Configuration Menu on Apps

Love my Bartok, but when I use the app, the Configuration submenu only has 3 items:

Restore Configuration
Save
Load

To get to other items I have to use the buttons on the front panel.

How can I get these items for the app (using an iPad).

Thanks

Hi Hornps but what app? The Bartok app has been superseded by Mosaic . So for us to help please confirm the app and the version running on your iPad and the versions of the software/firmware running on your Bartok.

I’ve been using both apps. The Bartok specific one (version 1.4.10) gives more control and choices. I use Mosaic (version 1.1.0(84)) to control music from a flash drive. On the Bartok, the Version is Main: 1.01, Network: 503.

I think the answer is to be found on page 20 of the Bartok User Manual.

Using a flash drive means using USB input 2 and that is basically controlled by the buttons on the front panel of the Bartok.

Hi, sorry, I wasn’t clear. I use both a flash drive and and Aurender player. Regardless, the Mosaic app gives very few options and info. The Bartok app has only the 3 options in the Configuration sub menu. To be sure the flash wasn’t messing thing up I removed it. Had no effect.

Is the Bartok attached to your network ?

In fact would you kindly advise on how your digital audio setup is connected?

I believe so - in Favourites the name is under UpnP, but if I hit the icon I get, “Browsing Error Failed to retrieve content”. I assume that this is because I do not have a NAS. The is the only error message I’ve ever gotten.

The set-up: Ethernet cable to Bartok, ethernet cable from Bartok to Aurender, USB cable from Aurender to Bartok USB1 port.

I do not really understand how you have connected your system but I think it is:

1.( I am guessing as you don’t actuallly say) Router to Bartok by Ethernet connection . However which of the two Bartok ethernet inputs have you used? Note that one of the two, “Loop”,is not currently supported and is there for a future use yet to be disclosed ( see page 32 of User Manual).

  1. A second ethernet cable connects Bartok to Aurender. However you have already used up the only operational ethernet port in 1. above. So how is this connected?

  2. Aurender is also connected to Bartok by USB cable. However you have said that you are connecting them by ethernet ( see 2. above). Why have you connected Bartok and Aurender twice?

Which Aurender device have you got? Many of them are described by Aurender as Servers as they are streamers with built in storage. I am assuming that they use a form of UPnP for serving as otherwise they would not be compatible with other devices.

As I said I do not know which Aurender device you have. So there are more than a few unknowns to me here. However I can see that the Aurender has an ethernet port and I am therefore, as above, assuming that it supports UPnP. Why can you not attach the Aurender to the router and also the Bartok ( use Main ethernet port, not Loop). Then things should work as intended. ( subject to the UPnP server software installed which is another topic for another time).

If you use the USB output from Aurender then it is not acting as a UPnP source but as a USB streamer in which case control and navigation would be by using Aurender Conductor app and not Mosaic as then Bartok would be working as a DAC only. Therefore as then the Bartok’s network board would not be in use you wouldn’t see much information with Mosaic.

The Ethernet goes from router to Bartok Main. Another Ethernet from loop to Aurender A10. I did this so that I can control the A10 from the iPad. I’m > 50 feet away from the router which is why I’ve used the Loop on the Bartok. The dealer said it would work and it does. In fact I move files from my laptop to the A10. No issues. Also, I’d think that the USB interconnect between the A10 and the Bartok would sound better.

So, it looks like I’m using the Bartok as a DAC only - sort of. What prompted the initial question was that in the Configuration submenu in the Bartok app I don’t see all of the choices that are available from the front panel. This is the only submenu for which this is the case.

It sounds like it may be worth exploring a separate Ethernet connection from router to A10?

BTW, this is very helpful.

No, that is the exact opposite of the reality. With a network player the best way of transferring data to it is to use the network. Which means ethernet connection. You should find quite an improvement using network connection over USB ( subject to the Aurender, but see below). And you should find that you would now see the information that you expect from Mosaic.

Now that I know the Aurender model that you have I am unsure. The A10 is a full streamer/DAC with onboard storage. However I now see from the Aurender website that it only offers “support” of a NAS rather than offering NAS facilities ( inc. a UPnP server). However the Aurender website is short on information. But it looks as though without any UPnP facility you are stuck with using other communication ports such as USB for connection to the Bartok, all of which will be inferior to an ethernet connection.

Frankly as the A10 is an all-in-one player/DAC it isn’t the best partner for Bartok. As you will see if you look at the system configuration as shown by Aurender it is not meant to be connected to another DAC but straight to an amplifier.

The Bartok will outperform the A10 as a DAC. My advice would therefore be to replace the A10 with a NAS. I cannot see the point in having both a Bartok and an A10 when much of what they do is a duplication of functions. The Bartok does not provide storage though, however that would be the reason for the NAS. Further with a NAS you can then load MinimServer UPnP server software onto it thus providing the only officially supported server for Bartok and Mosaic. And of course all will be controlled via your i-pad.

I’m thinking of upgrading to the Aurender W20SE which supports dual-wire AES. It’s a big jump, but I’ve always felt that half-steps are ultimately more expensive. Aurender told me that they made the dual-wire AES b/c of dCS DACs.

Anyway, does anyone have any experience with this?

I don’t have any direct experience of the W20SE lately, but I wouldn’t bother with it for the following reasons;

  1. Ethernet streamed music directly to the Bartok is bit-perfect, and will inevitably sound better than via the W20SE-AES/Dual-AES

  2. If you use the W20SE with AES/Dual-AES, you need an additional clock synchronisation connection between it and the dCS system. Which means extract cost and complication for no sonic benefit

  3. The price of the W20ES. If you look at the feature set, it was really designed in the days of legacy DACs which didn’t have an Ethernet streaming board and buffer.

It’s your money of course, but spend it elsewhere would be my advise :slight_smile:

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Absolutely agree. I simply do not understand the requirement for an outboard network streamer to use with a network streamer that already exists. If one uses a current dCS DAC then the only place where the Aurender makes any sense is with the Vivaldi and Vivaldi clock but without using the Vivaldi Upsampler ( which contains the network board).

So generally the only rational role for the Aurender WS20SE within a dCS digital system is solely using it as an NAS for local files. Few of the other features that the unit boasts will be of any practical use. At 23,000 gbp that would be one hell of an expensive NAS :grinning:. Further, given that role there are less expensive options without compromise by comparison.

Many thanks! So, NAS is the way to go with Bartok. Needless to say, I do not have one. Any recommendations? Also, a good link for hooking it up?

Thanks so much,

Paul

Many home music server users will use either NAS from Synology ( e.g. DS200j) or QNAP. ( e.g HS-453DX) with perhaps disks from WD Red series or Seagate Ironwolf. You will also need to install MinimServer UPnP server software.

Some of us have found particularly good results from Melco music library products which are built for music rather than general home media use. In a way they resemble Aurender by also being USB streamers but they can ( intentionally) be used as NAS and have a direct connection option which obviates the need for the connection to the DAC/network streamer being via a switch. They come with MinimServer pre-installed. It all depends on what you want to spend.

There has been a lot of discussion hereabouts on connecting cables , so read up on them , for example:

or

Many thanks for the info. So, it looks simple enough: Router to Melco, Melco to Bartok. Both are ethernet connections. And I’ll still be able to control the Bartok and Melco from my ipad. Just want to make sure I’m not missing anything.

In NAS mode there is nothing to control on the Melco from your i-pad. The settings are made from the Melco’s fascia and the menu that appears in the display. This is basically a do it once when first used requirement ( e.g. select language, time and date, brightness of display, switch off the rear panel tell tale lights, set network play etc.). Thereon you really only need to look at the Melco display when it boots up just to check everything is in order.

You only need to acquire and load the Melco Music HD app to your i-pad if you are not using the Bartok network streamer but instead use the Melco, not as NAS, but as a USB streamer with the Bartok only as a DAC. Then you would not use Mosaic. However as that configuration is effectively what you have now there would be no point and, in any case, the USB connection would not provide best sound quality.

The Melco (or rather MInimServer as that is the installed UPnP software) serves the files to the Bartok. So it is the Bartok control app i.e.Mosaic where you select what you want to listen to and that becomes a command sent to the Melco. So you only need Mosaic installed on your i-pad. You also select other programme material from the internet such as radio, streaming services etc. via Mosaic. The programme material is then routed to the Bartok through the Melco from your router.

I hope that clarifies things.