MinimServer and Linn Kazoo

[DavidHB]

I wanted to revive this thread, but the title is now out of date. After a period during which I have hardly used Kazoo (preferring to use Kinsky on Windows), I have come back to it, and find that there have been significant changes.

The main change (to which I was alerted in another thread) is that Kazoo now supports UPnP Search, so MinimServer users now have a Search function that is as good as the one provided by the Bubble control points on Android. Also speed and responsiveness in Kazoo (always pretty good) seem to be if anything better than ever. My players are both Linn devices, so I don't know whether Kazoo works with other devices, or whether it is still irrevocably tied to the OpenHome protocol which few other manufacturers support. If it is, this would be its main weakness. But, for Linn owners using MinimServer, I would now recommend trying Kazoo. I don't suppose that Linn will be supporting both Kinsky and Kazoo for ever (though Kazoo is currently available only for Windows and Max OS X).

One disappointment in my use of Kazoo is that it still cannot handle the 'Disc n' container in a multi-disc album, so it is impossible to add all the tracks from a disc to the playlist in one go; by contrast, Bubble DS next can do this. I have reported this issue on the Linn Forum in the past, and will do so again, unless anyone advises that Linn are aware of the problem and intend to fix it. [Later EDIT] I now find that what I reported is a similar issue with grouped tracks, which has been fixed. I have posted a request for a similar fix in relation to 'Disc n' containers.

How good is Kazoo now (bearing in mid that most of those who posted to the previous thread were less than enthusiastic about it)? Well, it's a good deal better than it was in terms of features, and (on the Windows version I use) still has its original virtues of speed and stability. It is now in my view more user friendly, on Windows at least, than either Kinsky or foobar2000/fooUPnP. But it does not begin to compete with the more consistent design and wider range of features of Bubble DS Next and its Bubble UPnP counterpart on Android.

I think that Kazoo is now the most recommendable Windows control point for Linn users, particularly those who also use MinimServer. It would be good to know what experience MinimServer users with players not of Linn manufacture have had with recent builds of Kazoo.

David

[davezp25]

I have been using Kazoo on both Mac OS and IOS, using a Cubox-i running Volumio with upmpdci for OpenHome support. I have found it to be pretty good. The speed with Minimserver is great, as is search functionality. Kazoo seems to have a few(many?) issues still, but its my everyday CP at this time.

David

[Martin H]

Kazoo has definitely improved from its launch state but TBH it really was more like a beta product when launched and so it probably isn't saying a lot. Today it controls the DS and if all you are after are the basics then it will be fine, especially if you use minimserver with it. The search feature works really nicely with minimserver which is very useful. The Tidal integration has worked well and is a good omen for the future I guess.

However, for the control point for a £50k system (exakt) it is simply 'too' basic and requires you to work things out. The former makes it frustrating for a regular user and the latter makes it difficult to pass to a visitor or occasional user - trust me I have tried . . . . It's difficult to balance the comments but it's not the disaster it was on day one but is this really fit for purpose for such high end kit? I think not. Kazoo, even now doesn't do things that Kinsky did. Surely the first objective should be to match the features of the base product they have withdrawn support for but I was informed that "none of them can reasonably be deemed essential to the operation or intuitive use of the system". 'Let them eat cake' comes to mind.

Listening to music in this day and age really shouldn't be anything but easy. By now Linn should be offering an immersive experience and yet there is no sign of this. Five years ago I could on free software; listen to my music, see lyrics displayed as it played, see information on the album and the artists, have gigs flagged and so on. But with Linn I should be thankful it plays when I ask apparently and accept the fact that I need to reset the hardware every now and then. As you can tell this is becoming an increasingly raw nerve for me and approaching Linn to 'share' was frankly a waste of time.

Kinsky did eventually become a reasonable and stable product and I assume eventually Kazoo will do the same. I am far less sure that I will be using Linn kit by then.

Thankfully minimserver/Simon has a customer centric approach to development and long may it continue.

[claas]

Hi,

I'm using Kazoo on OS X since some months now.
Why did I change from Kinsky? Clearly because of the search functionality that is now available....but that's mainly because of MinimServer.

The playlist-management of Kazoo compared to Kinsky is a pain in the you know where. Which manager allowed to drop the drag&drop functionality for adding songs and changing the order?

I really do hope that Linn improves Kazoo soon.
They should look at SqueezePad, which is a great control point for the SqueezeBox system.

[DavidHB]

(08-02-2015 12:47)claas Wrote:  The playlist-management of Kazoo compared to Kinsky is a pain in the you know where. Which manager allowed to drop the drag&drop functionality for adding songs and changing the order?

This functionality is not available in all versions of Kinsky. Playlist management in the Android version cannot be accurately described in polite society. I shall be interested to see the Android version of Kazoo. But when we have Bubble DS I don't need it.

David

[claas]

(08-02-2015 18:42)DavidHB Wrote:  This functionality is not available in all versions of Kinsky.

Sorry, David. It is available at least in the Mac OS X version of Kinsky.

[DavidHB]

(08-02-2015 18:57)claas Wrote:  

(08-02-2015 18:42)DavidHB Wrote:  This functionality is not available in all versions of Kinsky.

Sorry, David. It is available at least in the Mac OS X version of Kinsky.

It's also available in the Windows version, and not in the Windows version of Kazoo, so there's consistency there at least. Is there any equivalent feature in the iOS version of Kinsky (I don't use iOS)?

David

[claas]

(08-02-2015 19:22)DavidHB Wrote:  It's also available in the Windows version, and not in the Windows version of Kazoo, so there's consistency there at least. Is there any equivalent feature in the iOS version of Kinsky (I don't use iOS)?

No, it isn't. But consistency is deleting features is not a feature :-)

Claas

[Martin H]

I think it's my imagination but I on my PC I use the Hi-Res filter so that I can select tunes from the 'higher res' formats rather than the whole collection. This is really useful.

I thought it had worked on the iPad before too but the option isn't there this morning. Maybe it was never there at all and I have simply not noticed as I have often been at the PC doing that type of selection from the PC and then move around the house accessing the playlist on the ipad to refine it.

If it works on the PC it's yet another bit of weirdness that they haven't followed through onto the iPad.

Is this just me?
Has this feature always been missing from IOS?
Anyone understand why this would happen? i.e. is there a good technical reason why it can't be implemented on the IOS app?

[simoncn]

(27-02-2015 12:53)Martin H Wrote:  I think it's my imagination but I on my PC I use the Hi-Res filter so that I can select tunes from the 'higher res' formats rather than the whole collection. This is really useful.

I thought it had worked on the iPad before too but the option isn't there this morning. Maybe it was never there at all and I have simply not noticed as I have often been at the PC doing that type of selection from the PC and then move around the house accessing the playlist on the ipad to refine it.

If it works on the PC it's yet another bit of weirdness that they haven't followed through onto the iPad.

Is this just me?
Has this feature always been missing from IOS?
Anyone understand why this would happen? i.e. is there a good technical reason why it can't be implemented on the IOS app?

What exactly do you mean by the Hi-Res filter? I dont see any mention of this in the Kazoo user manual.