HDX and Unitiserve: does the music stored onto NAS sound the same?

Great question . . . 

Also I'd like to know if it is better to download FLAC from a record labels site or order the CD and rip it?

There have been some exhaustive threads on these issues on the Streaming forum.

My personal view:

The rips I did with ruby ripper sound as good

The convenience of my NS01 is SUPERB

I have bought a shed load of CDs since owning the NS01.

UnitiServe vs HDX:

I did a head to head of the US vs the NS01, and preferred the latter, but could imagine people preferring the former. The differences were not huge.

Do downloaded flacs sound better?

Get into all sorts if complications, comparing apples to oranges - has the album been re-mixed for instance.

I got the HiRES download of Band on the Run - excellent. Was this due to remixing? Higher sampling rates?

I did do a  more exhaustive test on Rush Moving Pictures, ripping the 9624 DVD track, and comparing this to the CD rip, and an LP rip I did to 9624. Results:

Both my daughters preferred the CD - base is great.

Me, I preferred the LP rip - vocals on LP rips are excellent, and this is where I find digital music can be wearing.

M

I tried both UServe and HDX rips to the same NAS: There is a slight and almost insignificant difference btw their rips. Re-ripping would not be obligatory, to answer the question of Alan. However, I don't understand the logic of buying UServe and NDX first, and then HDX in the future. The decision btw HDX and NDX is more about the sound characteristics of their dac section, if you are not going to use any one with an external dac. Most people prefer the dac section of NDX. For feeding an external dac when playing files on the network, HDX is even better. Therefore, for people just starting to rip, I recommend starting with the HDX. Then, you don't need the NDX: the only upgrade path would be over an external dac (nDAC + 555PS).

I have both HDX and NDX and to my ears music stored on the HDX played back through the NDX sounds slightly better than the same music played through the HDX.

scillyisles,

Your preference is a result of the different dac sections which these two devices contain, not because of the UPnP streaming which comes in btw when you are using the NDX.

It's easy to do a comparison, SPDIF via DC-1 as well as UPnP via wired Ethernet. If you haven't tried this yourself, be prepared....

David,

Yes, I did this comparison. The UPnP and SPDIF inputs of NDX are voiced differently. This is not what I was inquiring. Do you know if Scillyisles was using the internal dac sections, or a single external dac when he was comparing the HDX with NDX? In the former case, the most significant factor in the comparison would be the different characteristics of the internal dacs, I believe.

What did you use to do that?

I did the comparision by playing the same track through the NDX and HDX. The HDX obviously accesses the track locally on the hard drive and then uses it's own internal DAC to produce the output which is then fed to my 252/Supercap/250 combination. The NDX accesses the track via UPNP and uses its own internal DAC to produce the output feeding to the 252/Supercap/250 combination. So in essence the key difference is the internal DAC.

I have also tried another comparision where I access music stored on my QNAP TS419P+ Turbo system so that both the HDX and NDX are using UNP to access the same music track. Again the NDX sounds better. I would therefore conclude that my ears prefer the DAC in the NDX compared to the HDX.

Another way to address this concern would be to copy the entire contents of an Artist / Album folder onto a USB stick, which can be inserted into either the HDX or the NDX (or UnitiServe, Naim DAC, etc.)

Hi Harry,

I posted a reply to your original enq on your original post, in the Music room, on 28/4:

Used DVD-Audio Extractor. In the GUI you can choose to save either track as WAV.

One track is surround, the other stereo - both 9624.

M

Thank you. I must have missed that. Advancing age and all that.

If the cds are ripped to NAS through the unitiserve or HDX are they accessed by the NDX straight from the NAS or do they go through the US/HDX between getting from NAS to NDX?

What i am getting at here is could the ripping device be away from the system without compromising the sound quality. I had 2 spurs put in a few years ago and wonder if the US or HDX could be plugged into the unused one? Also the unused one has a double socket that a NAS device could be powered from.

Once the cd is ripped to NAS is the US or HDX out of the equation? Could it be powered down even?

Forgive my ignorance again folks but can the NDX read straight from the NAS meaning that a US or HDX could be powered down?

yes, if your NAS has a UPnP server installed; otherwise you need a Naim server (in HDX or UServe) or a UPnP server software working on a computer on your network.

Just to try to clarify this - the Unti / UnitiQute / NDX *CANNOT* read directly from a NAS - they require a UPnP *SERVER* to be running on your network and they will communcate directly with that if one is present.

If there is no UPnP server on your network then the Uniti / UnitiQute / NDX will not be able to "see" any music on any of the shared folders on your network.

Many NASs nowadays have built in UPnP servers which allow the music stored on the NAS to be accessed via UPnP. Whether the UPnP server in the NAS can read the WAV format rips, compile the appropriate browsing data for them (artist names, album names, track names, genres etc.), stream them as uncompressed audio etc. or even be compatible with the Naim UPnP client is down to the implementation of the UPnP server on the NAS itself - not all UPnP servers are created equal.

So the answer to your question is "Yes, if the NAS has it's own UPnP server and it works with the Naim UPnP client and is good enough (functionality wise) for what you want to do..."

Phil

How about a list of the servers that do work with Naim.  At open point you had a list of NAS boxes that worked with the HDX so how about a list of NAS boxes that work the NDX etc?

Thanks Paul

The Naim simulation tool does not really tell you anything about UPNP - it is telling you whether the network infrastructure you have and the NAS access (read/write) is capable enough to support the limits you define in the simulation tool config. I have run it a couple of times on various different NAS attached via different infrastructures and it produces wildy different results.Speed of network infrastructure to the NAS does have a huge effect on the test.

My NAS of choice at the moment is a QNAP TS419+ P Turbo with 4 enterprise class Hitachi 2TB drives - the UPNP server on this seems to work fine with both my NDX, HDX and Sonos systems. The network infrastructure is comprised of a mixture of 1GB ethernet and 100/200Mb Ethernet over Powerline. It flies through the Naim NAS simulation tool.

For what it's worth, I heard no discernable difference running an HDX / ReadyNAS digital output  and the digital output of an NDX playing the same track through the ReadyNAS UPnP, both into an nDAC / 252 setup.   Changing to the NDX analogue output direct to 252 and comparing to the HDX/DAC, again playing same track, the NDX opens up the sound stage VERY slightly, but introduces some 'edginess' to the top end, leaving the nDAC producing my preferred sound (as you might expect), but not by a large margin.   My conclusions:  the DAC in the NDX must be very good indeed...  Using a ReadyNAS source, both the UPnP/NDX and HDX Music Store direct give you an excellent and indistinguishable digital music source... 

Now, have I tried changing my network (Cat5) cables...?  No I haven't, but it took me a long time to be convinced that audio cables were different, I think I'll leave someone else to pick up the network cable torch (although isn't Chord working on this?)     

OK, lets say money is no object (i wish).

What offers the highest sound quality of all the non cd naim sources? HDX/555ps into nDac/555ps?

Or can the NDX be slotted into the above system too?

I am confusing myself again.

NDX is a marvelous device, but I see no reason to slot it into the above system if you already have that system.