NDS owners please

Bruce,

I traded my CD555 for an NDS, both powered by 2*555DR. It loses out marginally to the 555 on red book, but it opens the door to 24bit, which is the clincher for me. I am very pleased with the change.

David 

Bruce,

I can't speak about the comparison to the HDX. But I will compare it with my old CDX2 + NDAC + XPS2....

Much more dynamical, much more fine detail, much more natural tonality. It's a kind of no brainer buy

Hi Bruce -

I replaced NDX->DAC/555PS with NDS/555PS DR, and found it a big improvement. I think of the NDS as a "Goldilocks" solution -- plenty of detail, but also very musical with perfect tonality and great energy and drive. It's my long-term stopping place for digital music.  

If you haven't upgraded your PS to DR status, this would be a good time to do so.

ATB.

Hook

I never owned a HDX, but went from a CDSII to NDS/555PS DR. The NDS is a wonderful streamer.... one I can live with for a long time. I compared the NDS to a Linn Klimax. Both are wonderful streamers, but for me the NDS has more PRAT.

Fred

I just had an HDX SSD for quite some time and was never fully satisfied, as I always felt some digital edge. I finally nearly stopped listening to music (HDX had an XPS 2 DR). A few weeks ago I finally purchased a NDS, and what a difference this makes (still with the XPS). No more digital edge, a lot of tonality and I again often sit for a long time infront of my hifi to listen to music. I think the NDS is one of the best sources Naim has made, it's a no brainer. Take the plunge and I'm sure you will like it a lot.

Hang on - this post is older than 24hrs and no one's suggested a Hugo yet....

If you can afford to do so, keep the HDX for serving music to your NDS  (this is what I do).  This forum is full of folks trying to emulate what the HDX does by way of metadata presentation to your NDS (album art etc etc), from a network attached storage device.  KISS if you can - keep it simple, keep to a Naim server with the Naim streamer - life is soooo much simpler !!

Move the 555PS to the NDS, of course and maybe relocate the HDX somewhere outside of your listening room so you won't be bothered by any noise (I kept mine inside a Tapley 33 teak cupboard sitting on a sound absorbing base with sorbothane, but as you know already, the HDX runs HOT, so it's back on my Fraim, competing with my other 'humming' power supplies  )

As I said, keep it simple, Bruce, and you won't go wrong...

btw, the second 555PS works wonders as David (nearly) said above.

Interesting suggestions so far. I thought using something like dbpoweramp to rip from the PC to the NAS was pretty easy and reliable in terms of metadata etc. I could actually keep the bare HDX in my office system if I wanted for ripping purposes but had intended a part-ex. It seems a bit daft to just use it as a CD ripper only.

Enlighten me about the ripping issues if I use DBpoweramp. Maybe I need to visit threads on this part of the Forum more often. I don't actually know what a Hugo is either....

Bruce

I have not even got around to working out how the HDX backup works yet. I am assuming attaching an NDS to my NAS would  access all the previously stored HDX drive files in the back up as well as those that have been ripped to the NAS in recent years when the HDX was full?

We can of cours start betting on how this will take now. I think it will happen within the next 24 hours.....:-)

Hi Bruce,

If I understand the HDX it is acting as a server/streamer but it streams the music to itself.

With the NDS you will need the NAS to stream the music to the NDS (or use the HDX as one would use a Unitiserve) Before you get rid of the HDX you will need to check that whatever dnla/streamer software on your NAS (Twonky, Minim and Asset being the 3 most commonly used here) can read what the HDX ripped. If you have ripped to WAV there may be an issue with the metadata. This is not insurmountable but would requires you converting everything to flac before saying goodbye to the HDX.

The problem is not with new ripping, dBpoweramp is excellent, but there may be a problem with your cuurent rips.

I hope this makes sense.

SJB

Not sure I am up to speed here.

The HDX writes to the NAS now because its own drives are full, and about half of my current collection is on the NAS only. I also download a bit of stuff (as .flac from Bandcamp mostly) that sits on the NAS and it plays that fine too. Surely this means the format of the files on the NAS must be accessible to an NDS too? Maybe I am not quite clear what 'streaming' really means; I assumed that the HDX reads from the database, and so would the NDS. I am aware that Asset player lives on the NAS too though.

Bruce

They will be, as the NDS will see the Asset UPnP software on your NAS. The HDX doesn't need this, as it sees the NAS as a network share.

An easy way to check is to fire up the Naim app but choose asset as the source rather than the HDX. So asset from the NAS will be playing to the HDX (or to the Uniqute I see on your profile). If all your rips look fine here wrt metadata  (especially songs listed in correct album order and not alphabetical) you are good to go.

SJB

NDS is a long way in front of the HDX and for that matter, HDX/DAC/555PS. We ran our NDS along side the HDX which did server duties, for about 2 years. We then took the HDX out and ran a music server on the NAS. The HDX didn't go back in and we moved it on. The only issue was retagging the music that had been ripped by the HDX, about 800 albums. It was long but not arduous, because it was nice to get proper tags embedded in the files and gave me an opportunity to fix errors.

It's a low risk experiment for you to try.  Just install a server on your NAS, configure it, switch off the HDX and listen. Navigation will be clunky and possibly ugly, but you will be able to browse. I think it is unlikely to sound worse but if it doesn't work for you, just uninstall the server and switch the HDX back on.

Maybe it is simpler to get a CD player...

I am really struggling with terminology here. I just want to play music. I'm going to confess I am not entirely sure how all this stuff goes together at all. Here are some stupid questions

By 'server' do you mean a program like Asset? If so that is already on the NAS.

If I kept the HDX how would that integrate with the NDS day to day. I can see that I could use it to rip to the NAS but as for actually playing music with the NDS as the 'source' would it still need to be switched on?

Lastly, to really show my ignorance, if I had the NDS could I use it to play music from a source website (such as grooveshark/soundcloud) directly? At the moment I listen to those by plugging the PC soundcard output into my Qute but it would be nice to do it more elegantly-and in my main listening room.

If you have an NDX, you don't need server software on the nas. The HDX will find the music on the nas and serve it to your streamer. If you got an NDS, it would work just like the Qute- receiving music streamed by the NDX. 

If if you get rid of the NDX, put server software on the nas and it will stream directly to the NDS and Qute.

Those streaming services you mention won't work directly through the NDS without a computer.

Substitute HDX for NDX then the above makes sense 

God I must be thick.

I genuinely had not realised that a 'streamer' and the HDX were quite so different in mode of action.

I shall see what happens when I try SJB's suggestion re switching off the HDX and trying to access the files via the N Serve app. Lets hope everything is present and correct. If not it may be just file location? I also tried to access the Asset config and seem to lack any memory of username and password. Hey ho.

Bruce

Oops, yes, sorry. It was HDX that I meant. All thickos together.

Well if I switch off my HDX then the N Serve app does not see any server at all-so maybe Asset is not installed on this NAS after all. It is on my PC and also on my other NAS that I just use for PC back up.

Maybe that makes life easy as I can install it 'as new' on my music NAS.

I feel like a half blind man wandering around in the fog.

If you do sell the HDX, get it to convert all the music files that are stored within it from WAV to FLAC. You can then copy those files to the nas and they will be usable by the NDS. 

Thanks a lot for the help. I am getting there it seems.Thanks for the explanation-really appreciated.

If I analyse the .wav files on the NAS HDX backup folder they are in alphabetical not album order.

Would this meta-data restored by  the .flac conversion tool?

I have all my files in FLAC, with the UnitiServe set to transcode to WAV on playback. The transcoded files sound better to me than playing FLAC. The rips then backup to the Synology. The reason for keeping them in FLAC is in case the Serve conks out. I could install Synology's upnp server on the NAS and the SU could play the files. If the Naim WAV rips were on the NAS, I've been told that the likelihood of them playing with correct metadata would be a lot less.