Select and play music
Contents
The Primare NP5 allows you to play music in a variety of ways:
- Directly from your phone, tablet, laptop or PC via Chromecast or Airplay2. Sound from any app that supports Chromecast or Airplay2 can be sent to the NP5.
- Spotify users have Spotify Connect.
- Primare’s Prisma app allows you to play your own music files via UPnP. If your music is on a NAS or PC and you have a UPnP Server running on it, you can use the Prisma app to browse and select your music. The Prisma app has a simple but adequate interface that is responsive.
- By connecting a USB-enabled hard drive or a USB stick to NP5’s USB input. The Prisma app allows you to browse the music files stored on it and select and play files.
- Using Roon, the NP5 is Roon Ready.
- Connect via Bluetooth.
Playing music gapless from a streaming service
Airplay plays music gapless, but is limited to CD quality. Chromecast plays 24-bit files, up to 96Khz, but is not gapless. If you listen to classical music via Tidal or Qobuz, or you’re a Pink Floyd fan and don’t want a pause between transitions of tracks, you now have to rely on Airplay or Roon. That’s annoying if you’re an Android user and rely on Chromecast.
Primare has recognized this and is releasing an update this fall where Qobuz and Tidal are embedded in the Prisma app and music can be played gapless. That same update ensures that both the SPDIF and TOSLink output can handle 192Khz 24 bit streams, Chromecast brings 192Khz streams down to 96Khz, and that MQA encoded music from Tidal can be passed to the DAC, if the DAC supports MQA.
Tidal Connect is not supported and is not going to be supported. Primare made the choice to include Tidal and Qobuz in the Prisma app, allowing them to roll out this update to older devices that have the Prisma platform on board. This is good news for existing Primare customers. A manufacturer that cherishes its existing customers and makes sure new functionality via updates is also available on technically somewhat older devices deserves applause. It is also a good sign for those who buy the NP5 MK2: you will enjoy it for a long time.
Internet radio
For those who enjoy listening to Internet radio and the high quality streams that more and more radio stations are broadcasting, there is good news. With the Prisma app you can find lots of stations and listen to the best quality stream offered.
The selection of radio stations is not intuitive. You can click along some preset search paths, but you cannot influence the selection. It is downright annoying that after a selection, the app jumps back to the first page of an overview of a preset search path. A search function that allows you to search by name is missing.
Excellent…
Thank you Martijn! This was all very helpful. I’ve incorporated your suggestion of a d-link switch to the Ethernet chain btw. Big improvement at such a low cost investment. Now wondering what I should get as a streamer upgrade. Really appreciate your help. And what you guys have been doing with your testing and reviews 👍🏼🙏🏼
Feel a bit weird as the only commenter! And sorry to ask this as I know it would not be a simple answer but: Would Volumio Rivo be a considerable or marginal step up from this network streamer in your opinion? As in with at least an Ifi power supply upgrade. Many thanks 🙏🏼
Hi John. The Primare NP5 MKii is better than the Rivo when used with SPDIF out. The Rivo is better with AES or USB out. Having said that, the differences on SPDIF show up – in general, it depends on the specific equipment it is paired with – with DAC’s in the plus 1200 Euro range, or amplifiers with DACs in the plus 2500 Euro range.
The Primare doesn’t have AES or USB out, only SPDIF (on coax or toslink). So it depends for what connection type you are looking for.
In software, Volumio is clearly better.
Before I forget: Primare made some software updates. Qobuz and Tidal are integrated now in the Primare app, but the presentation in the app and the way you select music from either service is very rudimentary as compared to the way Volumio works with Qobuz and Tidal integration, or to other third party options out there, like the JPlay app for iOS, Audirvana or Roon.
A search entry field has been added to the radio section, so you can search on a radio station name now. The radio station selection and the way you can bookmark stations works nice. I’m not a big internet radio listener, but I have used this a few times with the Primare app. Their selection of high quality radio streams is quite nice.