I understand that that should be a less expensive option, but is it as easy to find files to play using the naim app, add/change metadata, and save downloads without having to hook up a computer? Just trying to get my head around all the possibilities here, so thanks for your input. Also, I want this to be as simple to use as possible – my wife needs to be able to work this – and that’s a big test!
If you want simple, Core is the way to go. And it will sound better than using a computer and NAS, as it has a larger and cleaner power supply with less noise and a lower noise floor. And I have two Macs, and still went with a Core for those reasons. Have fun.
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The reason the Core needs an Ethernet connection is that this is how it connects to the Naim app, which is what you use to control it. Also, it requires an internet connection for retrieveng metadata to add to CD rips, for firmware updates, and other purposes.
If you have a Core you need to use a computer for downloads and to transfer them to the Core. To edit downloads you need to use a computer. I get 95% of my new music via downloads and hardly ever have to rip anything.
The Naim app sees only what the server tells it to see. If you use Asset there is far more flexibility than the very restricted Naim upnp software in the Core.
As to your wife, if she is anything like mine, she will be far more intelligent and capable than you. We have five Naim streamers in our house and we both use them just as well as each other.
Your wife may well be more intelligent and capable than me as well! So it could be that I am the test of the simplicity of the system!
When you use a streaming service (remember I’m new at this!) I take it you download files in order to make them easier to get, catalog, make into playlists, etc. rather than simply ‘re-streaming’ the file again. No? And you can’t do this directly using the Core and naim app, but need to use a computer. So the computer would need to see the NAS or the Core to allow the files to be stored. Am I making progress here?
Supplementary question: When I stream Apple Music, it goes via my iPad or Mac to the Atom via AirPlay. Presumably I’m paying a sound quality penalty for this. Do I need to use something like Tidal to get the Atom to access the music directly, such that I only use the iPad for control?
Thanks everyone for your patience over what must be very basic issues.
Cephas, it does sound harder then it is. I bought a NAS and used my Mac Desktop with a CD to rip my CD’s which was done over several months. I use dBpoweramp software on the Mac to rip the CD’s. I currently have around 2000 albums from CD’s or Downloads from the internet on the NAS. The NAS has an ethernet cable that runs to a switch. The switch is connected to the router with an ethernet cable. The switch also has a eternal cable running to the back of my streamer and another cable to the Mac Desktop.
I use a iPad with the Naim App on it and can easily connect to the NAS, Qobuz, and internet radio. It sounds a lot harder then it actually is to setup and use.
I have not used a CORE and chose not to since the cost savings of using a NAS heavily infuenced my decisions. Plenty of member here have used either one of the other and some both.
There are plenty of threads that you can find here and on the old forum and can use the search function to find lots of information.
Good luck with your decision.
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I have to say that personally, I would not buy a Core to partner an Atom. I would use the extra cash to buy a Nova instead, and get a big boost in sound quality.
To rip CDs I would just use DBpoweramp on a computer, or if you prefer a dedicated box to rip, store and serve music files, get an Innuos Zen Mini for £900, which has a great deal more to offer than the Core in terms of functionality.
You are slightly muddling two things here.
If you want to rip your CDs, you get the computer Core to make a digital copy, which then lives in your nas or Core. If you buy a download, you acquire a digital copy that is yours to keep. That lives on your nas or Core as well.
The process of playing the music across your network is called streaming.
That’s where it gets a bit confusing. If you subscribe to Tidal, Qobuz or whatever, you ‘stream’ the music from the internet to your streamer - the Atom. You don’t own it and you don’t have a copy stored. You can use the Naim app to identify your favourites so you don’t have to hunt for them again. If the internet goes down, none of them is available.
Both Tidal and Qobuz offer streaming at at least CD quaility. Apple Music is compressed MP3 and does not sound as good.
If you plan to only listen via the internet then you don’t need local storage, such as a Core, at all. If you want to rip your CDs and buy downloads to keep, then you need storage. So have a think about how you plan to get hold of your music before deciding what to do.
The easiest way would be to px the Atom for a Star. CD player and ripper, streamer all in one box. Then just add a external Hdd for storage. 1 powerlead, 1 Ethernet connection. Done.
I’ve had mine 2 years and it sounds superb with my Neat Xplorers.
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There are a few reasons why people are reluctant to support your idea of adding the Core to your new Atom, but mainly it comes down to price, convenience, and functionality.
You most likely already have everything you need to start the process of moving from CD replay to building and playing your home library of digital music files: your Atom can stream them from a USB stick or a USB drive if you attach one.
@Proterra suggested this, but it may have gotten lost in the shuffle. The Atom has a built in UPnP server, and can “serve itself” if you give it the data on a drive. This functionality is equivalent to using the Core as a home networking server. Your wife and you will be able to use the Naim app to select and play your own local music in a way that has the same look and feel as you use it now with Tidal or internet radio. Zero learning curve.
What you can’t do with your Atom alone is convert your CDs to FLAC files for streaming. The Core does do this, but many report that the convenience of ripping (high: pop in disc and wait) is counterbalanced with lack of flexibility (hard or impossible to edit metadata, export for use elsewhere, etc.). But…
With your home pc (Win or Apple or whatever you have) and a CD-ROM (internal or external as appropriate), you can learn to make bit perfect lossless rips of your CDs, edit your metadata, add whatever album art you like, etc., all using one or two bits of readily available software. There are free ones (XLD for Mac is a nice ripper but some find it slightly obscure to get started) and paid ones (lots and lots of love for Asset, for Mac and Windows, on this forum).
In your shoes, I would install some ripping software (maybe Asset if ease of use is top of mind) and play around with a dozen or so of your CDs. Take your time. Choose defaults where you can (eg rip to FLAC format, use compression level 5, let the program choose the file naming convention, etc.) and pay attention to the automatic metadata it chooses for you (eg double check the band name, album and track names, Composer and conductor and whatever else is important to you if you are a classical lover…) and learn to edit those before you start the ripping process: a couple of minutes at the start is a great way to save on frustration or editing later (although you can certainly always go back and fix up whatever you like in the metadata editor). Let the files get stored locally on your computer.
Copy the dozen ripped discs from the directory on your computer onto a USB memory key, stick it in the Atom, enable UPnP Server mode on the Atom via the Naim App (in Settings), and give it a whirl. Select Servers (or Local Music… sorry I can’t recall) as the Source and press play… now you are doing local streaming, it really is that easy. If you like it, go buy a large enough external USB disc for your collection, and start ripping your CDs a few at a time to build up your local library. Job done.
Best wishes whatever you decide to do… my advice is start small and free (or almost free) and see how you get on. There are plenty of friendly people here on the forum who will help you gain experience, and once you’re up and running you will wonder why it sounds so much harder to do this than it turns out to be in real life!
Regards alan
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Good reply alan33.
If the Atom is like the Star you have to configure the memory device as a store first I believe. This is done through the app under Manage music. Once done you can then add music to it. Create a folder for each artist and add to that.The Star does that automatically as you rip.
Hope that makes sense.
Thanks! That is a very helpful reply. I certainly want to be able to expand my listening which is why streaming is important to me (including internet radio). However I have an extensive collection of CDs many of which I am sure will not exist even with the “60 million songs” available from a commercial streaming service. I do own an Apple SuperDrive, which is Apple’s name for their CD reader/burner, and have used it to rip CDs for travel. Sometimes I even burn CDs using purchased downloaded files, so that I can put the CDs with the others in the living room, and not need to look for a computer when I want to hear the music on the hifi. (I’m going backwards!!) In a year or so, we plan to downsize our house and move into a condo (‘flat’ in Britspeak, as we are well into retirement) so I need to contain my CD collection and hi-fi system.
I really like the Atom: sounds great, easy to use, looks awesome, and is amazingly compact. Your suggestion to get my feet wet, by connecting it up an external drive and seeing how that works for me, sounds like the right way to go. I will try out some better ripping software (Asset seems recommended) and set up an SSD with the Atom. After that I can do some more research on the Core to see if it is what I really want and how it compares to an external drive. (The Core doesn’t seem to get much love!) My objective is to have the CDs stored away gathering dust, but not loose any convenience when I want to listen to their content.
Thanks again.
Peter.
Great summary from Alan; that’s actually, what I do with my Atom.
(And even using my 1.5 decades old iTunes collection of ripped and downloaded music; just copied to an external SSD. I was lazy to re-rip things (except for moving to ALAC) or look for another software so far…)
Just a detail…
To my knowledge, the “UPnP Server mode” setting (switching it “on”) is only needed, if you want to be able to supply the music attached to the Atom to also other (UPnP) devices on your network (say: another Atom 
); especially while the Atom itself is “sleeping”.
For purely “local” usage (Atom reading the disk/SSD and playing from it), this setting can be kept switched off.
Absolutely! We love ours (and we have a Nova as the main system, also amazing)… Sounds like you are in for fun in next days and weeks.
You don’t need to / cannot do this with the Atom, since that step is related to the ripping and storing functionality of the Star. In fact, to add extra rips, you will need to remove the external drive from the Atom, and move to the computer.
This is where I’m a bit weak, so definitely worth checking… but you for sure want the UPnP “local” rather than the USB “local”… access and functionality via the app is light years better from the Server rather than the USB key …
Enjoy, you have a great plan!
Regards alan
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Philippe is correct, server mode turns on the built in server to make USB attached music discoverable by other devices. To play it on the same device, it’s not required. It’s still best to access USB attached music through the Server input though, as you can browse the metadata that way.
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Asset is a Upnp server not ripping software.
To rip you need DB poweramp either Windows Apple or Linux
Or XLD for Apple is also recommended by forumites
Other ripping software is available with varying steepness of learning curve
Hope that helps
After a break while I grappled with my Atom having a set of firmware issues - not happening any longer, thank heavens - I have returned to the issue of trying to work out how best to rip and play my CD collection.
I followed the advice of allan33 (thank you very much) and used dBpoweramp to rip several CDs to a portable HDD which I then plugged into the Atom and played via the ‘server’ input on the Naim app on my iPad.
The CDs were:
- Beethoven string quartet 132 by the Alben Berg Quartet (one CD)
- Rolling Stones, Out of our heads (which was a CD I made from downloaded tracks)
- Complete Mozart Sonatas for violin and piano (set of four CDs)
- Extracts from Aida (one CD)
- Complete Barber of Seville (three CD set)
I started by setting up folders on the HDD for the different genres as I define them, and I’m thinking that may have been a mistake.
Then I used dBpoweramp to rip the CDs, editing the metadata before the rip, adding in my chosen ‘genre’ etc,. Looking for artwork, etc.
I found I had quite a lot of work to examine and change the metadata and target folder for every CD. I thought the ripper would get most of this right without my help. Perhaps I was “helping” it when I should have let it do it’s thing.
When I played the HDD on the Atom, the Rolling Stones had the correct art work on the Atom display, but the iPad app was showing a picture of the Alben Berg Quartet! No idea why.
The three and four CD sets (of the Opera, and the Sonatas respectively) all showed up with the same artwork and same title for that set, so it was impossible to see which album was which in the series without selecting each album first. I could fix that I suppose by adding an album number at the start of each album name - but a hassle.
Finally the app seemed to be overruling or adding to my genre selections and making things look a bit of a muddle.
I got the feeling that two systems (the ripper an the naim app) were fighting each other, with me unwittingly adding complexity. Could that be it?
For Core users (and I suppose dBpoweramp users as well), do you need to define a folder structure to contain the files by genre, or is that done for you by the database software on the Core? Would the Core do better at showing four distinct CDs for the sonatas in the example above?
I am wondering if I am making this more difficult than it needs to be. Do you just rip every CD and leave the rest to the software?
Thanks in advance,
Peter.
A UPnP server is intended to use metadata to allow you to browse in a much more effective and versatile way than navigating folders. If you really want to browse folders, some servers such as Minimserver do allow this as an option, so you can always try it.
The original Naim server on the Unitiserve etc. was seen by many as somewhat basic, especially with Classical music. The Core is a little more primitive, having dropped a few features of its predecessor, and the version that runs on the Atom is a little more basic still. If this is going to frustrate you, better, I think, to get it right from the start, by choosing a server that you are happy with. Asset, Minimserver or Roon are probably the best options to consider, and you can run them on a wide variety of devices, but not, of course, on the Core.
Great work to get started, to learn about ripping and metadata, then to get your first local streaming up and running on your Atom. Huge step, don’t forget to relish that experience even though you have already identified the next things you’d like to learn!
How did it sound? Are you happy with the most important part of the experience? If so, keep experimenting and learning, a handful of CDs at a time.
As ChrisSU says, the folder structure has limited utility when playing: the search and list functionality on the server is all derived from the metadata rather than the physical path. Often the ripper is preconfigured to put things into a folder structure based on the “artist” and “album” tags, such as x:/RollingStones/OutOfOurHeads or whatever. Personally, I have an even “flatter” folder hierarchy, with every album (or set) sitting directly in my /music folder… doesn’t matter, I almost never use “folder” view (although MinimServer offers this option, and many like and prefer it).
So, test ripping session number two is to understand how dBPowerAmp (apologies for saying the wrong app name before, I use XLD or EAC!) creates the directory and file naming rules. Maybe just go with the defaults for your same 5 test CDs, try that, and then edit the rules to get something you prefer for a third ripping cycle if you think you want to go that way or can’t live with the defaults.
Album art is a bit tricky, and sometimes does not get embedded in or read from the metadata… so here is a spot where knowing the file folder structure is important (as you add a .jpg alongside the .flac files) as well as the characteristics of the server (since the file name is usually fairly specific, such as folder.jpg or cover.jpg or the like). This is one place where it can look as if the two apps are fighting each other - especially if the ripper embeds the .jpg in the .flac metadata, but the server is looking for a separate folder.jpg file or whatever.
Multi-disc sets are also a tricky thing, so it’s good you are encountering that early. Again, something to master in Asset: there will be a tick box of some sort for “multi disc”, and spaces for “disc number” (increasing for each disc in the set) and “total number” (constant for all, and equal to the count). I don’t know what the screen actually shows in Asset, but as you are ripping through the set you should see some indication that you are on “disc 2 of 5”, or whatever; this gets built into the metadata for each track, and is often added to the file name to help with less sophisticated servers that, for example, play in alphabetical order.
I’m only slightly surprised that the automatic metadata looked up for you and used to pre-fill the tags before starting the tip let you down here; this is an area to watch and adjust as you go through your collection. Last things I ripped were box sets - Kate Bush remasters and Tangerine Dream iirc. I noticed (esp for Kate Bush) that the default metadata corresponded to the original release, but I chose to edit in such a way that the “Album” was the Box Set name, I gave an appropriate “disc number” and “disc title” and used the box set artwork to have it show up as a collection (I don’t think I bothered with track-specific artwork for while it is playing… but you can drill as deeply as you wish once you get into it) It’s cool. But it’s manual… and I tried the default first then adjusted to meet my own preferences.
Similarly, the whole “Various Artists” issue is something to work out early, as the default tag may have only “Artist” or “”Album Artist”, and you will want to settle on your convention for specifying the track artist or the sort artist or whatever… best way to learn here would be to just add a collection to your test group of five CDs and see what happens, and watch for where you edit tags to get things looking the way you want before heading off to the races.
Good luck, keep going, practice and learn to use the tools you’ve chosen to achieve the results you want and expect. Have a little celebration that your very first attempt worked so well that you already have a learning plan. And remember that re-doing the test group a few times to learn, understand, and develop your longer term workflow was always your intention… this is going exactly according to your master plan, so keep going!
Regards, alan
Thanks ChrisSU and alan33. I don’t get any credit for getting local streaming to work - it really was as simple as just plugging it in and controlling it from the app. Full credit to Naim on that. I have no particular interest in using a folder structure - it’s just something I thought was necessary. My next session will be as you suggest, to see what happens when I just put every thing in the root folder of the HDD using defaults as far as possible.
I don’t think I’m looking for more features. I have seen a little of Roon and I’m not interested, just now at least. (In fact I was quite surprised at what the Atom could do in the way of finding more information on line and adding it to the rips.) All I really want is to be able to find an album/track quickly and for it to sound good.
I haven’t given up the idea of getting a Core. I would be interested in hearing from those who have one, on what they think about ease of use in general (how often do you really need to edit metadata for example), and what is the sound like.
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