Uniti serve as replacement for iTunes/ Mac mini

I use iTunes/mini.  Over maybe 8 years I have had a glitch or 2   Very rare though.   Seems a little overkill to ditch the system for one "quit"

Paul

Was an early adopter of U.S., bought one of the early 1TB models about 3 yearsg ago, and it has been wonderful, absolutely bullet proof for me. Quality is superb, and the way it integrates all sources (internal disk, NAS, USB stick etc) into one coherent library is fantastic. All with the minimum of fuss. Setting up the NAS was a bit fiddly, but if you get stuck Naim HQ can log into the unit and help out.

Its also survived about a dozen power outages whilst playing, with no problem - am living in the middle east, the power supply is a bit erratic.

Heartily recommended - although as the OPpaid, perhaps a bit expensive to fix a one off crash of iTunes.

Paul

I agree, it's a tad expensive... But it was not just one quit, rather 15 over the weekend  and looking around the crash report you realise just how much bloat there is in iTunes.. Why camera raw for example, just think playback reliability is suffering.  Work with code all week long, don't want to spend weekends getting to bottom of another app crash .

currently following library file rebuild, iTunes has run 24 hours so probably a file corruption in there.

thanks, however, for your responses

Odd - never had iTunes crash at all - 

Tog

I've never had an iTunes crash, but when it comes to Amarra and the endless pains it requires to sort every time there's an upgrade or an OS upgrade, then I start to dream of a UnitiServe. More and more. One difficulty lies in arranging the kind of comparison that would persuade me that I'll get at least the quality of Amarra on those occasions when it runs successfully, and would also justify the radical reorganisation necessary to run an ethernet linked component. I expect I'll hang on until money in the bank coincides with a moment of fury at the time I'm wasting in sorting flaky software, and just risk it. Assuming that UnitiServe is stable. It is, isn't it?

My digital upfront consists of Mac Mini -> Stello U3 -> nDAC using Audirvana iTunes integration. Music flows flawlessly with no sign of software crashing. I have not upgraded to Maverick OS since the current Mountain Lion is working perfectly.

Well it's been running for 2 days now without issue so in all probability a coruption in the lib file was cause.. Have scripted a backup of lib files so can restore in event of issue.. 

To be clear, its been rock solid for many a year that I've been using iTunes so don't want to give the impression that it's crashing constantly. This weekends events has highlighted some reliability solution start points for addressing and so was casting around for people's experiences with unitiserve as a possible replacement when hard wired into a nDac.

Why not spend $50 and run JRiver Media Center instead of iTunes? Much better than iTunes, both sound and interface imo. I would say the Unitiserve would be overkill, unless you have the $ and really need to rip hundreds of cds. You might also look into the Vortexbox, though I think new, better software on your mini is probably the answer.

hi Charlesphoto,

I have circa 18k alac tracks ripped from my 1.5kish CDs  and about 200 hi-res downloads so it's a sizable library.. Does Jriver handle libraries that size without issues that you are aware of?

ditch ammara and use bitperfect.

No idea. It seems to be handling my collection of 900 or so CD's pretty handily. I'm actually just on trial period now and using it in my office to stream from my Vortexbox via my Mac Pro desktop to A2 desktop speakers via a small Nu Force DAC. Using shuffle and really discovering my music (and my wife's) again. The Mac version is slightly hobbled unfortunately with the inability to use key commands. But beyond that I much prefer it to iTunes. 

Just looked and my library has 15K plus files in it so all would be good for 18!

I have sidelined Amarra and use Audirvana which works flawlessly. But – it doesn't sound as good as Amarra, which remains the benchmark for sound quality when it isn't clicking or dropping out or some other annoyance.  I haven't compared Mac Mini + Amarra to the output from UnitiServe and don't really know how I could. Anyway, this must be one of the few times on a Naim forum that everyone has conspired to stop someone spending money on Naim equipment! 

What is it you believe ammara is doing? 

Whats it 'doing' to soud to make it sound better in your opinion, if it was 6 quid like bitperfect would you still believe it sounds best?

Seeing Amarra mentioned; I've recently, after a demonstration in my system by a fellow forum member, invested in Amarra Symphony with iRC room correction.

An expensive option but I've been using this for nearly a month and it's a really superb, probably the most cost-effective upgrade I've ever made to my Hi-Fi. I should really post my experiences with this in a seperate thread...

Yes please do Tony. 

I'd rather ensure a bitperfect output with auto switching on the audio where needed, that can be done for 6 quid.

I think the EQ settings on ammara says it all really. Its an EQ.  It has bass boost, haha.

Only my opinion of course, but I would urge people not to spend 600 quid when you can achieve bitperfect output with auto audio switching and remvoe those two 0s from the price.

Have you ever used Amarra Gary ?

I've got Bitperfect. I've got Audiorvana. I've fiddled with various EQ stuff in the past. The Amarra iRC's a totally different beast. It's clear Garyi's no idea about it...

Hey tony, if you are happy, I am happy. Its your money burn it any way you want. All i am saying is you can buy graphic equalisers on ebay for 40 quid.

boost that bass baby!

To be fair i have not tried it for a few years so will download the demo and give it a blast tommoz. Glad to see they have the structured microsoft pricing.

Hope you've got a suitable microphone. And a fair bit of time...

So you tried iRC a few years ago?

I don't think room correction was out a few years ago? They seem to have a lot of purchase options now, back in the day it was amarra, now there are 4 versions?? I just remember when I tried it last and it was a while ago the app looked like a 1994 programme for ameiga, it was buggy, with constant music drop outs and all sorts of issues.

Personally I think if you are down a room correction route, well, lets just say thats not the naim way imo, so I would not be interested in pursuing that. Its EQ, no getting away from it Tony. As soon as you do that you might as well get a technics amp and be done

Always happy to experiment though especially as the demo is free. Do you think I could use one of those mics that come with AV surround amps, I have one of those somewhere?