MacbookPro/Audirvana/Audiophilleo1 vs. Thumb drive!!!

Posted by: Naimthatune on 31 July 2013

Firstly, thanks to all those who take the time to help out on the forum!

 

My CDS2 died recently, and like so many I decided to explore streaming.

I managed to find a nDAC and hooked it up to the XPS and the above feed. I backed off several reference CDs in Lossless and AIF format to a NAS drive and connected my MacBook Pro direct via Ethernet.

 

Audirvana runs over iTunes and streams via the Audiophilleo device straight into the nDAC..

The sound is surprisingly close to the former CDS2, but when I copied the same music files to a spare thumb drive directly into the front of the DAC, and A/B'd the two, the Thumb has the edge in overall sound quality!

 

The Audiophilleo gets great reviews, so looking for any tips from the forum... Any tweaks I may be missing? Should I try the same config on a Mac Mini to see if its closer?

 

I will be continuing to back up the 1000+ cds I have as this journey progresses, so have plenty of time to try options.. If I cant find a way to improve the setup, Ill be back on the forum to seek advice on which Naim product best fits the pieces I have...

 

Rest of the chain looks like this: nDAC + XPS/ 252+Supercap/ 2 x 135's/ Wilson Benesch Arcs/ and Mitchell Orbe TT.

 

Thanks

 

Simon

Posted on: 31 July 2013 by mutterback
Originally Posted by Naimthatune:

Firstly, thanks to all those who take the time to help out on the forum!

 

My CDS2 died recently, and like so many I decided to explore streaming.

I managed to find a nDAC and hooked it up to the XPS and the above feed. I backed off several reference CDs in Lossless and AIF format to a NAS drive and connected my MacBook Pro direct via Ethernet.

...

 

Thanks

 

Simon

Hi Simon, see this thread: https://forums.naimaudio.com/to...ana-worth-the-effort

 

Personally, I found Audirvana + the MacBook Pro + an NAS to be a hassle with a lot of files. Its a bit of a hack how you add FLAC files to the iTunes library using Audirvana. You can't get high bit rate files (above CD quality) with AIF. iTunes libraries on NAS drives do work but you need to be very careful about managing it. Any time the Mac losses connection to the NAS, itunes creates a new, local library. This happened a lot and Audirvana lost its lock on iTunes whenever the Mac fell asleep. I was constantly restarting.

 

I switched to a Sonore Rendu streamer, and others love the Naim streamers.  I think there's a real benefit to either a dedicated streamer box or a Mac Mini with a local library. It feels and works more like a piece of hi fi equipment, where I was constantly fussing with the Mac Book.

 

I got a nice boost in sound quality with the Rendu, but was also using an old Mac who's USB port (via a Halide USB bridge) couldn't take advantage of all the new Audirvana technology.

Posted on: 02 August 2013 by vinylrocks
I use m2tech hiface evo as a usb to spdif converter feeding streaming with foobar2000 from a dell laptop to the ndac with amazing results!The laptop is connected via its gigabit ethernet port to the router and the NAS drive, and the coaxial cable used is BNC instead of RCA... I can even stream wirelessly without any problems. Details, details....