Please help a new streamer

Nigel

You are confusing the ripping software with the UPNP server software that will reside on your NAS.

dbPoweramp is ripping software that you will use on your PC to rip the CD into files that your will then store on your NAS drive. It is an excellent product and is well worth using.

Turning to the NAS you will need to run some software called a UPNP Server.  This normally comes with the NAS drive and Twonky is a popular choice.  The UPNP software will serve the music to your ND5 XS.  It will need to be setup so it knows where you have put the music on your NAS, there is normally a default that is usually sufficent.

With your music on the NAS, Twonky installed and enabled and aware where your music is your streamer will then detect the UPNP setver and allow you to select and play music.

There is plenty of advice on using Twonky on this forum if you do a choice.

Hope this helps and doesn't add to any confusion!

Richard

Thanks for that Richard.

I've had a look on the QNAP website, and it looks like the NAS comes with Twonky media server already installed.

I'll give dBpoweramp a try so that I can use FLAC or WAV files. I think that it's sometimes easier once you have the hardware in front of you, howeverbyoubexplanation did help.

thanks again.

And I do believe that you should ignore the iTunes Server -- better yet, be sure to turn it off / disable it.

iTunes Server is Apple's alternative to UPnP (in general terms), but is not compatible with devices meant to run on a UPnP network.  I believe it is useless as far as the ND5XS is concerned.  Best to turn it off.

Nigel, 

You might have seen this thread in the Streaming section:

https://forums.naimaudio.com/to...w-qnap-and-supernait

Also, the search function should prove invaluable in answering most of your questions.

In short, if you are Mac based XLD should be your ripping software of choice, although I find iTunes' own, with error correction on, very good as well. I rip to AIFF. 

JRiver is supposed to be a cracking media player and UPnP server. They are working on an OSX version for their audio player at the moment. Plan is to have it ready by year end but you can download the current beta version already at a discount. Have not tried it but good feedback from those who have used the PC version here on the forum. 

As for UPnP server software only, Asset is top of the crop. Spoon the inventor of dbPoweramp is working on a Mac version as well. It's on the dbPamp site for download.

Good luck

tp 

dBPoweramp and Asset have given me flawless service over the years, so heartily recommended from me as well. Unfortunately Asset only runs on a Windows platform, so is not available as a package to run on most NAS servers as these are almost always Linux based. I run a small Windows server with Asset, my eMail server and a few other bits and bobs, so I'm happy, but it does complicate matters for those not as geeky as me...

And I concur with Bart, keep iTunes and uPnP separate.

Dave

+1 Asset. Works stonkingly well with Naim, and as your confidence is ultra configurable so you can structure your library in lots of imaginative ways and navigate with ease using Nstream.

Thanks for all of the responses, and the link which was useful.

QNAP should arrive on Sat, so looking forward to setting it up, and getting going.

The ND5XS has been great so far, and i may even get rid of my CD5X eventually. Just relaxing with Radio Paradise at the moment.

thanks again, and I'll let you know how things go setting it up over the weekend (if things go well at least)

Nigel

Hey Nigel,

welcome and congrats on your new streamer. Good choice! I am an Assett fan; it is very stable and use friendly and provides some features you will appreciate especially when you hae become a bit more familiar with using nStream to browse through your collection. With Assett toucan easily make that experience even more joyfull. Furthermore, Assett has this very nice facility of transcoding onto Wav on the fly which directly affects sound quality!

cheers,

iver

Asset is available for Mac for free. I store my music in iTunes and use Assett as UPnP server. Album art available and it works perfectly. There is no paid version so playlists are not available.

Osprey, that is no bad thing. In time you wil have mutiple NASes for scaling and resilience and you will want to keep services such as streaming running sepereately. I certainly do.

Osprey, you are right but sometimes in the quest for simplicity one is courting disaster or disappointment. But some people have to expierience the pain to learn Pavlov style 

Simplicity certainly comes with limitations and I agree if not accepted dissapoinment will follow. It's not possible to have it all (eat the cake and keep it and so on)

A UnitiServe HDD will greatly simplify things, providing storage and UPnP server functions in the same box. Add a NAS for backup. Job done. The OP's CD5X could be part traded for a U/S.

That's what I have and it is probably as simple as you can get. The only tricky thing was getting the Synology NAS set up to act as backup. But now it's set, every morning at 4am the UnitiServe backs up to the NAS quite happily. I never need to touch the desktop client now that the backup is set.

Yes, I tried its server and it works really well. Whereas Twonky is a pile of poo. My advice to Nigel would be to send the Qnap back unopened and get a Synology.

My setup exactly.  And it's working like a charm.  If only the uServe would backup its Downloads folder to the nas.  That's still a gap, right??  I do that backup manually with Carbon Copy Cloner on my Macbook.

Add to it an external usb drive to back up the nas, and best yet a second external usb drive kept outside of the home. 

NAS arrived this morning, and after a few little glitches (I didn't know that I needed to map the new drive on the network - Doh!), I managed to get going.

Downloaded dBpoweramp and ripped a few cds as FLAC files. Very pleased with the sound, and definitely on a par with my CD5x now, so very pleased overall.

However, a couple of things that I would appreciate some help getting sorted.

Every track seems to have about 60 seconds at the end of nothing audible and I can only play single tracks. I've tried adding tracks to the queue, and playing as an album, but it still stops at the end of the  first or second track.

Please help before I tear some hair out.

Thanks

Nigel

Nigel that sounds like something up with the UPnP server running on your nas, as opposed to the rips or the ND5XS or nStream.  I can't help with that part sorry.

Yes Andelun, I had forgotten that there was a beta version for Mac. Still does not help those with just a Linux based NAS though which was my main point.

Hi I am really interested in this post, you say you use iTunes and asset as your upnp server, and what's more the album artwork perfectly.

Can yoexpand in this a bit more? Is your musIc stored on a Mac then, as opposed to a NAS? And what file format have you used?Lossless aiff? Are you using n-stream?

I have my music ripped / managed via iTunes, ripped as lossless Alac or aiff files, stored on a WD my book live NAS, but I can't for the life of me get the artwork and meta data sorted on the n-stream on the iPad or iPhone.

It's got Me thinking about moving to a linn majik dsm - people seem to say the interface is more reliable and complete.

Regards

M

Hello - so Synology does not use twonky? Be good to get away from it.

Asset is available for Mac for free. I store my music in iTunes and use Assett as UPnP server. Album art available and it works perfectly. There is no paid version so playlists are not available.

XLD rips my music as Lossless Alac and XLD stores it in iTunes on an external HD (mac formatted). XLD can sometimes find the artwork, when not then I search it myself and add it to the album in iTunes. I use n-stream on the iPad.

The in Assett I manually fill in the path to my music.

/Volumes/pluis/iTunes/iTunes Media