Naimnet Now Audible

I knew, but the Norse kinda prefer the English to the Scottish. Without any LPs I would rather patronise Salisbury than Glascow or where-ever LP12s are made.

George

George

quote:

I knew, but the Norse kinda prefer the English to the Scottish

I thought your ancestors raped and pillaged both with equal vigor! I will resist the urge to turn this into an England v Scotland thing!

Cheers

Jim

I heard the most basic naim server (ns01??) when I popped into my dealer on Tuesday. It needed to have a monitor attached to navigate the rips. It was mentioned that a new streamer is in the pipeline with a small display on the front.

quote:

At least the NaimNet servers have much more robust software, can stream from other files on the network, has video out to a screen and has an IR remote, two models have a front panel touchscreen for navigation.

I hope so. I really do want one of these and i hope Naim have got it right the first time.

James

quote:

It needed to have a monitor attached to navigate the rips.

This is not necessary, any web browser running Flash will do–though you can just dump the disc into the tray and wait until it spits it out!

Very easy to use and control–touchscreen you likely saw was largely for illustration, as there are multiple ways to control the server, both locally and remotely.

Good to know. Hopefully i can use my iPod touch which makes a great remote control

When Apple adds Flash Player to the iPod Touch and iPhone, yes, you'll see more than one of us using it to control the server.

I'm sure that we were not the first to get one, so there will be quite a few dealers playing with them for sure.

Since the easiest way to control it is via the web (simply point a browser at the IP address), control via handhelds such as higher end windows PDAs and the Nokia wifi browsers (770 and 800) can run flash to run the software.

Sadly (because I am aching for a good reason to buy one), the iPhone / iPod Touch does not run Flash. And this might not be a temporary situation, since Apple have a work-round for some Flash type video which runs it on their H264 . . . Oh bugger it, I am losing me on this, let alone anyone daft enough to read it.

Pity though, it would be rather nifty device to work as a handset. Surprisingly good value too, compared with the alternatives.

Anyway, for now at least, wireless laptop at the ready (or a TV / monitor and you can use the supplied handset) and you can use the toy. There is full integration with Netstreams products and this will form the backbone of Naimnet, so it is almost a system that people can buy.

Alastair

I really do not care how it works, or what are the possible contortions which maybe possible to work it. I have positive dislike of complexity and I find the notion of running its control system with a very expensive iPhone for example, totally rediculous. This kind of thing makes it sound like some toy for a boy, five minute wiz-bang gimmick. The KISS principle must be retained at all costs, so that the tool remains a tool that is essentially functional without added complexity over existing systems, and not like some PC where years of gained experience and expertise is required to work-round all the crazy oddities of softeware.

I hope that there is a simple way to work it off some simple screen or what ever.

More important than the logistic however is the actual quality of musical replay. No one seems to have commented on this most important aspect of it.

I really must listen to music for myself with it as soon as possible ...

George

George,

You think thats bad. Naim have justed landed me with the upgrade costs from a Merc to a Bentley just get a decent car radio

George, if it becomes possible, the iPhone/iPod Touch is likely to be one of the simplest and cheapest ways of operating the Naimnet servers. Have you had your hands an iPod Touch, by the way? It's a joy to use - I love it.

The NS-03 will have a screen on the front, but it's a considerably more expensive machine.

Talking of which, I'm not sure I understand your fascination with Naimnet, for obvious reasons.

No iPod stuff at all - just about 800 CDs waiting to find their way onto space saving hard-drives. Not interested in a phone that does more than make phone calls. I have always believed in keep individual pieces of equipment discrete from each other as far as possible, and retaining the simplicity of single purpose operation. If I want toast I would prefer to use a toaster, and if I want to make a phone call, I will use the best and simplest device that I can afford. I resent the fact that my most recent phone came with a camera! If I want to take pictures I have a perfect nice 35 mm range-finder camera that maybe more than 40 years old, but still takes better pictures than any phone I have seen!

I would hate to have to drive a server with a completely separate but dual-purpose machine like a phone or an iPod! If it is driven through a monitor with a mouse I would find that very easy, but the user interface could be enough for me to reject the notion out of hand if this require my rejection of KISS to have adopt the idea!

George

George, the only genuinely basic options are:

1) use the computer that you must already have and link it on a network.

2) Connect the NS01 to a TV (or spare monitor) to see the options on that and use the supplied handset.

Any portable web browsing device is almost guaranteed to be multi-functional.

or

3) Wait for the servers with a front panel to come along. Quite small screens though.

Alastair

quote:

Originally posted by GFFJ:
I really do not care how it works, or what are the possible contortions which maybe possible to work it. I have positive dislike of complexity and I find the notion of running its control system with a very expensive iPhone for example, totally rediculous. This kind of thing makes it sound like some toy for a boy, five minute wiz-bang gimmick. The KISS principle must be retained at all costs.


George

Have you even used an iPhone or an iPod Touch compared to a portable windows device? Once it has built in flash (friend of a friend says in the next month), it'll be the easiest way to use NaimNet. I've ended up using mine more than my iBook because its quicker and easier to surf the internet on.


And as far as sound goes, I'm guessing that Naim wouldn't have put so much time effort and pounds into something that didn't sound great, and after the relative damage that the n-vi (which, from experience isn't all that bad) did, my guess is that nothing will leave Salisbury that isn't of the highest performance.

-Reid.

I reckon option two sounds promising!

George

Just wondering.... in what way is Naimnet different from a Squeezebox ?
(other than Naimnet offers multiroom operation)

I got me a SB3 about 1 month ago, and I'm busy ripping all my CD's into Flac files, using EAC.
(and making a backup copy after each ripped CD)

I bought me a 500GB internal HD, on which I can keep about >1200 CD's.
At first I didn't like the idea of using this small box, hooked up on a PC, but now that I got used to it, I use it on a daily basis.

regards,
Alco

quote:

Just wondering.... in what way is Naimnet different from a Squeezebox ?

One negative difference is that, for now at least, it won't play flac files. Converting them to wav takes moments and a bit more space.

Other than that, the core principals are similar. NS01 does not need a functioning computer to run - other than to set up access to other drives and, maybe, to control it. It almost certainly sounds better too. It can still access external drives via ethernet and store data on its internal 2 x 400 gb drives.

Importantly, the NS01 is physically quiet (not quite silent) but acceptable on a normal hi-fi rack and far less likely to be chucking horrible noise into adjacent power sockets than conventional computers.

Hope this helps!


Alastair

Thanx for the information Alastair!

Hmm,it's a pity it won't play Flac files.
It'll take quite a while to convert all my Flac files into WAV and takes up considerable more HD space imho.

quote:

Other than that, the core principals are similar. NS01 does not need a functioning computer to run - other than to set up access to other drives and, maybe, to control it. It almost certainly sounds better too. It can still access external drives via ethernet and store data on its internal 2 x 400 gb drives

I have considered getting a NAS for my SB, but when I'm at home, my PC is powered on most of the time anyway,
so that would be money wasted I guess.

Having 2 internal 400GB HD's is a nice bonus!

I can imagine it sounds better than a bare SB, but I'm wondering how a NS would compare to a SB hooked up to say the (internal DAC) of a SuperNait.

regards,
Alco

My only experience of converting flac to wav is a single (82.6 meg) track downloaded from Linn. Wash mouth out.

Using 'macflac' on my mac takes 12.5 seconds.It does generate a 127 meg file though.

I have a gut feeling (might just be dinner) that files converted within the NS01 sound better than ones ripped on the computer. Must set up an A - B comparison.

On the other hand I might just aim to have a life.

I think that updates are planed to bring in other formats. And flac has to be a major candidate.

I was under the impression that the Squeezebox needed more than a lone NAS to be active and that some software had to be running on a PC too. Am I wrong on this?


Alastair

quote:

Importantly, the NS01 is physically quiet (not quite silent) but acceptable on a normal hi-fi rack and far less likely to be chucking horrible noise into adjacent power sockets than conventional computers.

A sb3 is totally silent. My ancient powerbook with external drive is far away from my hifi.

quote:

A sb3 is totally silent. My ancient powerbook with external drive is far away from my hifi.

Not quite comparing apples with apples.

Full music server devices such as this have a tendency to be quite noisy.

A

quote:

I was under the impression that the Squeezebox needed more than a lone NAS to be active and that some software had to be running on a PC too. Am I wrong on this?

Yes, you are. It needs the Slimserver software running somewhere, but that can be run on a NAS or other such devices. I have ReadyNAS device in another room and use the wireless network to reach it from my SB3. No wires, no sound of any spinning drives at all.

So the main selling point of NaimNet will have to be a better sound quality. If it cannot deliver that (through my SuperNait) I might feel the price is not justified. If they start doubling as a cd-player, well, then I'll probably have a look anyway

I should also add that I'm pretty confident that those not using the SN will probably be better off with NaimNet than a SB3. Any thoughts?

quote:

So the main selling point of NaimNet will have to be a better sound quality.

It runs a bit deeper than that.

From my limited experience of SB with an external DAC, the Naim servers will sound better. The user interface also has the capacity to be altogether more sophisticated.

I guess the main 'pitch' with the naimnet products is their ability to be part of a proper purist audio system yet offer control via keypads / touch-screens / whatever and allow for almost limitless multi-room expansion.

Whether this makes an NS01 'overqualified' for some applications is a fair point, but there is quite a lot to it.

Alastair

quote:

Originally posted by GFFJ:
I have always believed in keep individual pieces of equipment discrete from each other as far as possible, and retaining the simplicity of single purpose operation

George

then your computer should be used solely for computing .

quote:

A sb3 is totally silent.

Not so–an SB2 emitted an audible hum from the display loud enough that I needed to site it across the room–this using both the switching supply or an old test-bench SNAPS set to the correct voltage....