UnitiServe: should it stay or should it go?

The Jury is (still) out on my US...

I am enjoying the sound on Tidal & Bluesound Node -> with CHC-Power cable -> DHLabs Toslink into Ndac/XPSdr.

The difference in sound to US is very marginal if at all - depending on recording. This is my half-way or temporary solution until Naim comes up with any upgrade plan to US. 

HH - UServe and HDX are 'comfort products' for people who do not like to turn on a PC for ripping a CD or do not like to use a PC in the first place. Sonic-wise they are servers just like any NAS. Servers do not 'sound', neither their hardware nor their software. I am expressively only refering to their network properties here, so not talking about hooking up a HDX with its analouge out to an amp.

I know that this is a 'believers' forum and when I stated the above about a year ago, I was on the verge of being lynched for it. Good to see that reason is slowly winning over belief - at least in this matter.

I will not get into the transcoding debate, but I also have an opinion on this one ... do as you like.

Backing up from an NAS should not pose a problem. They usually have a syncronization utility built into their firmware. I have a USB HDD permenantly plugged into my QNAP NAS and it performs an incremental synchronization routine every night. A second USB HDD is hooked up occasionally and synced in the same way. So I always have two backups. No need for a second NAS.

Hi HH

looks on the fish like you are going for it and selling the UServe.....

it has been an interesting post.....I am in similar position, when my US finally comes back from its second sojourn to Salisbury, I may have to re-consider...

In its absence, I have been streaming direct from the NAS...so would just need to get my head around the ripping options....

Enjoy, and good luck with the sale.

The ripping process on a pc or Mac is pretty trivial even for the most technologically challenged.  Ripping I am confident everyone can learn to do

Thanks Bart

encouraging...I already have a Macmini (with CD) that could rip, and a recent desktop (Win8)....am reasonable with technology, just found the US a convenient option when it was first introduced..

BR

I'm having a bit of trouble with blocked eustatian tubes at the moment so am not hearing as well as I might so, coupled with the 'if it's a bespoke and expensive Naim solution it has to be better' syndrome, I asked Hilary to do some blind testing, where I played various tracks and she didn't know whether the source was the Serve or the Synology. We played quite a few songs and she had a clear preference for the Synology every time. So there we go. Who'd have thought it? 

That said, the Serve is a wonderful product and there's no way I'd have wanted to rip well over 2,000 albums via the Sony laptop. The ability of the Serve to gather together music from all other servers on the network is extremely clever, and it does look very cool - something a white plastic NAS cannot manage. 

The plan is to lift the carpet and run ethernet cabling to the understairs cupboard, and put the NAS in there, which will probably be a lot later in the year when we get around to decorating the sitting room, which is looking decidedly shabby. Should the Serve depart, I'll need to get a USB backup, which I can connect to the NAS and set it up to do differential backups.

That is a possibility. But you could also keep the Serve and directly connect it to your SU via SPDIF. This would eliminate the need for a NAS and you would not need to run any ethernet cable whatsoever. You would have to control with n-Serve, however. But you would have only 2 active processes running at replay time (in place of 3) and no data transfer over LAN. This might actually improve the sound quality. Just a possibility, of course. Best, nbpf

Interesting HH,  it must be very nice to hear it for yourself & to now be able to relax in the knowledge that you know you have optimised your SQ & that as superb as the US is for ripping, you really have not lost any SQ with your new arrangements.

It supports what I found a while back when I heard a friends ND5 running on both his old US & his new QNAP,  I did not post this on the forum as I saw no point in stirring up what I had read as a forum belief that US - as a server - gave better SQ than a straight NAS.

We could not detect any difference between US & QNAP.

Next question is what SQ advantages do we get between HD makes & models,  but no way am I going down that goat trail.

As a matter of interest on a similar subject - I ran a short test yesterday comparing USB & Synology.  Very hard to tell but if anything the USB had a slightly harder edge (maybe it was more detail) & the NAS appeared to have a more 3 dimensional sound stage.  But it really was close & maybe I might have talked myself into the differences.

But at the end of the day, in both the US v NAS & the USB v NAS tests,    I've concluded the differences - if any - were so marginal it really is not worth bothering about.

I did the testing with AudioQuest cabling on the Serve, and a bog standard 99p jobbie on the NAS, so there should be more to come.... Unless of course the swanky cable is actually holding the Serve back, which would really upset my universe!

..........  another cable war HH ??? !!!!

Personally I am not at all convinced about high priced ethernet,  but I have heard some differences & have concluded its probably gained from better rejection of inter pair & alien crosstalk, skew drift etc. with Cat6 & 7's.  Cat5 construction is more liable & easy to suffer small bend or crush damage causing it to slip under its 100MHz spec.  

Ethernet not meeting spec can be very surprising,  testing by BlueJeans in USA showed only 4 out of 20 x Cat6 & Cat6a passed the test, the rest either failed Cat6 but passed Cat5, or flunked even the Cat5 spec level.

http://www.bluejeanscable.com/...-your-cat6-a-dog.htm

At least my cable cannot be a dog, as it's cat 7..... Sounds good nonetheless.

HH, Ive listened to the synology 213j against the unitiserve. I found the unitiserve sounded a bit more rounded and fuller sounding but the synology sounded much more alive and exciting. Then a linear supply was put on the unitiserve and that really upped its game, it sounded much more open and faster than before but as the supply was brand new it sounded harsh and cold too as it needs burning in. 

You have an advantage here as yours is burned in.

Same experience here as Mr Happy.

When my UnitiServe SSD went back to Salisbury for a repair a few years back, I streamed direct from my Synology NAS.  The sound was somehow not as engaging, and more flat than when served through the US-SSD.  I actually listened to much less music, and even contemplated other systems.  My US-SSD came back 4 weeks later, and boy, what a difference!  The old system was back, and I was listening to more music than ever before.  Couldn't imagine being without a US (for as long as I have the NDS), and moving to a different PSU has been icing on the cake and taken it to a new level.

So, different experience to many on the thread, and for me, the US makes the system.

ATB.  George.

i agree - the UnitiServe is the surprise game changing product. It was one of the last things I got - I suspect if I had it right at the very beginning, I would be happy enough with the ND5XS and wouldn't want to upgrade to the NDX and the NDS.

This is my worry. The UnitiServe is a great product - but is that because it really is better than the Synology, or because it has a Naim badge and costs six times as much? Does the body rule the mind or does the mind rule the body, I dunno.

I am not a fan of the UnitiServe. But the device has high quality hardware components and functionalities a NAS does not have. For instance, the sound card and SPDIF outputs and the ripping support. You can connect the UnitiServe to a DAC and play music. You do not need to rely on streaming and data transfer over your LAN. In fact, you do not even need a wired connection if the UnitiServe can be connected wirelessly via USB dongle. And it looks much better than a NAS. That said, the UnitiServe is, both from the hardware and from the software viepoint, an outdated product that Naim has never fostered and certainly not exploited. In my view, Naim has sacrificed the UnitiServe in favour of a streaming strategy that is, from the user viewpoint, very questionable to say the least. Good luck, nbpf  

I dunno either, and am happy to keep my uServe.  Knowing what I know now about how to do this "stuff," (which I didn't 3 years ago), I'd probably just buy a nas if I had to start over.  So . . . no clear answer! 

I think my previous post has been mis interpreted. Im not saying I prefer the unitiserve. Im just saying the two options have plus and minus points. At the moment im using the synology, running the synology software as I prefered this to minimserver. My friend has the unitiserve which sounded a little to mellow for me, but the power supply upgrade has made a big difference. It has bought it a little closer to the lively sound of the synology. He has to now burn it in for a few weeks and then we can hear the full extent of what it can do.

The nServe always was an expensive option but to many it looks cute and has the Naim badge. To be fair it isn't even that expensive any more compared to the competition, many of whom like Aurrender offer music servers at a significant premium. 

However, despite it's overpriced hardware my main concern has always been the nServe's software. I am very glad that I have stuck with Vortexbox over the past four years and given the initial hostility of some members of this forum to the notion that it can successfully compete with Naim for a fraction of the cost I know that some here who now happily use it on a daily basis.

Indeed, in over four years and three different server builds it hasn't failed to provide a rock solid service. It now provides a squeezelite stream to all my Apple devices and my Dac V1 using iPeng as controller and IOS player.

As I move inexorably to Devialet I'm sure that it will continue to be at the centre of my system in the future.

Tog

Well, the Serve is sold and so the die is cast..... Let's hope I've done the right thing.

A few questions if I may:

will any old usb drive for backup do? Any suggestions? Are they mains powered, or get their power from the NAS?

all my tracks say .flac at the end of their titles - is there any way to stop that showing in the Naim app?

is there any point keeping the TP power supply to power the Synology - if it's the right voltage of course? Or should I just stick with the supplied Synology brick, which seems reassuringly heavy.

do I need to pay for dB Poweramp, or is the free version sufficient?

Many thanks!

HH

The smaller drives, often called portable drives are powered direcly from USB so no need for a power supply for these.  They come in slightly smaller capacity and cost a few pounds more but are more convenient. Choose a make you have heard of and you won't go far wrong.

Are you planning to leave the drive connected all the time? I ask as you could be vulnerable to the drive being damaged in the event of a power surge or similar. It's best to have an offline copy if possible, maybe rotating 2 drives is a consideration if you are going to schedule nightly backups. You could keep the spare drive in your drawer at work as an offsite backup.

It sounds like your UPNP server is using the filenames rather than the Track Name ID tag or are you browsing using some kind of folder view? I am not familiar with the Synology UPNP server but Asset uses the tags rather than the file name.

I would get thet full paid version of dBPoweramp. It offers some improvements over the free one. I utilise the HDCD filter, higher quality album art and also create a high quality MP3 version when ripping for my iPod Classic. The most important feature, the secure rip is only available in the laid version. If you google "dbPoweramp versions" you will find a comparison table of features. 

Richard

Thanks for that - I don't follow the earthing point though.

I've ordered a 2Tb WD Elements drive for £66, which hopefully will be OK. I'll do a backup, disconnect it and put it away somewhere, as I'm having a fast from buying more music, so hopefully won't need it for a while at least.

Now I just need to sort out those pesky file extensions....