Core: Listening to multiple drives

If I’m not mistaken Core will index all your connected drives, creating one seemless library.

Thanks this helps, and I will look this over in my setup more thoroughly.

My thought was that my internal drive is relatively small, and wanted to be discriminating as to what ends up there permanently. 

Yes Adam is right,you will see the Core gradually adding albums to the total as they are indexed.You play all of them from the same place as far as I know,and do.

Thanks No Quarter and Adam...

I have found some success toggling between my internal Core HD and USB drive by:

Manage Music > Configure Music Stores > Choose disc to use > Next > Do not delete music > Choose Wav/Flac > Done

The variable being of coarse "Choose disc to use"

Cheers!

You should just select the USB drive as a music share and leave the internal drive as a music store. The Core will index both and offer all the music in the app as if it were all in the same place. Changing the USB drive to a music store has the effect of meaning that future rips will go there rather than the internal drive. Setting the USB as a share doesn't transfer the music to the internal drive so you don't run any risk of over-filling the internal drive.

(For completeness, to transfer the music you either use the import function in the Core or move it to the downloads folder of the internal drive using a PC. But that isn't what the OP wants to do.)

best

David

I had had a similar issue when I had some music on another USB. Use the Import command in the Core (app) while the usb is attached. This will force the Core to index, for display in the Naim App, (but not copy) the music files on the USB, they will then play so long as the USB is attached. I eventually copied them to the Core Downloads file and formatted the USB to be used as a backup for the Core.

Rich 1 posted:

I had had a similar issue when I had some music on another USB. Use the Import command in the Core (app) while the usb is attached. This will force the Core to index, for display in the Naim App, (but not copy) the music files on the USB, they will then play so long as the USB is attached. I eventually copied them to the Core Downloads file and formatted the USB to be used as a backup for the Core.

If that's what it did, the Core wasn't working properly. Importing the files should copy them into the defined music store. And if you define the USB drive as a music share, then the Core should index automatically on its own and all of the files should appear in the app and be playable. Unplugging the USB drive should cause the Core to automatically re-index and those files on the USB drive should no longer be presented in the app.

best

David

Hi David, didn't define the usb as share as far as I remember, just used the import command, would that make a difference? I'll try and replicate what I did and confirm one way or the other wether it copied or not. If not I'll try setting it up as a share and do the same.

Hi Rich

It may well have worked the way you said because there have been all sorts of issues with the Core not recognising shares. I think the latest firmware is supposed to have fixed that....

But the theory is that you have one music store, which can be but doesn't have to be the internal disc - if you have installed one, and multiple shares. The store is where the Core saves its own rips. You can save downloaded files or rips made on a PC in the downloads folder of the store by moving or copying them with a PC. You can also save downloads or rips made on a PC on any disc which is a share. 

A disc is a share if you define it as such in the app. You can have multiple shares. I believe you are only supposed to have one store, but from early discussions on the forum the Core seems a bit more agnostic than that and you can apparently define more than one store. Exactly what happens if you do is unclear to me!

Howrver many stores and shares you have, they should automatically index and you can then select and play them from the app. For a while I had a Unitiserve on my network as well as a Core and if I defined the Unitiserve as a share, I could select the music on that in the app alongside the same music in the Core.

You can also import music into the Core. If you use the import function in the app, it should offer you all of the shares and you can select one of them. The files are then copied into the music store. If the rip was made on a Naim server, the import puts it into the Music/MQ folder in the Core's music store and if it wasn't made on a Naim server, the import puts it into the downloads folder.  

Some of what I have read suggests that if there is anothet Naim server on the network, the Core will offer it as an import source without you defining it as a share, but that never worked for me. I had to define the US as a share, import the music and then I delete it as a share.

Anyway as long as it works for you, you might want to just let it go at that. One thing to avoid though is inadvertently importing so much into your music store that it becomes virtually full because (again from what has been discussed on the forum previously) the Core does not behave well in that situation and becomes extremely unpredictable in many of its operations, such that you might have to pull the music store, reformat it and start again.

best

David

Thank you David for your very in depth and interesting reply, it's much appreciated and has given me a better insight into the 'workings' of the Core and the app.

Thanks as well.

I will work on changing my USB drive from a store to a share. If I have to delete material on it to do so (reformat?) that's ok as it turns out I have only 10 or so cd rips on there...

Quads posted:

Thanks as well.

I will work on changing my USB drive from a store to a share. If I have to delete material on it to do so (reformat?) that's ok as it turns out I have only 10 or so cd rips on there...

 

You won't have to reformat it to change it to a share. The whole point of the Core is that it allows you to access all of your stored music through one app without moving it.

best

David

Thanks again!

Hi, and thanks for the input on this thread...

Sinse the thread has to do with listening to different drives, I thought I'd report where I can. (I have 2tb ssd; 8tb hd; 4tb USB. The last two recently purchased).

Tonight I thought I'd listen to the sound quality of the USB drive. All but one cd was imported from the 8tb internal hd to the USB. One cd was ripped straight to the USB, to take out the importing variable(?). Well, I wasn't too pleased with the results actually, (even with the cd ripped straight to it). The sound was basically dull, closed in, and lacking in power. The 8tb internal drive sounded great. I'm puzzled with this as I have heard a USB sound fantastic as well (a brief stay in my own Core actually). Set up on the USB is in Wave. Anyone have a similar experience with USB playback?

Quads

I haven't tried this on the Core but a year or so back I started a thread about how I found the sound quality from a USB thumb drive played in a muso QB to be much worse than the same files served from my Unitiserve by upnp. To me the difference wasn't subtle. The USB sounded dreadful compared with the same files served by upnp.

There weren't a lot of responses, and no-one had tried this on a QB. Some responses said that the SQ from a USB socket was generally not as good as other means but most said they regarded USB as the purest and reference SQ. One or two pointed out the apparently well known difference between the SQ from the USB socket on the back compared with the front of a Naim DAC.

I was left confused. Obviously a great reduction in sound quality when using the USB socket points to a serious but apparently unrecognised design fault in the QB. As it's uncorrected, it's presumably a hardware design issue that can't be fixed by a firmware update. To what extent the choice of USB thumb drive contributed to the poor sound quality I experienced I simply don't know.

I lost interest in the idea of using a USB thumb drive when taking my QB on holiday and now just take my Core and if necessary a router along with the QB instead.

best

David

Adam Zielinski posted:

If I’m not mistaken Core will index all your connected drives, creating one seemless library.

The "one seamless library" idea seems at first glance to be a great way to present your music.  However, in my very brief encounter with a Core a couple of months ago, this was one of the 'features' that I couldn't get on with at all.  I wanted the ability to separate my music (e.g. CD, Highdef, MP3.. etc) so I could narrow my choice of source quality if I wanted, so I have created different folders to facilitate this.  The HDX, NS01 players handle this fine, allowing me to see either a folder view or the consolidated view;  the Core just doesn't handle it at all - it's all or nothing.  This was (just) one of the reasons the Core went back home after a week.   

Rjstaines,

You can also browse by folder with the Core.

Thanks all for your reponses, most appreciated.

Since my listening trial of a USB hard drive did not go so well, (sound quality wise) I'd be interested to know if anyone has had a good experience with them and what were the circumstances.

Also, because I'm looking for a viable backup for my Rips, etc. I may look to implementing my 8tb hd, but convert it to USB status. It's possible that my using a USB port in itself may not be the problem as such, but possibly the portable USB drive was (or the biggest contributor).

So, it would be interesting to hear from those who have used an internal drive in this manner and relay their findings.

Thanks!

Quads

As an update, I ripped a nice Miles Davis cd, (Aura) to my Core. 

The rip was directly to a USB drive, and with the internal HD not installed at the time. Again, the playback was poor, like MP3... I was about to write off using USB drives for backup.

But, when it came time to reinstall a HD into the Core itself, the playback was incredible through the USB drive!

So, for me, 'USB' at least in the context of the Core (I think similar to what David mentions above with the Muso QB) has its limitations. Good for ripping to the USB drive itself and then transmitting files within the Cores system (to an internal hd) but not for playback! But the presence of an internal drive, as far as I can tell, releases the potential of the music when playing from a USB drive. Naim mentions the Core can be used with Internal, Network and USB. I'd say the last is not viable by itself, but only in conjunction with an internal HD.

I realize, most including myself, would not use a USB HD as the sole source for their music on their Core. But for me I could consider a USB drive for backup duties again. 

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