The control app thread

[DavidL]

In 2014 when I chose a renderer (ethernet-to-SPDIF converter) to start streaming music I looked at several boxes and their associated control apps. Most of these apps were custom to the hardware (Naim, Cyrus, Krell, Audionet) and did not work at all, or at best with limitations, for other hardware. At that time I thought Audionet worked the best with my choice of renderer (Sonore Rendu) however all these apps have probably now changed or are defunct so my 2014 survey is no longer relevant. In 2015 I 'discovered' the BubbleUPnP control app. Initially I dismissed it as it required an Android device and our home computing environment was (and is) entirely Mac based, however giving the strong recommendations BubblUPnP received (including for use with MinimServer from Simon) I bought an Android tablet solely for use as a control device for playing music. A very important element in my criteria for choosing a control app has always been an ability to play music gaplessly (e.g. for live concert recordings and operas). Many renderer / control app combinations fail this requirement. I've used BubbleUPnP to control music from MinimServer since 2015 (first with Sonore Rendu and then with the PS Audio Bridge II in their DirectStream DAC) and it has been excellent; no dropouts or extraneous noise with the network. As Simon states above it is fast; it certainly met all my needs.

Unfortunately this state of affairs will not continue as PS Audio are soon to release their own music streaming system, hardware and software. This is going to be ‘closed’ in that it will not support UPnP. The streamer, including the associated Bridge III renderer, will be bundled with their ‘Octave’ software. Given the track record of PS Audio I am sure that they will continue to support the Bridge II renderer however this prospect caused me to look for a potential replacement for my Bridge II, that is not part part of a ‘closed’ system. Looking for this, and improved sound quality to take advantage of more recent advances in technology, I alighted on the dCS Network Bridge. To cut a long story short I bought one after 2 weeks evaluation. The hardware is brilliant - a definite improvement in sound quality - and the dCS hardware / control app supports UPnP: dCS specifically recommend MinimServer for UPnP music serving. Their Mosaic control app supports gapless playback but has some limitations in terms of browsing the music library, when compared with BubbleUPnP. The playback engine within the dCS hardware is not however compatible with UPnP for gapless playback, so I will continue to use the BubbleUPnP app until the browsing limitations are removed, and live with gaps in my music in the meantime. Judging by the responsiveness of dCS on their community website I’m confident they will quickly enhance the Mosaic app to a state comparable with BubbleUPnP.