NDS/Metadata/TIDAL/Whole House Control Questions

You can use a UnitiServe to supply any streamer that uses the DLNA standard - I used to stream to a Roberts radio with mine. As for Tidal, keep your fingers crossed. Naim have stated that a lossless streaming service is planned, so it seems very likely that something will appear. 

As HH says, a Unitiserve will send music files to any DLNA/UPnP compatible streamer. My Sony Walkman can play music from it over WiFi, and it can see the metadata. The problems start when you want to store and play CD rips made on the Unitiserve on other devices, which can't understand the way the metadata is presented. The solution to this is to store the files on the Unitiserve in FLAC, so that other devices can make sense of them, if this is a requirement.

I'm not sure what your current 'whole house system' comprises. If you intend to put Naim streamers on it, just put them on a network and you'll be able to control all of them from a single iOS device. A Naim dealer will be able to help you set this up.

Another thing worth adding is that if you don't already have a UnitiServe, you can get as good if not better results ripping the albums to a nas using dbpoweramp and then using a upnp server such as Asset or Minimserver. You'll need a nas anyway in order to back up the Serve. That said, it's a very convenient way to rip a lot of albums, but do set it to rip to flac. You can then transcode to WAV on playback, and the result will be indistinguishable from WAV files. 

Thanks, and sorry - to clarify, the whole-house system is about 7-8 separate zones of wired in-wall or outdoor speakers plus a zone of seven-channel surround in a media room, all powered by a dedicated amp stack with a matrix switch for sending source signal to the zones. It's wired (vs. wireless), and includes a network. The main two-channel Naim system (with NDS, etc.) will generally be separate but will see the NAS via the network. What I'm trying to accomplish is to have the whole-house system see the same NAS via the network as well, but ideally want to control the whole-house system via one app (e.g. Crestron). I am aware that the US can "serve" to a second streamer whatever it can see on the NAS, but my understanding is that Crestron and other automation systems don't have two-way control compatibility with Naim that would allow me to control the whole-house switching, volume, etc. and also select music with the automation app if I used a second Naim streamer for the whole-house system. I hope I'm mistaken or that there is another system I haven't discovered that does have this available with Naim, but if not, I will likely need to buy a different brand streamer that does have this control capability.

Another clarification - my intent is to buy a US SSD and for the NAS to be primary storage.

HH, I think dbpoweramp with Asset or Minimserver or similar is going to be too tweaky for me. I want to set and largely forget. Although if there's truly a view that the rips are better this way it could change my opinion.

Also, my understanding is that the Naim bias for WAV that I've heard about is because the inherent FLAC data compression can result in varying results on playback, whereas WAV is uncompressed and bit perfect on the way in and out?

I store my files as FLAC, and set the Unitiserve to transcode back to WAV on playback. This way, you kind of get the best of both worlds. WAV playback standard, and FLAC storage and metadata handling. If you're only going to serve them from the Unitiserve, keep them as WAV if you prefer, it'll be fine.

- My understanding is that Naim does not have a two-way control protocol for use with Crestron, RTI, and other whole-house control systems that use programmable apps, matrix switches, etc. Can anyone confirm this, and/or is anyone aware of a protocol that is available for Naim?

Question is, do you have an existing system that you need to interface with?

If not, nearly everything these days will work over the network, and there are some third-party control systems that are supported. Ask Phil Harris on here; I've been away from it too long to know what Naim is working on in this area (though I can say that basic input selection and volume control can still be handled via IR, if you're looking for something simple that doesn't require extensive specialist integration).

That said - I've watched synchronized music zones come and go as a must-have feature - if you really don't need party mode functionality, there are a lot of options that open up for you.

I'm still not sure what your Crestron setup does. Is it an analogue system of amps and speakers, or does it already have a digital setup connected to a LAN?

Crestron is an automation company. They, like other companies, make programmable software that talks to and controls many manufacturers' equipment so you can program (not necessarily the user...much more likely a vendor) one-touch switching for sending sources to different zones in a house, switching from music to home theater, etc. These can also control lighting, window shades, etc. They used to be dedicated physical remotes but are now typically iOS based apps. I have a whole-house rack with a 16-channel power amp, sub amp, Blu-ray player/streamer, as well as an old hard disk-based music server, and they are tied into a matrix switch that can send multiple sources to multiple zones, all controlled by the automation software and all networked as well.  But it's older and came with my house, so I am updating the control software, switching, network, etc., and most importantly, the music server (which will change from the existing hard disk-based server to a new streamer, possibly Naim if control issues can be addressed, that will service the whole-house system but will see the same NAS that I will add to the network when I also add the NDS, etc. to my separate Naim two-channel system). The Naim system will only be "connected" to the whole-house system via the network. Theoretically, the US could pull data from the networked NAS and serve separate streams  to the NDS in the Naim system and to a streamer in the whole-house rack, but ideally I want to control everything in the whole-house system (amps, switching, sources, etc.) with one iOS app. As far as I know, Naim doesn't offer two-way control with Crestron's or another similar app, so I''m looking at alternative streamers for the whole-house rack.

DD, I will need more than IR control because I will be in other parts of the house when listening to anything other than my main Naim system. As noted in my last post, I do have existing equipment for the whole-house system and will control that in other parts of the house via iOS. On the other hand, I will use my main Naim system while in the room with it, so I could control it with either IR or the Naim app on an iPad.

Bottom line, I have two systems - whole-house and Naim two-channel, and aim to connect them only via a network with a NAS drive, which will store all of my music to be played on either system. Naim will be for one room only, and the other system will be for any or all rooms in the rest of the house via the rack and in-wall speakers. I think party-mode isn't an issue because the matrix switch can route one source to all zones.

Thanks.