Question about N-Serve

Hi Bud, you are exactly correct.

n-Serve will allow you to play music only when the UnitiServe is acting as a player, which it's NOT doing when you're using it as a UPNP server networked to your NDS.  Yes, you can connect the digital output from the UnitiServe to the NDS, using either of the s/pdif outputs (optical or BNC).  And yes, you'll need to select that input on the NDS.

For the cost of a cable (or two, if you try both optical and bnc) you can then compare and contrast the two ways to connect these devices, and please do report back.

I too own a uServe and an NDS, but I have them very far apart and use a wired ethernet connection.  When I owned the Naim Dac, I had the uServe connected via Naim's DC1 cable.

Thanks!!  I don't know why it took me so long to realize what was going on.

Right now I've got a new Fraim system and I plan to move everything but the UServe and NAS from my equipment cabnet to the Fraim.  I have a new 3 Meter Cinnamon ethernet cable that I'll use to connect the network switch in the equipment cabinet to the NDS.  That will allow me to use N-Stream as I do now.  However, I could buy another 3 meter ethernet cable and move the UServe to the Fraim and buy a short digital cable.  I have one now but it's not first class.

However, if I move the UServe I really would need to buy another level for the Fraim.  I think for the time being, I'll pass on using N-Serve until I get things sorted out.

I have some experience with digital cables when I owned a Bryston system.  I discovered that I could easily hear the difference in digital cables between my digital music player and DAC.  The best sounding was Cardas Clear AES cable followed by Cardas Lightning 15 digital cable. 

I also could hear an improvement when I replaced .5 meter digital cables with one meter cables on the advice of a guy at the Cable Company.

If and when I decide what to do, I'll report back on it.

Bud

I think I'll order another Fraim level and move everything out of the equipment cabinet (UServe, NAS, network switch and Airport Express).

It would be neater and I can use a Naim digital cable to connect the UServe to the NDS.

Bud

Hi Bud,

The consensus from my reading of the forum is that streaming from the UnitiServe via UPnP to a network player gives slightly better sound quality than direct connection of the UnitiServe (via S/PDIF) to the DAC section of the network player. This also corresponds to my experience. So, moving to playback via S/PDIF might be a step back in sound quality. Plus it will cost you an extra Fraim level and a digital cable... and then you'll start thinking about trying a Hugo...

Jan

I will probably continue to do most of my listening via UPnP.  I just wanted to give N-Serve a try.

I just realized that the new CD5 XS due to arrive any day now will be using the BNC input into the NDS.

The important thing is you've set me straight on using N-Serve.  Now I won't be trying to figure out why it didn't work.

Bud

Bud, my CD5XS has not been powered on once since I acquired my NDS.  Right now it's just an RF barrier on a Fraim shelf under the NDS and above my Supernait2

I have preferred to keep my server 'stuff' out of the hi fi listening room.  An elegant Vodka ethernet cable is plugged into an RJ-45 jack on my wall, and that is the extent of the computer 'stuff' near the Fraim.  I did not want a switch and other network 'stuff' cluttering up the hi fi.

I ordered the CD player for my wife.  She has a lot of old CD's she likes to listen to and doesn't want to fool around with the iPad, streaming, etc.

There are times when I also just want to pop a classical CD in and press Play. 

I originally had my NAS and UServe in my office and I streamed to the equipment through an Airport Express.  I moved them in the same cabinet as my other gear and connected them with a switch using Cinnamon Ethernet cables.

Now I'm going to move all the equipment out of the cabinet to the Fraim except the NAS and UServe.  The only connection will be a 3 meter Ethernet cable from the switch to the NDS.

It sounds much better now than when the UServe was in my office.

All the gear with switching power supplies are plugged into a circuit separate from the gear with linear supplies.

Unless I move the UServe to the Fraim, I won't be able to use N-Serve.  That's OK, just so I know how it could work if I wanted to use it.

Bud 

The CD5X is a lovely player. It should be quite something into the NDS. I'm still getting a lot of satisfaction from my CDX but if I were starting over in CD-only mode, the CD5X would be my first and perhaps last stop.

Jan

I have a dealer who gives good advice.  He told me so long as I'm not going to be using the analog section of the CD player, I wouldn't need to get the next CD player up the chain.  I'll probably hook both the digital and analog sections up anyway.  One to the NDS and one to the SN2.

I may try plugging in one of my HCDR's to see if it makes a difference with the analog section.

Bud

I just connected the UServe to the NDS with an Audioquest cable that I had from back in the day and NServe works great.  I also see that I can connect both the UServe and the CD Player to BNC inputs on the NDS at the same time.

The AQ cable is greatly inferior sonically to the Cardas cables I had. I've made an offer on a Cardas Lightning cable and I'm confidently that it's going to sound fine.  I also have a Naim cable coming with the CD5X.

Bud

The HDX and US emit low levels of EMR over short distances. If it is possible to site them conveniently away from the rack you should do. 

I share your preference for nServe. It is a much slicker app but it won't control volume. nStream is due to be updated in September.

Is it the UServe or it's switching power supply that emits EMR? 

My original intent was to leave the UServe and NAS in the current equipment cabinet and move everything else to the Fraim.  I bought a new 3 meter AQ Cinnamon Ethernet cable to connect the switch in the cabinet to the NDS.

All devices with switching power supplies would be isolated from the Fraim and have their own power outlet.  However, the only way I could use N-Serve under this arrangement would be to purchase a three meter digital cable to connect the UServe in the cabinet to the NDS in the Fraim.  I may do that. 

Bud

Don't know Bud. I expect it is the unit because the HDX doesn't have a US-like power supply, and they both emit.

For the time being, I'm going to stick with my original idea of keeping the NAS and UServe in the equipment cabinet.  I can pick up an inexpensive 3 meter AQ digital cable to connect the UServe to the NDS.  I can always get a better cable if that works out OK.

Bud

A 3-meter optical cable should be affordable as well.  Worth a punt as the English say (I think . . . I cannot keep the slang straight).

That's perfectly straight Bart.

I'm going to order a 3 meter Cinnamon S/PDIF cable.  It's cheap and would be the same quality as the 3 meter Cinnamon Ethernet cable I'll be using with N-Stream.

Somewhere down the line I may upgrade one or the other to better quality.

BTW, I can't hear a difference between the two connections using one meter cables now.

Bud

I have an HDX and admit that I too am confused about the player / server thing. 

Am I right in thinking that the HDX can only do one or the other at the same time - not both?  In other words, I can listen to the HDX locally using nServe; or I can use the HDX (with nStream) as a server to, say, a Unitiqute in another room; but I cannot, with either nServe or nStream, have the HDX and the Unitiqute play the same thing simultaneously? 

I think that it can do both at the same time.  I can have my uServe serving music over the UPnP network, and tell it to play something using n-Serve, and it appears to start playing.  I've just never hooked up both outputs simultaneously.  I'm pretty sure that Jan-Erik has, and has reported that it will play 'both ways' simultaneously.

I do not know if a Naim server and streaer will play the same music syncronized in two room,s but with e.g. pluggplayer on an ipone the local output rom tmy ns01 and the same music played in another room through the iphone has a serious time difference. This should be resolved with the party mode only available on the streamers not the servers, at least not with the current 1.7 firmware.

Claus

Hi Bart,

Your intrepid reporter does not recall ever being able to synch S/PDIF (nServe) and UPnP playback (nStream). I have however used the optical S/PDIF and coaxial S/PDIF outputs simultaneously to feed and compare the Naim DAC with the Hugo DAC, and then reversing the feeds to eliminate differences between types of cable. Optical is surprisingly good, but that's for another thread.

One thing that nServe does really well (and nStream doesn't) is allow multiple control of the server. So, you and a buddy / wife / son / daughter / other, each armed with an iDevice, can add songs to a playlist on the fly as inspiration hits. Huge fun.

Jan

Thanks for your responses.  I can't help thinking that the capability is there but not yet configured to work.

We know that the HDX can work as a player, and we know that it can work as a server.

As far as I'm aware, the HDX was developed as part of the NaimNet system, or at least developed from the NS01 which was the equivalent thing in NaimNet.  NaimNet, of course, gave the ability to play the same thing similtaneously in different locations, so an HDX in a NaimNet system was effectively working as both a player and a server.  Obviously NaimNet was a bespoke thing that relied on NetStreams hardware and software to make it work.  Nevertheless, within a NaimNet system the HDX, within its own box, had to be capable of "playing" and "serving" at the same time. 

This suggests to me that it ought to be possible to get it to do both things outside a NaimNet context, possibly with a software upgrade to the HDX and possible with some kind of upgrade that unifies nStream and nServe.  I wonder if Naim are thinking along these lines?

Perhaps what's really lacking is the ability to control any bit of Naim equipment via internet protocol.  Why can't amplifiers, dacs and the like have an RSJ socket at the back so that you can adjust the volume with an iPod rather than have to point an infra-red remote from within a line of sight?  Then you'd be able to use an integrated nStream / nServe to run your whole system, whatever it comprised..   

I missed the "simultaneously" adverb first time 'round.  I was referring to the ability of the server to supply two different music streams -- I'm pretty sure that the servers cannot provide simultaneous replay this way.

Not local + streamed (UPnP), though two NaimNet or StreamNet-enabled endpoints certainly can (one is the master, and proxies the stream to the second, slave unit).

In the same manner, a streamer (newer hardware & software) can proxy downsampled (320 kbps) audio to another slave streamer.