Streaming On a budget

Why not get a used ND5XS? It will be fine with your amplifier and will give multiroom integration with the QB. Alternatively a used 172XS and a used 155XS or 150x, selling the Nait. Neither approach should cost more than adding a V1. I tried a Chromecast once and it was pretty bad, even into the 272’s DAC and I’m not convinced it’s a worthy source for your very nice setup. 

I'd look at selling the amp, CD Player and looking for a used Superuniti.

My experience of the Chromecast into an NDX wasn't very positive, the transport is important, being the source.  This is why you find people fronting some of the Chord Dacs with a mid range Naim streamer (e.g. NDX)

I agree both the suggestions from HH & TrickyDickie,  incl the Chromecast bit.  Its time to move to proper streaming,  you already have a Qb & that without a local stream (NAS) is very much wasted.     First is you need a NAS to rip all your CD's into,  that means the Qb can now play your 'CD's'.     Then consider what to replace:  if you replace just the CD5 then you need one of the ND units,  but if you replace both CD5 & Nait it opens up the possibility of any of the 'all in one box' players & there are a lot to choose from,  and yes the new Uniti Star is a good choice.   The Star will both play & rip CD's,  but I would not be so tempted to stay at CD level replay,  a NAS for the Star to rip CD's to will consign them to a storage box out of sight in the attic (or wherever),   but most important will open up the means of moving on into highres replay & start collecting 24-bit & DSD downloads.   So as good as a Star is,  once the ripping is done, the CD play/rip section becomes redundant.

I have a Sonore ultraRendu playing to a Naim DAC-V1 and I would highly recommend that combo especially if you get a deal or a used V1. You would add a server/player. I have also setup a microRendu/AQ Dragonfly Red combo and it is also quite satisfying. If you fancy that route then have a look at the 'Hugo of Streaming thread ..' Small Green Computer (USA) currently has their Black Friday sale going. uR/V1 would work in a main system.

ATB

B.

Hi, 

Thank you for your replies.

I guess my thoughts of getting the Uniti Star were down to laziness. I have to bite the bullet sooner or later and put all of my CD collection onto a hard drive/NAS, where the ND5X, does really seem to make sense. I believe CDs ripped and then played through a ND5X should give me a huge CD performance upgrade in my main system also and also for the QB.

Conveniently, I have a spare shelf on my isoblue too.

Still having separates, also gives me options going forward, eventually trading in/ upgrading my NAIT 5i at a later date.

Next question then. Recently the house was extended, so had CAT6 cabling installed throughout, so I could wire in TV and move router to living room and hard wire Qb. Have a Gigabit switch and cabling, can you recommend what is effectively a plug and play NAS, app to install for good library management (for a laptop that runs windows 10), and advise the quickest way to get music onto NAS?

Thanks for all you views so far.

Cheers

Guy

The most popular NAS's on the forum are either Synology or QNAP.    Both come with UPnP packages to enable control via Naim's iOS or Android tablets & phones.  Synology have there own 'Media Server' & also included in the package is MinimServer.   QNAP users on the forum use either Asset or MinimServer.    (I use Synology with their Media Server) 

I use the excellent dBpoweramp software on my laptop with Windows-10 to rip CD's.   When I first ripped my CD collection,   for speed/simplicity I set the path direct to NAS   (dBpoweramp have an easy to use path mapping feature)   Now all CD's are ripped & its a rarity these days to use the ripper,  I now map the path to the laptop & take a look at the metadata before uploading to NAS.  dBpoweramp also has an excellent program to manage/edit downloads & convert any FLAC or other format downloads to my prefered WAV.  Or for mobile players it will convert to the lossy formats like MP3.

GuyPerry posted:

Hi All,

Currently I have an old system, 5i series CD, amp and Arivas, that do seem to work well in my 5mx8m room, I have Google CCA into my amp for streaming Spotify Premium (via 3.5mm to phono) and also on my Muso QB in the kitchen (this time via optical). I'm happy with this for entertaining guests or background music/radio, as I can stream to both, without issue. I use Spotify direct for Muso alone.

I would like to improve the sound from my main system for more critical listening. I briefly visited a dealer recently, saying I was on a budget, perhaps looking at a DAC V1, as this may future proof me having an asynchronous  input, if I decide to install a NAS at a later date, and use some form of media server app (recommendatios would be great) to connect to the DAC.

However all I got to listen to was N272, NAP200DR, £4000 Neats and £13000 B&Ws, although fantastic, (I can really see what the fuss is about with these combos), but way out of my allocated budget.

I keep seeing fantastic reviews for the little Chord Mojo, would this, connected optically  to CCA and then to my amp, give me what I need?

Either that, I wait quite sometime and try the Uniti Star (I still have a large CD collection and see merit here).

Before I demo, what are your thoughts or other options?

Regards

Guy

I would put most of my budget on a (second hand) DAC and then proceed from there backwards. A second hand DAC V1 will give you a USB input and a good headphones output. A second hand Naim DAC will give you a better DAC and multiple SPDIF inputs. Chord DACs are also great values but why would you go from the Mojo to your amp via a CCA?

You can connect any DAC to a Raspberry Pi running MinimServer and upmpdcli (a UPnP renderer). The latter has integrated support for Tidal, Qobuz and Google music, if you fancy to use these services. For connecting to the Naim DAC, you will need a SPDIF interface. An Allo DigiOne will cost you about 100 EUR and give you the same functionalities of a Naim Core (apart from ripping, of course) and a better UPnP server. A Sonore ultraDigital (325 $ + PSU costs) and a Mutec MC-3+ USB (1000 EUR) would likely bring further improvements to the SPDIF output. 

CCA into Mojo and then into the back of your amp is astounding! I had a unitilite (bluetooth version) and the above combo makes mincemeat of it.

I cannot reccomend the combo highly enough. The CCA is even good without mojo if you want to get cracking on a budget. Like all these things though, set streaming to highest quality and chromecast to HiFi in its settings as it sounds flat without it set right.

The CCAon it’s own into the back of my amp matched the unitilite on sound quality but via Mojo it’s in another league!

Hi All,

I think I have established I need a NAS, for convenience and from a sound quality point of view, certainly with the way Naim handles jitter with its buffers, (I believe) before conversion. Thanks for the advice.

Ok, Joexnaim, i do have settings to the  max, but if down this route, how would I use a MoJo in this respect for streaming from a NAS, presumably a media app on the NAS into DAC, how do you handle this? 

At the moment I'm gravitating towards the ND5XS and NAS. This would utilise my QB and existing CD collection effectively.

NBPF, not sure about this route, even though I'm from a scientific background, I'm a bit of a luddite from an IT point of view, and this does sound like my 'bread board' electronics A level project days. To your question, I was thinking of using the optical out of CCA into a MoJo then amp, as Joexnaim mentions.

All, thanks for your contributions.

Guy