Is nStream 3.2 sorting artists alphabetically? Or does Asset 4.1 have a bug with "The" handling?
Posted by: Hook on 11 December 2012
Or am I overlooking something? 
Prior to yesterday, I have been using Asset's "Smart" option for "The Artist & Album Handling". This had for me the desirable effect of listing "The Beatles" under B (while still being displayed them as "The Beatles").
I upgraded to Asset 4.1 a week or so ago, and I upgraded to nStream 3.2 just a couple of days ago (after the arrival of my new NDS). And now I see that the "The Beatles" only show up under T. It is the same for every other group beginning with "The". I did not play a lot of digital music in the past week, so I can not say if this behavior changed after Asset 4.1, but prior to nStream 3.2...
All my Beatles albums are tagged with "The Beatles" under both Artist and Album Artist....but I would thought this would made no difference to Asset, since I have also selected "Ignore Sort Values" as my option for Asset's "Artist Sort Handling".
I found a related post in the Asset forum (from back in September, 2012), where an nStream user was seeing similar unexpected behavior during the Asset 4.1 beta testing:
dbpoweramp > dBpoweramp > Beta Testing: Test Pre-Releases > Asset UPnP R4.1
I am seeing very close, but not exactly the same behavior. I get "The Beatles" under T regardless of whether I select "All Artists" in nStream, or just the individual letter. Note that Mr. Spoon (Asset's developer) replied by saying he suspected that nStream was doing an alphabetical sort, and overriding what Asset was trying to do.
If Phil is listening (or if another forum member has been told by Naim), can you please confirm that nStream's new behavior is to sort artists alphabetically (regardless of what the UPnP server is providing)? If this is the case, I will be disappointed! nStream has always been compared to a browser, and IMO, that is the way it should work. But if nStream is not doing an alphabetical sort, I will contact Mr. Spoon, and ask him to take another look at this.
Thanks for your help!
Hook
Yeah, come on Hook full report please 
Congratulations and well done.
Thanks Harry and Dusty!
The NDS arrived last Saturday morning -- perfect timing as the weather turned bad starting Saturday night, with a foot of heavy, wet snow to follow...
Opening the box, I had two initial impressions: it's a surprisingly heavy component (compared to the NDX), and the finish of the casework is superb (a very nice step up from my early-version NDX). Learned from my dealer that a lot of the NDS's weight is in the spring-supported brass boards. Once the transit bolts were removed, the NDS does feel extremely wobbly! I took great care when picking it up so as to not have the boards bump into the sides of the case. Fortunately, the NDS has hard plastic feet instead of rubber, which made it a lot easier to place onto the Fraim's glass shelf (once two feet were down, I could slide the NDS back into position). Also learned from my dealer that Naim has now outsourced the casework finishing to a new supplier in Switzerland. Good move IMO -- this new supplier obviously knows what they are doing. By comparison, the NDX and DAC's finish feels a bit rough. In fact, on first glance, I mistakenly thought the NDS case was all brushed aluminum (like the 500 series), but touching it revealed that it was indeed powder coated.
Once placed, I ran through the now familiar setup menus, and made sure everything functioned well (which it did). I listened only very briefly -- just a couple of minutes. My initial reaction was that it sounded surprisingly good -- maybe a little shut in at the top, and little shy at the bottom. One other thing I noted was that, unlike the DAC (and to a slightly lesser extent the NDX), there was none of that initial hardness or edginess that I was expecting. But knowing that listening right out of the box is pointless, I tuned in to Radio Paradise, put my speakers on mute, and let it run for 12 hours.
Late Saturday night, just as the snow was starting to come down in earnest, I gave the NDS a first listen, and was very pleasantly surprised. The initial hesitancy was gone (!), and I could now hear good extension at both frequency extremes. I could pretty much immediately understand why you NDS owners were saying that it had a more "analog" sound than other Naim digital players. I too heard a richness in tone that I normally only associate with vinyl. Oh my, what a beautiful sound! Had it really only been running in for half a day? I was so impressed! I was also shocked to look at my iPad to see that it was now 3am...where did the last 4 hours go? How surreal...
Have had three wonderful evenings of all digital playback since then, and the NDS is sounding extremely good to my ears. Am trying very hard not to gush about its sound quality, as I expect it at some point to do the old roller coaster thing...but it just hasn't happened yet! I can say that, IME, the NDS has sounded more right on first listen than any other Naim product I have ever owned. It has made me wonder if Naim was now making more of an effort to burn these in? I was prepared for the NDS to sound ok...but not great! And for these first few days, it has indeed sounded great!
I will try and develop more thoughtful comments on its sound quality as the weeks go by. But suffice it say for now that it is the best sounding digital component I have ever heard. The NDX->DAC had set the bar pretty high, but IMO, the NDS is clearly the better player for me. Right now, I do realize that my reactions are emotional, and fueled by a new pride of ownership. But I do also believe that the NDX->DAC is very impressive...just in a different way. My feeling is that the NDX->DAC delivers a more "technical" sound. It gives great detail and energy, but I think the NDS has got more...soul. To my ears, the NDS sounds more involving -- more effortless -- more natural -- more real. I feel like I was quickly and unexpectedly drawn into the NDS's huge sound field -- time collapsed, hours passed, and I felt completely connected to the music. While I enjoyed owning the NDX/DAC, I must admit that I would often catch myself thinking of spinning records instead. My vinyl setup has always had a wonderful emotional effect on me...but only for 20 minutes at a time. Getting into that same "zone" for an hour or two at time with the NDS is a new, and wonderful experience. I am convinced that I have found my long-term digital player, and I am planning on buying a lot more used CD's!
More later, as I still have the 552PS and 555PS DR upgrades left to go! 
Hook
Hi Hook.
Enjoy your new aquisition ! 
Email soon Peter