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PIONEER N-50A

PIONEER N-50A

My Pioneer N50A no longer appears in my Spotify app.

 

I've been using this player since 2015 and I've never had this problem. I can see my PC and other devices, but the Pioneer has disappeared.

 

So far I have done the following

- Reset modem;

- Reset the N50A;

- I've reinstalled the latest available firmware;

- I turned my smartphone back to factory settings.

 

So far unsuccessful

 

Suggestions?

Reply
70 Replies

Hey yep at least that. For completeness I also bought a Chromecastv2 Ultra (I also was seeking to cast video and not only audio) and that thing really works great. Now the N-50AE also brings Chromecast support and much modre it really is a very augmented version of the N-50A. What I try to say here Chromecast at the end may be a good alternative at the end if you have spare digital entries on your A series and want to keep it for the audio quality that remains extremely good and I never critizised here. The A serie already uses ESS 9011 DACs, not Sabre32 but still very good DACs worth to be kept. The AE uses a bit more recent Sabre 32 ESS 9016 in a differential (double per channel) setup and it's even a bit better.

Ok I got form Pioneer that it's Spotify that increase the entry level requirements to the brands like Pioneer for instance to keep their devices working. There only are two possibilities in such a case: a simple firmware upgrade is not sufficient since new hardware is needed or new chips to secure the streams or if no hardware was needed and a simple firmware upgrade would have been sufficient then this means Pioneer marketing decided: the A-Serie is dead. Let's see what Pioneer says, possible they won't state on such questions but I ask.

my N-50A was 3 years old and warranty is over but I found a solution 🙂 Sold my Pioneer an bougth Yamaha WXC-50(it has EISA award). Can't find any difference in sound, it supports DSD, has nitegrated  WI-FI and APP is way better!  i am nearly glad that Pioneer outdated this device. Bye bye Pioneer!!

@aurizz: Good for you. I'm surprised you could still sell the N50A. Who's buying a device which is only partially functioning?

 

I'm also looking into Yamaha for a replacement. Never going to buy from Pioneer again, that's for sure.

Hi I would want to comment about the problems with connect to Spotify.

I have android phone and have the same problem as you, I can not connect to Spotify thru my phone (Huawei P10) to N-50A. But from my childrens Iphone there is no problem it works fine, and also from Ipod. So it seems that android is the problem.

I also tried to call Pioneer support center, without any luck just got the busy tone in my phone, what a ship support.

Peter from Sweden

Hello Kottorp I think it's normal iPhones keep continue to work here but want to ensure are you streaming from your iPhone to the N-50A via AirPlay? That is native to iPhones and totally different way of streaming. Put simply: what input is your N-50A when streaming from iPhone: AirPlay or really Spotify?

Hello Schmidji19

I just tested the Ipod, i can choose to listen from Spotify-Connect and I can choose to listen via Airplay, both works fine, I am not using the Pioneer app.

 

Would just like to express a very big thumbs down to Spotify. My Pioneer N50A network streamer has today refused to make any connection to Spotify Connect. A brief search reveals that this is a deliberate action by Spotify and that this feature has now (for reasons unknown) been WITHDRAWN. Well - thank you so much! I now appear to own a £400 door stop with precisely no resale value whatsoever. It would appear that later Pioneer models are not affected - yet! Do you people REALLY think that I now feel ready to shell out another £400 for a later model, only to have precisely the same issue a few years later when you ‘withdraw support’? Do you also feel that you still deserve your monthly subscription fee?

36963848-E923-402B-8FA4-D8E79609CC35.png

Hey barkingchicken I am so sorry for you and can really understand what you're going through right now. I don't know if you read the whole post here I started but at the end what worked out for me is to make my case a guarantee case. That was for Switzerland. It took me one full month, about 100 emails and of course a nice importer who understood my case and simply proposed me to change my machine. Perhaps I had luck for sure. I understand you are in the U.K. I'd check with your reseller or where you bought your machine and it hopefully still us under guarantee: how many years it's for you? One year? I got the N-50AE as a free exchange machine what is great and it really is a nice one but you understand I can't get rid of this feeling that this will happen soon again for whatever reason this could be.

On Pioneer side I still have my ticket open to understand what the exact reason could be of such discontinuation but I am pretty sure after many researches that it's a HW problem where Spotify simply now is requesting for some special crypto chips so nobody can consume and hack music in the name of somebody else. At this stage the only some realistic answer I got from Pioneer is: decision from the HQ in Japan, you certainly understand we cannot comment on that further ... yeah sure I mean as you we just spent lot of bucks both to Spotify and Pioneer but noboday helps and takes us for stupid. Your best option and the one I took as well: write to notorious magazines, review sites and talk around you and spread the message. This is totally programmed obsolecence in our case even massively enforced. Let us know how it works out for you and courage!

Hi, thanks for your reply. This appears to be the most outrageous example of ‘planned obsolescence’ in recent history. I specifically bought this machine to use their ‘Connect’ feature; that is, to establish a high bandwidth connection to their music servers as a significant improvement over other manufacturers’ networking solutions. There was a massive improvement having done so, and this was the SOLE reason for the machine’s purchase.  I am trying to think clearly on this one - I do not believe that Pioneer is at fault here, and Spotify appear to have taken their own decision to withdraw ‘Connect’ support for a range of their machines. My financial detriment here (concerning replacing a defunct machine) is arguably not Pioneer’s concern as the machine otherwise works perfectly, but Spotify would appear have intentionally rendered my device unsuitable for its intended purpose - I purchased it SPECIFICALLY for its ‘Connect’ function. That fact is quite plain to see, given my attached picture on my previous post. I am hoping that Pioneer will construct and release a firmware update which satisfies Spotify’s hardware requirements. 

I am writing from Istanbul. My pioneer n-50A spotify function which was not working until yesterday started working again after midnight today. What is going on?

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