Hints and Tips for UnitiServe new starters

Do you need a screen to set it up?

Can it connect without a cable to a router?

Does it do better rips than a Mac-mini or a Vortex box?

Cue Tog ...

Dear Martin,

Regarding question 2): I guess this mostly appears n the cases that you used the "Download/Find Album-art" in iTunes. It is a knwon issue. To solve this, please download the art using Google and save the art as a picture. Than go to iTunes, select the applicable album and go via Info to add the picture to your art. Working this way, the album art is stored with the songs and not in the central iTunes library, solving your issue. I know this is a tremendous amount of work (22.000 ALAC songs in my case :-)), but it helps.

Good luck !

Iver

amazing system you have: is on my "dream-list"

Hi Martin,

I have a similar set up to you. 

Re 1. I never have a problem with accessing the NAS, I use a reserved address on my Netgear Readynas Duo and leave the Ipod on DHCP.

Re 3. After editing non US ripped music it can take some hours for the DTC and n-Serve to update. I normally do a host rescan within the DTC, which updates within a minute.

GErry

Martin, what hardware do you use for your home wifi network?  I have moved to Apple -- Airport Extreme, Time Capsule -- and the network is really reliable w.r.t. iPhones and iPads and our Macs.

Getting the iPhone app to force a library refresh has been a little buggy for me; it has stalled while doing this, forcing me to reboot the uServe.  That has been my only "glitch" other than being FORCED to use a pc to run the native app!

Hi

Yes - N-Serve - sorry.  And yes - out-of-the-box onfiguration.  The app doesn't find the server when I ask it to look - although I can the the UServe on the Lan when I look at the home network from a PC, and can access it through a brower on a networked PC.   I don't think the IP address has changed as the network is always on.  Although rebooting  the network (router, UServe, NAS, and switch) fixes the problem for a while.

Hi Bart

Well - there's a Netgear wireless router, connected to a Netgear gigabit switch via ethernet.  I have a 2tb Buffalo NAS for music on the switch, alongside the UServe and an Airport Express (wireless disabled, which feeds the NDAC from iTunes).  Actually there is another switch with a 1tb WorldBook NAS also connected to the router which handles photos and backups.  It all works pretty well considering. 

All the music is ethernet (Cat6) connected.  I used to use the Airport wirelessly, but it dropped out sufficiently frequently to be annoying, and usually when my son was on uTube.  Since going wired, the only networking problem I have had is the iPhone not being able to find the UServe.

I can access the US from any PC connected by ethernet or wirelessly.   On Macs - my son uses a macbook (wirelessly) and unlike any PC I have ever owned it works as well today as when we bought it over 3 trouble-free years ago.

Thanks!  The trouble is with Naim, whatever you have you always dream of the next upgrade!

But on Q2 - i didn't quite mean it the way you say. For music originating in iTunes, in fact I had previously downloaded any artwork iTunes missed as you suggest.  But I also have a lot of MP3 music which also has artwork in the album folders with the music.  However - the US doesn't seem to pick this up, nor find the artwork for the album through its own look up - so unless I can find a workaround, I would have to associate the artwork with  the album for each album using the US app manually. PAINFUL!

Hummm - sounds like a reserved address may help - how do I do that?  I had a quick look at my router settings and there was nothing  obvious in there. Is that where I should be looking?   

David - sadly, I'm not a Mac guy - I can borrow my sons macbook, but although the music is on the NAS the iTunes library is on a PC.

Gerry - on (3) - after I've made a lot of changes to non US music I do the host rescan in order to see the changes on the UServe - but you're saying that if I leave it, it will automatically happen in time anyway?

Hi Gale 401

You've been around a while, and I suspect you have a view on the answers to your questions!  I'm not sure whether you are suggesting these as good questions to include in a FAQ, or whether you are making a point!  I recall that you were sceptical about the US (on the lines of Vortex does the same much  cheaper).

Either way - happy to try and propose some answers - but I just want to try and get something together that might be helpful to US users (I started going through previous threads to try and extract useful tips - and I've also started to regret starting!!!).

Martin

Martin,

In my Netgear Readynas router it's under the LAN set up. However it was not a facility in my previous netgear router, where I used static address.

As regards (3) yes I believe it eventually appears, although I have always been too impatient to find out.

Gerry

Here's something new to me -- I just noticed my uServe showing up in the "Shared" section of my Finder window on my Mac!  I can browse to it . . . drill down to the folders . . . and even replace the album art. 

What other possibilities does this open up?  I wonder if I can put music files on it this way -- gotta try

Actually it's not letting me add, delete or modify any files.

I wonder whether there is a way to change permissions on the uServe to allow this type of network access(?)

Bart, if you are trying to edit Unitiserve rips in a "music Store", you should not do this through an "alternative computer operating system"  which your Mac will be. 

Gerry 

Thanks Gerry, but it won't let me do it anyway, so in reality it's a non-issue

The native PC Naim Desktop Client, while inelegant, at least lets me edit album art.  I feel for those who store a lot of classical music and are unhappy that the tags are not fully editable. 

Hi Tog

That's probably more true outside of a Window's environment. I use Ipod touch, Harmony remote, Desk top Client and the Web Browser to operate or edits and have never had any issue it works faultlessly, apart from some missing artwork, which has been easy for me to update. The n-Serve app makes it a joy to control. 

I playback directly into nDac/555ps, (I chose to get 2 Chord Sarum cables, instead of the NDX), and as i have posted before, the SQ is in a different league to my CDS3. 

Gerry

Hi to all,

a bit off topic but what is the main difference of using Naim streamer vs Airport express or Sonos?

Is it all about synergy or just battle of app interface ( which is the easiest to use?) I am new to streaming and have only tried using apple's remote app via itunes. But I want to use NAS to save on electric bills.

So my question is what is the best option to use for streaming music? I plan to use it with SN or SU.

What do you think guys?

Thank you

My iphone with NStream has lost its connection to the UnitiServe.  I can restore it by rebooting everything, but have other people experienced this and is there an easier fix?

There are a number of reasons why n-Serve can lose its connection with the UnitiServe - if the UnitiServe is set to DHCP then it *CAN* change IP address when it is rebooted or its DHCP lease expires.

The easiest way to fix this is to set up a reserved IP address on your router for the UnitiServe (this is usually done by giving your router the MAC address of the device - on the UnitiServe this is on a sticker on the back panel - and the IP address that you want to reserve for the device with that MAC address).

My existing music (mostly MP3) often has album art stored with the music - the US doesn't pick this up, and largely fails to look up the cover art online - although when ripping it seems to find > 90%.   Is there a way to fix this (other than manually picking up the artwork for each album using the App)?

The UnitiServe does not go off and look up the coverart for files as it plays them - so if it is not able to extract the coverart graphics for your MP3's from the tags it won't go off and try and find artwork for them on the internet.

That is correct - it caches the data locally and requires a "rescan" to update rather than rechecking for changes (which is what it used to do but we had a number of customer complaints about the amount of network activity).

Cheers

Phil

Phil - thanks for your reply.

On the first point, I have now switched to a fixed IP address for the US, and so far that is working (thanks also to the others who suggested this - Gerry in particular).

On the third point - fair enough - I can understand the logic.

On the second point, Phil - I guess if the US looks at the only looks at tags with non UD-ripped music that explains why some has cover art and some doesn't.   But it would be nice to have the option of performing a coverart look-up on the rest - the music is obviously identified by the US, so getting the coverart wouldn't be difficult although probably slow.

I would say the main plus for Naim streamers (and the UServe) is the sound quality.  But other set up ups can be pretty good - it depends on what the weakest link in your set up is.  Its a bit of a minefield and at least with a Naim set-up the weakest link is usually still decent in terms of sound.

The Naim App is fine - but Apple's remote is more sophisticated and I expect Sonos is too.

I went from iTunes/Airport into a nDAC using Apple remote to a UnitServe/NDac with nServe.  The SQ on the Naim is much much better, and to be honest, although the nServe is less sophisticated than iTunes - actually I prefer it because it doesn't try and manage the music as one big monolithic library.

I'm starting to appreciate the "doesn't try and manage the music as one big monolithic library" thing too.

I think of my music library as being made up of DISCS, and this is the basis of the nServe approach. I never appreciated iTunes oddities with respect to soundtracks, compilations and other artifacts of being based on individual songs, not discs.  But I'm in the vast minority of iTunes users -- 99.9% of whom have no interest in owning only entire discs.