Dead UnitiServe - help !!!

Posted by: Minky on 08 November 2017

Hi,

My Uniti Serve is sick, and I’m looking for a quick way of being able to play music. I tried running Asset upnp server, but this resulted in 1 album with thousands of tracks, I think because all of my music was ripped into wav files on the US.

is there any other software I can run that would work with my library ? 

Also, is there a way of “unlocking” my collection for the future ? It took me years to rip all of my cd’s so doing it again is not an option.

Thanks,

Mark.

 

Posted on: 08 November 2017 by ChrisSU

Unfortunately, the way Naim ripper/servers handle metadata is, as you have discovered, incompatible with most other devices. The workaround is to convert to FLAC on the US before copying to other (backup) devices. Then you can put Asset or Minim on your backup NAS and continue to access your music. 

Posted on: 08 November 2017 by Minky

Thanks Chris,

I was told that wav sounded better on my NDS that flac. Is this wrong ?

I'm a bit snookered on this at the moment because my US is kaput so I can't use it to convert.

Posted on: 08 November 2017 by Richard Dane

Mark, IIRC you are in NZ, in which case have you contacted Mr Murphy for assistance? 

Posted on: 08 November 2017 by Minky

Hi Richard,

Yes, he has the box now, and has just texted me to say it was a hdd failure and all fixed. Chris is awesome.

If there is no downgrade in sound quality I think I should convert my wav library to flac when I get the UnitiServe back so that next time this happens I can easily switch to upnp software like Asset. Is this something you would advise against ?

Because of this problem I've done a bit of research and come across Roon, which interests me because it seems to offer some great features, but not sure how I would make it work with the NDS and how it would effect sound quality. If I run Roon on a Raspberry Pi with Roon endpoint software on it plugged in to the digital-in of my NDS, what would it sound like compared to music via upnp from my US ?

Posted on: 08 November 2017 by hungryhalibut

If you convert to flac and then back it up to your nas you will be far more flexible. If you then use Asset on the nas and compare to the Serve, you will likely as not find that the nas sounds just as good, if not better. Then you can decide whether there is any point in keeping the Serve. Whether you keep the Serve or use Asset, set it to transcode to WAV, which will sound as good as the WAV originals. 

Posted on: 08 November 2017 by Minky

Ahhhh.... so you rip and store as flac but then transcode to wav at the SERVER level, so the NDS sees the same thing ? 

Posted on: 08 November 2017 by ChrisSU
Minky posted:

Ahhhh.... so you rip and store as flac but then transcode to wav at the SERVER level, so the NDS sees the same thing ? 

Yes, you can have your cake and eat it! Store in FLAC for improved metadata handling and reduced file size, transcode to WAV on playback for optimum sound quality. Once you get your US back, hopefully you can restore it from your backup if required, then set it to convert your library to FLAC, which might take a while. 

Posted on: 08 November 2017 by Minky

Excellent, thanks Chris !!!

Posted on: 08 November 2017 by Adam Zielinski

For now you can access your music library by looking at a 'folder view', rather than searching by artists / genre etc. 

It's should work - that's how I handled my library when my UnitiServe was being fixed (used MinimServer then).