When is HDS coming?

good night! I am going to have a heavy sleep.

Two would probably be OK, as the critical mass of U235 is 52 kg :-)

asyl, I agree that US digital output maybe not the best but this is an add-on feature and it does make a commercial sense for those who pair US with regular network players and don't care much of the ULTIMATE jitter reduction (most probably they will never hear the glitches through their systems).

The main purpose of US is to rip CDs and dispatch the bitstream to ND5, NDX or NDS.

Naim strongly assures that US ripping is bit-perfect. 

So the whole game is down to streaming.

I'm pretty much sure this feature has nothing to do with hardware and can be brought up to HDX level with SW. It's possibly there already.

I shall be very surprised if Naim releases an all-in-one HDS streamer with SSD.

It will possibly not be the biggest commercial success but surely will be a fantastic product for a small group of network audio enthusiasts. 

It's really funny that since I changed from laptop to MacAir without CD-ROM and since my laptop with Asset uPnP is not stable at all I start looking at US with more and more interest...

> Naim strongly assures that US ripping is bit-perfect. 

It is. I compared it to rips made with other software and it was the same: 100% bit perfect. There is nothing wrong with the US as a ripper, but wouldn't it be nice if it were a great CD transport and hard disk player too with a superb low jitter optical digital out and cost £800 less  (TBH I've no idea what the jitter levels are on the US, it is just everybody says they are not so great - surely if the Mac Mini can do very low jitter/noise then naim can). 

I think the NSS version (Naim Super Server) should look at ease of of use - a bit more Sooloos like and it should link to at least the Naim music store so you can download music - surely ripping is not going to be necessary in a couple of years as we would have already ripped all our current CDs and be downloading wonderful high resolution versions ...... a nice database approach that stored all the sleeve notes, lyrics and had those clever links so you could generate a play list with your favourite glockenspiel player rather than be limited to artist, album, genre ... 

Totaly agree in regards to a better DAC section. My nDAC has just finished burning in & it leaves the bare HDX for dead.

I think it was Malcome Steward that said the nDAC HAS to be the first upgrade a HDX owner does. 

Having said that, a HDS or even NDS that beats a HDX/NDAC/555PS would be have to be bloody special.  

Why shouldn't it be a commercial success? HDX has been quite successful. HDX is now less expensive than UServe+NDX, and it really makes more sense imo; similarly, a possible HDS will be less expensive than UServe+NDS, and this HDS will make even more sense if it will not require an external DAC with its top notch internal dac. Even more so, if, as Guy points out, it becomes a nicer database for downloaded music.

Additionally, I would personally prefer if it would become also a storage place for downloaded music.

Hello Aysil,

I hadn't realized where you are located. We may have a musical connection ; one of your country's artists. He divides his time between Montreal and Instanbul. Any guesses ?

Jan

PS. What is it about the UnitiServe (do you still have it?) feeding your Kondo DAC - or your HDX into the Kondo - that you feel would be improved by an HDS ?

Jan,

I still have both UServe and HDX. US has found a place in my office network. To summarize what I had mentioned earlier comparing the two: The dig-out quality of US is obviously not up to the level of HDX. As UPnP servers, on the other hand, I did not hear any significance difference between the two. Since Simon explained sq differences between servers, I don't want to rule out the possibility of such differences, however. One big difference btw the two concerns if you use the internal storage versions. Comparing the same music file copied and pasted btw the two, music files on HDX' internal drive sound better than on US' internal drive. This opens up the discussion of influence of store location on sound, but it is probably related to more noise leaking to the playback chain from US drives.

What I feel would be improved by an HDS, compared to HDX feeding my kondo dac? Not much really; I don't know if dig-out quality can be improved even further... and maybe due to the better internal dac, that I don't need an external dac anymore...and certainly some added functionality, as mentioned earlier on this thread.

AMA,
I can confirm that Naim servers are very stable, reliable, and convenient. If all this justifies the high price is surely another question. But for you, I think US is not the right choice if you want to go for a Naim server. US complements Qute and SuperUniti very well. For a more ambitious system like yours, HDX is a better choice because you can just skip the stream client and connect directly to an external dac! That makes it also financially more rewarding.

In this world, the best of all (stand-alone) DACs are still better than the best of all stream-clients. I had some e-mail exchange with the developer of S-3, a stream player I liked. He claims it would sound even better connected to their Skylla DAC. Similarly, Naim is leaving the possibility open to upgrade even the new NDS with an existing or future external dac through the dig-out. If your server is on a computer or a NAS, a Naim stream player is a good choice. If you want to use a Naim server, connect the HDX to the dac which suits your taste and system the most, and the sky is your limit!

I'll be test driving an NDS in due course. Much as I would like to hear an "improvement", the possibility that the HDX-SSD into nDAC/555PS will be equivalent is equally appealing. More so - now I think about it. We shall see what we shall see. Another nagging thought is that even if the NDS can squeeze some more music out, it might be better to wait for the next DAC - assuming any such thing will arrive. I suspect it will.

> Naim is leaving the possibility open to upgrade even the new NDS with an existing or future external dac through the dig-out.

I thought it was so I could measure the bitstream and say it is perfect - I was sufficiently impressed with the NDS to say that is it - subject to a a short trial it'll be all the digital player I'm ever likely to need. 

Vortexbox + NDS/555PS = three boxes and job done - never ever need to think about upgrading my music player again 

two more items to the wish-list for the upcoming HDS:

- volume control on n-serve for Naim preamp through RC5 socket

- digital input connection for internal dac

...much much better would be a volume control on the device itself, so that it can be connected directly to a power amp! Many people using it will not need the multitude of inputs of pre-amplifiers.

I'm still wishing for an HDS. Or maybe HDX2 might be in the pipeline by now?

It's not going to happen.  As our transatlantic cousins say, there's no cheese at the end of that tunnel.