Thinking about Unitiserve

I roll with a us ssd, 

attached to a synologyy nas...

I have and do rip a massive quantity of cd's .... Over 2500 to date.

its bullet proof so far....

the us ssd...  Having a solid state drive has one less failure point than the non sad type...

I'm a firm believer in solids state drives...  And use them in laptop....

good luck

Hi stepbro,

I have the 2TB HD version, it's been a wonderful machine thus far and is an excellent solution for streaming your digital audio server as it is quite possibly the best sounding server out there. The price for ease of use, multi-room streaming and I-Radio...and Naim streaming optimisation with any Naim streamer, is quite high though. You also get Naim's 5 year warranty and tech support, you can even upgrade it by adding a third party PSU.

On the cautious side, there have been reports regarding reliability with it's PSU mainly. Some other reports regarding it not ripping and some cd's getting stuck. These last two are not uncommon in other HD's however. You need to decide where your head sits with these reports.

AllI can say is that for me, it's been superb.

Jason.

I have a US SSD with QNAP NAS, it was tricky to set up but once I got it rolling it's been very reliable. I haven't had the psu or ripping issues reported by other users. I have a "modest" number of about 300 CDs ripped to the system with an additional 20 or so hi-res albums and my iTunes collection.

Overall i'm very happy with it.

Walnut,

are you doing full naim wave rips? 4000 disks on 4TB how much space is the 4K disks taking up?

I've had my 1TB US for several years now. (it's the first generation, before they changed the drive to 2TB)

Only issue I had was the PSU, which was changed under warranty.

In the meantime I changed to a 3rd party PSU which you will find various threads about on the forum.

But I've found it to be very reliable and it does exactly what it says on the tin - hassle free ripper/tagger/UPnP Server.

Its easy to change the metadata tags in the nServe app if it gets it wrong (happens infrequently) and automating BackUps from the US to my NAS is also easy to set up.

SSD or not - depends on your back up strategy probably, as you should have a back up for your NAS if going this route. 

I think Jason's comments are a good summary of some of the issues that do crop up though.

Hi Stepbro, I asked the same questions as you at the start of this year to our distributor. 

• The 'latest info' was that no product replacement was planned within the next two years. 
• I would have been quite content with an HDD but was strongly encouraged to go for the SSD for reasons of long-term reliability and reduced vibration/power draw leading to improved sound quality. My dealer set up the NAS so it was literally 'plug and play' on arrival.

Operationally I've had a couple of LAN disruptions which took a power-down to reconnect NAS, otherwise its been a dream, just sits there and works.

My ~500 CDs ripped and indexed perfectly, including a broad classical mix.  A few 'strange' genre assignments caused mirth but easily edited.  With n-Serve indexing by composer you find Bach, Beethoven and Berg grouped under J, L and A respectively, but by Album all the Bs group together.  I've also imported ~300 HD albums which have catalogued seamlessly.

When used as a S/PDIF transport into DAC, my experience aligns with Martin Colloms review re '30% improvements' from power supply.  The popular add-on has transformed it from 'detailed digital' to having an essential musicality, accuracy of timbre and flow I expect from high-end sources.  On Sunday I was listening to Vivaldi guitar & choral works, Mozart piano sonata and Beethoven string quartets, and they all sounded just right to my ears.

Typically a normal music CD is around 500 - 600MB so I'd expect that 4,000 CDs would be around the 2.5TB mark...

Cheers

Phil

Hi Audioneophyte,
Yes I'm ripping full wave files. I'm afraid I can't tell how full the NAS is at the moment. My daughter has ran off to uni with the newer mac, and my very old mac won't run the Nas software, or the DTC come to that, so I'm dependant on the iPoke. My rule of thumb is saying it's over half full and less than two thirds full. I stopped using the onboard HD as soon as I realised I'd fill it up. Just use the downloads folder onboard now. It's tricky to edit the metadata though. Having ripped so many CD's I'm finding some amusement in the futility of the exercise. ……do I have enough years left to listen to them all again let alone appreciate what I glanced over last time around.  Good job the US makes such a good cherry picker.

Phil,   just seen your post,  that's great confirmation,  thank you.

Walnut,

you hit the nail on the head! The U serve makes a great cherry picker of your music!

Rarely if ever do I listen critically to an entire album,  I make a playlist on the fly with the music which strikes me at the moment...

I do wish there was a way to add more personal tags to music and then call it back up based on those additional user created tags...

When a collection gets really big…  gems of music get lost because there is simply so much…  As digital streaming is becoming the standard, Naim and the n-serve app developers MUST accommodate for managing LARGER MUSIC VOLUMES, while maintaining ease and simplicity of use.

Just my two cents...

Hi,

Good points made there.

I think n-Serve is very simple to use and pretty much caters for all my needs when it comes to editing tags, changing cover art, etc. I dont bother attempting to manipulate my own method for tagging music files as some others do, I just don't see the need. But then I don't have masses of Classsical to worry about. It strikes me that those people who find the software inadequate in today's 'software orientated' audio market, are those that really 'need' to make it their own, and will probably find fault in any development. And those people are probably better of going the pc streaming route as they probably also like faffing with ripping/tagging software. In the main, one can make this business as simple or as complicated as one wishes...the U-Serve is strictly about keeping it simple whilst getting the best audio SQ possible.

Talking of which, it is said that the new control software for the Muso will replace the current n-stream, which many again find inadequate. So we could be looking at a new slick n-stream, I just hope they keep it simple like the current n-stream but perhaps a little more powerful as you suggest.

Jason.

I recently bought the US ssd, problems getting it installed was that I hadn't updated my ND5.  When I got that done I was able to follow the instructions and am happily ripping away. 

My iTunes ripping to Synology 411 half the time didn't have metadata even on very popular albums. What a mess.  Now everything is incredible and I just need to figure out all the options.  New technology for an old brain.

Just want to say thanks to everyone who has responded so far.  Really helpful information and I am ready to make the move to a Unitiserve.  I just have to decide between the SSD and 2 TB models.  I like the idea that a solid state drive eliminates a failure point (I've had bad luck with hard drives failing) but, as I mentioned, my dealer recommends to 2 TB saying it has fewer network problems.  Once again, I appreciate the advice and hope it keeps coming!

I am afraid that the userve (SSD in my case) is the one piece of Naim kit that I will never recommend.

When it is working particularly with 3rd party power supply it is superb. Unfortunately I am currently waiting for it to be returned from the dealer for the 7th time in two years. I don't know if mine was a Monday build as I know that many others have not had problems, but I am currently looking for an alternative. To have tens of thousands of dollars of kit sitting idle because of consistent Userve problems is not an option for me. 

...can you drop me an email at support@naimaudio.com please - I'd like to know more about this unit and the history of its issues as that seems somewhat excessive.

Thanks

Phil