I have my collection transferred to my Uniti Core through a combination of rips and downloads. Thanks to forum members and their patience with my many questions (special thanks to David Hendon!) I am delighted with the performance and have it mostly organized with only a few tweaks left with the metadata with some files in the downloads folder. Here are my two questions:
Editing metadata in Downloads folder. Some members have suggested using DB PowerAmp to edit files in the downloads folder. There are many others out there too such as Meta, etc. If anyone has some experience using software to change the metadata for sorting in the downloads folder of a Uniti Core I appreciate your input. I’m not exactly tech savvy so looking for something that’s simple to use and fool proof so I don’t mess up my library!
Naim rip compatibility. With my library organized as I want it are there any platforms that can be loaded in to the Mac world (MacBook, IPhone, IPad) that will allow me to copy the library including downloads and music from the Uniti Core so I can listen to outside of the Naim environment? There are some platforms like Vox that promote as being near universal but from what I’ve read so far in the forum I sense Naim has proprietary tech that may not work with others. If anyone has any experience with a solution please let me know.
Hi Dave
For a decent 3rd party metadata editor I would recommend Metadatics. It’s pretty easy to use, but Mac only. I’m sure there are other good options out there.
If you want to use Naim CD rips on other devices, it’s essential to save the rips in FLAC otherwise most non-Naim gear cannot read the metadata. The old Naim servers allowed you to transcode WAV to FLAC at a later date, but the Core is not capable of doing this.
It’s no problem to find the files with a computer and copy them to other storage devices. It’s just a question of being able to browse the files properly.
Glad that I was able to help before. As you imported many of your album rips you may find that even the WAVs work ok on another platform as they won’t have been converted into Naim’s proprietary version of WAV metadata on their way into your downloads folder.
Thank you Chris and David! I have the rips in Flac so seems like I’m in good shape. I noticed in the metadata for the rips there was a folder with naim as part of the root which made me think it would not allow it to be read by others. So this is great news as it will allow me to keep a consistent library saved in different locations for each use. Re the metadata I am in Mac so will check out Metadatics thanks for the recommendation.
You probably already know this, but remember that third party metadata editors should only be used on music in the Downloads folder. Use the Naim metadata editor for the CD rips in the Music folder.
I use copies of Unitiserve CD rips on a memory stick in my car, and on a Sony portable player, and as long as they are FLAC they work fine.
I easily download naim core ripped wav files to my apple pc and they work absolutely fine in itunes. I don’t think the wav files themselves are prorietary when ripped on the Core, i think the metadata format is proprietary. In most cases that doesn’t matter as i don’t change the metadata and just the standard folder and filenames work fine with no other metadata needed. Classical is the genre which frequently requires metadata changes.
You are right that it’s the metadata that causes the problems, not the music data, which will play on other devices. If you use folder view rather than tag view the metadata isn’t used, so you’ll be fine if you are happy with the basic ability to manage your music in folders.
Either, but unlike the Unitiserve you cannot change your mind later and transcode if you change your mind. You would have to re-rip or move the rips out of the music folder and use third party software.
The facility to transcode FLAC to WAV on the fly has also been removed.
With my library organized as I want it are there any platforms that can be loaded in to the Mac world (MacBook, IPhone, IPad) that will allow me to copy the library including downloads and music from the Uniti Core so I can listen to outside of the Naim environment?
Chris,
Dave mentioned some Apple devices, which are the very first totally unable to replay FLAC. Or I haven’t caught something.
M.
Apple have never supported FLAC (at least until very recently, but as far as I’m aware it still doesn’t really work properly on Apple apps) as they have their own comparable version, ALAC. There is no problem playing FLACs on Apple devices using third party apps that support it, such as VLC for example.
You can also use third party apps to manage the files, as long as you don’t try to change anything in the Music folder, you need to make a copy and store it elsewhere to do this or you will risk breaking the Core’s database.
To copy the music files to other devices, you can simply navigate to them in the OSX Finder and copy to other locations, just as you would for any other digital files.
I think I’m going to try Vox to play the flac files. I have a love/hate relationship with Apple products. I enjoy the simplicity of the products speaking to each other in the ecosystem but for music it’s not working for me. From what I’m reading Vox is a good alternative to Apple Music. Now that I know there isn’t any proprietary issues with Naim rips I think I’ll give it a try.
I’m not familiar with Vox, but I’ve used VLC and Onkyo HF Player on iOS, and they both work very well. VLC should find the Core and play from it when connected to your network, or you can import files and store them on the phone.
I have a Core and rip all my cd’s in wav. My cars usb system unfortunately will only support, (I believe) mp3. So when I create a playlist on a thumb drive the contents aren’t recognized.
This weekend I experimented transferring some music files straight from a backup usb drive, into iTunes on a Windows 10 laptop.
Edit > preferences > playback
In the playback tab my defaults were 44.1 sample rate (up to 192 available).
Bits per sample default is 16 (24 available).
It was a learning curve but I finally was able to transfer many files to my iPhone 7, and then listen in my car through Bluetooth.
I’ve abandoned the usb route for this application and happy with using Bluetooth.
Not sure if this might be of help in your situation,
Indeed, that’s what I would do if I used iTunes/Apple Music. If you’re happy with MP3 sound quality or need to save space, the Unitiserve ‘parallel library’ makes it easy, but the feature was dropped on the Core.