[Krutsch]

Subject line says it all.

I am curious to see what Bryston owners are using to playback audio on their BDP-1, BDP-1USB or BDP-2.

I am also asking to gauge interest in an updated MPD app (not only for the BDPs but for MPD playback appliances, in general).

Thanks for clicking!

[Grit]

I prefer the interface of my Sonos, though it doesn't control my BDP-2. Unfortunately, the Sonos gets much more use than the BDP, simply because of ease of use.

I preferred the MPD interface over Manic Moose, but I stopped using it because of a few bugs and it's no longer getting updates.

Manic Moose could work alright if the interface didn't jump around so much. Hitting the "back" button causes the whole page to readjust position. If Manic Moose used frames and they were static, it might function better. It's less frustrating on the tablet simply because the interface is larger, but the problem still exists.

The idea of paying even more for an interface is very frustrating,  but if I could get something as user friendly as the Sonos interface, I'd probably pay for it. My BDP gers used rarely, only because of how frustrating it is to use via my cell phone or tablet.

I had some high hopes for Roon, though there seems to be an issue where playback quality isn't identical to Manic Moose, so that doesn't work for me.

Out of all the listed options, I actually USE Manic Moose most often because there is no sound quality compromise and it can be operated via a handheld device.But that is NOT my preference. It's just the only option other than MPD, which crashes from time to time.

[Krutsch]

I prefer the interface of my Sonos, though it doesn't control my BDP-2. Unfortunately, the Sonos gets much more use than the BDP, simply because of ease of use.

I preferred the MPD interface over Manic Moose, but I stopped using it because of a few bugs and it's no longer getting updates.

Manic Moose could work alright if the interface didn't jump around so much. Hitting the "back" button causes the whole page to readjust position. If Manic Moose used frames and they were static, it might function better. It's less frustrating on the tablet simply because the interface is larger, but the problem still exists.

The idea of paying even more for an interface is very frustrating,  but if I could get something as user friendly as the Sonos interface, I'd probably pay for it. My BDP gers used rarely, only because of how frustrating it is to use via my cell phone or tablet.

I had some high hopes for Roon, though there seems to be an issue where playback quality isn't identical to Manic Moose, so that doesn't work for me.

Out of all the listed options, I actually USE Manic Moose most often because there is no sound quality compromise and it can be operated via a handheld device.But that is NOT my preference. It's just the only option other than MPD, which crashes from time to time.

I appreciate your comments. For clarity, Manic Moose is an interface to MPD, just like the MPD apps listed in the poll, except that the mobile apps above interact with MPD via a network API; Manic Moose should use the same APIs, "in the box", and then serve up its interface via HTML. In other words, there shouldn't be any sonic difference between the two (I haven't noticed any).

[vonnie123]

Manic Moose works but generally drives me nuts.  I just reloaded Mpad (thanks to this thread) and will use that when hooked directly to the BDP-1 to play HDD flac files.  I used it part-time before, but didn't reload it when I changed tablets.

When I'm using the BDP-1 as a renderer, I use Jremote, the JRiver MC iPad app.  Jremote is marvelous....a bargain at $10.

I would be interested, and happy to beta test it for you as well if you decide to pursue it.  I have Sonos, JRMC (both the program & JRiver Id Server/renderer) and Bryston music file sources.  Desktop music storage is on my iMac computer, and can be accessed by my media sources, and Yamaha AVR (prepro) via DLNA.

[Grit]

I appreciate your comments. For clarity, Manic Moose is an interface to MPD, just like the MPD apps listed in the poll, except that the mobile apps above interact with MPD via a network API; Manic Moose should use the same APIs, "in the box", and then serve up its interface via HTML. In other words, there shouldn't be any sonic difference between the two (I haven't noticed any).

Correct. The only time I read about a sonic difference was using Roon (never tried it myself). I don't hear any difference between using the MPD Android app vs the HTML Manic Moose interface. I just get more frustrated with the MPD app crashing than I do with Manic Moose's jumpy HTML interface.

[Samurai7595]

MPad for iPad has been very reliable & stable.  I also use MPoD on my iPhone 6 Plus but it doesn't display all album art. The MPaD app displays all album art.  The only complaint is that the MPaD app does not provide integration for TIDAL (unless I'm missing something here).

I also agree that the best control app I've used to date is the Sonos app.  It's very easy to use, very reliable & stable and well supported with new updates and great customer support.  The Sonos wireless network is also extremely reliable & stable.  Companies who build digital streamers can learn a lot from Sonos.  The Aurender Conductor app is a very close second to Sonos and also provides integration for TIDAL.

[Krutsch]

MPad for iPad has been very reliable & stable.  I also use MPoD on my iPhone 6 Plus but it doesn't display all album art. The MPaD app displays all album art. The only complaint is that the MPaD app does not provide integration for TIDAL (unless I'm missing something here).

I also agree that the best control app I've used to date is the Sonos app.  It's very easy to use, very reliable & stable and well supported with new updates and great customer support.  The Sonos wireless network is also extremely reliable & stable.  Companies who build digital streamers can learn a lot from Sonos.  The Aurender Conductor app is a very close second to Sonos and also provides integration for TIDAL.

For TIDAL, have you considered enabling "Shairplay" on your BDP and simply using the iPad TIDAL app and Airplay?

And, I agree: the Sonos app is very usable. My family loves it.

[zoom25]

MPod/MPad are effective. They work fine for me. Although I mostly use the web browser thing to control it. It took awhile to get used to it, but now its second nature. Although, I do agree with the previous poster of having a static page when hitting "Back" and the directory shifts sometimes. It's not consistent for me.

[Samurai7595]

For TIDAL, have you considered enabling "Shairplay" on your BDP and simply using the iPad TIDAL app and Airplay?

And, I agree: the Sonos app is very usable. My family loves it.

How do I do this?

[Krutsch]

How do I do this?

I assume you refer to the Shairplay part? Go into Manic Moose and open the "Services" panel (the lower tabs). Scroll down to Shairplay. Click on it and click on it, so it's selected, and click on the Start/Stop button. Your BDP will then show up as an Airplay receiver in your iDevice.

[zoom25]

I assume you refer to the Shairplay part? Go into Manic Moose and open the "Services" panel (the lower tabs). Scroll down to Shairplay. Click on it and click on it, so it's selected, and click on the Start/Stop button. Your BDP will then show up as an Airplay receiver in your iDevice.

I tried this and it didn't work on my BDP-1. I selected the Shairplay box as ON under Services. When I tried to use Spotify on my iPhone 6+, I could not find the BDP-1 anywhere as a device. I could find my iMac and Apple TV on the iPhone 6+.

[Krutsch]

I tried this and it didn't work on my BDP-1. I selected the Shairplay box as ON under Services. When I tried to use Spotify on my iPhone 6+, I could not find the BDP-1 anywhere as a device. I could find my iMac and Apple TV on the iPhone 6+.

It's hard for me to know/see what's going on. I've done this a number of times and I am confident that the BDP's Shairplay function works. Do you see the BDP in the Airplay menu on your iPhone? It might take a moment for it to appear, after initially enabling the Service.

[Marius]

HI Crutch,


Besides the rather unreliable Shairplay functionality in MM, isn't it a bit below par to the BDP's main raison d'être, being a hi res digital player? Shairplay, as  Apple's original Airplay, only plays 16 bit audio. (some future changes have been talked about, have to wait and see what Apple will do with hi resolution audio.)
Though a nice option for the occasional music playing, i find shairplay hardly a serious alternative to MPD. For what its worth, the other streaming options on the BDP don't either..
BDP sound best with MPD. Local usb or Nas files alike.


Cheers,
Marius

It's hard for me to know/see what's going on. I've done this a number of times and I am confident that the BDP's Shairplay function works. Do you see the BDP in the Airplay menu on your iPhone? It might take a moment for it to appear, after initially enabling the Service.

[Krutsch]

^ Right, but if you read the previous post, he's trying to listen to Spotify, so comments about resolution, et al. don't really apply.

I know people like to trash Airplay, but it sounds just fine with typical streaming content.

[Marius]

NO trashing here, im a real Apple fan Use it quite a lot actually specially with live radio, TuneinPro and.... Airplay. Sure. BDP can be a great transporter for music streamed by other apps that do that much better  and easier than the BDP itself.


I was only tuning in because u were suggesting Airplay and Tidal. Now I havent had the shivers yet about Tidal in the first place, but as it is trying to talk about itself as a hi res source of the music scene, i thought it wouldn't fare well with (sh)airplay.
Cheers,
Marius

^ Right, but if you read the previous post, he's trying to listen to Spotify, so comments about resolution, et al. don't really apply.

I know people like to trash Airplay, but it sounds just fine with typical streaming content.

[Rod_S]

I just use Bryston's inhouse app. It does the job pretty good. I encounter some glitches every now and then but all in all I find it good. One item I would like to be able to do but it doesn't allow is when in Artist view to sort the albums by date, both ascending and descending. When storing albums physically that's how I always did it, chronologically on release date so I miss not being able to do that in the virtual world.

[plurn]

I use MPD, though not on Bryston hardware.

I use mpad on my original model ipad and find it quite buggy, though I like it very much. The issues I have is that it often mixes up the artists for songs in the playlist. So for a particular song, it will show the artist from one of the other songs in the playlist. Slightly annoying but not the end of the world. I expect I could fix it by going through all the metadata and taking out weird characters like accented letters and apostrophes.

It also does not display the album art all the time, even if I have a suitable image in the correct location and correct name hosted on a web server accessible by mpad. Also not a big problem.

Searching for songs in mpad is not brilliant, so I mostly use browse mode which I like. I'll use an app on my mac if I really need to find something.

I also use Theremin on my mac when I want to quickly make playlists, or to change tracks when I am using my mac, rather than getting out the ipad.

Have you guys tried other MPD controller apps on ipad? Eg MPDluxe or Soundirok. They look a lot more modern than mpad, though they won't run on my ipad's old operating system so I have not tried them. They look promising. I would be interested to hear if they are any good.

[Krutsch]

I use MPD, though not on Bryston hardware.

...

Have you guys tried other MPD controller apps on ipad? Eg MPDluxe or Soundirok. They look a lot more modern than mpad, though they won't run on my ipad's old operating system so I have not tried them. They look promising. I would be interested to hear if they are any good.

I looked at both of the above; I opted not to purchase MPDluxe, as it appears from the screen shots that there is no support for album art, which for me is a show-stopper.

I purchased and played around with Soundirok. I was able to set it up, but I am very familiar with MPD, so it wasn't a chore for me; others may have issues (and I would say the same about MPaD).

I thought the options to add an Artist image (i.e. thumb.jpg) was a nice touch; other than that, it seems to be less capable than MPaD. You cannot browse by folder, genre or album title - only by Artist. Although, you can search by Artists and Albums, as well as Songs. And, the search results do appear quickly, so that's nice.

Finally, my BDP-1's playlists do not appear anywhere, which is a killer for me. But the app is a nice start and I will see what the developer adds in follow=-on releases. Thanks for pointing these out.

[Krutsch]

I looked at both of the above; I opted not to purchase MPDluxe, as it appears from the screen shots that there is no support for album art, which for me is a show-stopper.

I purchased and played around with Soundirok. I was able to set it up, but I am very familiar with MPD, so it wasn't a chore for me; others may have issues (and I would say the same about MPaD).

I thought the options to add an Artist image (i.e. thumb.jpg) was a nice touch; other than that, it seems to be less capable than MPaD. You cannot browse by folder, genre or album title - only by Artist. Although, you can search by Artists and Albums, as well as Songs. And, the search results do appear quickly, so that's nice.

Finally, my BDP-1's playlists do not appear anywhere, which is a killer for me. But the app is a nice start and I will see what the developer adds in follow=-on releases. Thanks for pointing these out.

Soundirok released a new version of their MPD app today for iPad .Holy Buckets, what a leap forward from the last version!

Support for MPD playlists, "Collections" and "Intelligent Sets" which are basically playlists and Smart Playlists, but can be used across multiple devices that are sharing the same library collection.

And, the author fixed the MPD library and album art caching issues. Elegant looking and responsive. Take a few minutes to learn the app and you will never go back to MPaD ... or other apps, from what I've experienced.

[Marius]

Hi Krutsch,

Since MM mobile still forces us to scroll continuously and heavily (the control buttons are almost a full screen away from the file list, the focus of the screen keeps taking the file list out of view, to be honest it made me give up on MM on mobile for now) I'll certainly will try Soundirok. Which option did you use for the album/cover art : http://www.kvibes.de/en/soundirok/display-cover-art/. ?

MM should be able to ditch the covert completely on mobile, while in file-view, and maybe have it displayed as watermark in play-mode, like Mpod handles that beautifully.
Because of this, i'm afraid a universal web interface like MM will never be as optimal as Bryston hopes is is, compared to a dedicated App.
 
Thanks
Marius

 

Soundirok released a new version of their MPD app today for iPad .Holy Buckets, what a leap forward from the last version!

Support for MPD playlists, "Collections" and "Intelligent Sets" which are basically playlists and Smart Playlists, but can be used across multiple devices that are sharing the same library collection.

And, the author fixed the MPD library and album art caching issues. Elegant looking and responsive. Take a few minutes to learn the app and you will never go back to MPaD ... or other apps, from what I've experienced.