Should I bother getting a UntiCore

What a great answer David, thanks a lot. My first thinking, US had some of this issues also?

In my case this is something to take into consideration. I'm not the type that breaks metadata down to small parts, I sort normally by album, but it's useful to see the composername from the app during replay.

It seems like one could come around most of it by learning the Core to know. Last, if I need to type all the track metadata by hand, (some cds)  I struggle to see the convenience of it.

I will reread your post again.

S

Reading David Hendon's post, I am even more pleased that, having only just bought a Uniti Star and a NAS, that I can easily change and create metadata and use MinimServer, which is more classically orientated metadata wise.

Chris

Did you install Minimserver on your NAS? I was linked to a forum for instructions, by another Naim member, but have not tried it yet.

So to topic, in my case it may create a lot of hazzle to purchase Core, and for others that don't play classical music, it may be another story. 

S

Stover posted:

Chris

Did you install Minimserver on your NAS? I was linked to a forum for instructions, by another Naim member, but have not tried it yet.

So to topic, in my case it may create a lot of hazzle to purchase Core, and for others that don't play classical music, it may be another story. 

S

I am using MinimServer on a number of devices and it is superb. I can browse my collection by

  Composer > Work > Album,

  Composer > Work > Conductor > Album,

  Period > Composer > Form > Ensemble

or by any other scheme that I find useful. Beside the usual Composer, Conductor, etc. fields I very much use Work (or Composition), Form, Period (Era), Ensemble and an IncDate field. The latter contains the point in time (date) at which I have incorporated an album in my collection. I find this very useful to easily get to the newest albums.

MinimServer supports a technique that they call "intelligent browsing" and which I find very useful. Look at their guides, they are very complete and clear. If you use MinimServer on a NAS or on another headless computer, do not forget to install MinimWatch on a laptop or on a networked computer. This will allow you to rescan your music collection, update MinimServer, check logfiles, restart MinimServer, etc. with just a mouse click.

nbpf posted:

Stover posted:

David Hendon posted:

 

But it costs a lot more than a NAS, doesn't do iradio or streaming, and metadata management is not properly developed yet - only an issue if you like classical music or very obscure specialist music. 

best

David

Could you please tell, what kind of metadata issues one could expect from the Core? My former US worked very well in that matter. My cd collection is about 3- 3500 and 2/3 of it is classical music.

...
 

From https://forums.naimaudio.com/t...ware-and-app-update:

1. Editing of Composers and Conductors will not be enabled and is not currently planned as a future update.  
2. The metadata editing functionality is based solely within the app, there is no desktop editing functionality.
3. Only ripped CDs or CDs imported from a previous Naim server that have been ripped, can be edited.
4. Music content in the Downloads Folder cannot be edited so the option will not be available.
5. 'Artist Name' cannot be changed globally, only on a per CD basis.

On the top of these oddities, it is not possible to add a Composition (or Work) index and, in fact, it is not possible to add any index to the default indexes. For classical music, this basically sucks.

Naim have separately accepted (at a later date than the quoted answer) that composer and conducter need to be able to be edited in due course, but it's in a pipeline and Naim haven't said when it will be implemented.

And you can edit anything you like in the downloads folder, but only with a PC or Mac and not with the Naim app.

best

David

Stover posted:

Chris

Did you install Minimserver on your NAS? I was linked to a forum for instructions, by another Naim member, but have not tried it yet.

So to topic, in my case it may create a lot of hazzle to purchase Core, and for others that don't play classical music, it may be another story. 

S

I see that NBPF has answered for me really, but yes I installed it on the NAS and have installed MinimWatch on the computer and it's really the only way to go if you have a large classical library. I can't see any advantages with the Core if you have Classical music in your collection. 

David Hendon posted:

nbpf posted:

Stover posted:

David Hendon posted:

 

But it costs a lot more than a NAS, doesn't do iradio or streaming, and metadata management is not properly developed yet - only an issue if you like classical music or very obscure specialist music.

...

Could you please tell, what kind of metadata issues one could expect from the Core? My former US worked very well in that matter. My cd collection is about 3- 3500 and 2/3 of it is classical music.

...
 

...

On the top of these oddities, it is not possible to add a Composition (or Work) index and, in fact, it is not possible to add any index to the default indexes. For classical music, this basically sucks.

...

And you can edit anything you like in the downloads folder, but only with a PC or Mac and not with the Naim app.

...

True but the Core's UPnP server will ignore any Composition, Work, Ensemble, etc. values. For classical music and for collectors that care about how their music is organized and displayed, this sucks. Of course, one can always use the Core as a network storage and run a UPnP server that provides better support for classical music and user-specific indexes on another device.

nbpf posted:

David Hendon posted:

nbpf posted:

Stover posted:

David Hendon posted:

 

But it costs a lot more than a NAS, doesn't do iradio or streaming, and metadata management is not properly developed yet - only an issue if you like classical music or very obscure specialist music.

...

Could you please tell, what kind of metadata issues one could expect from the Core? My former US worked very well in that matter. My cd collection is about 3- 3500 and 2/3 of it is classical music.

...
 

...

On the top of these oddities, it is not possible to add a Composition (or Work) index and, in fact, it is not possible to add any index to the default indexes. For classical music, this basically sucks.

...

And you can edit anything you like in the downloads folder, but only with a PC or Mac and not with the Naim app.

...

True but the Core's UPnP server will ignore any Composition, Work, Ensemble, etc. values. For classical music and for collectors that care about how their music is organized and displayed, this sucks. Of course, one can always use the Core as a network storage and run a UPnP server that provides better support for classical music and user-specific indexes on another device.

I suspect that most listeners don't have that sort of collector's OCD. They just want the metadata that is there to be correct.

But I do think not being able to edit composers and conductors is a major shortcoming in what is otherwise a delightfully simple to use and effective product.

best

David.

David, Chris, NBPF.

Your replies have been very, very useful to me, thanks a lot. This makes it obvious to me that I should take my NAS further on, updates (done) install Minimserver (and watch) and learn how to use it properly. I'm already in progress.

S

David Hendon posted:

nbpf posted:

David Hendon posted:

...

And you can edit anything you like in the downloads folder, but only with a PC or Mac and not with the Naim app.

...

True but the Core's UPnP server will ignore any Composition, Work, Ensemble, etc. values. For classical music and for collectors that care about how their music is organized and displayed, this sucks. Of course, one can always use the Core as a network storage and run a UPnP server that provides better support for classical music and user-specific indexes on another device.

I suspect that most listeners don't have that sort of collector's OCD. They just want the metadata that is there to be correct.

But I do think not being able to edit composers and conductors is a major shortcoming in what is otherwise a delightfully simple to use and effective product.

...

Being able to edit composers and conductors is perhaps not an unmistakable OCD symptom but it nevertheless appears to be considered potentially dangerous by Naim: "Editing of Composers and Conductors will not be enabled and is not currently planned as a future update". Wow!

The point is that a UPnP server should simply allow one to set the metadata that fit one's way of organizing a music collection, no matter what these are. There is no point in pretending that what's good for one is good for all, I believe.

Stover posted:

David, Chris, NBPF.

Your replies have been very, very useful to me, thanks a lot. This makes it obvious to me that I should take my NAS further on, updates (done) install Minimserver (and watch) and learn how to use it properly. I'm already in progress.

S

You are welcome! By the way, Naim are going to introduce the ND5 XS 2, the NDX 2 and the ND 555 later this year. I have not yet understood whether these devices will be just streamers or whether they will also be able to replay from local USB drives. In the latter case (and assuming that the metadata of the local files are handled properly) one would not need any NAS and any data transfer over the LAN at replay time anymore. Just connect a SSD to the device and go.  

nbpf posted:

David Hendon posted:

nbpf posted:

David Hendon posted:

...

And you can edit anything you like in the downloads folder, but only with a PC or Mac and not with the Naim app.

...

True but the Core's UPnP server will ignore any Composition, Work, Ensemble, etc. values. For classical music and for collectors that care about how their music is organized and displayed, this sucks. Of course, one can always use the Core as a network storage and run a UPnP server that provides better support for classical music and user-specific indexes on another device.

I suspect that most listeners don't have that sort of collector's OCD. They just want the metadata that is there to be correct.

But I do think not being able to edit composers and conductors is a major shortcoming in what is otherwise a delightfully simple to use and effective product.

...

Being able to edit composers and conductors is perhaps not an unmistakable OCD symptom but it nevertheless appears to be considered potentially dangerous by Naim: "Editing of Composers and Conductors will not be enabled and is not currently planned as a future update". Wow!

 

@Nbpf

You should post the rest on this subject. Your quote is from the release notes for the Core 1.4 firmware.  Some days later Phil Harris wrote on 21st June:

"Composer and conductor editing is not supported in 1.4 - that doesn't mean that it will never be added in the future but I believe that that decision is still to be made."

and on 24th June Trevor Wilson wrote in a long post in the Uniti progress update thread: 

"Rest assured the issues are noted, the requests/features and improvements are logged. ....Other features like metadata for composer, conductor for example are in the release planning...."

So I really think your "Wow" is just silly.

best

David

David Hendon posted:

nbpf posted:

David Hendon posted:

nbpf posted:

David Hendon posted:

...

And you can edit anything you like in the downloads folder, but only with a PC or Mac and not with the Naim app.

...

True but the Core's UPnP server will ignore any Composition, Work, Ensemble, etc. values. For classical music and for collectors that care about how their music is organized and displayed, this sucks. Of course, one can always use the Core as a network storage and run a UPnP server that provides better support for classical music and user-specific indexes on another device.

I suspect that most listeners don't have that sort of collector's OCD. They just want the metadata that is there to be correct.

But I do think not being able to edit composers and conductors is a major shortcoming in what is otherwise a delightfully simple to use and effective product.

...

Being able to edit composers and conductors is perhaps not an unmistakable OCD symptom but it nevertheless appears to be considered potentially dangerous by Naim: "Editing of Composers and Conductors will not be enabled and is not currently planned as a future update". Wow!

 

@Nbpf

You should post the rest on this subject. Your quote is from the release notes for the Core 1.4 firmware.  Some days later Phil Harris wrote on 21st June:

"Composer and conductor editing is not supported in 1.4 - that doesn't mean that it will never be added in the future but I believe that that decision is still to be made."

and on 24th June Trevor Wilson wrote in a long post in the Uniti progress update thread: 

"Rest assured the issues are noted, the requests/features and improvements are logged. ....Other features like metadata for composer, conductor for example are in the release planning...."

So I really think your "Wow" is just silly.

best

David

Whether my "Wow" is silly or not does not really matter. What matters is that, one year later and in spite of Trevor Wilson's assurances, we have not seen any significant advances on even very basic medata management issues, let apart on fundamental issues. In hindsight, the statements that I have quoted have turned out to be correct (albeit perhaps unfortunate) utterances on what Naim were about to do (or, more precisely, not to do) in matters of metadata management.

My current arrangement of US + NAS for downloads (because I have the old 1tb US without a download folder) works ok, but I’m still open to getting a Core. However, I do find it astounding that Naim are asking a premium price for NAS which won’t let me edit download metadata. Presumably you can delete downloads and add revised files if you screw up the metadata or does deletion count as editing?

Keith

Keith

You can edit downloaded files metadata in the Core as much as you like and you can operate on them in the Core so you don't even need to move them out before you change them. It's just that you can't use the Naim app to do it. You must use a PC or Mac.

Its rips where you must use the app.

best

David

Ok, that’s not so bad. So you can use the likes of Metadatics to edit downloads and the app to edit rips?

KRM posted:

My current arrangement of US + NAS for downloads (because I have the old 1tb US without a download folder) works ok, but I’m still open to getting a Core. However, I do find it astounding that Naim are asking a premium price for NAS which won’t let me edit download metadata. Presumably you can delete downloads and add revised files if you screw up the metadata or does deletion count as editing?

Keith

First, you have to understand that the Core is not a NAS. Second, you can edit the metadata of downloads, as David explained. Third, the Core's UPnP server will still ignore your edits if these refer to unsupported indexes. Last but not least: be aware of the Core's limitations in handling metadata as documented in https://forums.naimaudio.com/t...mware-and-app-update.

KRM posted:

Ok, that’s not so bad. So you can use the likes of Metadatics to edit downloads and the app to edit rips?

Yes that's right.  As nbpf says you can't create your own categories and genre and expect the Core to do anything with that, but personally I see no point in doing that anyway, at least not if you have lots of rips where you have to stay within the categories that Naim use, so why bother to put downloads in some special organisation?

Being able to edit conductors and composers on rips, so that the searches that Naim allows in the App would actually be useful would be good though.

best

David

I've upgraded from a UnitiServe SSD to a Core this week. It's been good -  the process of unpacking, connecting it to my network, pointing it at the NAS and having my existing share and store connected and catalogued took about ten minutes.

The Core cues music off the NAS a lot quicker than the 'serve did, which is nice. The metadata editing seems to be more comprehensive than in the past, and I'm looking forward to more in the way of firmware and software updates in the future.

Unfortunately, the Android app is still rather disappointing, but I keep my fingers crossed that there will be improvements on that front in the near future.

 

I've upgraded from a UnitiServe SSD to a Core this week. It's been .

Would you have any comment on SQ? ????

Chag -

It sounds pretty good - I haven't had enough time for a proper listen on my system (SuperUniti and Epos ES-12's), but first impressions are slightly brighter and wider sound stage.

To be honest, the improvements in speed and metadata management through the app would have been enough to make me happy...

Squidfacedboy posted:

I've upgraded from a UnitiServe SSD to a Core this week. It's been good -  the process of unpacking, connecting it to my network, pointing it at the NAS and having my existing share and store connected and catalogued took about ten minutes.

What did you do with your Unitiserve?

I'll be selling it. Just got to get around to factory resetting it...

I’m picking up a Core and Nova next week. The Core is a leap of faith - my CD player died and I stream & rip from my Mac but trusting that the SQ will be better with the Core, which my trusted dealer assures me is the case?