Source files for NDX

No replies to this, was it a really silly question?

I use Exact Audio Copy, it's free and simple to use. You can save files as FLAC and WAV, WAV would be perfect for your new NDX

Cheers

sean

Jo,

This has been debated to death on the Streaming Forum.

I use an NS01 and love the simplicity and convenience of the Naim ripping solution. BUT, I do not think it rips better than RubyRipper that I used to use.

Naim would obviously LIKE to introduce a mystique around their solution.

Summary of Discussions, from memory: There appear to be small differences in the headers of the ripped files. The rips themselves, if bit perfect, are the same.

One thing I would note: Since getting the NS01 I have increased my rate of CD purchase, because the ripping process is SO easy. I just sit listening to music while ripping a pile of CDs, just be placing a disc at a time into a CD-Rom tray.

M

Thanks for the reply James, hope you had a good Christmas! I have iTunes and loads of tracks ripped to it sitting on my Buffalo Terrastation NAS, this for my iPad and wifes iPhone, I keep the files small and in MP3 format for speed of transfer to the iOS devices, and to reduce the space used on them.

But when it comes to HiFi I want to ensure I am getting the best I can, no point spending 3k on an NDX and giving it a poor source files, am planning to re-rip all my CDs, and having just read quite a few forum posts am begining to understand the ripping in WAV is the way forward, and using DB Poweramp may well be the best solution. Just wanted peoples opionions, I've also decided as my Gigabit network is quite congested with playing movies and TV in different rooms, I will put in a dedicated smaller NAS and switch just for hi-res music feeding the NDX, given that streaming is going to be the only source, I think it's worth investment.

As I had read the the UnitiServe and HDX offered "bit perfect" rips I wanted to ensure that I wasn't losing out by not having one of these products, but am now coming to the conclusion that using a paid for and reputable cd ripper such as DB Poweramp will give me the same results.

I know that maintaining 2 libraries may be a bit of a pain, but it's not really a big deal, and disk is so cheap these days, that from a cost perspective the outlay is negligable, well, especially when you consider the cost of the audio hardware we buy.

Would appreciate comments, thoughts on this approach.

Jo

Hi Sean,

Thanks for the reply, WAVs I think it is, just found the streaming forum, guess I should have looked there first :-( Have a good New Year!

Jo

Thanks M,

As I said to Sean, just found the streaming forum, so I take your point, should have opened my eyes and looked there first, the NS01 looks awesome, but, I have so many upgrades to do before I can afford to go down this route, especially if I can get the same results albeit with a little more "manual" intervention. Great to find out what other people are using though, and the kind of results they're getting. Thanks for your reply, have a good New Year!

Jo

Hi Jo - if you already use iTunes then you can continue using this. It's a great tool to manage your music library with (although the computer needs to be on to serve the library). You can re-rip to AIFF using XLD which i find to be a better ripper than iTunes. You'll need a UPnP server and for the Mac, Playback and Majestic are the best. They integrate with your existing iTunes library and are only a couple of clicks to setup (and cost about £10). Use the nStream app on your iPad to control the system. This is the approach i use (albeit with a headless Mac mini running my library). It means i only need one library and can serve to my NDX in the lounge and also sync easily with the multitude of iPhones, Pads and Pods we have in the house. 

The other approach is something like the Vortexbox - this is a standalone Ripper / Server which (by all accounts) works very well. If i didn't need to use my existing iTunes library and hadn't had a spare Mac to use then this is the approach i would have taken. There are a few VB experts on here who can help you out if you go this way. 

Hope that helps

James

Jo,

The next steps are important in terms of how well it will all work IMO. I'll share some of my experiences which are PC based. I have used both EAC and dBpoweramp, both are very good but for me dBpoweramp is now better not necessarily from a rip perspective but from a usability and features perspective. By the way you can rip to multiple formats at the same time so you could rip to say WAV for your NDX and MP3 for iTunes in one go. There are also lots of DSPs available if you want to play around.

The format you intend to rip to is important. If you are ripping to FLAC then from a metadata perspective and from a UPnP streaming perspective it should be pretty straight forward. There are plenty of tools to manipulate the metadata within FLAC files. By the way you can also rip to uncompressed FLAC now with dBpoweramp - this takes the uncompression load away.

If you decide to rip to WAV then there may be some potential issues. Although WAVs do support metadata it is no where near as extensive as FLAC and the tools to manipulate the metadata are limited compared to FLAC. I use WAV myself and just basic metadata tags.

The bigger issue with WAV is the UPnP server options available. For example I have a QNAP NAS which has Twonky available as a UPnP server, however, Twonky, WAVs and the NDX do not play well together. However, Twonky, FLAC and NDX will work just fine. So if ripping to WAV you need to find a server that works well when streaming WAV files. The most popular solution appears to be Asset which is from the same company that distributes dBpoweramp. 

Asset will not work on QNAP (or other Linux based NAS devices) so you need a Windows based solution to run Asset probably in addition to the NAS you already have. You can buy an Asset based NAS solution if you wanted.

So probably the format you decide to rip to will have the most impact on the solution you end up with. I started off convinced there was no difference between FLAC and WAV and then one day thought I preferred WAVs and then the next no difference at all. I thought disk space is cheap I'll just rip everything to WAV - but the server side became more of an issue.

Other solutions like VB are worth considering but I don't think that works well with WAVs either although I'm sure very well with FLAC - others will advise

Of course all these issues are removed for you (at a cost) if you buy a Naim server solution although your ripped files wont be very portable for other solutions. 

My solution currently:

Rip to WAV with dBpoweramp on my PC

Make sure metadata correct using dBpoweramp (edit ID Tag)

Transfer the ripped files to my QNAP

Run Asset on a dedicated laptop that points at QNAP drives

Use n-Stream on iPad2 for control

NDX plays the music

All works well although I would ideally like the server to run on my NAS. 

Hope this helps