Admittedly I am a newbie in this field. But a serious music lover, and want to ‘hear music’ again! I’m in my mid 50’s. I haven’t owned a ‘real’ stereo since I was in my 20’s - true story! OK, it took about three years, and considerable savings for an artist like me, to shimmy up the gusto enough to make this purchase of the Uniti Star, and she’s a beauty…but I, like many, likely thought this would be simple, plug n’ play but…
?: Why, if it’s Bluetooth compatible, does it not simply speak to my Audio-Technica wireless headphones? (I have heard it’s ‘Bluetooth-in only’ but doesn’t that defeat the purpose of using this type of streaming tech?
?: Do others have issues trying to figure out the functionality between the NAIM app (on, say a phone), the remote control and the front panel of the unit? There seems to be a disconnect sometimes, it does not feel smooth sailing.
?: Why doesn’t the Uniti Star ‘talk to’ my iMac running the very latest version of OSX? Is that a “simple” fix where NAIM’s app folk could create an app for the iMac? It would be better to have a large screen to control the software and see imagery larger and clearer rather than squinting on a phone, no?
?: OK, this might be a biggie. the Uniti Star and Roon. It’s a bit of a quagmire unless I shelled out the big bucks for a Roon Nucleus (I am not about to attempt putting together one of the Intel NUC things, I am not going there, I am not technically inclined). What I had hoped was I could run Roon (not subscribed yet btw) on my iMac desktop (not using iTunes/iMusic whatsoever) and somehow it would simply connect to the Uniti Star and I could start to organize music in a more serious way (large collection) simply by hooking up my Seagate HD via USB on the Uniti Star. I’m unsure if that is possible, or if I have to use some USB to USB cable from the iMac to the Uniti Star or if this could easily happen over WiFi. Any thoughts?
I think that’s all my questions for the moment. I welcome anyone’s suggestions, ideas, alternatives. Many thanks! - TJ
I just double up on the music. Have an SSD dangling from my Star and leave it there. When I rip something new I copy it to the laptop I use as Roon core via network share.
This way there is no plugging in and out all the time, no risk messing up the drive so the Star won’t read it later and the music is backed up as well.
Have just experimented with the Naim app on an out of date android tablet (5.1) and it works fine. I imagine an Amazon fire would be perfectly suitable, that’s probably the cheapest new device out there.
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I suppose it’s worth giving this a look-see. I was hoping to simply run Roon and it would work from my iMac desktop computer? I have a month to see if this system works for my set-up, if not I can return it, but I’m enjoying the sound, the look, it’s just OSX/NAIM/Roon connectivity and organization of music that is the clincher I didn’t expect.
My iMac and NAIM are side by side in my set-up (an elongated desk/listing situation). That’s what I have to work with. I have an 8TB Seagate HD dangling from my Uniti Star - but I need to get those sounds better organized via Roon + then when I run Roon via the OSX, somehow, magically they speak to each other (computer/Roon + Uniti Star)… Worth a try?..
Roon will see the Star as an endpoint (the atom, star and nova, same as the nd5* latest version streamers are all roon certified) but the music storage must be available on the network and a usb drive attached to the star (or indeed an internal one) cannot be accessed.
Roon creates its own database as it analyses the music files, so it doesn’t matter how the files and folders are arranged on the drive.
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It is actually quite simple to get Linn Kazoo working with your Star and then you can control the streaming functions from your Mac. Just install BubbleUPnP Server on your Mac then tick a box in the Media Renderers tab. OK mine is an ND5 XS2 but it should be the same for the Star, just make sure it is not the Chromecast version of the streamer and tick the gapless playback box as well.
Once you’ve done that install Linn Kazoo on the Mac and it should find the Star then you can use that for local streaming and Tidal/Qobuz
That’s obviously on Windows but it should be very similar on OSX
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Is your iMac running macOS Big Sur?
If so it can potentially run iOS apps including the Naim App.
You’d need to purchase it on an iOS device which will be an issue for you if it’s no longer supported on your iOS version.
Apple broke up iTunes features into their separate components in macOS and ditched the ability to browse/buy iOS apps on a Mac.
There may be various workarounds. How old is the iMac?
I am able to connect my HD to my iMac and after installing and running Roon (trial), it found all my music and ‘served’ it (?) to the Uniti Star. They seem to be talking with each other now, even with Tidal (trial) also connected - everything (hardware/software) in my set-up are new to my world other than my iMac (2017). My only question is: When I backup Roon where should I back i up to, the iMac as the Roon endpoint or the external HD that the music also resides on? My digital collection is about 4TB worth so I wonder what the Roon backup actually is and how large that file would be and how long it would take. I only ask because I do not want to move some ginormous backup it creates in the wrong place. Your advice has been quite helpful. Thank you!
Linn makes a product that works on Naim - aren’t they competitors in the receiver/streamer market? Maybe they are partners. They make as nice players for sure. Are Kazoo and BubbleUPnP Server free? This is cool advice if it works.
2017 iMac running Big Sur - latest version.
It’s a roon database backup only, choose the Mac itself. You don’t need to set up the backup to run that frequently, or many iterations.
Mine is every 4 days, keep 10 (about 9gb of files) but it’s incremental not 10 discrete copies.
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Linn Kazoo is an OpenHome compliant control point so it works with a variety of equipment and what BubbleUPnP is doing is creating an OpenHome compatible renderer on the Naim.
Both BubbleUPnP Server and Linn Kazoo are free.
For organising locally stored music like many on here I use Asset UPnP server, that’s a one-off £35 payment.
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I run my Nova from my MacBook Air, something you can do with the newer chips , but most people use iOS or Android . Not sure about the answer as to why you can’t run a Star using an older chip
Like you I am strictly non-techie , in fact a card carrying Luddite , I think you’ve made a cracking purchase
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Got it! Awesome. One “future-fi” question… If I change out my iMac for a newer M1 version in the upcoming year or two - is that database backup portable? I wish it were all in the cloud (which I do not use personally). Thanks again.
OK, I see, awesome. Hmmmm - so for about $50 I have an alternative to the $699 Roon? Hmmm…
yes, you rig one machine to the other . I needed a USB to USC fairly easy.
Much more than a Microsoft
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Roon does a bit more than Asset but for me the cost of the additional hardware required plus the cost of a subscription is not good value for the money. Others of course love it and think it is worth every penny. All I want is a server that indexes my music on the metadata and presents a variety of views of that data for flexible browsing and Asset does that job very well. It does however rely on your files having good metadata and when I ripped all my CDs I made sure the metadata was good on each one at the time. If your metadata is not good, PerfectTunes from the same vendor as Asset claims to be able to sort that out but I don’t have any experience of it so can’t comment on how good a job it does.
And if you’re talking $ rather than £ if you’re in the US Asset is $37 as you won’t have to pay the 20% VAT (sales tax) that we in the UK do.
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Oh that is even better - may be worth going this route. Hmmmm. I do have to say the smoothness of setting up Roon was rather flawless when I installed yesterday. I have mp3s, WAVs, all sorts of files, singles, albums, EPs - you name it, about 27,000 albums (I’ve been a DJ, journalist, podcaster on Mixcloud - it adds up) - not even accounting for the 6K or so cds laying around! About 3 years ago I started to completely loathe iTunes/iMusic so this switchover is big and refreshing no matter how ya slice it. I can finally hear/see my music again! I was absolutely shocked to see how much music was on Tidal, much in my own collection, a lot not. I am surprised I didn’t switch to streaming years ago. Old habits die hard - at one point in my distant past (70s-90s) I accumulated 25K vinyls - all long gone now. A new era of listening ahead…!
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