Contol NAS with Music Bee

[pmorrison]

I am trying to play music stored on my NAD M50.2 with Music Bee on a windows laptop and desktop but cannot get either to work.  My MB Library is on the local drive.  My music files are on a network server in a share folder.  The MB library sees and properly indexes all my music, but I cannot get the player to recognize the playback device (NAD).  What am I missing?  The desktop is connected to the NAD via Ethernet.  The laptop requires a wireless connection via a router connected to the NAD by Ethernet.  Everthing is fine if I use the BluOS controller native to the NAD.  However, I want to use MB . 
This should be simple, no? Point MB to the NAD??  How do I effect this?  Peter

[hiccup]

Your NAD device has a proprietary protocol for network audio called BluOS.
So only soft- and hard-ware that 'talks' BluOS can communicate with your NAD.
(a quick search fails in me finding any comparable music management software that supports it)

[pmorrison]

Thank you Hiccup--that makes sense; however, I am able to play my MB library from my NAD through my desktop connected to an external USB
DAC in my office, once I select the DAC in my Windows audio devices.  It does not make sense to me that I can play through the office stereo using the MB library and the files on thre NAD via USB but not through my main system where the NAD is housed via Ethernet.  If it is a question of proprietary software, I shouldn't be able to play the files via MB and UBS, no?   

[phred]

You might want to contact the folks who make the NAS and its OS. There aren't very many (if -any-) people here who know about what it can or can't do.

[hiccup]

I am not sure I fully understand your setup, but it is only logical that your NAD can play files it has access to on a computer or on a network.
Else it wouldn't be a network player.
That it can output to a USB DAC that is connected to a Windows PC is probably the result of Windows' UPnP feature.

But if I am correct you are asking for the opposite here.
You want the NAD to play what MusicBee tells it to.
So the NAD would be the 'slave' then.

For that MusicBee would need to speak UPnP/DLNA language to the NAD and the NAD should understand it.
But it doesn't.
(which is a bit odd to be honest for a device in that price range)

But then again, the DLNA plugin that is available for MusicBee is not bug free and is certainly not working flawlessly for everybody.
So there wouldn't have been any guarantee that it would have worked for you anyway.

Another option would be to use the NAD as a DAC and connect a computer containing MusicBee to it by means of a USB cable.
But, that feature also seems missing from it looking at the specs and the manual.

What I don't understand though is that they do have a USB audio driver download available.
Which suggests using it as a DAC would be possible.
You could contact their support to find out what's what, and if they are maybe planning a firmware update that supports UPnP/DLNA in the future.

P.S.
You may want to change the title of the post, since it seems your question is actually about:
'Control network player with MusicBee'

[pmorrison]

Thank you Hiccup and Phred for your suggestions--all good.  I will contact NAD for guidance. 

[MTVhike]

I have the music files which MB reads on a shared hard disc which BluOS reads. The only problem I have is that the NAD won't play (or even recognize) the few DSD files I have, so I used MB to create FLAC copies of them, and everybody is happy!

I think the OP wants to use the very capable MB player instead of the lousy BluOS one.

[hiccup]

I think the OP wants to use the very capable MB player instead of the lousy BluOS one.

If the manufacturer of his device confirms that his network player can indeed be used as a DAC (contrary to what both the manual and the print on the back says) he will be able to do that.
He then can connect a near PC/laptop with a USB cable to the device, and then by means of Windows' remote desktop (or a third party application such as RealVNC) control MusicBee on that PC/laptop.