Naim App sorting (Qobuz and NAS organisation)

Get a Qnap nas with Asset. I use a TS253a which works well. Put all the albums on that, with a separate folder for each artist. Sort out the metadata using dbpoweramp. If you get the metadata right every time you download an album - do this on the computer before transferring the album to the nas - everything will work exactly as you want. 

Thanks - will take a look at the Qnap range.

The WD works reasonably well in fairness but is a few years old, and I'd like a unit dedicated for audio.

I think the metadata is ok from Qobuz on the whole, just actual filenames are verbose with more than just track name.

Do you see the issue i noted if you browse By Folder in the Naim app - i.e. albums listed alphabetically ?

I'm trying to tidy up the WD at the moment - many albums are not showing as even though I've got folders for artists/albums I clearly was just copying data over not for use in the past and many contain uncompressed tar archive downloads.

Other options include Synology with minimserver.  If the newer WD machines are anything like the one I used to have, they're bloody awful by comparison with Synology/Qnap.

But IME the metadata from Qobuz can be terrible.  The filenames are largely irrelevant, it's the tags you need to get right.  That's what's causing the tracks to display incorrectly, missing album art etc.  Eg when browsing the Naim app by albums via my Synology/minimserver, all the tracks are in the right order.  It is a chore sorting out an existing collection, but it's worth it in the end.

Like HH, I now use QNAP 253a and Asset. I’ve always ripped with DB Poweramp.

If you want to tidy up tags after ripping, try Tagscanner.

I tend to revise all ‘Genres’ to a fairly basic list (otherwise The Fall’s 30+ albums, for example, would appear in any number of wonderful and frightening descriptions). Personally I use the Album Artist tag the most when searching for stuff to play but really I think it’s very personal at that level. The By Folder view would be a last resort for me...

Alley Cat posted:

Thanks - will take a look at the Qnap range.

The WD works reasonably well in fairness but is a few years old, and I'd like a unit dedicated for audio.

I think the metadata is ok from Qobuz on the whole, just actual filenames are verbose with more than just track name.

Do you see the issue i noted if you browse By Folder in the Naim app - i.e. albums listed alphabetically ?

I'm trying to tidy up the WD at the moment - many albums are not showing as even though I've got folders for artists/albums I clearly was just copying data over not for use in the past and many contain uncompressed tar archive downloads.

 

 

I see an alphabetical list of artists, because this is how my folders are set up. 

nickpeacock posted:

If you want to tidy up tags after ripping, try Tagscanner.

I looked TagScanner a while back,  it has something in it that both Mcafee & MS Defender don't like so I bailed out.  

How strange. Other ID tag editors are available. I used MP3Tag for a while.

I use Mp3tag along with dBpoweramp,  & between them I get it all done without any problems, despite the metarubbish that Qobuz throw out.   Qobuz is the bad one whereas I'm 100% confident HighResAudio metadata will be faultless,  same for HDT on the rare occasions I use them & I just give them a cursory check over.   

I've downloaded literally hundreds of albums from Qobuz and the metadata really isn't that bad. 

Most of the stuff I've downloaded from Qobuz has needed a lot of tag editing, especially classical music.

Spose maybe there's a bit of pot luck involved.

Hungryhalibut posted:

Alley Cat posted:

Thanks - will take a look at the Qnap range.

The WD works reasonably well in fairness but is a few years old, and I'd like a unit dedicated for audio.

I think the metadata is ok from Qobuz on the whole, just actual filenames are verbose with more than just track name.

Do you see the issue i noted if you browse By Folder in the Naim app - i.e. albums listed alphabetically ?

I'm trying to tidy up the WD at the moment - many albums are not showing as even though I've got folders for artists/albums I clearly was just copying data over not for use in the past and many contain uncompressed tar archive downloads.

 

 

I see an alphabetical list of artists, because this is how my folders are set up. 

I actually meant if you went into an Artist Folder and then into an Album are the tracks listed alphabetically or by track order?

Dave***t posted:

Other options include Synology with minimserver.  If the newer WD machines are anything like the one I used to have, they're bloody awful by comparison with Synology/Qnap.

But IME the metadata from Qobuz can be terrible.  The filenames are largely irrelevant, it's the tags you need to get right.  That's what's causing the tracks to display incorrectly, missing album art etc.  Eg when browsing the Naim app by albums via my Synology/minimserver, all the tracks are in the right order.  It is a chore sorting out an existing collection, but it's worth it in the end.

I've got  couple of WD My Cloud devices - first was appallingly slow, the second isn't as bad.  There are newer ones with an uglier (!) designI've not tried.

Agree the filenames are not really relevant, I really couldn't be bothered to edit them.

When browsing Albums I definitely get correct track order, but not when I browse By Folder which is currently showing me many more artists for some reason.

Mike-B posted:

I use Mp3tag along with dBpoweramp,  & between them I get it all done without any problems, despite the metarubbish that Qobuz throw out.   Qobuz is the bad one whereas I'm 100% confident HighResAudio metadata will be faultless,  same for HDT on the rare occasions I use them & I just give them a cursory check over.   

Surprised at the comments on Qobuz metatda as it seems largely ok (superficially perhaps), I'm just wondering why By Folder shows alphabetically not by track order, I suspect it may be as the app or NAS assumes a group of unrelated tracks so just shows alphabetically.

Thanks all for the tagging suggestions - something I may have to do at some stage but I really hate doing this kind of chore!

Dave***t posted:

Other options include Synology with minimserver.  

Synology were definitely in my list to consider as well, thanks.

Out of interest has anyone set up a Raspbery Pi as a media server - unlikely to be as good as a dedicated solution (though maybe better than WD ).

Also have a Mac Mini or two I could run headless with some drives attached.

Alley Cat posted:

Hungryhalibut posted:

Alley Cat posted:

Thanks - will take a look at the Qnap range.

The WD works reasonably well in fairness but is a few years old, and I'd like a unit dedicated for audio.

I think the metadata is ok from Qobuz on the whole, just actual filenames are verbose with more than just track name.

Do you see the issue i noted if you browse By Folder in the Naim app - i.e. albums listed alphabetically ?

I'm trying to tidy up the WD at the moment - many albums are not showing as even though I've got folders for artists/albums I clearly was just copying data over not for use in the past and many contain uncompressed tar archive downloads.

 

 

I see an alphabetical list of artists, because this is how my folders are set up. 

I actually meant if you went into an Artist Folder and then into an Album are the tracks listed alphabetically or by track order?

This is what I see if I go to folder view using Asset - it's in track number order because the tracks have numbers in their filenames. Not to put too fine a point on it, the WD running Twonky is a pile of crap. With a proper nas and a proper upnp server, everything will work fine. Spend the £500, sort your metadata, and streaming will be effortless. 

Alley Cat posted:

Surprised at the comments on Qobuz metatda as it seems largely ok (superficially perhaps), I'm just wondering why By Folder shows alphabetically not by track order, I suspect it may be as the app or NAS assumes a group of unrelated tracks so just shows alphabetically.

OK I'll give you that Qobuz is superficially not perfect & maybe it's just because I'm a touch OCD that it bugs me,  that said its not the metadata as such thats 'my' problem.      Re the Alphabetical order By Folder,  that is a media server software issue,  Asset or is it Minimserver ??  as with my Synology 'Media Server' it is correct.  

Hungryhalibut posted:

Alley Cat posted:

Hungryhalibut posted:

Alley Cat posted:

Thanks - will take a look at the Qnap range.

The WD works reasonably well in fairness but is a few years old, and I'd like a unit dedicated for audio.

I think the metadata is ok from Qobuz on the whole, just actual filenames are verbose with more than just track name.

Do you see the issue i noted if you browse By Folder in the Naim app - i.e. albums listed alphabetically ?

I'm trying to tidy up the WD at the moment - many albums are not showing as even though I've got folders for artists/albums I clearly was just copying data over not for use in the past and many contain uncompressed tar archive downloads.

 

 

I see an alphabetical list of artists, because this is how my folders are set up. 

I actually meant if you went into an Artist Folder and then into an Album are the tracks listed alphabetically or by track order?

This is what I see if I go to folder view using Asset - it's in track number order because the tracks have numbers in their filenames. Not to put too fine a point on it, the WD running Twonky is a pile of crap. With a proper nas and a proper upnp server, everything will work fine. Spend the £500, sort your metadata, and streaming will be effortless. 

Great, thanks - must be a Twonky issue as the Qobuz files have the track number included AFAICS.

I'm not averse to spending the dosh on a decent NAS, just initially making sure it's not a configuration issue or something I could easily fix.

Alley Cat posted:

Out of interest has anyone set up a Raspbery Pi as a media server - unlikely to be as good as a dedicated solution (though maybe better than WD ).

Also have a Mac Mini or two I could run headless with some drives attached.

You can certainly use a RPi or a Mac as a media server - you instal the server (Minim or Asset) on it, and attach a drive to store your music (or use the built in storage on a Mac). Most people would use a NAS, which is possibly simpler to set up, but any of these would work. 

I've used Macs for many years as iTunes servers for AppleTVs  around the house when my broadband speeds were poor - I was running an older Mac Pro with 4x4GB internal drives which is a great machine but it was extremely power hungry and using several hundred watts/hour when left on practically 24/7.  With faster broadband now the need to stream purchased video content locally has diminished.  I could say the same for audio from Apple or Qobuz, but using Chromecast has deficiencies such as no gapless, and I dislike using iOS devices to stream as I feel wired is more robust.  

As noted I have a couple of Minis I could set up as servers too and we got a raspberry pi some time ago which would be fun to tinker with.

Lots of options out there since I looked last a few years ago.