Soooooo EASY :-) (and it sounds good)
Posted by: True Blue on 30 September 2014
Got a Unitiserve at home on demo. Plenty more texture and depth to the sound but the main selling point is its sooooo darn easy. Pop in CD wait. Put cd away (forever) and enjoy the music. Excellent.
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.
The answer to this is simple. Tag them properly in the first place. Naim use a proprietary tagging system which may or may not be picked up by third playback devices. To blame it on the WAV format is nonsense. The US/HDX is a superb product line. Much admired and rightly so. But let's not drag them into an alternative reality.
If we would retag every CD we rip in WAV on the US/HDX it almost defeats the object of a US /HDX, or. Convenience & ease of use. I can't imagine the thought of retagging every CD I've ripped so it is served with different metadata.
Why not use the functionality of the US to make this process easy as explained above?
Secondly, I haven't managed to retag a WAV in a satisfactory way up to now. I tried once when I downloaded a hi-res file in WAV by accident, but gave up and converted it to FLAC in the end!
The proprietary tagging in WAV is absolutely fine for me, works a treat. I'm just posing the 'What if?' Question as something to bear in mind.
I hadn't realised this anomaly either and assumed my 1000 HDX WAV files would be seen and play fine through the NDX from a NAS. Not so.
It took the HDX a week 24/7 to convert to FLAC.
FLAC's are seen in nserve under 'Albums' with the cover art all nicely organised and track info in place.
I discovered by accident that all the WAV files are there too under 'folder' but they lack some info - like 'unknown artist' for example. They play fine though and so I can directly compare FLAC with WAV back to back.
Can't say I detect any difference on extended listenining.
G
We have a preference for WAV over FLAC in this house but who knows what that's about?
My little Sonos system in the office picked up the Naim tagged WAVs on the NAS and displayed them just fine. Lovely job. I have since retagged the lot after installing Minimserver on the NAS and dispensing with the HDX. It seemed daunting at first but I ended up enjoying it. I did about 1200 albums.
What is indisputable is that without the convenience and sonic prowess of the HDX-SSD I probably would not have been motivated to go 100% streamed music. It has been easier for me to retrospectively move onto an independent server.
If we would retag every CD we rip in WAV on the US/HDX it almost defeats the object of a US /HDX, or. Convenience & ease of use. I can't imagine the thought of retagging every CD I've ripped so it is served with different metadata.
Why not use the functionality of the US to make this process easy as explained above?
Secondly, I haven't managed to retag a WAV in a satisfactory way up to now. I tried once when I downloaded a hi-res file in WAV by accident, but gave up and converted it to FLAC in the end!
The proprietary tagging in WAV is absolutely fine for me, works a treat. I'm just posing the 'What if?' Question as something to bear in mind.
When you let the uServe or HDX convert previously ripped wav to flac, or if you rip a cd to flac directly, in either case the tagging is just fine. There is nothing else to do other than let the server do its thing.
If you have ripped 500 cd's to wav, and now decide to convert to flac, just let the uServe do it. All will be tagged correctly.
When you let the uServe or HDX convert previously ripped wav to flac, or if you rip a cd to flac directly, in either case the tagging is just fine. There is nothing else to do other than let the server do its thing.
If you have ripped 500 cd's to wav, and now decide to convert to flac, just let the uServe do it. All will be tagged correctly.
You may have missed my original post Bart, but that was my point, let the uServe take the strain!
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.
The answer to this is simple. Tag them properly in the first place. Naim use a proprietary tagging system which may or may not be picked up by third playback devices. To blame it on the WAV format is nonsense. The US/HDX is a superb product line. Much admired and rightly so. But let's not drag them into an alternative reality.
Probably the most balanced view, so far, on this thread.
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.
The answer to this is simple. Tag them properly in the first place. Naim use a proprietary tagging system which may or may not be picked up by third playback devices. To blame it on the WAV format is nonsense. The US/HDX is a superb product line. Much admired and rightly so. But let's not drag them into an alternative reality.
Probably the most balanced view, so far, on this thread.
Having tried it out tonight, I agree, it is 3rd party playback device / server related
Humble pie duly eaten!
All the metadata is there, ripped perfectly by the Unitiserve as I already knew, and when I choose to stream via Sonos or NAS instead of the US, it is served up perfectly well through my Sonos => SU, but when I play via NAS & Twonky => SU, the Artist and Album are shown as Unknown.
So in my case it is a Twonky issue that I may or may not be able to tweak accordingly.
Thank you for pointing this out.
I have only ever tried to stream via my NAS as an alternative, never via Sonos, but this test tonight has proven the root cause.
Seems I don't need to convert everything over to FLAC in case the US HD conks out after all.
Chris that is interesting. Naim in my expierience didn't used to use any of the the wav file metadata methods (ID3 or ListInfo) and it relied on its own seperate database to store the metadata rather than in the wav file itself. Your post implies this might have now changed...unless Sonos is directly interfacing to the Naim database.. Which I would find surprising.
When it comes to the streamers, it is the streaming server (UPnP DLNA, Airplay etc) that reads the file metadata and sends that information to the network player / streamer seperately from the media itself. Therefore if Twonky can't read wav metadata within the wav file itself then it can't send that info to the streamer.
Simon
It really surprised me too Simon.
I had assumed that my Superuniti would get the same information from the Unitiserve ripped WAVs whether from my NAS (using Twonky) or via my Sonos because it was a Naim proprietary format, without actually trying it through the Sonos.
Always foolish to make assumptions!
Well ripping ripping riping 400 cds in........one time reset and one album artwork manually added. Very happy soooooo easy. Backup set up and daily differential backup setup and running. Dont know why I didnt do this years ago
Ripping done!!!! 10 days but now done. One time unit froze and had to be rebooted, other than that painless, had to enter the album artwork for about ten cd's. No hassle really easy. Now all backups done and a copy of my backup taken and safe. Found and listened to some old favourites during the pleasurable ripping process :-)
Now sit back, relax and enjoy the music!
The Serve works really well, and sounds great. I'm very happy with mine. If you do keep it, treat it to a decent power supply at some point and give it a bit of space as it gets quite warm.
Hh the supply that cant be mentioned is in place, on day two and performing very very well. All audio gear now on dedicated line only ethernet switch on normal mains. Never listened as much.
Brilliant, I'm sure it sounds great. The Serve does make things very easy.
I use my us via ethernet out, so was not expecting too much. Sonically similar jump as adding hi cap..............
Chris not sure if I can pass you my email but any admins please could you pass chris my email thankyou
Mail me if you want, it's my forum name at gmail.
Which ethernet switch did you use?
Netgear proswitch think its called about twenty quid.