[SunRa Fan]

The poly is notoriously fickle when not on a stable WiFi connection. I have the best results with Poly in hotspot mode. However, depending on your phone, the lack of internet will sometimes make the phone switch back to a saved WiFi preset that has internet. iOS is much more finicky about this than Android. You may want to use an MPD client to get your playlist started, then you can use GoFigure to pause, skip, and resume.

You can always use GoFigure to control the MPD on poly. It's clunky at best.

I need access to Qobuz. The onboard memory card is great but in my situation, the many times I’ve wanted to use my poly it’s been to stream away from home. And it’s a battle every time. If it’s not the wifi it’s the dlna app. It’s doomed to fail in a sense- one company makes the hardware, another company makes the software and yet another makes the phone that ties it all together. Never a good long term solution. The fault is mine for assuming Chord would have their own app at some point.

 

[SunRa Fan]

My question was referring to the type of connection between your phone and the Poly, do you let your phone act as a hotspot and connect the Poly to it or do you set the Poly to hotspot mode?

I can and that will work but for me it’s not optimal since streaming Qobuz will nuke my data plan quickly.

 

[Daniel Johnston]

I need access to Qobuz. The onboard memory card is great but in my situation, the many times I’ve wanted to use my poly it’s been to stream away from home. And it’s a battle every time. If it’s not the wifi it’s the dlna app. It’s doomed to fail in a sense- one company makes the hardware, another company makes the software and yet another makes the phone that ties it all together. Never a good long term solution. The fault is mine for assuming Chord would have their own app at some point.

Yep. Your kinda sunk on that one with iOS. Apple devices don't like to use cellular for streaming on a WiFi network that has no internet. Android does much better at this. I picked up a Sony NW-A306 for travelling. It's the same size as Mojo2, has full android 13, and works well tethered to iDevices. Just wasn't worth the hassle for me. YMMV

 

[joshnor713]

I can totally relate. There's been so many times I've started a trip and I want to chill on a train and listen and bam, for no good reason BubbleUPnP just doesn't see the Poly despite it actually connected to my phone via hotspot (I can see it connected on GoFigure). This is when I roll my eyes and wonder why I even bother. Fortunately, I've figured out that restarting the Poly (sometimes a couple times finally gets it to be recognized in Bubble). But man, I do have Bluetooth headphones and I share the same sentiment as you, it just so easily works. No fiddling.

I don't blame you if you put your Poly up for sale. Sometimes I'm tempted to just pull out the cord and connect my Mojo instead. It should not be that way for something that costs over $600. It baffles me that even today you cannot simply play songs from your SD card via GoFigure. Something so basic. There's no other way to put it than Chord put partial effort in a premium product, and years later with the same thing makes it appear like they've abandoned it rather than given more of a reason for potential buyers (and new Mojo 2 owners) to jump in. It's a baffling business decision.

 

[SunRa Fan]

I can totally relate. There's been so many times I've started a trip and I want to chill on a train and listen and bam, for no good reason BubbleUPnP just doesn't see the Poly despite it actually connected to my phone via hotspot (I can see it connected on GoFigure). This is when I roll my eyes and wonder why I even bother. Fortunately, I've figured out that restarting the Poly (sometimes a couple times finally gets it to be recognized in Bubble). But man, I do have Bluetooth headphones and I share the same sentiment as you, it just so easily works. No fiddling.

I don't blame you if you put your Poly up for sale. Sometimes I'm tempted to just pull out the cord and connect my Mojo instead. It should not be that way for something that costs over $600. It baffles me that even today you cannot simply play songs from your SD card via GoFigure. Something so basic. There's no other way to put it than Chord put partial effort in a premium product, and years later with the same thing makes it appear like they've abandoned it rather than given more of a reason for potential buyers (and new Mojo 2 owners) to jump in. It's a baffling business decision.

I think the poly was an ambitious product when introduced but of course they always underestimate software development. I think like a lot of people in this hobby we work our way up to premium products by first trying cheaper solutions. Naturally, I have a few dongle DAC/amps around but I never liked the cords and the fragility of the connections so in the end they weren’t truly portable. I hate to sing the praises of a Bluetooth product but the IFI go blu is the one product I have tried that ACTUALLY delivers on the convenience it advertises. Three days a week I do 8-10 hour shifts at work and I use the go blu ALL day long with my campfire IEMs and it works every time and sounds good. I’ve been a chord customer for years now but the technology that works is the technology that wins. That’s what this latest example of poly uselessness has reaffirmed to me. Time to buy a dedicated DAP.

 

[Daniel Johnston]

I can totally relate. There's been so many times I've started a trip and I want to chill on a train and listen and bam, for no good reason BubbleUPnP just doesn't see the Poly despite it actually connected to my phone via hotspot (I can see it connected on GoFigure). This is when I roll my eyes and wonder why I even bother. Fortunately, I've figured out that restarting the Poly (sometimes a couple times finally gets it to be recognized in Bubble). But man, I do have Bluetooth headphones and I share the same sentiment as you, it just so easily works. No fiddling.

I don't blame you if you put your Poly up for sale. Sometimes I'm tempted to just pull out the cord and connect my Mojo instead. It should not be that way for something that costs over $600. It baffles me that even today you cannot simply play songs from your SD card via GoFigure. Something so basic. There's no other way to put it than Chord put partial effort in a premium product, and years later with the same thing makes it appear like they've abandoned it rather than given more of a reason for potential buyers (and new Mojo 2 owners) to jump in. It's a baffling business decision.

Within the confines of stable WiFi, Poly is excellent. In all other cases, it's a toss up. I long abandoned the Poly for travel. What Chord intended the poly to be is a mystery for the ages. A screenless DAP that requires another device for control was never the recipe for a truly portable product.

IMHO It's best usage is at home as a wireless endpoint for software like Roon. Second best is MPD using playlists and GoFigure. In those areas it shines. Chord hasn't given up on Poly, they are focusing on making the wireless endpoint functionality as flawless as possible. When I repurchased the Poly earlier this year, the setup was 10x easier than my first Poly.

 

[davehutch]

Apologies if this has been covered but I didn't relish the thought of going through 1234 pages
I have the Mojo 2 and I'm thinking about streaming to my headphone amp via the Poly.
What would be the best quality way to do this from a Mac or an iPhone? I know I could easily Airplay but the bitrate is capped (albeit at a decent rate I suppose). Is it possible to use the Apple music apps to stream to the Poly any other way other than BT?

 

[rlw6534]

Apologies if this has been covered but I didn't relish the thought of going through 1234 pages
I have the Mojo 2 and I'm thinking about streaming to my headphone amp via the Poly.
What would be the best quality way to do this from a Mac or an iPhone? I know I could easily Airplay but the bitrate is capped (albeit at a decent rate I suppose). Is it possible to use the Apple music apps to stream to the Poly any other way other than BT?

Airplay is the best for Apple Music, etc... I am not aware of a better way for native Apple stuff with Poly.

Poly does support lossless and high-resolution via UPnP/DLNA but that excludes Apple Music and Classical... Tidal and Qobuz, however, can be used with third party apps like mConnect (that support UPnP/DLNA).

 

[davehutch]

Airplay is the best for Apple Music, etc... I am not aware of a better way for native Apple stuff with Poly.

Poly does support lossless and high-resolution via UPnP/DLNA but that excludes Apple Music and Classical... Tidal and Qobuz, however, can be used with third party apps like mConnect (that support UPnP/DLNA).

Thanks for that. I understand that Apple Music is converted to AAC 320Kbps but tbh I don't stream much. So for local files Airplay should be fine (16/44.1), otherwise to keep costs down I could stick with my Qudelix 5K and use Aptx HD using the tiny USB BT transmitter I found.
OK, will have to have a think...

Ooh! Just thought. Maybe a used Airport Express would be best quality and cheapest option! There's a thought...

 

[Cymruambyth]

Thanks for that. I understand that Apple Music is converted to AAC 320Kbps but tbh I don't stream much. So for local files Airplay should be fine (16/44.1), otherwise to keep costs down I could stick with my Qudelix 5K and use Aptx HD using the tiny USB BT transmitter I found.
OK, will have to have a think...

Ooh! Just thought. Maybe a used Airport Express would be best quality and cheapest option! There's a thought...

Apple Music now supports hi-res and lossless. The AAC limitation is a reference to Bluetooth on apple phones and iPads and doesn’t apply to AirPlay.

 

[rlw6534]

Apple Music now supports hi-res and lossless. The AAC limitation is a reference to Bluetooth on apple phones and iPads and doesn’t apply to AirPlay.

Agreed. Airplay should be 16/44.1 ALAC for the Poly (using Airplay 1).

 

[davehutch]

Apple Music now supports hi-res and lossless. The AAC limitation is a reference to Bluetooth on apple phones and iPads and doesn’t apply to AirPlay.

Great news, thank you. Just found this after I read your post: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/254803259?sortBy=best

 

[rlw6534]

Thanks for that. I understand that Apple Music is converted to AAC 320Kbps but tbh I don't stream much. So for local files Airplay should be fine (16/44.1), otherwise to keep costs down I could stick with my Qudelix 5K and use Aptx HD using the tiny USB BT transmitter I found.
OK, will have to have a think...

Ooh! Just thought. Maybe a used Airport Express would be best quality and cheapest option! There's a thought...

For local files using Apple Music downloads the best option would be Airplay as you can't access these files with a third-party app. Airplay should be better than AptX HD.

If you have local files outside of Apple Music (like flac, etc), the best quality option would be UPnP/DLNA streaming to Poly. I use the mconnect app (iPhone/iPad), but there may be other apps as well.

 

[davehutch]

For local files using Apple Music downloads the best option would be Airplay as you can't access these files with a third-party app. Airplay should be better than AptX HD.

If you have local files outside of Apple Music (like flac, etc), the best quality option would be UPnP/DLNA streaming to Poly. I use the mconnect app (iPhone/iPad), but there may be other apps as well.

Thanks for that. I guess the next thing I need to think about is whether the higher bitrate using Airplay and the Airport Express DAC would be a better option than my Qudelix DAC using AptX HD? I wouldn't like to hazard a guess tbh

 

[rlw6534]

Thanks for that. I guess the next thing I need to think about is whether the higher bitrate using Airplay and the Airport Express DAC would be a better option than my Qudelix DAC using AptX HD? I wouldn't like to hazard a guess tbh

Yeah, these are obviously the best quality options on paper (bitrate, etc.). Whether it's audible to you (or me) is certainly debatable, of course.

I'm not sure what the AirPort Express brings to the table as it's Airplay 16/44.1 which the Poly already supports.