with my Bryston BR20, and have stayed off investing in ROON as I don't want to necessarily pay for yet another subscription nor do I want to go down another rabbit hold in all the various setup selections offered within ROON.  I've used both Squeezebox and Bluesound OS and find them both much more user friendly. 

Is there no way to perhaps tie in with a known music App for Apple/Android that would make controlling the Bryston player both easy and cheap? 

I anxiously await a significant update to the current Mannic Moose offering.  I await your response on when the next fulsome revision might be released...hopefully this summer 2023???

[vonnie123]

Rigelian is a pretty useful app for mpd.

[unincognito]

Is there an updated to Manic Moose expected in the near term to optimize the UI? 

On this thread, I too, have found though I'm running the latest MM 2.45 and accessing via my iPad 8th Gen OS v.16.5.1, I don't have the ability to tap the album artwork while playing the album to change / control favorites.  This is despite me confirming that I do have: Enable Bryston DB and Enable Music Scrapper selected. 

I use Manic Moose as my primary player interface with my Bryston BR20, and have stayed off investing in ROON as I don't want to necessarily pay for yet another subscription nor do I want to go down another rabbit hold in all the various setup selections offered within ROON.  I've used both Squeezebox and Bluesound OS and find them both much more user friendly. 

Is there no way to perhaps tie in with a known music App for Apple/Android that would make controlling the Bryston player both easy and cheap? 

I anxiously await a significant update to the current Mannic Moose offering.  I await your response on when the next fulsome revision might be released...hopefully this summer 2023???

Nothing big and new this summer, however Manic Moose uses MPD for audio playback, so any MPD client can control audio playback and there are many available. 

Chris