Looking for the perfect Android Media Player/Streamer App

[DangerBoy]

For listening to FLAC files stored on my Android devices I like to use Gone Mad Music Player (GMMP) because it has a lot of features and capabilities that I like and a good UI. The one thing it can't do (and I really wish it could) is stream audio files off network shares. I have my entire CD collection ripped to FLAC on my NAS drive and I can't access that music and stream it on GMMP.

So for streaming the music off my NAS I'm using the Samba Music Player which does a pretty good job of streaming the FLAC files but it's UI is kind of basic and clunky and it only does the most basic things. I can't create and save custom playlists and I can't view my music by Artist and Album or Genre or whatever. I wish it had GMMP's features, UI and capabilities but it falls far short of that in all aspects.

Does anyone know of an Android Media Player/Streamer app that kind of has the best of both these worlds? Like if GMMP and Samba got together and had a baby and that baby had all the best features of both parents? I'm happy to use Samba for now but I'm really looking for something better and more full featured. Is there anything out there like that?

 

[LesE]

I use the Hi-Fi Cast app as a renderer on my Android devces. I chose this app because it provides gapless playback and supports Chromecast Audio. I use it to stream Flac files from a Plex media server running on a Raspberry Pi 3 but it will also connect to other servers or play local files that reside on your Android device.

Les

 

[olderroust]

For listening to FLAC files stored on my Android devices I like to use Gone Mad Music Player (GMMP) because it has a lot of features and capabilities that I like and a good UI. The one thing it can't do (and I really wish it could) is stream audio files off network shares. I have my entire CD collection ripped to FLAC on my NAS drive and I can't access that music and stream it on GMMP.

So for streaming the music off my NAS I'm using the Samba Music Player which does a pretty good job of streaming the FLAC files but it's UI is kind of basic and clunky and it only does the most basic things. I can't create and save custom playlists and I can't view my music by Artist and Album or Genre or whatever. I wish it had GMMP's features, UI and capabilities but it falls far short of that in all aspects.

Does anyone know of an Android Media Player/Streamer app that kind of has the best of both these worlds? Like if GMMP and Samba got together and had a baby and that baby had all the best features of both parents? I'm happy to use Samba for now but I'm really looking for something better and more full featured. Is there anything out there like that?

What kind of NAS are you working with? Some of what you're looking for can be added to the mix for a range of players by running minim on the NAS. With both minim and Bubble on my NAS, I also have a set of renderers defined for the audio systems in the house, and can use the Bubble client or another DLNA client to tell the NAS what to send to which device.

I'm running a synology ds-409, which is pretty old hardware these days.

 

[Wildcat]

I've been using USB Audio Player Pro.

It is designed as a way to play files stored either on your device, a network, or via DLNA to the phone's USB port, to use an external DAC. (I have an Audioquest Dragonfly.) It can also play through the phone's audio circuitry as an option ("Play through Android" in the settings, disabled by default), but only on recent devices that have enough processing power. (No problems on my Pixel XL playing 24/96 files through Android, but the Nexus 6 has dropouts when I try it.) It seems to have playlist features but I don't use them. Not for everyone, but that's what I went with, mainly to use the Dragonfly and use the files on my NAS.

 

[cpt_paranoia]

I use BubbleUPnP. It will act as a DMC, DMR and even a DMS. It will play locally (either to the devices audio, or to a Bluetooth device connected as the 'local' audio device), play to a DLNA DMR, or to a Chromecast Audio.

Since it acts as a DMR, you can use it as a playback device, streaming to it.

It will index a locally-connected disk, and provide a DLNA DMS to DLNA clients.

It supports streaming services (including a free trial of hi-res Qobuz).

It cost me £3.06 for as many licences as I want.

There's a Bubble Server, too, which will offer transcoding services, and also provide a proxy DLNA client, allowing you to remotely stream from DLNA servers on your network.

I'm not saying it's the best (I haven't tried the other suggestions here), but it's worth looking at.

 

[Wildcat]

I use BubbleUPnP myself, for those reasons (mainly as a control point), as well as for playing movies, where I use VLC Media Player as the renderer. The Server portion I stuck on my Synology--it enables DLNA playback for Chromecast devices, which is kind of cool.

 

[DangerBoy]

I have a QNAP TS-219P+ NAS drive. I just want to be able to stream music off the NAS and play it on my LG V20 Android Phone for headphone listening. I have a Moon 180 Mind streamer for my stereo system so use Moon's app for controlling that through my Samsung Tablet. I've been using Samba for this but I can't create any play lists or listen by Album or genre or play random or anything like that. I can just go to an album folder on the NAS, choose the songs I want it to play and then push play to listen to them in the order listed in the folder view. I was hoping that there was a network player out there that had more features than Samba. I've been looking at Soumi but not so sure after reading all of the reviews. It seems to have a lot of flaws and shortcomings and hasn't been updated since August of 2016.

 

[cpt_paranoia]

I've been using Samba for this

Did you mean this?

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.threecats.sambaplayer

Samba is an open source implementation of the SMB file server protocol. I guess 'Samba Network Music Player' is a media player that accesses a Samba to server...

Kodi will do this, too, and a WHOLE lot more. But it may be something of an overkill...

 

[DangerBoy]

Did you mean this?

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.threecats.sambaplayer

Yes, that's the app I've been using for streaming off the NAS. As a free app I can't complain about it but the UI is pretty basic and it only has the most basic features. Thanks to Wildcat's recommendation, I'm looking at USB Audio Player Pro as a possible replacement. I've just sent a message off to its developers to find out if it's compatible with my LG V20's ESS Technologies ES9218 Quad DAC. If it is, I may have found my app as it appears USB Audio Player Pro will let you create custom playlists and view your music library by Artist, Album and Genre - all of the things the Samba Network Music Player app can't do. It also supports gapless playback which Samba doesn't seem to. The price is a bit steep but if it can do everything I want and need it to, and it works well, I'll be happy to pay it.

I hadn't thought of using Kodi. To be honest, I've never used the music portion of Kodi. I've only ever used it for streaming video... Maybe I should explore that part of it... ;-)

 

[Wildcat]

If your V20 is recent, I don't see why UAPP wouldn't work. It can play through Android's hardware with no problem, unless it's an older phone (where it taxes the hardware a bit). I can't recall if they have a "lite" version so you could try it for compatibility--it's possible they might. Its real strength is playing to outboard DACs, but I found in the past that it worked well even with the phone's internal hardware.

 

[DangerBoy]

The LG V20 was LGs flagship phone one year ago and has just been superseded by their recently released V30. Both the V20 and V30 use what may arguably be the best DAC or at least one of the best DACs used in any Smartphone made by any company. It is the 32 bit ESS Technologies ES9218 Quad DAC and it gives the LG V20 and V30 what could arguably be the best audio playback quality of any Smartphone on the market. I can personally attest that the V20 delivers phenomenal audio quality. What's even more remarkable about it is that it is able to adjust its output levels to adapt to and drive higher impedance headphones with adequate power. Mine does a very good job of driving my 600 ohm AKG K240 Sextetts and the sound I get with those headphones on that phone is quite amazing. I don't think very many smartphones can drive those headphones but the V20 can and I assume the V30 could as well.

 

[FileFixer]

KODI is ultimate solution for streaming player. No one players can do things what KODI can to do and it looks great. You can to choose different skins and if you have covers from your music it can to show all of that. KODI was designed for streaming music and videos, this is him primary task.
You need to show where is your NAS adress and if you have you can also to make music libreries and playlists.

 

[Wildcat]

The LG V20 was LGs flagship phone one year ago and has just been superseded by their recently released V30. Both the V20 and V30 use what may arguably be the best DAC or at least one of the best DACs used in any Smartphone made by any company. It is the 32 bit ESS Technologies ES9218 Quad DAC and it gives the LG V20 and V30 what could arguably be the best audio playback quality of any Smartphone on the market. I can personally attest that the V20 delivers phenomenal audio quality. What's even more remarkable about it is that it is able to adjust its output levels to adapt to and drive higher impedance headphones with adequate power. Mine does a very good job of driving my 600 ohm AKG K240 Sextetts and the sound I get with those headphones on that phone is quite amazing. I don't think very many smartphones can drive those headphones but the V20 can and I assume the V30 could as well.

Excellent! I don't follow the phones too much, but I do somewhat recall the audio quality focus of these V-series phones. I don't listen to headphones enough to put a lot into a specific phone for them, so I went the Dragonfly route, as I can move it between devices and even use it on the computers if needed.

On the flip side, UAPP allows users to plug a phone into any DAC, including one in your home audio system. I've tried it through my Oppo's DAC section and it works nicely. Since UAPP can pass DSD audio, it's a cool option to have in my bag of tricks.

 

[olderroust]

I can't recommend BubbleUPNP for Android enough. It can be its own player, it can also play files from your NAS to another network device (eg, if you have a DVD player that's on your network and that supports DLNA, Bubble can tell the NAS to send music to the DVD player.)

On the server itself, minim is a really nice lightweight library index. I prefer it to the Synology music indexing tools. It's available for many NASes including qnap and synology.

http://minimserver.com/install-qnap.html