Auralic Lightning DS App (Software) - Impressions and Information

[AllThatJazz]

ReadyNas Pro 6/iPad Mini 1st gen user here. Setup went fine and so far no issues (crossing fingers)

 

Am I the only one who appreciates the addition of "Last Modify Date" sorting? Now I don't need to open up JRiver to see recently added albums.

[wdw]

Hello All.

The recent update was flawless and impressively professional, both in script and graphics. Kudos to the the Auralic team. (what are Kudos, btw?)

My reason for posting tonight is to relay my experience this evening. Stupidly left my iPad at work (it's a great technical and office device) and thought "oh sh*t" but then

remembered all you good folks talking about Kinsky.

So two minutes later my iMac is talking to the Aries and the iPhones is talking to Kinsky....totally flawless software.

Just a note to anyone in similar peril.

Best

WDW

[baddog]

When you get a chance try Linn Kazoo on your iMac, even better than their release of Kinsky....

[wdw]

When you get a chance try Linn Kazoo on your iMac, even better than their release of Kinsky....

 

Kazoo? A further improvement? Thanks for the head's up although it appears that the iPhone is not invited to the party. :-(

WDW

[baddog]

Kazoo? A further improvement? Thanks for the head's up although it appears that the iPhone is not invited to the party. :-(

WDW

 

I have not been able to get it to work on an iPad but it is the next gen release of the Kinsky application on the Mac. Well worth trying out.

 

If you want to party with your iPhone I believe the Kinsky application works, but I am not sure anymore as it has been a long long time....

[toast]

I also can't add radio stations like others have reported. Sure hope Auralic bring back that feature as my wife really loved her internet radio station.

[dr.sah]

They should buy one Sonos player and test it. They have best app on market, really fast and stable. Only that I want from Auralic. Sound is perfect.

[Audio_ELF]

(what are Kudos, btw?)

They are a great, no-nonsense British speaker brand! But perhaps not what you were referring to :-)

[baconbrain]

So I played around with 2.0.1 some more and found out that the app crashes and will not restart when accessing the "purchases" view in the Qobuz streaming service ... :-(

 

Also my app does occassional refreshes (without intervention from my side) which interupts music playback, kills the internet radio, etc...

 

I am really starting to get frustrated with this and contemplating returning the device.

[wanta911]

Also my app does occasional refreshes (without intervention from my side) which interrupts music playback, kills the internet radio, etc...

 

Well that is just weird, I have the exact opposite problem. After adding an album the app would not refresh, I waited over an hour at one stage just to see if it would do a background refresh while it was playing.......nada. Manually using "refresh cache" did not add the new album either, the only way I could make the addition was to clear the cache and then refresh it. I'm going to try it again tomorrow with a clear head to make sure it is nothing that I'm doing.

 

I'm not overly concerned with the glitches I'm getting, more just annoying than anything else as I'm sure they'll sort it out. I am however bemused that some of these glitches are poles apart between users such as is the case here. Maybe the model of iPad/tablet and/or the version of IOS is a factor?

[Cebolla]

I also can't add radio stations like others have reported. Sure hope Auralic bring back that feature as my wife really loved her internet radio station.

If you are using MinimServer as your UPnP media server, you could try that instead for internet radio. It is supposed to be compatible with most UPnP supporting streamers, but I've yet to see anyone here mentioning using it with their Aries.

 

In order to add them to MinimServer, you need to manually create playlist files for the radio station URLs and add the storage folder details to where these playlist files kept, in MinimServer's settings. The radio stations themselves should appear just like a normal music file track, in a folder with the same name of the playlist file, below MinimServer's main Playlist folder. Details from the MinimServer site here:

User guide

[atletico]

Well that is just weird, I have the exact opposite problem. After adding an album the app would not refresh, I waited over an hour at one stage just to see if it would do a background refresh while it was playing.......nada. Manually using "refresh cache" did not add the new album either, the only way I could make the addition was to clear the cache and then refresh it. I'm going to try it again tomorrow with a clear head to make sure it is nothing that I'm doing.

 

I'm not overly concerned with the glitches I'm getting, more just annoying than anything else as I'm sure they'll sort it out. I am however bemused that some of these glitches are poles apart between users such as is the case here. Maybe the model of iPad/tablet and/or the version of IOS is a factor?

 

Same issue her, unable to refresh cache for new added album to my NAS from my iPad 2. The only way to update the library now is clear the cache and then install the library again. And the iPad is slow... I'm afraid we have to buy a new iPad for the Lightning DS App to function as it is should do..? Will cost me an extra 450$ in Norway.

And the issue with not to be able to manually add radio stations also is a step back for me...All this was an disappointing experience yesterday after the upgrade . The whole evening went with this upgrade issues without listening to music that for me is the most important with the Aries..

[Ric]

They should buy one Sonos player and test it. They have best app on market, really fast and stable. Only that I want from Auralic. Sound is perfect.

 

THIS. Couldn't agree more. I have been using a Sonos for years (sound quality is excellent through my DAC), and now I end up comparing all other apps to the Sonos app. It's not perfect, but it's intuitive and it just WORKS. I'm still using my Sonos more than my Aries because the app is so usable.

[Ric]

I finally got my albums to show up in the library, but on some of the albums none of my tracks show up, is anyone else having this issue? The tracks were showing up in playing fine in earlier versions before 2.0 .1

 

I'm having this problem. Using LightningServer, my albums all show up, but many (like 30%) don't show any tracks. They do show if I browse to the same album by folder, and they appear if I use Kinsky or Kazoo and point them at LightningServer. Anybody have a solution for this?

[baconbrain]

Here the response I received from Technical Support:

"The current version of Lightning DS does not work well on iPad 2 (2nd generation) and iPad mini (1st generation). The main problem is because the poor WiFi quality and small memory. We recommend you to use a newer iPad. Even with our V2.0 which improved the running speed, we are still not be able to sort out the WiFi problem which is by hardware design of iPad."

So meaning if I don't buy a new Ipad, I am out of luck. Great upgrade plan! :-(

 

At least they could maintain 2 versions of the app for those of us who are not willing to invest another 500 euros for the additional functionality. I just want the thing to function and do not need to run another media server with it.

[dr.sah]

Why new iPad? After spending so much money on Aries. Why cheap Sonos works so good?

Ov, i have iPad mini second generation, and still doesnt work as it should be.

Well, I like App interface a lot, and for me, they improved app little bit, at least current playing list is stable, without freezing.

 

And, why they have library and folder view? They can remove folder view under filters on top right, but only pure folder view, without addittionals views.

[C Martin]

I also did have some very odd problems to start with... e.g when I started an album from local USB or Tidal I couldn't find anything in the playing queue and the display on Aries was not showing track number or time progress. It was not possible to use skip to next or other navigation since there was nothing in the queue or in the "now playing view". LDS 2.0.1 didn't show anything currently playing!

- So... I reinstalled the app and did a full power cycle on the Aries - Problem fixed!! Haven't had any major problems at all after that. Using iPad 2 BTW.

[jtwrace]

I don't know how anyone uses the Gen 1 iPad. I had to sell it as loading the safari browser to surf the net was so slow. I got an iPad Air now and it's super quick.

[Regnad]

So who will install OS9 Beta on their iPad and report back, gulp?

[baconbrain]

I also did have some very odd problems to start with... e.g when I started an album from local USB or Tidal I couldn't find anything in the playing queue and the display on Aries was not showing track number or time progress. It was not possible to use skip to next or other navigation since there was nothing in the queue or in the "now playing view". LDS 2.0.1 didn't show anything currently playing!

- So... I reinstalled the app and did a full power cycle on the Aries - Problem fixed!! Haven't had any major problems at all after that. Using iPad 2 BTW.

 

I have reinstalled the app 3 times in total so far and completely recycled the device at least twice.

 

Is the connection to your Aries via ethernet or wifi? Perhaps I am missing something on the connectivity side if yours is running with an iPad 2?

[C Martin]

I have reinstalled the app 3 times in total so far and completely recycled the device at least twice.

 

Is the connection to your Aries via ethernet or wifi? Perhaps I am missing something on the connectivity side if yours is running with an iPad 2?

 

I'm using wifi only (5GHz) and fixed IP.

[audiobenpdx]

And the issue with not to be able to manually add radio stations also is a step back for me...All this was an disappointing experience yesterday after the upgrade . The whole evening went with this upgrade issues without listening to music that for me is the most important with the Aries..

 

I spend almost half of my listening time with the Aires to manually added radio stations like KCRW Eclectic24, and KEXP, not having access to these station in the most recent update is a huge factor, and why I chose to downgrade to the earlier version. Hopefully the Auralic team will offer the feature again soon in the next update.

[Jimmypowder]

I spend almost half of my listening time with the Aires to manually added radio stations like KCRW Eclectic24, and KEXP, not having access to these station in the most recent update is a huge factor, and why I chose to downgrade to the earlier version. Hopefully the Auralic team will offer the feature again soon in the next update.

 

I agree , you should be able to manually add your own channels .

[alandbush]

I spend almost half of my listening time with the Aires to manually added radio stations like KCRW Eclectic24, and KEXP, not having access to these station in the most recent update is a huge factor, and why I chose to downgrade to the earlier version. Hopefully the Auralic team will offer the feature again soon in the next update.

 

Is this of any help?

[audiobenpdx]

Is this of any help?

 

Hey! How did you get that? I did a search for KCRW Eclectic24, and nothing would show up...