Role of UnitiServe in multi-system network?

You just need another streamer, e.g. the ND5XS you mention. The Unitiserve will work with with 2 or more streamers, and you'll be able to control both of them from the Naim app.

For your second system to play music streamed from the US, you will need to add a streaming client and a DAC. The ND5-XS combines these two two functions (as does the NDS).

Thanks to both of you - this is extremely helpful. My typo ("DAC") was meant to be "NAS". I think part of my confusion (overall, not re: the typo) stemmed from the fact that Naim's site indicates the ND5-XS allows streaming from a NAS, but it seems that is only true when a server is installed directly on the NAS (e.g. MinimServer), thus eliminating the need for a separate server (e.g. the UnitiServe). That now makes sense.

A couple more questions:

 - My overall plan is to have the two separate two-channel Naim systems and to integrate an existing whole-house distribution system (we just moved into our house, and it came with the whole-house system). The whole-house system will likely have a separate device to pull data from the NAS, and my understanding is that a NAS can service multiple sources simultaneously. From your responses, it seems the US can work with multiple sources. Can it work with two streamers simultaneously, e.g. could I connect both the NDS and ND5-XS to the US and listen to different music from the NAS simultaneously on the two streamers? If so, could I also connect a third source (e.g. the device for the whole-house system) to the US and stream a third music source at the same time as well?

 - More broadly, is it accurate to say that this involves four categories of devices: storage (NAS, in this case), server (US), streaming client (e.g. NDS), and DAC (e.g. NDS)? If so, from a "music" perspective, what is the role of the streaming client if the server provides music data to the streaming client and the DAC but the DAC is what converts the digital data from the server to analog signal to send to the preamp?

Again, thanks to both of you.

 - My overall plan is to have the two separate two-channel Naim systems and to integrate an existing whole-house distribution system

You can have up to 5 Naim streamers, all working on a (preferably wired Ethernet) network, and they will play in sync with each other, or separately. You might want to have a quick read of this...

https://www.naimaudio.com/site...nt%20Iss%201M%20.pdf

I'm not sure exactly what your whole house system comprises. If you can attach a Naim streamer to the front end of it, that might work?? 

To answer your other question, a DAC cannot process the music files from a UPnP server like the Unitiserve. You need a streamer to process the files and send them to a DAC. There is an alternative, which is to use use the US digital output to play directly into a DAC via an SPDIF cable, but then you lose all of the multiform functionality.

Agree with the responses from others here.

You may find it helpful to think of the UnitiServe as a NAS to simplify how you think of the various components - albeit it is one with a CD ripper built-in - as most NAS devices have uPnP server software built-in.  And based on the posts on the forum I would say there are more people on here using a NAS as their server than there are people with a Naim server (UnitiServe etc).

Adding some other thoughts to previous contributions:

1. If you have an ND5 as the streamer in your 2nd system, you will also be able to use Naim's multiroom feature to play the same music simultaneously across the two systems.  One of the streamers is a master and the other the slave.  Note that the slave gets a stream at a 320kbps bit rate so is of lower quality than the master.

2.  If your whole house distribution system takes a single source and feeds it to multiple speakers through the house, then you could get another Naim streamer to feed that (eg an ND5).  As others have noted, the UnitiServe can provide multiple, separate uPnP streams simultaneously.

3. If you wanted a cheap Naim streamer, then you could use a UnitiQute and use its digital or preamp outputs.  Secondhand these are very cost effective.

4.  Another option for the whole house distribution would be to take the direct digital output from the Unitiserve and use that (via a DAC if necessary).  This output is where a US does differ from a NAS.  This output is completely independent of the uPnP server, so that can play different music from the uPnP side (though note you cannot do the multiroom thing with it).  This function is controlled by the n-serve app (not the naim app).

Hope that helps you to understand options.

David

This is all great information.

I think where I have gotten sideways is that I've been thinking of the US only as part of my primary system, along with the NDS, power supply, preamp, power amp, etc., when perhaps I should have been thinking of it more as part of the network even thought it might be located proximate to my primary system.

My bias is toward simplicity because I don't find time to tinker, so I suspect I would go with the US vs. other alternative approaches/configurations since this would be fully Naim-supported. With that in mind, I believe what I have learned is that this will work:

 - Network, with NAS and US as storage and server, respectively

 - Primary system, with NDS as source

 - Secondary system, with ND5-XS as source

 - Whole-house system, with either a Naim streaming client or some other client w/DAC to take the output from the US as source and feed it to the house distribution (beyond the client/DAC, not sure whether this will be a master switching system or multiple devices, e.g. multiple Sonos Connect nodes, to create multiple zones).

In any case, my understanding is that the US can serve all three clients simultaneously with different music, which is great.

Now I will turn to control. I know I can control both Naim systems with the Naim control app and presumably the whole-house system as well if I use a Naim streaming client (and I assume there's a way to select systems within the control app so the same library and metadata isn't stored twice or more on the control device, e.g. iPad Mini), but not sure how these interact if I use Sonos as the whole-house client (presumably, it would need to be the Sonos control app in this case, but obviously only for the whole-house system; if that's the case, I guess each control device would need the Naim data and the Sonos data, so I wonder if storage becomes an issue).

Thank you all for you help - this forum is an incredible resource!

The control device (e.g.; iPad) does not store any data, it just fetches your list of albums from the server.

I have a SuperUniti in one room and Sonos in two rooms. The NAS and it's music library are the same for each. I just use the appropriate App on the iPad to control either the Naim or the Sonos.   

Good to hear the info is useful.

If your whole-house system is Sonos based, then you won't need a Naim streamer to feed that.  I don't have experience of Sonos, but lots of people on the forum do and speak highly of the usability. 

As Blackthorn has posted your Sonos system should be able to see the uPnP streams from your UnitiServe. 

The only snag you may find is that Sonos does not do high res as far as I am aware, so if you have any 24 bit material on your US it won't play on Sonos (unless you set the US to transcode everything down to CD quality - which it can do).

David

Got it. I knew the music data wasn't stored on the control device but wasn't sure if it pulled the metadata to the device. It sounds like it doesn't and that the control/library data, for lack of a better a better term, is housed on the NAS drive so storage capacity (even for metadata) isn't an issue on the control device.

I had heard that Sonos won't play high-res files. I'm assuming the transcoding on the US is a global setting (i.e. not available to be selected for one streaming client but not the others), so not sure if this is a great solution as I would want to have highest quality available for the Naim streamers and not thrilled to have more library available on the Naim clients vs. the Sonos client if I don't use this option. Maybe I will explore a third Naim or other streamer for the whole-house system and use it with a master switching system vs. multiple Sonos nodes.

Thanks.

Correct US transcode option is a global setting