Am I ready for a Star?

Daven, a number of dealers have these on demo now so I would go a listen to one first and get advice from dealer, they should point you in the right direction, are you just using it to stream? or use UPnP with NAS music files?

Thanks Antony.  I want one box to do everything i.e. stream, rip and store, play CDs, radio, speakers in several rooms.  I have found dealers with them in store.  As you'd expect the dealers are there principally as sales agents.  I have some experience of the tech industry so am aware that the first release of a major new product often includes some gremlins.  I am keen to know whether the release of this product has been smooth enough to ensure all core capability works as advertised or whether I am better off waiting a bit.

there were intial delays on getting them released, i have had a dealer demo of the Atom and very good it was,

NAIM dealers are honest guys and well help you to choose, it is in thier interest to do so, thats why a lot of customers return to them time and time again - i have been a customer of my dealer for 17 years and would class them as more friends now rather than them just trying to sell me a new product

Daven,  I was in the same situation, I wanted to reduce the number of big silver boxes to one black (preferably) box. I was drawn towards the Star, but as it has no local storage decided it was either the Atom or Nova for me (or another brand). The Atom trounced all the other devices I heard except the Nova so I went with that. I now rip everything straight to a NAS from pc (using dbPowerAmp) so don’t really miss a cd drive - it takes less than 5 minutes to rip a cd - if I didn’t have the pc I don’t think I’d have got a NAS and therefore would have waited for the Star and used a large USB connected drive. Having said that I think the NAS was the right way to go, which, for me, made the Star redundant. 

Thanks TallGuy.  My laptop  doesn't have a CD drive - hence the Star idea.   Do you use your device for all the more complicated stuff like multi- room?  I am sure the Naim is a great product - I am trying to get a feel for whether it is buggy, given its recent release, from anyone that has set it up and used all its core capability.

you can get a CD drive to plug into your laptop at any IT store, so that should not be an issue

i would still get into a dealer - Talk and listen and find out what is the best solution for you, we have all been into NAIM dealers with one idea talked it through with them and worked with them to solve it

as metioned I have heard the Atom very good, but NAS could offer another way forward - dBpoweramp is a great riping software for CD's

Hi Dave -

I took the first step in my planned upgrad from “original” Uniti line (Qute and Super) to “new platform” (Atom and Nova) on Friday: Atom is in the house. No Star experience here, not even in demo, so this may not be exactly what you want, but I hope it’s helpful.

I have very limited but quite fresh experience with the installation and can say it went without any glitches at my place. I had no issue pairing the remote (a few other forum posters have written about problems, a minority but non-zero group). I used a wired Ethernet connection which just worked; did not try a wifi connection. I already had the latest app on my iPhone and had zero delay with finding the “room” and gaining control of the device. I had Tidal, UPnP (from my NAS), and Internet Radio all working fine in a few seconds. The unit reported that it was already using the latest firmware, so I can’t comment on the over-the-air update process except to say it looks to be less involved than the “two connections” (internet plus serial port) from the old platform. 

The sound was really impressive and I had the impression of greater bass authority on my Kudos S20s even than with the Super; very large improvements over the (already special) Qute. Possibly excitement and certainly not anything like an A-B comparison! But the Qute felt distinctly underpowered with these speakers and the Atom definitely does not. I had no network dropouts streaming both intranet (NAS) and internet (Tidal) more or less continuously on Friday and Saturday. I like the Naim app and have no issues with its present incarnation; this is not a universally held view and there are threads aplenty here on the forum. You will have to decide that aspect for yourself but, with the coming Roon Endpoint functionality, you will have options for control also. 

As for the “really only one box” Star versus an Atom, which requires you to rip your CDs elsewhere, I think that is also a personal decision. For me, an external USB CD drive attached to my computer while ripping poses no hassle and opens flexibility for choice of ripping and tagging software; moving your ripped files to external storage is trivial and you can use an external USB drive connected directly to the Atom or use a NAS and serve from there. I did not try navigating locally stored files, but can report a suboptimal “file hierarchy” view only with the older platform; not nearly as nice or convenient as UPnP which exploits full meta data. Given that Atom can be used as a UPnP server (from files on an attached USB drive), it would be interesting to see if it can “serve itself”... but I have not tried that either. Looking at the many threads on the ripping / editing / serving functionality of the Core, this is the area where I think you should be most cautious as an “early adopter” and certainly try it out in a store (or home) demo. Avoiding it by using external ripping (on your laptop with a USB CD-ROM) seems like a small compromise and is a “once only” use of more than one box...

Early reviews of Atom vs Star vs Nova from forum members who visited the Naim factory last year seem to indicate that the sound quality improvement going to Nova was much greater than to Star (although so is the price). I think you should look long and hard to decide whether the local ripping of Star (and possibly via a future upgrade to Nova, although that is in doubt and remains unknown) warrants the price jump from Atom. For me personally (as you can tell from my comments), the built-in ripping is not a differentiating feature in its own right...and if you want a seamless user experience, ripping on your laptop is easy and mature, while ripping on Star is, to my knowledge, an unknown quantity. I’ve been very happy with the (almost) one-box Qute and Super, and this was a major factor in my choice of upgrade / modernization path... I chose not to go separates or with an external streamer, even though that can now be done quite easily, at low cost and minimal size, with things like the Allo DigiOne. Since you also seem to find an all-in-one appealing, I obviously think Naim deserves a really serious look.

Best wishes with your purchase decision. 

Regards alan

Alan - thank you for taking the time to write such a detailed response.  Much appreciated.

To add to Alan’s very comprehensive answer I can add the following. When I auditioned the Atom and Nova I took a USB stick with me containing around 80 albums. Using USB I could only see what I’ll call “file view” in the Naim app - a list of artists, then albums and tracks by file name - no artist or album art, though it was possible to get album/artist info when playing. Using uPNP you do get artist/album art as default so it’s a much nicer user experience. You also see the track names laid out better, not just the file name list (in my case “02 Breathe In The Air” , “03 On The Run” as an example). I’d say it’s worth using a uPNP solution just for that.

Yes, there do seem to be a few bugs, but they seem minor with my usage pattern. Haven’t yet used multi room at home, but it worked ok at the dealers when I was demoing.

daven posted:

 I want one box to do everything i.e. stream, rip and store, play CDs, radio, speakers in several rooms.  I have found dealers with them in store.  As you'd expect the dealers are there principally as sales agents.

Naim expect more than that from their dealers, and so should you. A good dealer is invaluable, and will be able to allow you to listen to different equipment at your leisure before making any decisions. They should also be there to set up any equipment you buy, and ensure that it is working correctly and is doing what you wanted it to do. My current Naim dealer gives me that sort of service, and because of that, I am loyal to him. If you're not getting that sort of service, find another dealer!

As a new product, and the last of the new Uniti range to be released, I would say that it's a bit early to judge the Star, and few users will be out there to give feedback right now. If you are looking for multiroom, you will need other new Uniti streamers in other rooms in order to get them to play with the Star. There will hopefully be a firmware update to enable Muso and other Naim streamers to play multiroom with the new streamers soon, but not now.  

Thanks ChrisSu.  The dealer suggested I use Mu-So or Mu-So Qb in  the other rooms to get multi-room capability.  Are you saying that the multi-room doesn't work at the moment and that Naim is working on a firmware upgrade?

daven posted:

Thanks ChrisSu.  The dealer suggested I use Mu-So or Mu-So Qb in  the other rooms to get multi-room capability.  Are you saying that the multi-room doesn't work at the moment and that Naim is working on a firmware upgrade?

Yes, multiroom will work between Muso and other 'legacy' Naim streamers, or it will work between new Uniti streamers, but until Naim work out how to do it and release updates, old and new will not play multiroom together.

daven posted:

Thanks ChrisSu.  The dealer suggested I use Mu-So or Mu-So Qb in  the other rooms to get multi-room capability.  Are you saying that the multi-room doesn't work at the moment and that Naim is working on a firmware upgrade?

Multiroom does not currently work between the new range and the Muso/ND* ranges, my Nova can’t see my QBs or my NDX. It is planned, I’ve seen no dates as yet.

Agreed: my new Atom did not see new Qb for multiroom. Lots of commitment to get this done, but still work in progress and not yet released. That said, multi-room between legacy Uniti products worked great, so a cool feature to be sure. Plus Roon (promised on new streaming platform) can multiroom to multiple brands (eg AirPlay - includes Qb, not getting native Roon EndPoint - and Sonos) so when that arrives, your options expand again. 

Regards alan

Thanks for the comments about multi-room.  That seems to be the one area of functionality that is still under development.  Could anyone clarify what does and doesn't not work at the moment with multi-room please?  The term 'multi-room' seems to be very broad and cover a lot of different functionalities.  If I had a Star, and a Qb in another room, then what would work today (and what wouldn't)?  Is Naim committed to fixing these issues?  Will the fixes be software/firmware upgrades (I assume nothing as bad as a hardware recall is envisaged)?  

daven posted:

Thanks for the comments about multi-room.  That seems to be the one area of functionality that is still under development.  Could anyone clarify what does and doesn't not work at the moment with multi-room please?  The term 'multi-room' seems to be very broad and cover a lot of different functionalities.  If I had a Star, and a Qb in another room, then what would work today (and what wouldn't)?  Is Naim committed to fixing these issues?  Will the fixes be software/firmware upgrades (I assume nothing as bad as a hardware recall is envisaged)?  

From the experience on anothr thread, I think it works like this. If you have ND* series, Muso Qb and nedw Uniti, then:

ND* can see and start multiroom to the Qbs, but not to the new Uniti

New Uniti cannot see ND* or Qb and can't start multiroom to them

QB can see ND*and new Uniti, and can start multiroom to them, so I had a Qb and my Nova working in multiroom, started from the Qb.

We haven't had anyone describe interworking to previous Unit generations yet. The  Musos described were Qbs, I assume that full-width Musos would behave the same way. The ND*s described were ND5X and NDX, again no reason tobelieve that the NDS would eb any different.

If you read the above two posts, you will see that the new range will not work with the old range. There will be new firmware released in due course, which will enable the two ranges to work fully together. You can currently use the app to play different things on the two systems, but the ability to synchronise music using multi room will not work until the firmware appears. 

In this setup. Upstairs Lounge is a Nova, Lounge is an NDX, the Kitchen and Bedroom are Qbs. Weirdly it works as full multiroom if started from a QB, but not the other way round.

Hi Dave, I'm a new Atom owner, and new forum lurker here, and a Canuck, and like you I wanted to simplify, yet bring everything into the digital age with a streamer.  So I have now an Atom, hooked to a Project S Phone amp/ Project Debut Carbon phono. I have ripped all my music using my laptop, to a QNAP NAS which serves uPNP/DLNA ( music and movies ).  This is not my main listening room, but it's our living room and so we were looking for unobtrusive, easy to use, good quality sound.

I don't have speakers  yet for the new room but have auditioned Totem Arros and Dreamcatchers, Focals, BMW CDM8s, etc.  I'm going with the Arros (today actually), because these have a minimal footprint and don't overpower the room.  I thought going in, that the Atom might not have the control of the Arros, but the audition showed they were driven tight, with good range and as expected, Arros have great imaging.  I don't go loud though . I've listened to three sets of speakers now ( used ), and noted that room setup plays a lot into if the Arros sound bright or not.  Also, bass was a lot tighter on a newer pair than an older pair.

I also auditioned the Nova, and in my volume range, did not see a noticeable difference.  Maybe my 53 year old ears are toast, but I couldn't justify the added expense versus my realistic, and pre-retirement rationalized, needs.

I'm also an IT guy, and setup was clean and clear..  uPNP to the QNAP works flawlessly, with album art showing, but navigation is by folder so you need to organize as such.  I went with genre/artist/band/album/track.  iRadio is fun.  Phono works great.  I subscribed to Tidal and my daughter loves me for it.. trying out new music every night.  I don't have multiroom yet, but will likely put a Muso in the library next year.  

The App works fine enough, but I had to make all my network DHCP reservations permanent on my router. Before I did, my app was dropping connection to the 'room' periodically, and not coming back no matter how many times I tried through the app. I also had to set 'stay connected' in the app.  I've spoken to support and they have also noted that wifi 'extenders' sometimes don't play nice, causing disconnection.  I run apple Airport extremes and an airport express. Network has been bulletproof now for about a week, and always was before the NAIM.

All-in, a great piece of gear, and really bringing back enjoyment and adventure-full discovery of some really great music out there.  I don't think you will be disappointed.  It's got me hooked again.

SB955i posted:

I'm also an IT guy, and setup was clean and clear..  uPNP to the QNAP works flawlessly, with album art showing, but navigation is by folder so you need to organize as such.  I went with genre/artist/band/album/track.  iRadio is fun.  Phono works great.  I subscribed to Tidal and my daughter loves me for it.. trying out new music every night.  I don't have multiroom yet, but will likely put a Muso in the library next year.

Hi SB955i, welcome to the forum!

You shouldn't need to organise your music in folders on the NAS, as it's usual for (Naim) streamers and their controllers to see metadata tags, not folders. Some UPnP servers do have a 'folder view' option, and it's not a problem to use that if you prefer it, but tags give you more versatility, can easily be edited to suit you, and remove the need for a file/folder structure.

Hi Chris, thanks for the welcome.. looking forward to expanding my NAIM experience here with you folks.

I'll definitely look at tagging. My QNAP DLNA servers only provide "by folder",  or a flat list... Not optimal.

Cheers, Simon

SB955i posted:

Hi Chris, thanks for the welcome.. looking forward to expanding my NAIM experience here with you folks.

I'll definitely look at tagging. My QNAP DLNA servers only provide "by folder",  or a flat list... Not optimal.

Cheers, Simon

I don't use Asset myself, but there are plenty of users on here, so I'm sure someone will be able to show you how to set it to tag view instead of folder view if that's what you want to do.