Auralic Lightning DS App (Software) - Impressions and Information

[dmormerod]

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

 

I've been running the iOS 9 betas since the first developer release without issue other than the same issue everyone had with 2.0. I've had no issues so far with 2.0.1 on Beta 3.

[t_ram]

Wow! What a great app!

 

if only it was like this when I first got my Aries. Probably the easiest setup I've ever done. Lightning DS now lives up to its name, this thing is lightning quick jumping from song to song, album to album, and from album to Tidal streaming...sweeeeeetttt!!!

[jtwrace]

Wow! What a great app!

 

if only it was like this when I first got my Aries. Probably the easiest setup I've ever done. Lightning DS now lives up to its name, this thing is lightning quick jumping from song to song, album to album, and from album to Tidal streaming...sweeeeeetttt!!!

 

Nice to see someone else have the same success with it.

[t_ram]

I feel bad for people who are having a tough time...but man this is what the Aries should have been like from the beginning.

 

If you have the latest iPad Air 2 and a really good router and internet speed...now is the time to get an Aries. When I first got mine it was a little bit of a pain of having to use the hard line to connect and update as my Aries is on the other side of the house from the line. But this was easy peasy, I mean driving miss daisy kinda easy.

 

Thank you Xuanqian and crew for making a great product!

[jtwrace]

I feel bad for people who are having a tough time...but man this is what the Aries should have been like from the beginning.

 

If you have the latest iPad Air 2 and a really good router and internet speed...now is the time to get an Aries. When I first got mine it was a little bit of a pain of having to use the hard line to connect and update as my Aries is on the other side of the house from the line. But this was easy peasy, I mean driving miss daisy kinda easy.

 

Thank you Xuanqian and crew for making a great product!

 

Yep!

[sedest]

How can I downgrade to previous LDS version and block future automatic upgrades?

[wdw]

Yep!

 

 

Always so striking the variety of the end game when software is involved. My upgrade is exactly as stated by t_ram and my accolades the same but I am sympathetic to all the cases where this is not the case. Been there myself.

One question to all...the update involved me setting up a temporary Auralic WF network and then log into my own. I have always had the Aries tethered to an Airport Express and then to a wired ethernet to the Aries on the untested assumption that an active WF device within the Aries will degrade the sound. Has anyone tested the two to determine which is sonically superior?

On a second note, even when the Wired connection is selected, a WF network scan using Net Analyzer indicates the Aries is available to the network so, by inference, active all the time. Net effect, no benefit to a wired connection.

Am I totally off base on this one?

Best

WDW

[hemidemisemiquaver]

I have been waiting patiently for the introduction of Lightning DS version 2 for some time now. After a few minor hiccups with Apple IOS software last weekend, it is now up and running. I read about some of the problems some users were having with the new version of Lightning so I thought I would sit back and wait for the bugs to be ironed out from users' feedback to Auralic. This morning I took the plunge and deleted my Lightning DS v1.8 app from my IPad Mini 2 and uploaded the new version. It turned out to be the smoothest operation since I first installed my Auralic Aries. I do not use an NAS, just a 2TB external hard drive plugged directly into the Aries, so my set up is as simple as can be. I also use an Auralic Vega dac and chose not to use any other third party software (e.g. Miniserver).

 

I do enjoy listening to Internet radio, so I was worried that some people were having trouble setting up their favourite stations in the new version. I simply clicked on the search button - typed in "Radio Tunes" - clicked on the radio icon (top of page) and hit enter. Up came all the Radio Tunes stations available. I simply clicked on the "favourites" button (the yellow star) and they were all saved. Previously, I had to search manually through the different music genres and find my favourites.

 

The new software is MUCH faster than v1.8 and I noticed the album art is a much higher resolution, even in the Library view.

 

I am now very glad I took the plunge and updated. Congratulations to The Auralic team on an excellent job !

[JDOz]

...

One question to all...the update involved me setting up a temporary Auralic WF network and then log into my own. I have always had the Aries tethered to an Airport Express and then to a wired ethernet to the Aries on the untested assumption that an active WF device within the Aries will degrade the sound. Has anyone tested the two to determine which is sonically superior?

On a second note, even when the Wired connection is selected, a WF network scan using Net Analyzer indicates the Aries is available to the network so, by inference, active all the time. Net effect, no benefit to a wired connection.

Am I totally off base on this one?

Best

WDW

 

Yes, it does seem that the Aries WiFi cannot be switched off. I wish it could as I'd like to test if that made the wired connection sound better. Auralic went the other way with a previous FW update that automatically turns off the Aries Ethernet connection/circuit when not in use...to improve wireless SQ.

Most people are reporting little difference in SQ wired vs. wireless but it might depend on your system; e.g. ethernet cables and the things attached to them. Some (but not all) of us think that direct USB connected hard drive sounds best.

[Lebensgeist]

Very fast App. I found a bug: If you change an album by using BubbleUPnP UPnP/DLNA together with an iPad, the cover is empty. :-(

[Cebolla]

Very fast App. I found a bug: If you change an album by using BubbleUPnP UPnP/DLNA together with an iPad, the cover is empty. :-(

¿Que?

 

Neither the BubbleUPnP Android app nor even the lesser known BubbleUPnP Server helper software can run on an iPad. I'm certainly intrigued as to what you mean by either one of those similarly named applications being used to 'change an album'.

 

Might be an idea of you explain exactly what you were using and how what you were doing affected the 'very fast App' (the Lightning DS app, may be?) to produce this 'cover is empty' 'bug' you've found.

[wdw]

Yes, it does seem that the Aries WiFi cannot be switched off. I wish it could as I'd like to test if that made the wired connection sound better. Auralic went the other way with a previous FW update that automatically turns off the Aries Ethernet connection/circuit when not in use...to improve wireless SQ.

Most people are reporting little difference in SQ wired vs. wireless but it might depend on your system; e.g. ethernet cables and the things attached to them. Some (but not all) of us think that direct USB connected hard drive sounds best.

 

Interesting your experience concurs with mine...when I asked Aries support about this issue their European rep, Christiane (or similar, can't recall the name) repeatedly claimed the WF is off when unused even when told of the WiFi scan and the Aries showing up.

I am using an attached USB drive, as well with a AQ Carbon USB as a data cable.

Thanks,

WDW

[dr.sah]

Guys, now I start up add on my Nexus 5, what a speed! I was switching between Library view and filters inside,and folder view, and back, and than on radio, and back on library. Everything is fast, much faster than on my iPad mini retina. Can anyone test Lightenimg app on Android tablet?

[Lebensgeist]

¿Que?

 

Neither the BubbleUPnP Android app nor even the lesser known BubbleUPnP Server helper software can run on an iPad. I'm certainly intrigued as to what you mean by either one of those similarly named applications being used to 'change an album'.

 

Might be an idea of you explain exactly what you were using and how what you were doing affected the 'very fast App' (the Lightning DS app, may be?) to produce this 'cover is empty' 'bug' you've found.

 

You can use BubbleUPnP as a remote control. The first album shows the cover. If you choose the second album, the cover is empty. I took a screenshot.

 

[Cebolla]

Ok, so what you seem to be saying is that you are using the BubbleUPnP Android app as a UPnP control point for the Aries and then observing the playback screen on the Lightning DS app running on an iPad. Also, you appear to be using the Aries in OpenHome mode, since the Lightning DS playback screen is showing the entire playlist (ie all the album's tracks).

 

If you had been using it in standard UPnP mode, the Lightning DS playback screen would likely only have picked up the current track and the next track from you using the BubbleUPnP app to control the Aries. It is actually important to mention which mode you have set on the Aries when using it with the BubbleUPnP app as it supports both standard UPnP and OpenHome.

 

It is certainly not recommended using two control point apps at the same time, especially if you are using standard UPnP mode, since both apps could get confused trying to control the renderer for gapless playback, etc. However, as you appear to be using the Aries in OpenHome, the control point apps are less likely to get confused. So it is possible that you have found a possible bug with the second album's art not being displayed by the Lightning DS's playback screen. The only way you can be sure is to exit the BubbleUPnP app before starting the Lightning DS app on the iPad and then test.

[dr.sah]

Anyone have proble, with playlist? When I want to add song in playlist, i see my two playlist. But when I go under playlist, there is no one?

[Lebensgeist]

Ok, so what you seem to be saying is that you are using the BubbleUPnP Android app as a UPnP control point for the Aries and then observing the playback screen on the Lightning DS app running on an iPad. Also, you appear to be using the Aries in OpenHome mode, since the Lightning DS playback screen is showing the entire playlist (ie all the album's tracks).

 

If you had been using it in standard UPnP mode, the Lightning DS playback screen would likely only have picked up the current track and the next track from you using the BubbleUPnP app to control the Aries. It is actually important to mention which mode you have set on the Aries when using it with the BubbleUPnP app as it supports both standard UPnP and OpenHome.

 

It is certainly not recommended using two control point apps at the same time, especially if you are using standard UPnP mode, since both apps could get confused trying to control the renderer for gapless playback, etc. However, as you appear to be using the Aries in OpenHome, the control point apps are less likely to get confused. So it is possible that you have found a possible bug with the second album's art not being displayed by the Lightning DS's playback screen. The only way you can be sure is to exit the BubbleUPnP app before starting the Lightning DS app on the iPad and then test.

 

The Cover "feature" is available since Version 2.01. No problems with 1.8.

[dr.sah]

This app is really a joke. Opening app takes 8-10 sec, than i get again spinning wheel, and before I managed to write singer in search field, passed 30 seconds. I tried in Sonos: 5-10 sec max, including with opening. I hope we get any update soon, or im leaving this ship to another product.

[Jimmypowder]

This app is really a joke. Opening app takes 8-10 sec, than i get again spinning wheel, and before I managed to write singer in search field, passed 30 seconds. I tried in Sonos: 5-10 sec max, including with opening. I hope we get any update soon, or im leaving this ship to another product.

 

I understand your pain . While I feel the update is a major improvement over the first version , the app needs to be able to run in the background , which it clearly cannot .

Anyone with older Apple iPads I can see may have issues as the app appears to need a lot of juice to work .

[dr.sah]

please ignore backsound. Here is short video, Aries is on wireless, on cable is same situation:

 

[video=youtube;PDqT-cx6dhQ]

 

 

[Distinctive]

I only have one issue with my updated LDS app.

When I try to mount the onboard LDS server to my network placed NAS I get an error.

The strange thing is that if I use the same NAS IP address, user and psw using my iMac (via Finder smb://) I am sucessfully connected to my music library.

[kennyb123]

This app is really a joke. Opening app takes 8-10 sec, than i get again spinning wheel, and before I managed to write singer in search field, passed 30 seconds.

 

The videos you posted were helpful.

 

I think you said you had a second generation iPad Mini w/Retina. Is that correct?

 

If so there's something wrong in your particular situation. There's an A7 in both my iPad Air and the iPad mini 2 (Retina/2nd Gen). I don't see poor performance like this.

 

Try freeing some space on your iPad.

 

Also try deleting the app and starting over. After you connect to your media library, be sure to give Lightning sufficient time to pull down all the information it needs without switching away.

[baconbrain]

Here an update from my side. Today I used an iPad Air (borrowed from a friend) and installed the app in it's current version again and unforetunately had the same problem as with my older iPad 2:

The Aries runs for period of approximately 10 - 15 minutes and then "no device" is displayed in the upper left corner of the app. The app refreshes on it's own numerous times, trying to find the device, and then either stops responding, (most of the time) or will continue playing. (seldom)

This happens regardless if the Aries is connected via wireless or ethernet, static or dynamic ip. I have tried all possibilities.

Could it be that the device is defective? I purchased it one week ago and it has not worked from the time I took it out of the box.

 

Of course, if it turns out that the unit is defective, my comments previously in this thread, regarding my dissatisfaction with the app, were not justified ... :-(

[kennyb123]

This happens regardless if the Aries is connected via wireless or ethernet, static or dynamic ip. I have tried all possibilities.

 

Can you share a bit more about your network? What's signal strength like for you iPad? Is it connecting to a 5 GHz network? What kind of wireless router? When the Aries connects via wired ethernet, how many switches between it and the wireless router?

 

Also, have you tried the Lumin app? This has been rock solid with my Aries. This would at least help you rule out the problem being with the Aries.

[jtwrace]

I can confirm like the other poster above that iOS 9 Beta and LDS work great together. Not an issue at all just like iOS 8.4 and my setup.