My Demo on Friday with ND5XS, NDX, NDAC, XPS, Sonos

It depends where you want to go. Do you want to keep playing physical media, or move to a streaming solution. The Sonos is a great piece of kit but limits you to CD resolution 16/44.1 audio. Prices of CDS3 players are very low but you'll need an XPS to power it. Consider your options and get a home demo with your Spendors. The ND series streamers and the nDac have different sonic signatures so your results may vary at home.

James

Thanks for the reply James n. I will arrange for a home demo but I just wanted to make an initial down select. Personally I think the ND5XS was a great bit of kit but if upgradeitus took over I think it is limited. Certainly I would not expect a different room to turn it round. The demo room was not too disimilar to mine, well carpets, curtains and fireplace. It was bigger, but the listining position about the same. SWMBO like the sonos concept but then she wont be concerning herself with DBPoweramp, WAV,FLAC, Twonky or the like. I am not computer literate enough to know what to do when it stops working and thats a concern. Everything in the demo was hardwired in. I cannot do that at home as the router is in a different room to the hifi so it will have to be wireless. I do not know what impact on sound quality this will make.

Zinger

We did try XPS with ND5XS. This was a dissapointment. Sounder very muddled like a viel had been pulled across the speakers.

No, we did not add the nDAC to the ND5XS. I did,nt want to pay for the DAC inside the ND5XS and then pay for another in the nDAC.

How was music being served up to the NDX and/or ND5XS during your demo? In my own experience the NDX was a nice improvement on the sonos/ndac using the same digital files (aiff from my NAS).

Interesting results Flojoe! Particularly for me as I'm considering selling my CDX2 to fund a 2nd hand nDAC to use with my Sonos. Good to know that you found that it worked well, and interesting that you preferred it to Naim's streamers. 

If you go for Sonos +nDAC then don't worry about the setup etc, Sonos is a doddle.  Use iTunes to rip all your CDs in AIFF format (bit-for-bit to original CD). There are other options if you want to dabble in all that, but for simplicity that's all you need. The hardest bit will be setting up a NAS to house your music library, but you only have to do it once and if you're in the slightest bit computer literate then you'll be fine. There are NAS drives with a built-in CD rippers (vortexbox, ripnas to name a couple) which make it even easier and you can dispense with the computer (almost) altogether, but you pay extra for the convenience. The Sonos control apps for computers, tablets & smartphones are a thing of beauty - believe me you won't regret it!

I think UnitiServe + nDac would outperform most streamers, event the Linn streamers. 

I now use the serve with the Chord Indigo plus BNC into the Exposure 2010s2 dac and the sound is very mature, nDac would be even better.

Cjones - the power supply worked brilliantly on the ndac, large improvement. I have also heared the XPS on a CDX2 and HDX and again large improvement. However on the ND5XS it just did,nt do it for me.

Rich 27

The music was served up from the shops NAS. Same music file being streamed. I thought the NDX was very good and with the ndac ( which we did not try as this was out of my price range ) maybe would have beeten the ndac/sonos for SQ. As I said earlier in my post, if it was a straight choice between the bare NDX or the bare ND5XS, I would have chosen the ND5XS

I think with this level of replay the choice comes down very much to personal preference rather than whether one is necessarily "better" than the other.  Really enjoying the presentation of the NDX although if the ND5XS had been around at the time I would have probably gone for this and been perfectly happy with it.

Rich 27 - what is the rest of your system ? is it a bare NDX ?

I have a Supernait+HiCap and an XP5 XS on the NDX.  Also have a CD5 XS for the odd time the Mrs wants to play one of her old fashioned shiny silver disc thingies!

I used to have a Naim dac but traded it in for the NDX after having the NDX on home demo.  I never tried the NDX into the Naim dac because it was very much an either/or decision for me.  I also used to own a CDX2.2 but traded that in for the CD5 XS and XP5 XS in a deal I could not refuse.

Now run the CD5 XS digitally into the NDX and both are effectively upgraded by the XP5 XS, best of both worlds and for the rare time we play a cd I honestly don't believe the CD5 XS/NDX/XP5 XS combo gives much, if anything, away to the CDX2.2 (which I was using with a non-naim power supply, bad person that I am).  NDX streaming from my NAS is the main source for 95% of listening.

I had a sonos digitally connected to the the Naim dac originally as my source, the NDX was so much nicer (imho), not going to say better because it may not be for you.  Have binned the sonos now as I was only really using it for spotify, but the sound quality is not really that great.  Spotify is now relegated to the iMac with an excellent little nuForce udac thingy (cost $90) and the Sennheiser cans.

Was going to start a new thread, but continuing this one seems more useful.

My current system is:

Virgin router, Iomega RAID5 NAS and Sonos all upstairs via wi-fi to -

CD5 and Sonos downstairs feeding into

112x, 150x, FC2 (for CD5 and 112x)

Ruark Prelude 2's (plus TV and AV bits)

All my ripped music is Apple Lossless, although I'm just adding some FLAC and WAV via dBpoweramp ready for weekend.

At the weekend my friendly dealer is lending me a Uniti Serve and nDAC so the choices and comparisons are fairly extensive!

• The main test will be hard-wired UnitiServe WAV files straight into the nDAC versus files from the upstairs NAS via wi-fi and the Sonos into the same nDAC. Should be interesting.
• The second test (somewhat contrived) will be dragging the files from the NAS through the UnitiServe (wi-fi via Sonos then ethernet) to simulate keeping the NAS where it is and having a Naim streamer instead of the UnitiServe.
• The other part of the test is for ease of ripping with the UnitiServe (another reason for the slightly odd Sonos/ethernet hook-up, it gives the UnitiServe internet access for meta-data lookup) and the usability of the streaming interface compared to my current rip via PC (easy and quick) and play via Sonos (wonderfully intuitive).
• I suppose the final bit is comparing the different Codecs, but even if it is better I'm not looking forward to re-ripping 400 CD's from ALAC to WAV.

A couple of questions before the weekend: How noisy is the hard disk in the UnitiServe when playing music? I don't have an Apple device to run n-Serve on, how much better is the interface than the web-browser based one? (A browser simulates the same interace as the HDX touch screen)

Long time since I've posted, thanks in advance for any help or advice.

Hi Maxi

Q1. I too was a bit concerned about this before I bought mine as it is in the listening room under my tv and really couldn't be doing with computer type whirrs. However, I  have found it to be quiet as a mouse when serving - completely unobtrusive.

Q2. For everyday listening i find the nserve app easy to use and all I need.  I initially used the webbrowser for reassigning, deleting or renaming genres etc but once I had my music collection organised as I wanted i haven't felt the need to return to it.

Atb

Ray

Maxi -

Why re-rip when you can simply batch convert ALAC to WAV using.........Max. 

Hook

Hook

I knew there was a reason to start posting again! Thanks for the info.

So, having batch converted back to WAV, how do I then transfer if from the wi-fi NAS to the local drive on the UnitiServe without messing up the music store? (Still only going by the downloaded manual, I'm hoping it'll become more obvious once the box is in front of me)

Hi Maxi -

The process is in described in the manual:

"...

7.3 Music Stores

Network Shares can be converted to operate as UnitiServe Music Stores – locations where the data from ripped CDs is stored. Promoting a Network Share to Music Store status may be appropriate if the internal UnitiServe drive is becoming full or if external rip storage provides enhanced network convenience or data security.

..."

Good luck.

Hook

Hook

I love this place, thanks for the helpful responses. I think I have my answer from another thread, I can't (without some serious hacking) get my NAS files onto the UnitiServe and I can't download hi-res files either.

This makes my (contrived) testing of the UnitiServe as a surrogate Naim streamer from my wi-fi NAS even more important.

If you have your music on a NAS and don't want to re-rip your CDs again why the Serve? You'd be beter off with a streamer such as the ND5XS. I doubt nServe into nDAC sounds any better than ND5 into nDAC. I'd go so far as to suggest that a modded Sonos ZP90 will sound just as good as the Serve or ND5 into nDAC. I own a Dr. Gert Volk modified Sonos ZP90 and ND5XS and I'd say they both sound pretty much the same into my nDAC/555PS. Even before the modification the plain vanilla Sonos into nDAC/555PS sounded very good. There are other mods out there such as Wyred4Sound, etc. If I opted for the serve, I'd re-rip my CDs. In your tests I'd stay away from using Wifi and have all options wired instead.

Looking forward to reading your results.

Cheers

tp

This is almost not possible...

Maybe the speakers couldn´t handle the combo...