Seconding @Ardbeg10y.
One thing I particularly like about playing a USB stick on Naim DAC is that the buttons on the front of the DAC operate analogously to the buttons on Naim CD players — the remote works too (via 7, 8, 9, and 0 buttons). The only thing missing from the CD experience is the visible track number.
I only do this occasionally, but it is elegant; and it is a good benchmark versus other sources. WAV and AIFF work best.
Plug the same USB stick into the front of the NDX and you can see the tracks listed on the front panel and iPhone etc. Nice tricks to have, but not essential for folks used to spinning CDs under similar limitation.
NDX handles folders; not sure about the DAC — I think not.
I find both the Naim DAC and my NDX-FM are picky about sticks — plainer are more reliable than exotic ones — and sometimes one rejects a stick the other likes! Naim DAC seems slightly pickier, to me.
I’ve read a lot of good things about the G1. And implementation is certainly important.
Have you had a chance to try a wired connect with the G1.
I’ve only tried it with a Superuniti and an NDS. With each of them, as soon as I hard wired, it sounded better.
But, when I want to try Qobuz thru the NDS, I’ll try a Sonore Bridge or MConnectHD or one of the others.
But if those don’t do it, then the Auralic G1 is at the top of my short list.
I have no way to run an Ethernet cable, without a lot of work and cost. I could get a 25 meter cable to try it hardwired but if it sounded a lot better I’d be really pissed off…
I use mine wired. I don’t think there’s a big difference between wired/wireless. Maybe a little warmer, deeper. But, I have easy access to the router and use a Cisco 2960 switch that only feeds the Aries G1.
I run four RPi 3B based streamers: three wired, one wireless.
The main difference is that the wireless RPi responses (start up times while it loads/updates/rebuilds its local database) are slower than for the three wired ones. I used to have an issue with the (wireless) Kitchen streamer, which used an RPiZeroW, in that it would occasionally drop off the network (wifi coverage is not the greatest in that location), so I replaced that one with an RPi3B and its been fine ever since.
Good to know that some of you are getting good sound from WiFi connects. I have good wired connection access to my system, at this point, but that may not always be the case. Especially if I want to set up music in other rooms like Suzy did.
I like having classical iradio on in the background while I work on something. So, there’s a room that’s going to need a signal.
