nds v non naim solution, which way to go

I agree with both of you! The Unitiserve was an extravagance for me when I bought it, and if I knew more about the alternatives available at the time, I might have saved my cash and bought a regular NAS. Having said that, 'flexible' and 'many more options' might not be what everyone wants to hear. 'Put CDs in slot, browse, press play' is pretty much all you need to think about with a Unitiserve.

What I don't understand is what the HDX brings to the party that justifies it costing more than a Unitiserve and an n-DAC combined? But then, I haven't had a proper listen to one...

Interesting thread that seems to offer lots of options to choose from.

I have been using Naim off and on for over 40 years, and a few years ago restarted with a 150/122 system and then bought in to a new HDX. 

A superb piece if kit.

Now having a full 500 system, i still retain the HDX and love it as a key part of my system.

As said there are many options to choose, but its beauty and simplicity in operation allows me to focus on listening to music and not Having to be a quasi IT expert.

It just works

Love it to bits

 I see something in the simplicity of US if you do not want/can't get into technical. However all this is only true at the beginning of your streaming experience & its really not quite as simple as you indicate. With a US + whatever streamer , like NAS+ND, it still needs to be correctly wired & set up & all the CD's still need to be ripped.   

I have only been into network streaming since last April & its been an absolute fun ride, thanks to folks on the forum plus my own research mostly on www, learning the basics & fine tuning etc.. But that was only over a few weeks, its all done, I pick up the iPad, scroll to whatever I want to play & that's it, no more changing CD's, turning over records. All kinda boring now !!!  

I have heard an HDX,  & no, I don't get it,  cost is one thing,  but nothing better in SQ. 

The biggest IT challenge I've ever had was setting up the UnitiServe to do backups to a NAS. Total nightmare! Compared to that, installing a upnp package on the nas and installing DB Poweramp has been a stroll in the park. 

I've actually done the AB comparison, heard the difference and investigated the reasons.

I started with a disc and ripped it in Media Player to WAV. Then ripped the same disc to WAV in EAC after taking time to setup and calibrate the drive. Finally, I obtained a 24/192Khz FLAC of the the same album and played them all back.

Results:

1. CD ripped in EAC was MUCH clearer than ripped in Media Player. In comparison the Media Player WAV sounded somewhat lifeless.

2. There was only minimal difference between the standard 16/44.1Khz WAV ripped in EAC against the 24/196Khz FLAC.

Conclusion:

Getting a good rip of the CD makes much more difference than obtaining a HiRes studio master download.

Reason:

So I heard the difference (it was not so subtle) but needed to know why. All I knew was the EAC was taking about 5 times longer to perform the rip. The story starts with the red book format CDs use as storage. Although digital, audio on CD is not stored as files. The bitstream is semi-linear made up of repeating out-of-sequence packets groups (this helps with error correction) and C2 error information. Track locations are actually indicated by a simple time offset from the sart of the disc telling the mech where to try and look (similar to playing a track on vinyl by visually counting the enpty spacers before lowering the stylus - if the analogy works for you). So all this confirms that reading digital from a CD is largly unconfirmable. Unlike file data, there are no checksums to confirm accurate reading.

Next is how the read is done. To speed things up, both iTunes and Media Player read discs in Burst Mode. This has the benefit of being very fast for the user and also, the rate of reading means that the laser does not get pulled off course by scratches easily. But it is also not a very consistent read - just a simple once-over for convenience. Also any drive features which vary from drive to drive are not used so C2 error correction is ignored. Finally, many drives buffer audio data so some of the read is also left up to the drive and a re-read request can result in the drive returning a buffer of the same incomplete data stream. Basically, Media Player and iTunes are setup for maximum compatibilty and speed for the MP3 generation and in a AB coparison, the difference is definately audible.

Just to clarify, when I say "MP3 generation" in may last comment, I mean that in terms of "users who require instant gratification" as opposed to ripping MP3. The ripping tests were of course all with WAVs.

Unfortunately that is the correct approach. The WAV standard does not support tagging. Adding ID3 tags to WAV is done by some software like dbpoweramp but as it is not part of the WAV standard, it can render the files unreadable on some hardware or software players when they find tag header info in the file instead of an audio bitstream. The Naim approach leaves the files in a state that at least guarantees they are going to be readable on everything. Incidentally, Media Player also tags this way. They store metadata in a seperate database and not in the WAV file itself.

Given the current scope of your set up…  and your investment thus far...

The NDS route… the reference route is inline with your set up.

From my experience you will not be disappointed...

IT both sounds better that the computer into DAC option because of the step up in DAC built into the NDS...

in a 500 series system the differences will be noticeable.

IMHO...

Good luck. let us know what you go with!!!

.... and so much cheaper too.

Here we go again.. This is factually incorrect, just search previous discussions and the relevant links to the specification documentation. WAV had metadata tagging long before ID3 was a twinkle in its father's eye.

The official tagging method, ie what was originally specified, is the Info meta data format.. Later quite validly, because WAV file format allows it, an unofficial method was introduced based on ID3 tags. This format was more tuned to consumer music libraries where as the former was more for commercial use and media creation.

dBpoweramp and other more comprehensive software supports both variants, as ID3 has become the format adopted by many.

Simon

(who has commercially used WAV tagging with commercial/industrial software since the early 2000's)

Wat, so no Naim kit for you these days...care to let on what your rig is currently. I'll shortly be converting a MacBook Pro to music only as soon as the 2Qute is available in the States.

Afternoon Everyone

Very many thanks for all your replies, this has helped me a great deal.

I need to do some auditioning in the context of my system, especially this Chord Hugo which seems to be universally praised.

By "tagging", I assume you mean the ability to see the album art etc on the device you are using connected to the network when playing the track?

I assume you cannot se this if you have a digital input straight into the DAC not connected to the network?

Many thanks again.

Trev