Zenith Mk3 strange behaviour

[Willard]

Two queries.

(1) Last night my Zenith Mk3 initiated playing a rap album all by itself (on my Focus 10s). I was awakened, thought the neighbours were strangely arguing but found the Zenith responsible. Under what conditions would this happen? I also noticed later that after a track from an album I had selected had finished, it started playing something from a completely different album. I attributed the problem to a partially/imperfectly transferred album (only some of its tracks visible in Sense), deleted it and restored the database from backup; that seems to fix the problem. But I do not understand what's going on. On strong recommendation I'd be willing to reset to factory conditions, then rebuild the contents from a quite recent backup. Any observations, better speculations, recommendations?

(2) In my setup are two DLNA devices, both Naim, one in the conservatory (Mu-so), the other in my study (Mu-so QB). Both turn up in a Sense scan, both easily selected. Then the fun starts. Selecting among them sometimes requires going back to the System-Audio section. The Mu-so QB when made available will sometimes initiate playing of a recently play album all by itself. What might be the cause of this?

Many thanks.

All best,
Willard

 

[Octaviars]

Any observations, better speculations, recommendations?

Is Smart Q enabled under settings?

Innuos SmartQ - Player Queue will continue automatically when it reaches the end with track suggestions based on the last played tracks. It is possible to configure how many of those tracks are discovery tracks from Streaming Services and how many are from the Music Library

 

[Willard]

Smart Q, not so smart me. I saw it, turned it on to see what would happen. I did see but didn't make the connection. For my purposes in listening to music, Smart Q is of little interest. Technically, however, I brim over with questions. If you would, kindly point me to discussions of how it does what it does. Many thanks. But the problem with Mu-so Q? The display of selected streamers? Only some of the time do I see there's a choice.
All best,
Willard

 

[Octaviars]

If you would, kindly point me to discussions of how it does what it does.

Thread 'InnSights: What's new with Sense 3.3 (Part 1)'

May 14, 2025

Hello everyone and thank you for visiting our latest InnSights blog for Sense update 3.3!

I’m always excited for new software updates, but in 3.3 we finally bring some major features that rank as some of the ‘most requested’ we’ve ever had, which makes me especially happy with this 3.3 update.
Sense 3.3 brings several major improvements, all of which share a common theme of making it easier than ever to just get the music started – and keep it playing.
The full changes, as ever, can be found on our Changelogs, but the primary benefits of 3.3 are:

• Spotify Connect

• ...

• Stephen Healy
• Replies: 0
• Forum: InnSights

• 

 

[frank7036]

Two queries.

(1) Last night my Zenith Mk3 initiated playing a rap album all by itself (on my Focus 10s). I was awakened, thought the neighbours were strangely arguing but found the Zenith responsible. Under what conditions would this happen?

(2) In my setup are two DLNA devices, both Naim, one in the conservatory (Mu-so), the other in my study (Mu-so QB). Both turn up in a Sense scan, both easily selected. Then the fun starts. Selecting among them sometimes requires going back to the System-Audio section. The Mu-so QB when made available will sometimes initiate playing of a recently play album all by itself. What might be the cause of this?

Many thanks.

All best,
Willard

There is a thread here I started in 2024

Zenith mk3 plays music immediately at switch on?​

There is a default start up condition that can be altered in the LMS that you can change. The instructions from Stephen are about half way through the 1st page. My unit just started doing it for some reason that I never figured out.
Could it be triggered by a momentary power outage?? Worth having a look at.

 

[Phill r]

Two queries.

(1) Last night my Zenith Mk3 initiated playing a rap album all by itself (on my Focus 10s). I was awakened, thought the neighbours were strangely arguing but found the Zenith responsible. Under what conditions would this happen? I also noticed later that after a track from an album I had selected had finished, it started playing something from a completely different album. I attributed the problem to a partially/imperfectly transferred album (only some of its tracks visible in Sense), deleted it and restored the database from backup; that seems to fix the problem. But I do not understand what's going on. On strong recommendation I'd be willing to reset to factory conditions, then rebuild the contents from a quite recent backup. Any observations, better speculations, recommendations?

(2) In my setup are two DLNA devices, both Naim, one in the conservatory (Mu-so), the other in my study (Mu-so QB). Both turn up in a Sense scan, both easily selected. Then the fun starts. Selecting among them sometimes requires going back to the System-Audio section. The Mu-so QB when made available will sometimes initiate playing of a recently play album all by itself. What might be the cause of this?

Many thanks.

All best,
Willard

If your using sense then it will now play something similar to what you have listened too as part of the latest update which added ‘smartQ’ check out the notes on release 3.3

 

[Willard]

That part of my question (1) that Stephen kindly answered by alerting me to Smart Q was actually about how that entity determines what is 'similar'. It seems to me that there is nothing similar about the rap music of Johnny Castaneda Jr. a.k.a. Johnny Ca$h to Anouar Brahem's Arabic jazz. Clearly I have different criteria from Smart Q--but this isn't a complaint. The problem of how to render 'similar' algorithmically is very interesting indeed, especially in the context of music. I'm curious.

 

[frank7036]

That part of my question (1) that Stephen kindly answered by alerting me to Smart Q was actually about how that entity determines what is 'similar'. It seems to me that there is nothing similar about the rap music of Johnny Castaneda Jr. a.k.a. Johnny Ca$h to Anouar Brahem's Arabic jazz. Clearly I have different criteria from Smart Q--but this isn't a complaint. The problem of how to render 'similar' algorithmically is very interesting indeed, especially in the context of music. I'm curious.

I agree and have also previously asked for an explanation of how SmartQ algorithm chooses “similar” music, as like you have found the results to me are not necessarily similar at all.
Not a criticism but I would like to know how to “steer” the algorithm, or for example how many tracks in a playlist contributes to the search parameters, is it influenced by the logged “genre” of the tracks etc.

 

[Willard]

To be quite plain, having parameters such as 'by the same artist' or 'in the same genre' (determined from metadata), 'with the same beat', '...the same instrumentation' (not so simple) and so on would be more useful to someone like me than current (hidden?) criteria. It might also be interesting to know what sort of music Smart Q caters to. A few steps into the problem and one finds oneself looking down into a very deep canyon.