Music library management.

If you have the Core you don’t need anything else. 

The Core is your UPnP server and it will handle rips and downloads. 

Welcome Kiwi! Nice setup the Nova and Core, I use the same. If you pop a CD into the Core it will rip and file automatically, use the App to view the library, all done. If you are importing files, there are options via the USB or drag and drop into the import folder via a computer. Have fun.

The NAS is useful as a backup device.

Just a Core on its own isn't sufficient - you need an independent device to which you can backup your music files.  This can be a spare (large) drive in a PC on the network, a USB disk or, best option, a NAS drive.

As everyone else said, the Core itself will manage its storage of music on its hard drive (and/or on a networked external storage device such as a nas).  As to how the music is presented to you on your phone or tablet, that's governed first by the Naim App, and also by the Core (vis a vis what info the Core sends to the Naim App).  

The Nova is "Roon Ready" and many of us prefer the user interface of Roon and how it shows you your library on your iPhone or iPad (or computer, which the Naim App cannot do at all), vs. the Naim App.  You can read about Roon in a zillion threads here, but you may find it worthwhile to try.

Many thanks for the advice to this newcomer.  As much of my musics classical it looks like  Roon is a good option for indexing/managing.  Also a benefit that I can bring it up on my MacBook Pro.  Right now my issue is getting my Mac connected to the NAS which is calling for a password that I have not been asked for in setting it up. Any suggestions?

Can you sign onto the nas from a web browser? When you do, does it ask for a username and password? If so, that's the same username and password that OS X is asking you to enter before Finder will connect to it.

Most nas boxes some with a preset username and password; you can probably Google it up.  Sometimes its just admin for the username and nothing for the password, etc etc etc

Thanks Bart and Huge.  The NAS is now up and running.  Is there any merit in introducing Roon before ripping my CDs to the Core and NAS or will Roon, loaded later, rework the library to suit?

And, do you rip to the NAS back-up through the network or is it hardwired to the Core -any quality and speed benefits?

Kiwi John posted:

Thanks Bart and Huge.  The NAS is now up and running.  Is there any merit in introducing Roon before ripping my CDs to the Core and NAS or will Roon, loaded later, rework the library to suit?

And, do you rip to the NAS back-up through the network or is it hardwired to the Core -any quality and speed benefits?

Roon will scan your music library itself, and will see any additions to it as you add them.

The Core automatic backup will add CD rips to the backup drive once set up and keep it updated over the network. If you’re going to use Roon, the UPnP server/digital output of the Core is redundant, which makes it just a ripper/NAS. 

Kiwi John posted:

Thanks Bart and Huge.  The NAS is now up and running.  Is there any merit in introducing Roon before ripping my CDs to the Core and NAS or will Roon, loaded later, rework the library to suit?

And, do you rip to the NAS back-up through the network or is it hardwired to the Core -any quality and speed benefits?

Rip to the Uniti core and backup from Uniti core to NAS. You can either have Roon see the files on you Uniti core or from the NAS backup which you choose is up to you. However I do know a lot of people have had issues with Roon being able to access the Naim Uniti cores library over the network, but I think this is mainky when running Roon server on windows 10. NAS maybe simpler for the trial.

Roon will reindex and manage the metadata  unless you want it to use ones in the files. You can set this up in the library settings when setting up Roon. Be warned Roon is not like other systems there is no folder heirachy its about metadata and searching this is not for everyone it pays no attention to how you organise your files on disk.

There is no harm in setting up Roon before you have any rips.

Classical music can be a challenge for streaming software. There is no consistent strategy for tags - or even names of composers, and people who like classical music often have strong ideas how they would like it organised, so imo you need some ripping/tagging software that allows you to see the proposed tags and allows you to change them to suit your view. Rip a few cds and see how they appear. Check out boxed sets like opera or multi-cd sets - how do they appear? One cd or several? What do you want? Check out how a cd with works by two different composers is treated. Checkout a recital album. How will it appear? Is the name on the cd good enough for you, or would you prefer a consistent naming convention - say composer - work - musicians eg Beethoven Symphony 5 (Kleiber) - in which case can you get that? Play with a few cds and see how you get on before launching into a marathon ripping session that may completely mess up your music.