Unitiqute - just a moan about £300 in order to support Alac

I know the feeling and have been trying to find a perfect solution for some time.

I have a mixture of AAC and ALAC running from my iMac and mirrored to a NAS.  On the Mac, I have tended to use Playback for speed, but EyeConnect to handle the ALAC files through transcoding.

On the NAS, I use Carbon Copy Cloner for the mirroring from the iMac and Eric Daugherty's excellent iTunes Export app/script to recreate the iTunes library as m3u playlists on a  daily schedule.  This allows me to use iTunes to manage the library, but to access the music from the NAS most of the time.  While the Synology DiskStation software can transcode on the fly, this does not include ALAC and so I am left having to use different UPNP servers for each file type.

The 24/192 board upgrade is actually more like £370 (incl. £20 postage), however I suspect that I will go for this in the end as it will mean that:

1. ALAC files on the NAS will just play

2. I can stop needing to use UPNP on the iMac for transcoding

3. It will (I think) provide 802.11n, so I can also ditch my Airport Express bridge that was required to stream hires files

4. Performance and SQ should be a little better

5. It will be ready for AirPlay support, should that be made available later this year

6. It will be ready for 24/192 files, although I don't anticipate ever really needing this headline feature of the board!

Expensive, but probably worth it.

PJ - As you are using the Mac for storage, why not just convert to AIFF to solve the ALAC issue - Playback or Majestic work very well for Mac UPnP ?

Good idea using AIFF, will give it a try and see how much difference in file size it makes. Not used it before - i'm assuming it will support the normal tags.

Edit: Files are from 2x to 4x+ bigger. If I go this route i will have to get bigger disks.

A wild card option to consider if you are thinking of spending £370...

Why not buy a Synology NAS drive such as DS212 or DS212+ for circa £250, which transcodes on the fly to WAV for your Unitiqute?  If your current NAS can hot swap drives, you could just pop it/them into the Synology NAS and give it a try.

Possibly worth a thought as another way to solve the issue.

Best regards, FT

No issues here, iTunes library consists mainly of AIFF files, with some WAV and mp3 in between, Playback works a treat, nice and smooth, fast too...

Thanks for the suggestions - If it's true the upgrade will support 802.11n then i think i'm going for it. tbh i like to keep things clean & simple so it's either that or bigger disks to support aiff.

"The 24/192 board upgrade is actually more like £370"

If I'm not mistaken, this is about 1/4 of the Qute retail price

The Qute i-has been released for about 2 years or so only...

What makes this upgrade/update so expensive??

I assume the update will be even pricier outside uk

I assume that if you purchase a brand new Qute today, it got the 24/192 and therefore it doesn't need any upgrade?

If this is the case it must affect the s/h Qute prices!

I think you can now buy two versions of the Qute. The version that we all have is at the old price, and the new one with the new board is a couple of hundred quid more (but certainly not £370 more!!!)

I'm a little annoyed at the expense of this update. I think I'll eventually get it once airplay arrives because I really like the simplicity and features of iTunes.

Having said that can you play Hi Res files on iTunes?

Hi James,

Does this mean that Playback can be used for streaming aiff from Mac/I-tunes to UQ, including album art ??? Converting to wav or whatever is required?

I am about to get mental now using eyeconnect with no album art and very slow and unstable respons - seriously considering buying sonos for streaming and only use the UQ for radio if I do not find a user friendly solution on this issue....

Regards

Nils 

Thanks for clearing things out Steven

I checked the uk price for the Qute, and you are right

There are two list price for the Qute :

1/ 1425 pounds which is the original version

2/ 1600 pounds, this one has the 24/192 board

Nils - yes. No conversion required. I just use Playback or Majestic to serve AIFF to my NDX. Any problems with Album art see 

https://forums.naimaudio.com/di...nt/10858529755570951

James

This was partly the reason for me getting the SuperUniti - I could not justify the proportional cost of the upgrade. 

Very happy now with PlayBack sorting out artwork and playing of my ALAC files.

Neil

Hi James, 

Thanks a lot - just converted all my Apple lossless files to AIFF and bought Playback - and suddenly it is possible to operate the UQ with the ipad, searching for music (without shutting down) and even album art is present !

Just a minor thing  - all album art is visible, but only if I open each album or in playlists. In the album/artist listing in n-stream, only a "keyhole" or a Naim LP symbol is visible where the cover should be present - any ideas ??

Regards

Nils 

Hi Nils -

If all of your files are now in AIFF, then you have the option of running Asset on your Mac:

https://forums.naimaudio.com/di...62#14378503090044062

Asset will transcode AIFF to WAV on the fly, and allow you to use N-Stream on your iPod Touch as your control point.

Good luck.

Hook

Hi Nils - i get the same and have had it with a number of servers so i'm not sure where the problem lies.

Hi Hook - i tried Asset on the Mac with Crossover. After 10 minutes of playing with bottles etc, i deleted it. fired Playback up and went off and did something more useful.AIFF and WAV. Both are uncompressed formats so mininal computational loading is needed in dealing with them at the renderer so there 'should' be no advantage in on the fly conversion at source.

James