HDX cover art

In the next release you will be able to add album artwork

it really seems like the HDX was released WAY too soon.

I am going to guess that if you rip to an NAS you can easily add the art there.

If anyone has to retrieve art for any rips I would recommend using the album art downloader available on Hydrogen Audio.

PC the HDX wasn't released too soon. I've used the software for 6 months now and it has been quite good and easy.

Are there some issues? Yes

I know I've sent Naim a list of things I found and I'm sure that they are being worked on. Nothing major from my pov, but things do need to be cleaned up a bit.

Gary

Do you assume that ripping to NAS from HDX will be on offer some time soon?
Also Suggested NAS by NAIM?

quote:

Originally posted by gary1 (US):
Are there some issues? Yes

Thats what I meant by "too soon".

"Too soon" meaning, they are still tweaking it, adding features, releasing updates etc...

There are some MAJOR shortcomings with the HDX, like not being able to rip to a NAS.... how hard is that to configure.

I know it must sound absolutely amazing, and clearly you adore it. But for $8,500 I would expect FULL functionality.

Updates, improvements and tweaks usually come in the form of a "new model"....

in all fairness Munchie... I would be jerking off the HDX as well if I had spent $9K on it.

I imagine its shortcomings and hiccups are superseded by the Visa bill.

I hope there are some other uses for the xps's and 555ps's people are buying for this box..... besides the CDPs they were intended for.

$8500?!?!?!? I still cannot fathom that. Ridiculous. For EAC (free), a couple $50 hard drives, and a Naim DAC with a touch screen?

I cant WAIT for the real Naim DAC to stand up.

quote:

Originally posted by munch:

quote:

Originally posted by gary1 (US):
PC the HDX wasn't released too soon. I've used the software for 6 months now and it has been quite good and easy.

Are there some issues? Yes

I know I've sent Naim a list of things I found and I'm sure that they are being worked on. Nothing major from my pov, but things do need to be cleaned up a bit.

Gary from day one you said it was great.
Now you say its BEEN QUITE GOOD.

Actually Munch I said that the HDX itself was terrific. I actually looked back on my posts and have been pretty consistent in my opinion of the software calling it pretty good/quite good. I think for a first version release that was developed by Naim or in concert for Naim the results are impressive. Alot fewer issues than I've had with using microsoft products that's for sure.

PC:

You'll jut have to hear for yourself. I'm confident that the Mac/nDAC will not sound anyway near as good as the HDX/nDAC. If you believe that the free software and a PC does it for you then terrific.

I have to say, the HDX is acquitting itself well so far. I haven't come across any hiccups, and it seems to me to be a finished product. Certainly more so than my Humax Freesat PVR, which is a mass-market product, and should not need rebooting from time to time.
But it would be nice to see some more features, and it looks like there are some in the pipeline. The fact that it's function upgradable is a plus - after all, we couldn't do that in the past with CD players and the like.
I'm still working out where it lies in the hierarchy, while the 555 sits on a table. I'll plug it back in soon and maybe see what I've been missing. Or not.

But back on topic, I deleted the offending album and re-ripped it, to see if the cover art was picked up but no joy - must be something to do with the on-line database. So yes, it would be nice to be able to add it later. Roll on the next update
Cheers
John

I would expect an HDX/nDAC to sound pretty much the same as a Mac/nDAC setup. When I had an HDX at home for a couple of weeks it was clear the weak link was the DAC in the HDX. Using an external DAC (and I tried two) made a big improvement.

quote:

Originally posted by gary1 (US):
You'll jut have to hear for yourself. I'm confident that the Mac/nDAC will not sound anyway near as good as the HDX/nDAC. If you believe that the free software and a PC does it for you then terrific.

I dont buy it..... literally.

The Naim DAC, if better than the HDX DAC, will work wonders and far surpass my needs.

A Naim Dac PLUS an HDX???? what???? You are spending $9K on purely a ripping solution? Really?

oh and a cool touch screen. weak.

quote:

Originally posted by Graham Russell:
I would expect an HDX/nDAC to sound pretty much the same as a Mac/nDAC setup. When I had an HDX at home for a couple of weeks it was clear the weak link was the DAC in the HDX. Using an external DAC (and I tried two) made a big improvement.

I am lucky enough to borrow a HDX for few weeks now (soon have to give it back unfortunately to the original owner) and make comparisons between different Mac/DAC combos. To be honest none of the Mac/DAC combos could provide the same dense, lively feeling, I got from the HDX. I tried my MacBook with a Mytek (the 8 channel big one too, not only the stereo), Lavry, Promitheus NOS DAC, TCElectronic Konnekt, RME Fireface 400 and 800 - through Toslink (except the Promi which has coax only) and through the SPDIF, using a Konnekt as Firewire - SPDIF converter. Adding an XPS2 to the HDX was way more important (at least for my taste) than addig an external DAC to the HDX. None of the above mentioned DACs could give me the same organic improvement feeeling. They just gave a different presentation, not "better" or "worse", the added XPS2 just pushed it to a different level. I tried few different SPDIF cables, including Naim DC-1, some professional cables from Belden, Gotham even a Japanese Acrolink Mexcel coax, which costs as much as a NaimUniti. I realized if they were connected between the HDX and the external DACs, they made lot less difference than connected between Macbook - Konnekt / DAC. I do not know if it is good or bad sign.

It is just my experience, you can have way different preferences. The rest of the system was 282/250/ProAc TriTower/ Power-Line and Hi-Line cabling where it was appropriate and I used not only ordinary cds but dozens of our own high-res live recordings too from classical to world music. I could happily live forever with any of the source / DAC combos, the Macbook/Lavry, or Macbook / Mytek are really exceptional combos if you have an amp with symmetrical XLR inputs but in a complete Naim system, probably the HDX is the most straightforward, practical computer-based solution at the moment.

YMMV.

quote:

Originally posted by munch:

quote:

Originally posted by Graham Russell:
I would expect an HDX/nDAC to sound pretty much the same as a Mac/nDAC setup. When I had an HDX at home for a couple of weeks it was clear the weak link was the DAC in the HDX. Using an external DAC (and I tried two) made a big improvement.

G,
Shut up.
What do you know? you have a rubbish system.

You're right. Sorry Stu

Originally posted by pcstockton:

quote:

I dont buy it..... literally.

The Naim DAC, if better than the HDX DAC, will work wonders and far surpass my needs.

PC, to each his/her own. Only you know your needs, preferences, likes and dislikes. If a PC/nDAC is what does it for you that's great.

Many of us have listened and feel very differently than you do about the various combinations and made our decisions accordingly.

quote:

A Naim Dac PLUS an HDX???? what???? You are spending $9K on purely a ripping solution? Really?

If this is your opinion about all that goes into the quality of music replay then I completely understand why you want just a PC/nDAC solution.

quote:

Originally posted by gary1 (US):
Originally posted by pcstockton:

quote:

I dont buy it..... literally.

The Naim DAC, if better than the HDX DAC, will work wonders and far surpass my needs.

PC, to each his/her own. Only you know your needs, preferences, likes and dislikes. If a PC/nDAC is what does it for you that's great.

Many of us have listened and feel very differently than you do about the various combinations and made our decisions accordingly.

quote:

A Naim Dac PLUS an HDX???? what???? You are spending $9K on purely a ripping solution? Really?

If this is your opinion about all that goes into the quality of music replay then I completely understand why you want just a PC/nDAC solution.

Well put Gary....there are obviously people who love the HDX & can afford it and there are those that...!

Like all software there are always bug fixes. If you ship a "computer product" with no bugs it will never get off the ground.

New software is coming. SOON.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by ferenc:
Ferenc,

Very nice impression. thanks for the review.

Nocker,

I surely would not afford the HDX.... well I could, but I wouldn't spend that on a ripping solution.... I would be MUCH more inclined to spend my $9000 on:

- Supernait
- Hicap
- New Naim DAC
- Hi-line for DAC
- Turntable
- And lots of CDs and vinyl!!!

If the new Naim DAC will be an upgrade to the HDX DAC, I will easily cut out the middle man.

quote:

Originally posted by Klout10:
Can anybody confirm this?

I'm playing around with the HDX for two days now. It finds all relevant metadata such as track listings etc., but there are several album (very common IMHO) from which it seems not possible to find the cover art.

Regards,
Michel

quote:

Originally posted by Patrick F:
In the next release you will be able to add album artwork

Klout, in DTC right click the albulm>CD look up whilst your HDX is connected to your server. It will search for the artwork, if AMG has it, it will download.

...as it seems that there are two paths to getting artwork–if I understand the process correctly, AMG Lasso is used to retrieve the metadata first (combination of acoustic fingerprint / ISRC codes).

If the album comes up with the correct metadata but no cover art, the CDDB (or FreeDB) lookup can be used to cross-reference this title (somewhat of an AMG back door, perhaps?) to retrieve the cover art.

Part of the issue with cover art, in general, lies with the difference between submitted artwork for different release territories. The Hydrogen Audio album art downloader will work with albums of tagged files, but I haven't seen it do terribly well with straight-up WAV files, and its output is not predictable enough for a commercial product that must work consistently (if occasionally incompletely).

Future versions of the DTC will allow one to choose which release territory the metadata and artwork reflect.

It seems not to be foolproof. It still can't find cover art for pretty common CDs, and the DTC lookup doesn't fix it.
Not only that, I've found that sometimes the 'wrong' cover art is used. For example, Steely Dan's Royal Scam comes up with cover art from a 3 CD US compilation, of which Scam was the 3rd CD. I would like to change that to the official cover art, but there seems to be no way to do it.

I hope the update will allow manual attribution of cover art

Cheers
John

quote:

Originally posted by pcstockton:

quote:

Originally posted by gary1 (US):
You'll jut have to hear for yourself. I'm confident that the Mac/nDAC will not sound anyway near as good as the HDX/nDAC. If you believe that the free software and a PC does it for you then terrific.

I dont buy it..... literally.

The Naim DAC, if better than the HDX DAC, will work wonders and far surpass my needs.

A Naim Dac PLUS an HDX???? what???? You are spending $9K on purely a ripping solution? Really?

oh and a cool touch screen. weak.

...which can also be used to control a complete NaimNet/DigiLinX system, in addition to the local server itself. Quite useful when you are paranoidly sitting in your unlit room and the doorbell rings, look at the security camera, open the gate, etc.

The words "sour grapes" are coming to mind.

quote:

Originally posted by Graham Russell:
I would expect an HDX/nDAC to sound pretty much the same as a Mac/nDAC setup.

In fact I very much doubt that, as that was precisely the final comparison made by Naim during the February demonstration at the Bristol show. There was a noticeable difference to these ears, the HDX sounding more 'glossy' and hifi than the Mac input. As I said at the time, I would have happily taken either one home. The fact that the DAC which gets released will be better than that shown in Feb will probably only accentuate this difference.

Unfortunately I've got all the other SRV's except that one - I know, I bow my head in shame. The others rip fine with correct artwork

quote:

Originally posted by David Dever:

quote:

Originally posted by pcstockton:

quote:

Originally posted by gary1 (US):
You'll jut have to hear for yourself. I'm confident that the Mac/nDAC will not sound anyway near as good as the HDX/nDAC. If you believe that the free software and a PC does it for you then terrific.

I dont buy it..... literally.

The Naim DAC, if better than the HDX DAC, will work wonders and far surpass my needs.

A Naim Dac PLUS an HDX???? what???? You are spending $9K on purely a ripping solution? Really?

oh and a cool touch screen. weak.

...which can also be used to control a complete NaimNet/DigiLinX system, in addition to the local server itself. Quite useful when you are paranoidly sitting in your unlit room and the doorbell rings, look at the security camera, open the gate, etc.

The words "sour grapes" are coming to mind.

Dave,
PC's comment was from before he heard one at my shop and I think he has a somewhat different appreciation for it now.

Connon and Dave, 'tis very true.

Not sure what Dave was jabbing at with the security camera and paranoid comments. Went over my head.

Dave, if I ever have Naimnet installation I will get an HDX just for you.