Question about playing files through Naim DAC

No you can't use the DAC in this manner......you can connect a USB drive full of songs which will play but there's no way to navigate through the songs with the Naim App. I don't know about the Unitiserve but you can definitely navigate USB drives when connected to the NDX or NDS. I suspect this will be the case with any Naim device that can be controlled by the Naim App.

By Naim App do you guys mean nServe or nStream?

Neither have any relevance to the Naim DAC, which is a pure dac, not a streamer or server.

With the UnitiServe, plugging a usb stick into one of the four rear usb ports will allow the stick to show up as a connected usb device.  Album art in the right format shows up, and the music can be played just like any other music on an internal store or external share, using nServe.

Note that UnitiServe, UnitiServe-SSD, NDX, HDX etc are all considered as digital "player" or "server". Naim DAC is a converter not player so by its nature, should not be used solely to play digital music. Of course, USB drive is an exception but one cannot navigate the playlist.

Having said this, my recently installed Mac Mini has in my view, achieved quite close to the performance of USB drive playing into the DAC. I am a happy chap for now.

Cheers.

You can't stream the files themselves, but instead need to run a "player" on your mac and send SPDIF to the DAC. Unfortunately, you can't use iTunes unless you convert your files to ALAC or AIFF (which is very easy using XLD).

Have you looked into Vortexbox :-)  Its basically an NAS with a streamer built in. The soundcard can really matter, and by the time you're done, you may be at the same cost level as a Mac Mini. But, you can convert an old mac or PC into a vortexbox for free to play around with it.

Yes, that's the one. So effectively the Unitiserve can play stored files through to the DAC, without needing to use the mac. Don't get me wrong, the mac works really well with bit perfect etc. 

I was wondering if there's anything like the Unitiserve that would be compatible with Naim playback software... but perhaps not. It would be great if there was a Unitiserve without the disc drive that you could load files onto via usb and play through the DAC using nServe. A simple naim hard disc with naim playback software. Most people will say 'get the NDX' but I love the sound of the DAC and don't want to get into streamers with digital front panels, radio stations, wireless streaming etc. 

What about services like Grooveshark and Spotify?  Is it possible to stream them from a laptop or PC  to the DAC via usb?

You're obviously looking for an affordable hard-disk player to be connected to the nDAC. Have a look at the Vortexbox units.

As far as know, not by USB. I play Spotify through my Mac optical out into the DAC. 

You can connect an iPod or Ipad via USB to the DAC though, and then play Spotify.