I have had a Unitiserve SSD for a long time now; it’s been working reliably (a couple of returns for boot issues, which seem to be a common issue), but generally great.
Music is all stored as WAV files on a Synology NAS.
I’m considering a Uniti Star to use as a head unit/front speaker driver in a multichannel setup, but have a few concerns/queries:
Will the Star stream from the existing Music Store created by the U/serve SSD on the NAS? Or would I have to copy all the Music Store files to an external USB drive and physically connect this to the Star? The online manuals are limited, to say the least!
I understand that the Star will only rip locally ie to an attached USB drive. Can I then upload these new rips from a USB to my existing Music Store and keep it growing/maintained that way?
Am I going about this all wrong and should I be eg ripping to NAS from a PC/laptop instead, assuming the U/serve will not last forever and that I need a permanent solution?
The Star can rip to an attached device but you can’t use a Music Store on that device in another Naim unit, not even another Star. It’s extremely limited compared with a UnitiCore or a NAS.
Personally I use a Core but some people argue that a NAS is a better solution. It’s for you to decide for yourself.
The Star should be able to stream from the serve quite happily, with the serve picking up the files from the NAS.
My advice to you is to get the serve to convert all the files to flac while it’s still alive. You can do this using the desktop client. The reason for this is that if the serve conks out, you’ll need to load a upnp server on the NAS and stream from there. Due to the way the serve handles metadata, you’ll be in a right pickle if you keep them in WAV. Ignore this at your peril!!
Regarding the Star, I’d get a Nova. It’s much better. Continue to rip with your serve, ripping to flac. Forget ripping with the Star and trying to add it to your existing database.
WAV files ripped on a Naim U.Serve or any Naim ripper are not standard (unique to Naim) WAV configuration and cannot be played or worked with except on a Naim.
I advise to use the U.Serve to convert all to the universal FLAC standard before you depose of or whatever you do with the U.serve.
It may well be WAV has marginally better SQ on old Naim streamers, but that is not the case with the new generation streamers, e.g. Star.
Plus even if you have doubts on that, a NAS such as Synology can transpose a FLAC file to play as WAV using the excellent UPnP programs such as Asset UPnP or Minimserver.
And you save a load of drive storage space.
Would there be significant differences in SQ between locally streaming from NAS vs from Core? Whether playing it through a Naim gear or other brand? (With NAS we can use different brand of player/source, can’t we?)
No probably not. Some people prefer one or the other, but it’s not consistently one that is preferred. So do whichever works best for you. I agree with all those comments about converting Unitiserve WAV to flac while it still works.
You can easily find out for yourself by enabling the server on your Synology NAS and using it instead of the Unitiserve. You can run both at the same time and compare them at your leisure. It’s quite a basic server (but so is the Unitiserve) in terms of features, but it works fine. You can also instal Asset or Minimserver if you prefer.
You may well find that these other servers can’t access the Unitiserve WAV CD rips, so use the Unitiserve to convert them to FLAC as others have advised to resolve this.
The Star is a possible solution, but given that you already have a NAS I would just use that as it’s far more versatile. Then you can choose whatever streamer/hifi system you like.
I got the U/serve when it didn’t even have the option to save as FLAC, only WAV. So it can convert my existing files to FLAC via the desktop client - is that still Windows only (Mac household)?
Thereafter, can I add to a FLAC music store from a computer CD ripper without any issues/metadata problems, making the U/serve redundant?
I do need to have an ongoing ripping solution, as all
My music is CD-based, and streaming music without being able to out a CD case in a shelf to admire makes me shudder too much!
So perhaps I need a NAS server program option, and then just a streamer amplifier to do what I need - which could be the Star or Nova or something else altogether?
In N-Serve for Mac you can convert to FLAC. Control-click on an album, artist, or your whole library, and you’ll find the option.
It takes a while to do a whole library, so you may want to do it in batches.
I thought the U.Serve has a FLAC rip/convert option, but I’ve only fixed them when an old buddy broke it. Forum experts will advise.
Whatever you realy need to get the Naim made WAV files converted. The forum favs (& excellent) Asset & Minimserver are not able to do it but I think there is a software program called Songkong that will.
Next get dBpoweramp on your Mac to rip CD’s to your NAS, then you can wean yourself off CD addiction.
You will need a DVD drive if your computor doesn’t have one, you only need a good but basic, ASUS are as good as any on the market, £30/£40’ish.
I may be wrong, but I think SongKong only deals with tagging metadata picture on Naim’s WAV database (from UServe or UCore). Converting them into FLAC uses other program (or Songkong can do too?).
As to WAV files, I also have some BluOS gears as well as Sonos gears at home for different rooms. Turns out those gears can also access my Naim WAV database stored in my Uniti Core as a separate folder in their Music Library, just will not show the metadata image/album graphic on the non-Naim players, which is fine with me.
It’s a myth that Naim WAVs won’t work on non-Naim devices. They play with no problems. It’s just that you can’t read the metadata. If you can browse by folder you’re sorted.