DAC and USB stick compatibility

Posted by: gav111n on 17 March 2010

Hello All,

I have been a naim owner for many years, forum ‘lurker’ for quite a while but 1st time poster.

I have recently bought a nDAC to run with a macbook pro as my source. This replaces my CD3.5/HC. I am very happy with the sound of the system out of the box but intend to squeeze the best out of the MBP by the various options that have been discussed here.

Last night I had a go at using a USB stick with ripped WAV files. When I inserted the 4GB Kingston stick into the nDAC the dock light came on, the memory stick did its flashing thing and then nothing. The function buttons on the nDAC would no work. Each button just momentarily flickered when I pressed it with no operation. If I pressed the dock button the light would not go out to undock the stick. So I just had to pull it out ‘live’. If I put the stick into the MBP, I can see the WAV files and play them with no problem. Back to the nDAC and I get the same problem.

The only other memory stick I could find at home was a cheapo unbranded one given to my wife at an exhibition. This works fine with the nDAC.

Has anyone else found the nDAC to have compatibility issues with USB sticks or might there be a fault with my unit? Or stick?

Gavin.
Posted on: 01 May 2010 by Thorsten_L


Very good, but deinstall the shitty software on it under U3-settings.



IMHO the best:

Posted on: 02 May 2010 by Chaton
Hi, I have a n-dac since 3 months and last week I transfer wav files 24-96 from my pc to a sd card 2gig and put tis card in a adator usb and then put it in the dac.... excellent, and the best sound that I have listen since my dac is in my naim gear.
Also I have a concert in 24-176 made by Fidelio audio and it took a 4 gig for that one but its fantastic....
Posted on: 14 May 2010 by sjust
All the experiences described above plus one: After reformatting three of four USB sticks, I had only pne left working with the nDAC. Grrr. Ultimately, it took the following procedure to make them work again:
Delete (and not create new ones) all USB stick partitions using a Mac.
Reformat the stick to FAT32 on a Windows PC.
Put song onto the stick.
Put it into the rear USB slot.
Put it into the front slot. ("just inserting into the front slot wouldn't work. SEVERAL tries)

Not very amused, but still better to have them work again.

Thought somebody might want to know (and eventually try the same, if desperate)

cheers
Stefan
Posted on: 18 May 2010 by pcstockton
Besides sticks not working, is anyone encountering any other playback glitches?
Posted on: 31 May 2010 by Hot Rats
quote:
Originally posted by Thorsten_Lux:


Very good, but deinstall the shitty software on it under U3-settings.



IMHO the best:



I have just got my Naim DAC and bought one each of these sticks. The Sandisk seems fine. The Transcend worked twice and now refuses to work, although it can be used in any of my PCs to play back 16-bit and Hi-Res audio files.
Posted on: 31 May 2010 by Huwge
With the Cruzer stick I had to uninstall the pre-loaded U3 and then format in a Windows 7 environment (not directly from Disk Utility on Mac) to get it to work. Now working with a variety of .wav files including HD. Oddly, it seems to be OK to delete and add tracks / folders on the Mac once the stick has been formatted in PC world.

Using the remote to skip tracks is a boon, even if functionality not in the manual. Also, the Cruzer stick does not fit easily but I was able to resolve this with a USB extension lead which makes things easier all round.

Now, can't wait until Friday when I get my converted CDX2 and BNC cable.
Posted on: 01 June 2010 by pcstockton
Now that I have found a stick that doesn't glitch on playback, I have a different issue many others seems to experience.

The stick rarely works on first insertion. Typically i have to pull out and reinsert about a dozen times before it works.

Is anyone NOT experiencing this?

Is this a problem with the DAC or the stick?

thanks,
Patrick
Posted on: 01 June 2010 by nap-ster
I've tried 4 or 5 different sticks, mostly budget ones, and they all work.
Delete everything except for the wavs which are not in a folder.
Posted on: 01 June 2010 by pcstockton
Whether in a folder or not does not change things for me. Neither front nor back do anything different. It sometimes just wont see the stick.

Typical:
Insert stick, little LED blinks on stick. Input auto changes on the DAC to "Dock", nothing plays. Buttons stills correspond to input not stick control. Solution is to reinsert many times, front and back

Less Typical:
Insert stick, little LED blinks on stick. Nothing happens on the DAC at all. Same solution as above,

About 5% of the time:
Insert stick, little LED blinks on stick. Input auto changes on the DAC to "Dock". First track in the directory starts.

In all cases when the stick starts playing automatically, it seems like the first microsecond of the first track is cut off.

Ironically, the first stick (mini) I bought was recognized instantly every time i inserted it. But this one "skipped" during playback.

So far every stick has either glitched/skipped or wont work on first insert.

For some reason I have a hard time believing all 10 or so of the sticks were faulty.

-Patrick
Posted on: 02 June 2010 by Paul Stephenson
Patrick- easy solution just send the sticks over to us by courier we will send you a report and send your sticks back.
Posted on: 02 June 2010 by pcstockton
address?
Posted on: 03 June 2010 by sjust
Patrick,
pretty similar experience with 5 all different sticks, here, plus: after recognizing a stick once (back port seems to be more "friendly") it seems the stick is recognized more easily. Changing something on the stick (adding, deleting, moving) lets the game restart. Thank God I use this playback method VERY rarely.