HDX - can I play FLAC stored on a server?

Exactly the same situation here.

Full Naim set and most CDs already ripped to FLAC on a server to be played via my AV-Receiver in the living room or via mobile flac player. Under no circumstances I will rip everything again.

According to the featurelist, the HDX can be used as normal streaming client, i.e. play files from a server. On on side I really do want a Naim streaming client, but on the other hand I dont want to pay for useless features (2 harddisks etc) and also want to avoid any noisy devices like fans and harddisks in my music room.

Dear Naim,

any pure harddiskless streaming client coming soon or do you really want me to go the Linn way ???

brgds..TC

You guys are doing the same soul searching as we did a few months ago. We wanted to use a remote hard drive (NAS) which we would also use for streaming to a Sonos in the kitchen and a netgear EVA8000 for all the DVDs etc. I couldn't bring myself to put a device with two hard drives (of insufficient capacity) next to my amps on the rack. I happen to sit close to the rack and the thought of anything whiring away like the sky box, horrified me. So, we went for the Linn Accurate DS. I am firmly of the opinion that Naim have not really got it right with the HDX, but then again, I can see why some would want a neat, one box solution.

Gary

quote:

Originally posted by RichardMoore:
Hi,

I'm looking at the Linn DS players and the HDX. My system is all Naim at present, so I'd be more inclined to pursue a Naim path for streaming audio.

I've already got 10000+ songs in FLAC on a server and since it took the best part of a year to get them there, I'm loathe to have to restart from scratch. And the disks are too small in the HDX for my collection in any event.

Can I simply "point" the HDX to this FLAC library on my network and have it play from there?

Any chance of Naim doing a diskless streamer with a nice screen and PSU upgrades?

Richard,

Yes it is possible for an HDX to play FLAC files on your network. It's FLAC decoding is very good.

I had an HDX at home for a couple of weeks and this is exactly what I tested.

I went with another streaming/DAC solution in the end though....

Cheers
Graham

Gary, I have had my HDX for about 6 weeks now and I think Naim did get it right, the music playback is really excellent. I'm not going to get into comparisons with CDPs again. While there are a few software issues, the UI is easy to use and response time very quick. I've listened to the HDX sitting as close as 1 foot in the shop and didn't hear anything wrt noise that would be disturbing. In fact I sat on the counter next to the device and couldn't hear a whisper from it.

I know the whole "one box" thing is an issue for some, but I haven't thought twice about it and I love the ripping station and the fact that I do not have to think about settings, etc... to maximize the rip quality. I'm sure that there will be some when ripping to external drive is available will never use the HDX HDD and just rip externally, but to each his/her own.

quote:

Originally posted by gary1 (US):
Gary, I have had my HDX for about 6 weeks now and I think Naim did get it right, the music playback is really excellent. I'm not going to get into comparisons with CDPs again. While there are a few software issues, the UI is easy to use and response time very quick. I've listened to the HDX sitting as close as 1 foot in the shop and didn't hear anything wrt noise that would be disturbing. In fact I sat on the counter next to the device and couldn't hear a whisper from it.

I know the whole "one box" thing is an issue for some, but I haven't thought twice about it and I love the ripping station and the fact that I do not have to think about settings, etc... to maximize the rip quality. I'm sure that there will be some when ripping to external drive is available will never use the HDX HDD and just rip externally, but to each his/her own.

I may try a few free downloads from Chesky to check out the "flac" playback and their download prices for 24 bit flac are "reasonable" at $15USD.

Gary

You are obviously very smitten with your HDX and I'm really pleased that it does the business for you. In fairness, we had a few other factors in mind when we made our decision. For reasons other than pure Hifi, we wanted a NAS, this being so that we could also stream to the kitchen, but also for DVD and also as a general backup device for photos etc. The pakage we ended up with including the Linn DS, a Hiline, the NAS, the switch, the wiring, the Nokia 810, the Sonos/speakers & the Netgear EVA came in at about £6k. To have started with a HDX and then added the ancillaries would have been another £1200 or so, which was more than we wanted to spend at the beginning of a recession
Added to which, I had just been to a Naim Summer Sounds event where the HDX was far from impressive. The combination of all these factors led us in the opposite direction, but I'm sure it's an excellent product and pleased that you're really enjoying yours.

Gary S

Interesting Gary, when led you to you decisions was exactly the same circumstances that led me to the HDX. The final product is fortunately/unfortunately much better than what people heard at the Summer Sounds. For Naim, this is not good since some potential buyers were disuaded from what they heard and moved on to other products. Based on what my dealer initially said of the prototype he had heard I think I would have been disappointed as well. The final product is far superior.

For my home I also have the NAS, sonos etc...only difference is that I use a Windows home server for photos, DVD, my original rips and bought a separtae NAS (D-link) which I only use for music.

I fully agree with Gary S' summary. I think the feature overload makes the HDX just too expensive. A HDX costs more than 3x a Majik Ds and still about 30% more than an Akurate DS. Akurate DS + NAS + Ipaq + Sonos Bundle is roughly the same than a bare HDX.

Of course it´s nice to have an easy ripping solution, but just 400Gb is not much with WAV and tagging with the HDX is a pain if you like not so common music.

I´ve had so many bad experiences with Linn during the last few years and the DS line is also far from perfect, especialy coz Kinsky is still in beta phase, but I think the concept is right.