Soooooo EASY :-) (and it sounds good)

Yes, plenty of ways to do the job, True Blue, but for ease & no faff, with added bonus of being able to edit simple metadata on the n-Serve app, I havent looked back since I got mine.

If you do go for one in the end, make sure to set up automated back ups  - its easy to set up and gives peace of mind that in the worst case scenario of a HD failure, all your rips are safe.

Enjoy the time with your demo unit! 

I couldn't agree more.

Life is too short to muck about with "solutions" that require you to make a load of decisions (FLAC or WAV?, compression level? How do I check the rip is bit perfect? How do I tag things in a sensible way? Do I prefer JRiver or some other software that is bound to take me several hours to understand). I want to buy kit that is plug and play and which lets me spend my time listening to music rather than learning about computer audio. I only want to have to go into the software as a last resort!

(And this is someone who used to be able to program in Z80 assembler language!)

Absolutely.  I know I could have done it "cheaper", but sometimes its about the ease of use and interaction with other components.  Working flawlessly with the NDX and the new Android App (volume control issues aside).

Think it may well be a keeper :-)

+1

for a modest outlay, a great solution......and a decent PS does make a big difference...

enjoy

Hh many thanks has its own shelf. Regarding the ps my audio is on separate dedicated cct and the unitiserve, ethernet switch and napsc are all on normal house mains.

You are more than welcome to come for a listen, possibly even bring your ps for an a b comparison.

Only five minutes up the road from the gents at our local emporium. I shall be there friday morning. If not ill ask nick to pass on my details to you.

Sounding sublime at the moment, detailed, layers of extra detail increased bass weight and no faff

I recall summer 2013, when ripping 2,000 CDs was underway..... Now it's done, the streamer makes it very easy. Two tips for you, the first of which is free. Put the Napsc on the dedicated Hifi supply. The second will cost you £130, if your switch, Serve and NDX are close together: get two 0.75m AudioQuest Cinnamon ethernet leads. And if you have not done so already, switch of the ndx's digital output and all unused inputs. It will sound better and you won't see those you don't use on the app.

Thanks for the offer, but these days I avoid listening to better systems than mine, for reasons I won't bore you with.

Hh thanks for the tips. Cinnamons already placed as with the ndx outputs. Same local dealer advice lol. Will try napsc tomorrow thanks

True Blue, what were you using to serve the NDX before the US?  

Western Digital NAS drive

I, too, have been very pleased with my Unitiserve. It took me a while to figure out how to get a stable network for it to work on (thanks again to various forum members) but it sounds great streaming to my Superuniti, and the convenience is great. I do sometimes wonder if it was a rather extravagant purchase, given that you could easily buy 25 bog standard 2TB NAS drives for the price! Or a mac mini for perhaps a quarter of the price. Maybe, if well configured, they would sound as good, I really don't know......?

Demo unit bought now in process of ripping very happy. Source first still very true

Help me here why would transcoded Flac sound better then Flac processed in the streamer directly ?

There's less for the streamer to do to extract the DSD stream. Apparently. I've tried both and transcoding at the server sounded better.

Yes, it is a great addition to the music listening arsenal and I love the ease with which you can flick from song, artist, album, genre so easily. It appeals to my short attention span and trouble I have these days listening all the way through an album.

The US is not without its issues, though. We are getting on much better of late, but some idiosyncratic network behaviour - prob the fault of my router in hindsight - has led to it crash a few times. It's not the easiest kit to reset or manage when things go wrong, but it is clever and seamlessly fits into my Naim set up. 

Now, whether the rips sound better than the CD, I highly doubt, but they are like for like with regards quality as far as I'm concerned. 

I agree that the UnitiServe is great for CD's.  Is there any word if it will ever handle downloaded files in the same fashion it handles CD's?  The files play fine but the metadata is not as extensive even when it is part of the file.  One annoying aspect is searching for a composer you will only identify CD's.  I have noticed, however, that if you click on the album information button the correct data is there for downloaded files including the correct cover art.  There is a place holder in the UnitiServe file structure called HD which is currently not used.

Shucks! You mean I've got to re-rip my entire CD collection to FLAC? I could have sworn I read somewhere (on this forum?) that Unitiserves preferred WAV.

 Regardless, I rip, I play ....seeeemples

/and it sounds so so so good. )0's and 1's bit for bit makes no difference. I beg to differ, with my ears.  Soooooooooo much more detail, texture ,warmth, feeling.  WELL DONE NAIM

ChrisSU, you dont have to re-rip all your CD's, you can set the US to convert.

This is a thread posted by HH earlier this year:

https://forums.naimaudio.com/to...av-hello-flac?page=1

If we assume that FLAC and WAV sound the same to most ears, and that the preferred ripping format on a US is WAV, the question arises if the US HD fails one day in the future, how can I play my backed up files using another server, while still allowing all the metadata to be served in a meaningful way ?

The WAV's can be played over the network, but the metadata doesnt show up in the same way as if FLAC's are being played.

Which means that until the US would be fixed, your backed up ripped CD collection would not be available in the same way.

If I remember correctly, this was the main reason HH and several others converted over to FLAC, transcoding back to WAV via the US for playback.

I havent done it yet but it is at the back of my mind.

I also hasten to add though that my US has been super reliable - I have the original 1TB version that is now 4 years old.

Hope this helps explain a little?

Do you notice a sound difference? I am curious as I also have a WD NAS feeding an NDX

Definate difference in sq. Not sure if that is the wav rips as opposed to alac or whether its the serving. There is much more body, substance and texture to the sound. It just sounds right.

Thanks TrueBlue. Interesting. I have indeed "heard" the difference between UServe + NDAC vs NDX (in favor of the former) but I tacitly assumed it was due to the NDAC. Ended up with NDX as I don't have or buy too many CDs, the few I buy I rip myself.

In the few cases where I could directly compare WAV with FLAC served from my NAS  to my NDX I could not discern a difference in SQ. 

Well explained! The US always rips to WAV. If you set it to rip to flac, it actually rips to WAV and then converts to flac.  My offsite backup is 250 miles away. It was previously in WAV and was impossible to search, with the metadata all over the place. This summer it was replaced with a FLAC version, and now works perfectly. The Serve's WAV library can ge converted at the touch of a button, and then set to rip to FLAC.  All very clever.