Playback options from network players

Network players have come to replace medium-term optical disc players. But not all functions, which were obvious for CD players, are also found 1: 1 in all network players.


Shuffle


On the other hand, each listener has individual priorities: what is indispensable to one, the other has never used. If you want to switch from CD to network, you should first know which player really has the skills that are important to him.


Fast forward / reverse


Network players do not have it easy: While one user expects an exact reproduction of the CD player features, the other is perhaps already spoiled by iPod & Co. and requires the usual gimmicks there

Gapless Play


Shuffle is such a specialty: the current playing album can almost all network players, but luckily browse through the entire music library only a few.


UPnP players are superseded by the latter, for which they can not do anything: they can not randomly select randomly thousands of titles without the help of the server. While TwonkyMedia fails here, Asset UPnP allows for a quasi-random playback by composing Playlists with approximately 100 randomly selected tracks and then sending them to the player.


It is easier for the players to have library data stored internally: Raumfeld and Sonos "shuffle" after heartache. The Squeezeboxes even allow you to play various shuffle options, such as playing the individual songs, rather than the individual songs, rather than playing entire albums.


Especially with the UPnP network players, the search function seems to be tricky to implement. Most of the players based on BridgeCo chipsets (and some others) do not currently have an advantage. The players of Denon, Marantz, Naim (with the exception of HDX and UnitiServe), Cyrus, Pro-Ject, Rotel, NAD, Onkyo and Yamaha are affected

The fact that neither UPnP nor the corresponding servers are the limiting factor are shown by the Linn players, who also work with UPnP, which even offer a particularly comfortable navigation within a title: In addition to the normal pre-run function with remote control buttons, a clickable and dragable time bar is also provided The corresponding control programs for the rapid detection of a specific location. The Sonos, Raumfeld and Logitech players, as well as the expensive Sooloos system, offer the same perfect features.


However, there is still hope for the players without forward / reverse. For T + A devices, an update has been available for a few weeks, which gives them this capability. The BridgeCo chipset (also used in T + A) seems to be still capable of learning.


One of the hottest irons in the discussion about the new players is Gapless Play, which for some is an absolute basic condition for listening to music. At CD times, it was normal for a once-started album to run through to the end without interruption.


So in the case of consistently produced material, such as concept albums, operas, live recordings or DJ mixes, the title meter continues to jump, but we do not have any interruption in the music, no misfits in the applause and no short dropouts in the transition from an act Or track to the next listen.


For a network player that processes an album like an order list with countless single files, the one-time self-evident thing has become a challenge: it has to request the following piece from the server while the current is still running, and then the end with the beginning in the buffer memory sample - exactly match each other. If this fails, a short drop-out occurs, which can take up to several seconds depending on the player and network quality.


Gapless are the UPnP players from Linn, T + A, NAD, TEAC (only the WAP series), Naim, Yamaha and Hermstedt as well as the systems from Sonos, Raumfeld, Logitech, Sooloos and Olive. Currently gapless-incompatible are the players of Denon, Marantz, Pioneer, Onkyo, Rotel and B & O.