ND5XS + Nait XS2 upgrade path?

I would not normally consider a Hiline for your system, but only you can decide if the improvement is worth the money for you. It does seem like a good price. In the UK I would certainly expect a dealer to allow me to listen to the cable at home before deciding. At least if you get it, you should be able to sell it without loss in future.

I think your first priority, though, should be a proper rack for your boxes. Brands you could consider are Hutter, Isoblue and Quadraspire. Naim racks are very good too, but expensive, and probably too big for a small room.

Nic Chan posted:

Anyone has experience with the hi line here? If it's half the price is it worth it to get?

Once you have got a stand, and if you can install the hiline in the way I suggested, then it is worth considering. But just because it's cheap doesn't mean it's a must- have item. Something is only a bargain if you would have been happy to buy it at the full price. 

So is it a must to leave the hi line hanging out without touching anything? (Walls cables, floor etc?)

It is, if you want to get the sonic benefits. 

The HL is best optimally dressed, but even in a compromised situation the benefits of replacing a standard DIN with a HL should be obvious and positive, especially at a s/h price. More so on a digital connection than analog, IME.

Just because it's cheap, doesn't make the benefits any greater... It's just that you will have wasted less. If you cannot install the hiline properly, you will get a good slice of the improvement by not doing up the locking rings on the standard interconnect. 

Not wishing to repeat myself, but once you have a proper stand you can assess the benefits of the hiline. If that one is sold, another one will soon appear, even if you need to buy it from the uk and have it posted. Buying a hiline while the boxes are sitting on the floor on top of each other would be very foolish. 

Hi Nic,

With some NAS drives, you need to go into the NAS setup or the media server setup on your PC and tell it to update the library. There maybe a setting to specify the interval at which the library refreshes.

I'm using a D-Link Sharecenter running MiniDLNA media server which works well and seems to add any new content automatically within a few minutes. But many people have good usability results with other media servers like Twonky, Minimserver etc. FLAC or wav files both work well with my system.

Nic Chan posted:

2 days with my ND5XS I'm enjoying it very much! Looks like it's improving everyday! But I do have some problems with Apple lossless ALAC format. It says can't play track skipped... I was so busy ripping my files again in FLAC anyone have an idea what is wrong? 2nd thing is a problem with the NAIM app or my NAS. After ripping new files and copied to my NAS they don't show up on my iPad it took ages to refresh and I'll have to restart my iPad all the time in order to see those files. Can anyone help on this?

This is nothing to do with the Naim app or the ND5. It's entirely down to the upnp server that is running in your nas. If you tell it to rescan once you have added new music, it will appear on your iPad. 

I have a Cambridge Audio CXN streamer with no issues with refreshing newly copied content from the NAS instantly. 

I'm using Synology NAS do u have any idea where I can set the NAS to refresh contents every time I copy anything to it? I doubted it's the NAS problem as it works perfectly with the  CXN. I'm assuming it's the Naim app didn't fetch and refresh data from NAS as frequently as the the CA one did. It didn't work even by closing app and relaunch but a restart of my iPad did fix the problem tho.

It's not the nas, it's the upnp software. I use Minim and do a manual rescan every time I add music to the Synology. 

You could try clearing the app's image cache (in other settings) and upnp cache (in input settings, upnp) so the app starts with a nice up to date list of music. 

I use Synology's own Media Server & it does not need to rescan - that said I do so every few months & also include an app clear cache(s).

The re-index facility can be found in the Synology web-page  > Control Panel > Media Index     

I think it probably is the Naim app that's at fault here. It does seem to be rather slow to update at times, even when the NAS/server is showing the updates. It gets there in the end, and clearing the UPnP cache often sorts it. 

Mike-B I'm using Synology's own media server too. Not sure why it works with you but not me. Lol. 

Is there any other media server that I could try?

Its kind of driving me crazy that I have to restart my iPad all the time just to refresh the files on the sever. And I'm sure the files are there, just not showing up in the app.

A lot of forum members use Minimserver (see HH's post above) on their Synology NAS drives. I use it on my QNAP NAS and it is very good. It updates quickly and handles transcoding and gapless playback too.

Nic Chan posted:

Mike-B I'm using Synology's own media server too. Not sure why it works with you but not me. Lol. 

Is there any other media server that I could try?

Its kind of driving me crazy that I have to restart my iPad all the time just to refresh the files on the sever. And I'm sure the files are there, just not showing up in the app.

I've found that the Naim app on Android caches the server catalogue and if a track changes, then sometimes it or the whole album disappears until the cache is refreshed manually.

On Android this is <Main Page> <Settings> <Input Settings> <UPnP> <Clear UPnP Cache>.  For me this always fixes the problem without re-booting the tablet or force stopping and re-starting the app (which also works).

Re-indexing with Synology is not required: when you add audio files they get indexed automatically. The same when you remove files.     What you are experiencing is not normal with Naim players, the UPnP app or Synology.    However most folks around these parts use WAV & FLAC  & I note you are re-ripping to FLAC from ALAC,  I'm no Apple/iTunes expert but I remember reading of difficulties with ALAC in other posts, maybe something is going bad or is missing in the rip,   might be worth a forum search.

One final thing to try,  un-install (stop) Media Server & Audio Station if you are using it,  reboot the Synology, reinstall Media Server & then re-index.    ...........  & then clear all the Naim app cache's on your iPad.

Nic Chan posted:

2 days with my ND5XS I'm enjoying it very much! Looks like it's improving everyday! But I do have some problems with Apple lossless ALAC format. It says can't play track skipped... I was so busy ripping my files again in FLAC anyone have an idea what is wrong? 2nd thing is a problem with the NAIM app or my NAS. After ripping new files and copied to my NAS they don't show up on my iPad it took ages to refresh and I'll have to restart my iPad all the time in order to see those files. Can anyone help on this?

There's no need to re-rip ALAC to FLAC - you have two main options

1  Transcode ALAC to WAV ising the Music Server
2  Convert the ALAC files to WAV on a computer

Both options will give you a small increase in sound quality (at least to most people's ears).  As I said you don't need to restart the iPad, just clear the cache.

Oh that's interesting! Converting an ALAC back to wav will increase in sound quality if that's true I'll do that for all my files!

i'll do a test on that first...

Another question! I do have 2 SACDs they sound normal on CD turntables however when I got them ripped to ISO then rip them to FLAC on my computer they are really low in volume! Need to turn my volume nob almost to 1 o'clock on my xs2 to get normal volume. Any one experienced that?

Yes, it quite normal. When the DSD stream is converted to PCM the signal is attenuated by about 6dB to prevent clipping.

Nic Chan posted:

Do you mean that I should raise the gain by 6db when I rip the files into FLAC?

I will not make any adjustment to gains during ripping or conversion. Just curious, why do you need to convert the files into FLAC since the ND5XS can do SACD DSF ?

Hmm my friend has a PlayStation 3 which can rip SACD into ISO.  When I use Trax on my Mac to rip flies I can't recall if I can rip in dsf or not. I'll take a look tonight.

engjoo posted:

Nic Chan posted:

Do you mean that I should raise the gain by 6db when I rip the files into FLAC?

I will not make any adjustment to gains during ripping or conversion. Just curious, why do you need to convert the files into FLAC since the ND5XS can do SACD DSF ?

Slightly misleading post perhaps.. SACD uses an encrypted format for DSD... The Naim products can only play enencrypted DSF. The modified PS3 does this unencryption. CD rippers can't do this unencryption.