UnitiServe has thrown a sickie, is there a plan 'B' ?

Whats the nas and whats the blu ray player?

Ditch the userve and just stream from a nas, that's what I did. Got fed up with the userve problems.

Try the UPnP server(s) that came on your nas.  It's QNap, so I think that means it has Twonky (which people find wonky) and maybe a home-grown QNap software??  Either should at least get you playing music.

Thanks guys...

Gary: It's a Qnap NAS with 'Wonky Twonky' UPnP server. The Blu-ray is a fairly cheap Sony, which is about 4 years old.

Maze: I am thinking seriously of that, how are you streaming it from the NAS, to your amp/DAC, via a Mac Mini?

Bart: I have Twonky disabled at the moment, and was using the UnitiServe as the server. I found that Twonky would not read the ripped files properly, listing all the tracks in alphabetical order, rather than the correct track listing. I'm told that the version of Twonky that's bundled with the Qnap, could be a cut down version.

I think broadly you are going to be in trouble if you ripped with WAV, its unlikely UPNP servers etc will be able to read the sidecars/metadata so all you will have is hundreds of untitled files.

If you ripped to flac or did the new convert to MP3 then you should be ok.

If you have them in MP3 then you could set up a DAAP server on the qnap which will give plenty of options with itunes etc.

However you will then still need to get that into the supernait, what other computers etc do you have in proximity to the hifi? 

You could pick up a used Sonos Connect (ZP80 or ZP90) for just under £200.

If you feed that into the Supernait's DAC it will sound pretty good and you should be able to browse the folders on the NAS using the Sonos.

Also you could subscribe to a free month trial of Spotify or Qobuz and you will have all the music you could wish for. The latter provider now does a lossless service which sounds excellent.

If you like the streaming service and internet radio keep the Sonos or if you don't then sell it on for very little loss and cancel any trials.

Richard

I exchanged my userve for a NAC172XS, now I stream from my nas to the 172. I copied all the files from the userve while I was waiting delivery on the 172, it was a long process but at least it also transferred all the metadata too. In hind site it would have been as quick to re rip to flac. Any new music I buy gets ripped to flac with dbpoweramp Or downloads I drag and drop to the nas.

Thanks Gary: I have a 21" iMac which is up stairs on a wireless connection to a Sky router. My Naim system is downstairs. I also have an iPhone and the new iPad Air.

All the ripped files are in WAV, but I also have some Hi Res 96/24 FLAC files on the NAS.

Thanks Trickydickie: I did look at the Sonos when my UnitiServe went wrong before, but then when I got it back repaired, I fell back in love with it! 

I have to say, that playing Hi Res 96/24 bit files and internet radio is where I'm at right now.

Paying nearly £2,500 for a piece of kit that has gone wrong twice in 14 months is quite worrying, especially when the warranty eventually runs out. Reading the various posts on the UnitiServe, it would appear that this particular component does suffer from quite a few problems.

I would seriously consider trading the UnitiServe in against a Naim Streamer. What about trading the US and SN in against a SuperUniti? Then spend £350 odd on a Vortexbox and forget about all the hassle. My Vortexbox has fed our various Squeezeboxes, 'Qutes and NDS and a host of other devices without flaw for three years now. Totally brilliant device for the money in terms of ripping/tagging/serving.

(Why do I feel the sudden urge to go and check whether the Vortexbox has exploded as soon as I finished typing the last sentence.)

HTM_1968: If I knew what I Know now, I would have done just that. At the moment I can't really afford a Superuniti. I have heard good reports on the Vortexbox though. I'll do some more research.

OK, here is what I would do if I had 70 quid.

get an appletv or airport express and connect to the digital in on the supernait.

Set a DAAP server on the QNAP (its part of the inbuilt software) and point it what I hope is some MP3s or apple files on the NAS.

Use the iphone as a remote using apple remote, I am not sure if you need the imac in the equation or not.

If you don't have apple or mp3 files and only naim rips, you may be in trouble. 

I'm also considering moving from a Unitiserve to a streamer, although I've had no problems with the U/S. Does anyone know if the wav files I've ripped would be read "correctly" based on my NAS being a 2.5yr old Netgear device?

A Naim streamer will read them perfectly, so long as the server is configured correctly. 

Yes, but what about a non-Naim streamer? I would like to be able to steam my ripped CDs via a non naim streamer if required.

Our 'second system' is a Roberts radio with built in music player, which lives in the kitchen. We use it to listen to WAV files streamed wirelessly from the UnitiServe and it all works perfectly. A Roberts is about as non-Naim as you can get.

Why not just stream from the Serve? It would be a shame to lose its functionality. It should sound better streamed than feeding directly into a DAC, so just add a streamer.

Yes, as above. A non Naim streamer will handle it - if the server is in good working order. It would be a pity to lose the all in one capability, plus the upgrade option of adding a DAC, but if I had two brick in 14 months I'd be looking for a different solution, and probably considering a different make(s).

Yep. If I was starting from scratch I'd look there.

 Vortexbox into a Unitiqute. Haven't enjoyed music so much in years. The VB can be a bit of a bumpy ride at times, but the nice thing is with just a small amount of computer savvy and good tech support there's no sending back anywhere, usually just entering a line of linux or two and you are good to go (unless of course a piece of hardware truly breaks). But as long as you are backed up, one could buy 6 plus VB's for the price of a Unitiserve. It does only rip to FLAC though but will store and serve anything.

Felt I needed a bit more power so picked up a refurbished NAP 110 today to add to the UQ. Should make for an interesting combo (fingers crossed). I think they'll look great side by side as well.

With a QNAP NAS you could always pick up a second hand Squeezebox Touch (relatively cheaply) and use Slimserver software. It supports upto 96/24bit streaming natively and can be upgraded with an EDO mod for 192/24. The benefit of the Touch is that you can either navigate via the screen (viewable from around 20 feet away) or use its browser interface and, for me, it has always worked flawlessly.

Many people say good things about Vortexbox, but I thought it was just a ripper/hard drive. Can it serve the music as well?

One of the biggest problems is, although the ripped WAV files are stored on the Qnap NAS, they can only be read correctly by the UnitiServe, apparently had they been ripped in FLAC, then it could be a different ball game. I had a ND5 XS on demo in the summer, and it could not read the files stored on the NAS, that had been previously ripped by the UnitiServe.

Gary: Just Naim ripped WAV files, and a about 12 albums in 96/24 FLAC, downloaded from Linn, stored on the NAS. 

I use a Vortexbox. It rips, tags (99% of the time it gets this right too!), stores and serves music. Essentially it is a NAS with a ripper built in. I believe the VB will also do iRadio and clever things, but , I've never explored the additional functionality. I am quite comfortable with the Logitech Squeezeserver as the media serving software supplied with the VB. I am sure there are superior alternatives out there, but this all works perfectly.For instance, I get iRadio via my streamers. 

We stream music to a bunch of smart TVs, an NDS, a UnitiQute, and a Cambridge Audio NP30 streamer. We also have a bunch of Squeezeboxes which get set up from time to time. All run seamlessly from the Vortexbox.

As I am not interested in fiddling with computers (and rarely fiddle with the Hi Fi either) a reliable, easy to set up, idiot proof, and flexible solution was required when we moved to streaming. I had previously used EAC on a PC as a ripper, MP3 tag for editing metadata and a Netgear Stora NAS for storage and serving. I tried the US, but preferred the VB and found the substantial chunk of change left over easy to spend elsewhere.

That's odd. It should do.