Unitiqute2 Vs dac-v1

Hi rob, I own both of these boxes (with NAP100) and they have different strengths. 

Plus's for Qute - Flexiblity, fun, musical, radio, superb value for money, does everything.

Plus's for V1 - USB connection, supposedly better headphone output, errm....

perhaps my V1 hasn't fully burnt in yet, but if I want musical satisfaction, then it's the Qute I turn to, and it never disappoints.

Regards

Justin

Amplification aside, the main things that the 'Qute has, which the DACV1 hasn't, is UPnP streaming + FM/DAB/Internet radio and analogue audio input. In the other direction, the DACV1 has  the USB DAC input (theoretically higher quality DAC too) for direct computer audio and the higher quality headphone amp.

Rob, if you are thinking about buying one vs. the other, the biggest technical difference is the suitable sources -- usb music playback vs. UPnP streaming.  The pro's and con's of each have been discussed here on the forum extensively and I'm sure you can find those threads.

And yes if you get the V1 you'll need an amplifier. 

One box (shoe box size) as opposed to 'regular size' boxes! USB/SPDIF converters are now the rage and are getting cheaper and smaller! Give me the Qute anytime over two boxes! Analog FM to boot!

+1

i will buy myself a UQute pretty soon. I presume nStream will allow me to choose between NDS and UQute?

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but would folks still recommend UQute over DACV1 if one has 1500+ albums on an iTunes Library?

Maybe that's more of a question choosing between upnp and computer playback.

But how convenient is to choose an album with UQute/upnp if an iPad is not available?

Do you have to rely on UQute display?

What if one wants to browse the collection (maybe can't remember the exact title of an album).

With no iDevice you rely on the display and the remote, as for convenience I suppose it's no less convenient than trying to find a CD in a big pile you have forgotten the name of! I and my wife use a folder view for moving around the Qute's (and before, the Lite's) display and it's fine for us and meets our expectations. A "second letter jump to" facility would be nice though when searching by artist name.

hey, thanks for the answer.

yes, this is a big issue for me (also considering the 2 options like in the OP). So I hope your answers will help us both.

As an example, retrieving the CD "Ausklang/Tableau" by Helmut Lachenmann, is not so hard for me, as my CDs are kind of sorted by Genre and then Alpha order, so it's relatively easy to get to letter 'L'.

Not a big issue with computer playback/DACV1 either as I could just type "Lac…" on iTunes and get there.

So from what you say, Qute/upnp displays a basic folder hierarchy. Artist/Title. Or maybe Genre/Artist/Album. True?

Does it display album covers in the list?

How many albums (folders) fit in the list? Would for instance a list of 500 sub-folders (say under folder 'Jazz') be easy to navigate, or would you need 500 clicks to get towards the end of the list?

The display is governed by the server client software (I hope that's the right term) residing on the UPnP NAS, in my case it's Twonky on a WD 2TB MyBookLive. It's set up (by me) for a simple folder view, which the Qute can access easily, I just use the remote keys to step through the 'folders'.

As for the sub-folders the alphabetical jump is still possible on a folder with 500 items (that's a rough 25 per letter) so on average you'd be pressing the relevant letter key on the remote then having to scroll up or down maybe 12 items, say, not a big hardship but the 'browsing prior to pulling and playing' is a bit stymied.

Yes - this is something that most people don't realise ... that after you select the UPnP server itself, everything that you then see is completely generated on the fly by the UPnP server and not by the Uniti / ND product. Cover / album art is only displayed if the UPnP server supplies it and the options for browsing music are completely down to what is implemented by the UPnP server itself - the Uniti / ND don't browse anything themselves.

I do get a moderate number of enquiries saying things like "When I had the demo I could browse by composers / performers / genre etc. but I don't see that now - where is it? Have you removed it?" and then when you ask what UPnP server they had at the demo and what they're using now then they'll have had a demo with the UnitiServe but will have probably bought a ReadyNAS to save money.

Phil

As a matter of fact the UQ2 is not avaliable in germany and musicline didn't mentioned it right now.

Is it avaliable somewere? Is a release date communicated?

Have you audited them?