OK so I have the Supernait 2 and just about to get my ND5 XS2 next week. I would love to buy a Unity Core, but not just yet…no money left
What would be the best way to store my music and put this on my network, also how would I convert my CD collection to the best quality ??
Do I need to store music when I can get TIDAL ??
Running Mac and PC (for conversion).
Many thanks in advance
Barry
A start might be,
If you have a decent home computer, get an external USB hard drive for it, then buy a 1 year sub to Roon to try it out. Then get dbpoweramp or similar and rip your CDs to 44.1/16bit FLAC lossless files and store these on your external drive.
Roon will expose this collection to your network and your ND5 XS2 can act as a roon end-point for playback. You can use a downloadable Roon remote app on your tablet or smartphone to control your playback experience from your sofa. Bliss,
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Hi
Tidal is a streaming service like Spotify - no need for storage.
I have an NDX/SN2 with all my music stored on NAS. I ripped my CDs to flac using XLD software (free) and the CD-drive on my Mac, then moved it all to the NAS. There are doubtless better ways to rip that others can recommend - I just used what I had - but the NAS solution is a popular one. Hope this helps.
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Here is the setup I describe above 
The MacBook pro on the left is my “home office HIFI” and runs my Roon Core 1.6 software. Behind it is a Seagate 8TB hard drive, USB connected, thru an Audioquest Jitterbug, to the Mac. Roon does all the heavy lifting and beautifully integrates my use of Qobuz to ‘augment’ my stored music. (Tidal works just as well).
https://roonlabs.com/pricing.html
Around £260 would get you the same setup I have (exclusive of Jitterbug)
In my living room, the Supernait 2 and the (temporary) ND5 XS2 are the two magical Naim boxes that bring the music to my speakers, via the Roon Endpoint client built into the ND5 XS2.
In my case WiFi is the transmission mechanism, which is more than up to the job, but others mileage may vary.
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Ripping - X Lossless Decoder for Mac (free) or dBPoweramp for Mac/PC
Main thing for you rips is to ensure metadata is accurate early on.
Another vote for Roon that you could just run as a ‘Roon Core’ on PC/Mac and point to folders containing audio which Roon then analyses and prevents in an easy to stream manner but you initiate playback on computer or smartphone/tablet app - do get a trial it’s good.
AssetUPnP is free or basic functionality and should work admirably to allow the Naim app to find you shared audio to play on the ND5 XS2.
The Uniti Core would be convenient and avoids faffing around with NAS drives or always on computers, but you don’t want the cost currently, nor do I.
Chepa always on option is a Raspberry Pi running Asset with an attached USB drive, though I suspect much simpler to update audio with new files on a Mac/PC solution.
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Don’t over-complicate things.
Just set up a simple NAS with UPnP software on it (to serve the music).
Rip CDs on your latop / PC using dBPowerAmp.
Enjoy 
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Why rip to FLAC not WAV?
Once you have ripped some CDs, you don’t need to spend a load more money on Roon or a NAS. Just put the rips on a USB drive and connect this to the streamer USB port, enable its server mode, and you’re sorted.
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Thanks for that
Excellent. Many thanks
My 2 pennies. Pretending I don’t have a main system with CDX2, Pro-Ject RPM 3 Carbon, Stageline N, NaitXS2 and S-400s, I have as second system a MacBook Pro on which I periodically download fine music that a friend member sends me in Apple Lossless via a shared Dropbox folder. I usually don’t rip my own CDs because I can play them on the CDX2. 
For exactly €1000 and some friendly talk, I bought from my dealer an ex demo nuforce DDA-100 amp and a pair of brand new Neat Iotas to complete the desktop system. Ah yes, and a €30 USB wire. The interesting fact about the DDA-100 is that it is not a T-Amp with a DAC inside, but a fully organic design that elaborates the incoming signal in the full digital domain from the USB input port to just before the speakers’ sockets. No proper ‘conversion’, just the shorter and most rational path.
If I didn’t have a larger system in a larger room, this desktop rig would be absolutely enough for my music needs. Even if I decided to subscribe to Tidal or the sort. My Mac would manage it all.
Two interesting trivia: if I decide to write an Apple Lossless file on a CD-R, it will be written in AIFF automatically - that is, decompressed; and if you put a commercial CD in a Mac, open it as a folder on your desktop, you’ll see 9 times out of 10 that the files are… AIFF. It seems that commercial CDs are treated, at every stage before pressing, on Macs. It also seems that tagging is done by people who often don’t have a clear idea of what kind of music they’re tagging even on different tracks of the same CD master…
So, why FLAC? Apple Lossless is basically the same but very likely also the native format of many CDs you buy in stores. Try to believe.
Best
Max
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FLAC take up less space and you can transcode to WAV on the fly in your NAS.
Then why WAV when I have just suggested that many, if not most, CDs may actually be made with AIFF files?
I am not sure your interpretation of the format of cds is correct at all. How your computer interprets a cd is either as WAV or AIFF files but the format is uncompressed PCM.
From another website:
‘CDA files can only be played from a CD and the files must be converted to WAV, MP3 or similar files for storage on a computer hard disc or DVD disc. The CDA format is an industry standard (referred to as the Red Book audio standard) that is used for encoding music on CDs and audio CDs bought in the high street will use this format.’
Apple lossless was a somewhat pointless attempt by apple to win the market for audio formats which failed. FLAC won and rightly so and even apple is coming round to that now.
Personally I have never heard a difference between wav and flac from the same file. But flac sure is easier to deal with in terms of tagging and storage.
Some people (including me), think WAV files sound better. As for AIFF files. I don’t know, but someone on the forum is sure to.
You are perfectly right. I re-read some info I had looked for on the Internet and have reached your same conclusion. I hence apologize for having posted incorrect informations.
I am not sure you are right, in turn, on the pointlessness of Apple Lossless. If we are talking about industrial success and market possession, FLAC is undoubtedly much more diffused, but it tells nothing on its ‘objective’ major quality. The DVD audio was superior to SACD and yet SACD won the market – so to speak – to almost disappear anyway not long after.
I have burned a number of Apple Lossless files to CD-R, and not only they came out as AIFF (uncompressed), but played on my CDX2 were not inferior the the few originals I happened to own. Subjective, but as subjective as your ‘rightly so’.
Best
M
That was a good argument when storage was expensive. Nowadays… less so…
You do realise that AIFF and WAV are equivalent, just different lables for different operating systems…
To be fair, you can do the same with ALAC and other formats on some servers.
I dare hypothesizing that Naim devices save in WAV because the original ripping platform of the HDX and the UnitiServe was rumored to derive – legally – from Exact Audio Copy, which is written for (and only available for) Windows, being Microsoft one of the two ‘parents’ of WAV. Getting an EAC-derived ripping software to find, attach and tag metadata by itself must have been the hardest part of the job, I suspect.
But again, discussions may always lead to mistakes, and I am glad to be corrected and taught something. If politely, double thanks.
M.