I have a Naim 32-5 preamp and am looking for a CD ripper/storage unit that will plug into my pre amp any ideas?
Hi,
I’m not sure I’m clear as to what you want to achieve? A ripper/storage unit will not work with your preamp without a streamer/DAC to render. There are lots of options for how this can be achieved. The Naim option would be a Naim Uniti Core and ND5XS, alternatively you could have a NAS drive on a PC to do the ripping/storage to feed the ND5XS.
Other guys will have different suggestions.
Regards,
Lindsay
I have a cd player hooked up to my pre amp which is fine but want a unit like the old Naim Unitiserve SSD what do I need to contact to the pre amp a dac?
An Innuos Zen Mini Mk III will do this.
The Innuos Zen Mini is a good choice if you want a single box that does everything because unlike most CD rippers it includes a DAC, and therefore an analogue output which you can connect to a preamp. In addition to this it will give you access to internet radio, and streaming services such as Spotify, Tidal and Qobuz.
A more traditional approach would be to buy a streamer to connect to your preamp. Then you use a computer or NAS drive for ripping and storage, which can be located elsewhere, and can be inexpensive stuff that you keep in a cupboard. Unless, of course, you want it to come in a fancy aluminium box with a posh name, and a price to match!
A second-hand HDX? Simplicity, if a bit dated.
That is a good idea.
Take a look…
Good luck with your search for a solution
Do report back and share how you get on?
KR
R
thanks for all the ideas will now try to work out which one will work for me
If you have a strong hankering to stay Naim-ed or want the simplest option to operate, you may be interested to know that I just bought a 20year-old Core, with 2TB of SSD included for £1,000 from a well-known auction site.
New, performance-per-£ made a Core look like a non-starter for me, despite having a Naim streamer. At that price, and given the tatty state of my laptop’s CD-drive and the increased cost of new SSD space today, it looked (and still looks) a decent deal. The same site provided an ND5 XS2 for £2,000.
You can achieve a similar result for a lot less money, particularly if you don’t want to stream or are happy doing your own rips, storing them on an external NAS and eschewing streaming services. If you have a computer with a CD-drive, you could just buy a NAS (perhaps Synology?) and a DAC (Chord? Audiolab? Naim N-DAC?).
I bought the Innuos mini for exactly this purpose a couple of years ago. Ripped all my CDs. Plugs into my NDX then 52/135s.
But, comparing Tidal with a ripped cd, Tidal is usually noticeably superior. Even comparing a Little Dot cd transport as a digital source, the played cd sounds better than the ripped one.
Suggest get a streamer then see if you miss the CDs.
20 year old! That is amazing. That’s 15 years before Naim built it even.
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