Help please Guys and Girls...

Try to get a Firewire drive (WD or Seagate are fine) if you can (does mean no MacBook Air which is a shame) and use a HiFace on the USB - this keeps USB exclusively for music. BNC is your best choice of connector IMHO.

Apple's remote app is excellent if you use Itunes and perfect if you upgrade to a Macbook Pro.

Tog

Just check on some site such as Amazon that if you choose a WD drive it doesn't have the horrible version of their own software which makes it pretend it is a CD drive. The really bad thing about that is that is very difficult to delete and use as a bare drive. Just look for the adverse customer comments. I made that mistake and finished up returning a drive - I got a cheap Seagate instead, which works flawlessly.

1) Optical out, Airport, USB Converter (Transit, Hiface, EVO etc), Firewire Converter (Weiss), streamer (Serve, Qute, DS, Touch etc).

Pick your price and it will lead to one of the above.

2) BNC seems to be preferred by Naim, but it can only be a slight preference over toslink and coax spdif.

3) Remote App (free) is awesome and the standard by which all other controllers are judged.

4) That is tough for an iTunes user. It isn't very good at handling WAVs apparently. And getting it to play FLACs isn't easy. If you can download ALAC or AIFF that would be best. If not, get handy with Max or XLD to convert whatever you download to ALAC or AIFF.

-patrick

Stick to aiff with iTunes, Halide Bridge USB to bnc/rca convertor and your choice of Naim kit.

Tog

quote:

Originally posted by Tog:
Stick to aiff with iTunes, Halide Bridge USB to bnc/rca convertor and your choice of Naim kit.

Tog

What is the advantage of the Halide Bridge over hiFace?

ROTF,

One advantage is that it is one cable. That is nice. I have no idea if it sounds any different than anything else though.

-Patrick

None really down to preference - haven't heard the Hiface - do like Halide Bridge - big fan of Wavelength audio and Gordon Rankins approach to USB transfer of audio data - the HB uses his software eh voila!

Tog

Thanks for the advice! If i was to bite the bullit and able to afford a Mac Mini, would i need to buy a USB converter straight away, for it to play. I would go for a Hi-Face Evo, but couldn't afford that for a while. I wondered if i could buy a cable and go from the Digital out (headphone socket) in the back of the Mini, straight into the back of the Naim DAC? and any ideas of cost?
Thanks once again for all you help. Note to self, must get to grips with modern technology......

Regards

Justin

quote:

If i was to bite the bullit and able to afford a Mac Mini, would i need to buy a USB converter straight away

Nope... The Mac mini has a stock optical digital (mini) output.

You will need a MiniToslink-to-Standard Toslink cable. Chord makes one in the Optichord for around $100-$120 USD. Or you can use a standard Toslink cable with an adapter.

This is a good stopgap until you determine where you want to end up.

I should also mention that you can do the same with many mini computers. There are Acer models for $250 that include toslink output albeit no ripping drive.

You are not restricted to using a Mac and iTunes. In fact I would recommend going other directions if you are married to the idea of using a Mac.

-Patrick

Thanks Patrick, really helpful. Would i be able to use my iPhone as a remote control for a pc, or would i need to stay with Apple. The remote app is something that really appeals to me, to make it as easy as poss to navigate easily through songs, whilst staying firmly routed in my listening chair!
I would then upgrade to Hi-Face Evo/BNC lead at a later date, to maximise sound quality.
Regards
Justin

quote:

Would i be able to use my iPhone as a remote control for a pc

yes. if you want to stay with the Remote app, you would use iTunes on a PC. Or you could do a little extra work and use it with Foobar.

Thanks again, i have got all my music on iTunes, so that would work quite well. I have only thought Apple as i thought that was the only way to use phone as remote. I guess a PC, and external hard drive would work out cheaper than a Mac! I would like something small (perhaps a netbook) and could link it with an external hard drive?

Would i need something with a "stock optical digital (mini) output"?

Thanks once again for your much appreciated help.
Regards
Justin

quote:

Would i need something with a "stock optical digital (mini) output"?

yes, or you would need a usb-to-digi converter of some kind.

Search for Acer minis, AspireRevo 3700 for one. There are models with Toslink output and Win7 for pennies. 2TB hard drives can be had for $100.

Mac with optical sounds fine to me and Naim seem fairly relaxed about it. Using a decent USB to coax like the Hiface, Wavelength or Halide is another approach.

Tog

Guys, thanks again. Although more effort is needed to put your own source together (pc,usb converter,leads) i am hoping it will be worthwhile, and hopefully save a few pounds. If only i could order a Naim XS Streamer.

Regards

Justin

quote:

If only i could order a Naim XS Streamer.

You can. It is called the UnitiQute. It comes with free amps in the event you use it alone elsewhere.

$2000USD. Seems right in the price range of the XS products. They just didn't call it the right thing for you.

-Patrick

Not the same.

Whats the difference? Besides the bonus amplification, how is this different?

I would put money on that whatever they come up with for a streamer beyond what they already have, will not be less expensive than the Qute.

Case height, case width, case depth, case finish, clearly from the Uniti family, hence name. Designed as a one box complete solution, that happens to work with the DAC, not as an add on to complement the DAC.

Don't get me wrong, i'm sure it is a great product, and i am certainly not knocking it, but it not designed to match the rest of the XS range. It would irritate me to look at, as it didn't match the rest of my system, as good value as it is.

I believe Naim will introduce a dedicated XS streamer next year, designed to add to other XS seperates, rather than being a complete system in one box, that is added to another system.

If i wanted a compact second system, i would buy a Qute, but it is not what i'm looking to add to my current system. Consistency of box sizes and finishes are very important to me. As much as i admire some of the photos of systems on the forum, several towers of different size boxes just don't do it for me. Although i bet they sound fantastic.

Just my own view, thankfully we are all different

Now, where's me vino....

Regards

Justin

Isn't this where the NDX is meant to fit in?

Hi RedOne, NDX is part of the Classic Series.

Justin

Hi

I use my mac book white to n-dac with a wireworld mini optical to optical for spotify (checking out the songs before i buy) doesn't sound too shabby.

quote:

Hi RedOne, NDX is part of the Classic Series.

So is the DAC. For some reason you have accepted its box uniqueness.

I use a Samsung 1.5TB external USB drive for file storage and store music in FLAC format. Make sure that whatever drive you buy you get two of them (One for backup ... You don't want to lose your music is a drive fails!)

I recently upgraded from M2Tech Hiface to M2Tech Evo. The upgrade is significant and well worth the money. Use the Evo with the rechargeable 9v lithium battery (As supplied by Purite Audio, UK importers of M2Tech products). I believe that Paul Hynes has been commissioned to develop a power supply for the Evo. You can power it with a 9v linear supply from your local electronics store but the sound quality really suffers when compared to the rechargeable battery.

I connect the Evo to my nDAC using a BNC cable and use J.River Media Center 15 software.

As for remote control, I bought a notebook PC and use Windows Remote Desktop to link it to the laptop in my audio system. This gives me full control from the sofa and I can browse the Internet or work on a Word document while I listen if I so wish. Remember that on PC, you will need Windows 7 Home Premium or above installed on the host computer.