Help with digital

I have to admit that I find the digital offerings from Naim to be mind boggling.  There are so many!  I almost feel like I need one of the unity products, but I don't need the amplifier part.  Hmm.  Does Naim offer a product that does what the unitqute or uniti Atom does without the amp? 

Judd

Judd,

I've  moved your thread over to the Streaming Audio room where you should get some good answers to your questions.

If you like the look of the Uniti line but don't need an amp then you should consider something like the NAC-N172 or NAC-N272, both streamer/pre-amps with analogue and digital inputs.

I've tried using Tidal and to me the sound quality in no way matches that of locally stored CD rips. Others, on the other hand, are perfectly happy with it.

As to your question about upsampling, and how you can add what's not there, your hunch that you can't is right. You have to download the high res files. Now, some of these are fantastic, yet others are no better than the standard CD quality - so much depends on the quality of the original master. 

As to equipment, if you are happy with your XS, which is super, the easiest thing is to buy an ND5XS. This will let you play your locally stored music, will stream from Tidal and Spotify, and opens up the world of internet radio. You can even play The Archers on catch up directly through the system. What's not to like?

In answer to questions

1) higher resolutions than red book are available, although there is debate as to whether they actually sound any better, and if they do whether it is the resolution or simply different mastering (and there have been claims of red book sounding better, which perhaps is most likely mastering. Red book can be streamed online from a number of sources including tidal. Higher resolution can be streamed online from some other sources like Highresaudio. Tidal have just started using a compression protocol known as MQA that allegedly allows the higher resolution files to download over only slightly more than redbook bandwidth, but there are doubts, and various claims in both directions about its effectiveness, and Naim currently doesn't support. Downloading potentially can sound better than online streaming of the same file because the vagaries of the internet are removed when playing, so no dropouts or service loss.

2) to some extent this will depend on the quality of your system, but if a decent hifi standard then it surely can be improved significantly by at least having a better DAC than built in thrpe device, as well as other hardware and probably software limitations. DACs can vary hugely in price, from the very modest Audioquest Dragonfly , to things like the Chord Mojo, Hugo etc and Naim nDAC. Computers can approach or even match the sound quality of dedicated streaming sources, but only with great attention to choice of software, optimisation and isolation of RF interference - but can be a viable way forward if you're into the 'hands on' approach (more info can be provided if interested).

A streamer such as the Nain ND5XS has already been mentioned, which can connect to the internet for online streaming, or requires your music  files to be on a network with a UPnP server to stream them to the streamer (I know that sounds like the latter is a misnomer!). The store is typically a NAS (network attached storage), or a computer. The streamer consists of library control software, a 'renderer' that converts the file to a digital music stream, that is fed to an internal DAC to convert to analogue audio to go to the preamp. Such a streamer can be upgraded by, for example, a better external DAC. 

If you don't yet have a music store for downloaded files or CD rips, then instead of a networked store with UPnP server, you could use a store with a combined renderer, that feeds a digital stream direct to an external DAC. Such stores include the new Naim Core, Melco N1A, or dedicated computer system such as based on a Mac Mini, as mentioned in first para. DAC typically could be Chord Mojo or Hugo, or Naim nDAC - much on all of these if you search this forum. The major advantage of a combined store and renderer is not streaming files across a network, which quite a few people seem to find can give problems.

3) Up-sampling won't find data not there already, though some people report that some DACs seem to sound better with an upsampled data, but they will have to explain as ia can't.

Ok, this is coming into focus now.   It looks like I will likely need to spend some $$$ to do this the right way.   

Thanks.  Very informative. 

Judd