Musical Fidelity MX-Stream Manual

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MUSICAL FIDELITY
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Technical Information
MX-Stream Control Options
Ofcial MX-Stream App, 3rd Party Apps, Webbrowsers on mobile devices and
PCs/Laptops, Bluetooth/Airplay, UPNP, Roon
The MX-Stream has a wide variety of control options. This doesn‘t only make it incredibly versa-
tile but also extremely future proof and able to withstand technical difculties or the constant
changes in the IT landscape (downtime of Apple or Android App stores, no Internet connec-
tion, etc...). In fact, the MX-Stream can be entirely controlled without any internet access and
without any App downloads! So, if you just want to play some local music from a USB Stick or
hard drive or stream via Bluetooth, we will explain everything in this guide!
Here is a quick overview about all the control options:
1) Webbrowsers - mobile devices, tablets and PCs/Laptops (any operating system) (page 1 - 2)
2) Bluetooth/Airplay (page 2)
3) Ofcial Musical Fidelity MX-Stream App (page 3)
4) 3rd Party Apps (page 4)
5) UPNP Apps (page 5)
6) Roon (page 6)
7) Ofine Control (page 7 - 8)
Before you start, you need to either connect your MX-Stream to your home network via WiFi or
cabled ethernet. You do this without the need of any app or any extra downloads! Please refer
to the quick start manual.
And still very important to stress is that cabled ethernet is still vastly superior to WiFi connections
even in the year 2022! Realtime audio applications, such as the MX-Stream with high-resolution
audio, benet from stable cabled ethernet connections like you wouldn‘t believe. For regular
HTTP web applications, like the internet, Web2.0 or 3.0, the quality of your connection rarely
matters. Your phone may show you full bars for your WiFi quality, but this does not say anything
about packet loss and drop-outs caused by WiFi all the time. Don‘t worry, all of that is insigni-
cant for websites or social media. You are not relying on data reaching its destination within the
correct timeframe and without and degradation or loss. Modern web protocols will just request
missing or faulty packets again or in some cases it even doesn‘t matter if all packets are trans-
mitted. Websites, social media or video streaming will work even under all those circumstances!
Quality is not their concern! The protocols for streaming realtime audio in an audiophile lossless
way are completely different to the modern YouTubes, Facebooks and Instagrams of our time!
With this in mind, enjoy music streaming on your MX-Stream on the highest level possible!

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MUSICAL FIDELITY
www.musicaldelity.com
Technical Information
Simon Quarry
Technical Director & Designer
Heinz Lichtenegger
President & CEO Musical Fidelity
1) Webbrowsers
Probably the most useful and exible way to control your MX-Stream. Absolutely platform ag-
nostic, you can access your MX-Stream from your favorite webbrowser on any device which
has a webbrowser. On Windows this is very easy. Once your MX-Stream is on the same network
as your computer, it will automatically show up in your Windows Explorer (make sure network
detection is ON).
The web-interface gives you the exact same options, features and controls like our Android/
iOS App. In fact the App does just the same thing: open the MX-Stream‘s web-interface. This
means all actions and playback commands are executed on the MX-Stream hardware, mea-
ning it is totally independent on the Apps or different methods of interacting with it. This makes
it very easy to mix and match webbrowser, App or other control options and your MX-Stream
will keep playing uninterruptedly, even if your phone (and certainly as a further consequence
you yourself) is struck by lightning!
For webbrowsers on iOS devices and MAC computers just type „musical-delity.local“ into the
address bar of the webbrowser:
Safari on iOS Safari on MAC
Android phones and other PC operating systems will require you to enter the IP address of the
MX-Stream into the address bar directly. The IP address can easily be found out with network
scanning apps, of which there are plenty on the Google Play store or available for free on the
internet. Below are a few example apps.
Double click on the Musical Fidelity Icon in
your network view, to open the MX-Stream
web-interface. By right clicking and proper-
ties, you can see other useful information
like the MX-Stream‘s IP address and MAC
address.

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„Network Scanner“ - Android „Fing“ - iOS „Advanced IP Scanner“ - Windows
2) Bluetooth/Airplay
Before Bluetooth or Airplay become available you rst need to select the Bluetooth or Airplay
Input from the MX-Stream web-interface or App (note: Airplay is called Shairport-Sync):
Airplay Settings on iOS
Bluetooth settings on mobile device

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Technical Information
3) Ofcial Musical Fidelity MX-Stream App
Our ofcial App „MX-Stream“ is available for Android and iOS. Should you live in a country or
region where you don‘t have access to these stores or have trouble nding the app, there are
plenty of other options for accessing your MX-Stream (for example the „Volumio“ App). Import-
ant: all the streaming services and platforms as they are implemented in our own app, are the
preferred way to listen when it comes to quality, as we have direct access and control over
our implementations. This means we can program the Tidal or Qobuz access on our own and
make sure the quality is top of the line as it should be. If you use services like TIDAL Connect, you
obviously introduce yet another middle man (or middle software) and therefore we cannot gu-
arantee best playback quality as this responsibility is in those cases handed off to the streaming
platform providers themselves.
mobile phone UI iPAD/Tablet UI
4) 3rd Party Apps
You can play music on your MX-Stream with a wealth of different playback apps. One of the
more important features is to use the MX-Stream with the native Apps for Music Streaming
Platform providers (for example TIDAL Connect). The services provided in this way is obviously
subject of change, as services and their implementations come and go. At the time of writing,
TIDAL Connect is probably the most important of those, as this offers lossless music streaming,
but with a little caveat (see above) in the native Tidal App. Spotify Connect works similarly.
in Tidal, choose your
MX-Stream as Tidal
Connect device with
this speaker symbol
(* TIDAL Connect will
not be available at
MX-Stream launch,
but at a later date
via free update)
choose your Spotify
Connect device
here within the
Spotify App

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Technical Information
5) UPNP Apps
UPNP Apps are a great way of adding functionalities and services to your MX-Stream. UPNP is a
completely lossless way of transmitting audio data via your LAN network (in fact Apple based
their Airplay protocol on the free alternative UPNP). However, UPNP is in many aspects superior
to Airplay as with UPNP you can freely transmit any sample rate and avoid resampling (note:
Airplay resamples everything to 48kHz!).
To use UPNP: open your favorite UPNP capable App or software on your phone/tablet/PC/lap-
top, make sure your device is on the same network as the MX-Stream and select the MX-Stream
as the output renderer:
*If you cannot nd the MX-Stream as a UPNP renderer, then check if UPNP Render is enabled or
turn UPNP Renderer off and on again under Settings -> Sources -> Functionalities Control in the
web-interface.
mConnect Lite - iOS Bubble UPNP - Android

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6) Roon
Roon is one of the most advanced music playback software solutions out there. It handles big
music libraries extremely well, organizes your music collections across different streaming pro-
viders and your own local or network music storage. It is extremely transparent in showing you
all details about your playback chain and is denitely something to try out for any serious music
listener.
For the MX-Stream, make sure that Roon is active in the Functionalities Control settings (if neces-
sary try turning it off and on again) and that a DAC is connected. If there is no DAC connected,
the MX-Stream won‘t show up in Roon!

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Technical Information
7) Ofine Control: App and Webinterface
Controlling the MX-Stream without any network or internet access is actually doable! This is
done by simply connecting your phone or laptop to the built in Hotspot of the MX-Stream. The
Hotspot is enabled by default after rst unpacking, and can also be enabled any time after rst
setup from the network settings menu:
On your phone or laptop go to your WiFi settings menu and connect to the MX-Stream Hotspot:
After connecting the rst setup assistance will open, you can simply press „Close“ on the rst
screen to leave the rst setup and control the MX-Stream. You can then play local music or les
from a connected USB or HDD drive.
Alternatively, once you are connected to the MX-Stream Hotspot simply use our APP or Web-
browser control options (see option 1and 3 of this guide) to access your MX-Stream.
*In some situations it can help to disable your phone‘s mobile internet. This is because the
MX-Stream Hotspot does not provide Internet access to your phone. Some phones then sim-
ply ignore this WiFi option and use your mobile internet instead to search for your MX-Stream,
because the purpose of your phone in our modern times is to access the internet. Disabling
mobile internet will force your phone to look for the MX-Stream identier or IP address on the
local WiFi connection.
Phone WiFi settings
Laptop WiFi settings

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Technical Information
7) Ofine Control: HDMI output, touchscreen, USB mouse + keyboard
The MX-Stream by default outputs its control interface (video only, no audio) via HDMI. You
can simply connect any HDMI monitor, TV or screen to integrate it into your living room or other
places.
By using a HDMI monitor that is also capable of touch-input via USB, you are able to build your-
self a seamless touch integration for your MX-Stream. In addition to the HDMI connection, sim-
ply connect the touch capable monitor to any of the available USB inputs on the MX-Stream.
Another option is to connect a USB mouse and keyboard to the available USB inputs of the
MX-Stream.
*Should you ever encounter difculties of setting up WiFi or lose access to your congured WiFi,
this is a great method of troubleshooting the MX-Stream.