Thanks for the comments (so far).
So, the Core is not really the magic box my dealer would have me believe. I already have a decent NAS and rip using ITunes successfully. So maybe I’ll save the money for a Core and put it towards a NDX2 instead. Yes, ITunes can be a faf at times, calling things by the wrong name/making it a compilation, when its not but it can be easy to edit if required.
My current streamer is a CA CXNV2, which for the money I’d struggle to beat. And even a ND5XS2 may not better. Although I’d need to do a proper A/B comparison…
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Work out how much the Core plus the amount of storage you want, hard disk or SSD, will cost and then buy the best Innuos Zen Mini, Zen or Zenith you can for the same money - you will not be disappointed!
KR, J
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If you rip CDs or buy downloads, you might find DBpoweramp a good alternative to iTunes. Alternatively, if you like the idea of a device that works straight out of the box, I would consider an Innuos Zen Mini, which has much wider functionality than the Core for less than half the price, and save the money towards a streamer/DAC upgrade.
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My suggestion would be: rip your CDs with a standard tool like DBpoweramp, serve your rips with a customizable server like MinimServer (running on a RPi or on a NAS), invest your money in DAC, amplification, speakers and music.
And the nice thing about the Zen(ith) is that you have the choice to buy a USB DAC or like me to use your nDAC via a usb to spdif converter (in my case Audiophilleo + PurePower).
Phil
You can choose to rip to FLAC on a Core, I’ve never tried it.
I’d support the logic here, I’d focus on allocating your budget to improving the source, whilst products like the Innuos Zen are good and add features above what is offered by a Naim Core, it’s still basically a Linux PC with a hard drive in it you can’t change/upgrade/replace yourself (the Core is a BYOD solution, it’s still basically an embedded Linux box with a high quality PSU in it)
Most of the audio specific products like Naim Core, Innuos, Melco and so forth market themselves on a few key things namely ease of use and perceived audio quality.
The only product where I’ve been able to hear any sort of improvement in the playback quality was using a Melco server, however for me the cost/benefit wasn’t enough. If money wasn’t an issue, I’d probably get a Melco server, but budget is important in my case and so I used what I had and focused on improving the system elsewhere including a planned swap out of my ND5 XS 2 for a NDX 2 and a change of amp from a SN2 to a SN3 (mainly to add a phono input and I got a good deal!)
I’d certainly try dBPoweramp, I use XLD as I’m all Mac OS and I’ve used it for years, both use AccurateRip which is an online database to reference against when ripping to ensure what you rip yourself is the same as that in the database. They also don’t mess around with the gain/normalise processing, whereas iTunes just rips what it finds and normalises the output files.
I also have an id3 metadata editor just in case.
Having done all of the above and spent a fair while ripping and in some cases re-ripping, I’ve ended up with a ripped archive on my Mac Mini wit a Roon front end which I found was the most helpful/enjoyable “interface” to my archive.
I’ve had various discussions around the Naim app experience, how Roon “messes up” the sound and various other pseudo science discussions about why one is better than the other!
Mileage varies here, and a lot of users like the Naim app experience and staying in the Naim ecosystem. Having tried numerous approaches I found I could rip and store to the Mac using XLD and then let Roon work out how to make sense of my library, Roon also consolidates all the sources in to one search paradigm, including my ripped archive, Tidal and Qobuz as sources, so if I search for an artist it displays one result showing local version and online versions, allowing me to chose my preference.
More and more I use the online versions and dip in to the local library where versions aren’t available online or it’s just material that isn’t published or available elsewhere.
So in your case I’d think about the entire journey of the experience from CD to ripping to storage and then the actual front end for search and discovery. I have a fair amount of ripped CD’s and a little over 40,000 tracks in my local Roon database but a lot of that is available on Qobuz or Tidal anyway.
If you haven’t yet you can do a trial of all of these services for a month or more to get a feel of how your CD library fits in to a more dynamic search and discover experience where you are consolidating a CD library into an online library.
I found that once I moved to using Roon as my main front end I accessed and relied on my CD archive less and less, and with native support for both Tidal and Qobuz on my ND streamer and a decent Internet connection, I have all I need.
I’m certainly glad I didn’t spend a lot of money on a dedicated server and don’t feel my listening experience is lacking as a result of my choices.
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Perceived gives the impression these things are questionable - the noise reduction measures etc deliver.
Phil
The reason I say that is because it will depend on a lot of variables and the claims of improvements to what you actually hear from your speakers is on the basis of increasing noise isolation and using higher quality linear power supplies to again further reduce noise from within the product itself. This is similar to what Naim do with their products in moving the noise away from the processing and amplification.
If you try something, find a sonic improvement and can live with the usability, then that could prove a good product/experience mix.
I’d never state absolutely that one approach is better than the other, I can only share my own personal experiences and the conclusions I myself reached.
In my case it’s usually a mix between budget, ease of use and overall sonic improvements. I tried a mix of rippers/servers and my conclusion was that I could do the same without spending 1000’s and allocate that budget elsewhere.
Forgot to mention, we haven’t even touched on Ethernet and switches. Suggest you go searching for that and open your own can of worms!
I use Wi-Fi to my ND, it all works, I’m happy with how it sounds and I’ve not spent £1000 on a 1m Ethernet cable. Many others have a lot more experience of tinkering with wired networking in relation to audio. I saved myself the frustration, setup Wi-Fi, sat down and enjoyed, job done.
The Core is very convenient but it is not the last word in sound quality, in fact I preferred a QNAP fanless NAS running either Minim or Asset. I’d hang on to what you’ve got unless there ius some aspect you are unhappy with. Or else enquire whether your dealer is prepared to give a home demo…
Roon is another matter and is the route I ended up going down. The Nucleus+ sounded better to my ears than anything else. I managed to get a home demo of that before buying.
Just giving the free version of Asset a go now. Never really considered the need to use a different Upnp thingy other than that that came with my NAS. If it proves useful, I’ll pay for the full version.
Same here. I also run Roon core off the NAS’s processor and I’ve located the NAS in the basement. I don’t see the need for anything else.
Intresting that when I set the original question/post, id not fully thought this through. Or more likely thought that the Core was a mpre ckever box of tricks than perhaps it is.
I guess that once you have ripped your library of CDs, then at best the Core is just a music server. And if you store the rips elsewhere, then it is pretty redundant.
So now my attention has turned to my WD Pr2100’s capability as a music server.
The WD has Squeezebox and Plex as it optional media servers, with Twonky? as a default. All appear OK with the Cambridge.
As others have mentioned already, an innuos zen or zen Mini is worth checking out if you don’t want to mess around with NAS boxes, drive and software installs.
It works - out of the box. Feed it a CD and it will rip it and store it as WAV or FLAC. It can be used in UPnp server mode or in Roon mode. I picked up the Zen mini 3 two months ago and was not sure if it was worth the money over my already very decent Qnap NAS.
But the more I use it and explore It’s Logitech Media Server features the more I am impressed with this little box of tricks. I have it set-up using LMS to UPnp bridge software (which required a simple tick of a box to install) to stream Qobuz, Tidal, Radio Paradise FLAC and all my ripped CDs to my SuperUniti. It has upgrated my SuperUniti into a ‘Nova’ or what I like to call… superNova 
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For someone who considers himself fairly good with computers I’m tempted by a Core as I can’t be arsed to faff around with rippers, USB optical drives on Mac, correcting metadata, transferring to NAS and so forth.
The Core also looks quite neat. Seriously tempted if you can copy the data off it/back it up.
Backing up on the Core is easy. Plug in a USB drive and select back up through the app and it just does it’s thing.
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The Core will not give you more accurate metadata than well established tools like DbPoweramp. But it will make editing those metadata more cumbersome. If you go for the Core, take care to rip to .flac unless you want to be locked into a proprietary, not exportable metadata format. Also, remember that if you want to transcode your .flac rips to .wav at replay time, you’ll need to run a UPnP server on another machine: the Core’s UPnP server does not support transcoding.
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If you want to copy music for use on other (non-Naim) devices, make sure you save CD rips as FLAC, otherwise the metadata is generally not readable. Once you’ve saved them as WAV, you cannot later transcode them to FLAC for this purpose, as you can on the Unitiserve, which seems a bit odd to me.
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So, what I think I pick up from this, is that there is not too much love for the Core. And yes, its a linux driven ripper. Bring your own HD. Yes, some people have them and like them for convienience. And I get that if the Core was £700. So, for me I’ll live on with Itunes and make some ALACs. Streamed frim my WD nas to the Cambridge cxnv2 they sound good. Not as good as the native CD from my CD5si though.
Perhaps ill think about a nicer NAS. But I doubt the sound will change though. Think ill put the £1900 towards a NDx2 instead?
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