Probably correct unfortunately.
The Core is good - pity the App is very very poor!! The development team consists of only 8 people - I think this shows you what importance level it has to Naim!! There are so many basic things wrong or incomplete. I am in the process of setting up a Qnap and Asset to be able to get all the features I want.
I copied the music over and to my horror found that none of tags I’ve changed on the App was actually changed! Going to be fun to change on over 3000 CD’s 
With CD replay you have no noisy computer network, no NASs, music servers, switches or streaming cables imparting their sonic signature on the sound. It is more direct with a simpler path to the music, think how the Naim DAC and Naim streamers sounded better fed from a USB stick in their USB socket than when fed from a network. Eliminating the network eliminates one major source of noise. This why so many still prefer to play CDs.
In hifi, the most important thing is your speakers. These determine sound quality more than anything else. You can have the best sources and amplification in the world, but if your speakers cannot reproduce that level of sound then you’ll never know how good your electronics are. So buy the speakers you like best and every upgrade of the electronics will shine through.
For every argument there is an equal and opposite re-argument.
In the the end if sounds better than it is better and you have to make that choice. FWIW I believe following the Naim philosophy and using its electronics will lead to a very fine system, it is a shame Naim no longer makes speakers or does not demo with different speakers (I’m not in tune with Focal). Nonetheless the videos of Jason’s demos are very interesting and he is an excellent presenter and if it helps folk understand Naim and give it a go then that’s a very good thing.
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The company I worked for developed a product that is in use all over the planet and it was designed using formal methods, but our development team was only four. So eight seems rather a lot to me. If you use a constructive cost model or function point analysis or both (there are other methods too) then you can estimate how many people you need at each stage of the development.
I do not know the relative complexity of our code and Naim’s code. So 8 may be ideal.
That said, the Naim app I tried did not do things I wanted and expected - all of which are easily accomplished with JRiver or editing tools like Yate, Others may not care about this to the extent I did (e.g. select the version of the album with the greatest dynamic range)
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Agree…. Nd555 is a very good match to Melco N10 wider stage,big sound,bass is better and deeper,music sound as it is…enjoyable,now I`m waiting to get a second 555ps
Can anybody compare their experience of the difference in SQ between Tidal “hifi” and Qobuz?
The presenter said that Qobuz is “better”. Better how?
Those two videos are well worth watching, and show very clearly the thinking behind Naim and the way a logical upgrade path reaps benefits. A lot of the stuff about the Core is, to me, marketing twaddle, but the emphasis on source first remains true today.
Jason is hugely knowledgeable and a really lovely man. He came round to my house once and changed the bass drivers on my SBLs. He’s always been honest and straightforward and is a huge asset to Naim. The Hugh Masekela was great.
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“…next month…and it’s twice, three-times better than Tidal…”
How so I wonder?
G
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I compared Tidal with Cdd (hopefully same mix/mastering) and much preferred the CD every time. Difficult to say the test was perfect, but it confirmed Tidal is not something I need to subscribe to.
Yes I’m wondering that myself. I use Roon almost exclusively now. Will Roon/Quboz together sound 3 times better than Roon/Tidal?
Yes, I was fascinated by the last album. Do you know which of his it was?
Thanks
Phil
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I too was surprised regarding the SQ advantage claim using the Uniti Core in Jason’s video. Was under the general impression that my QNAP/Asset set-up is as good. Sure he is there to help market Naim equipment but I think he simply would not have remarked about the SQ advantage with the Core if he didn’t believe it.Am I being naive ?
I’d suggest that you are. My Nas sounded better than my previous UnitiServe and by all accounts the Serve and the Core are little different. The idea that it produces better rips is simply nonsense - it uses a database just like dBpoweramp and other rippers do. But if in doubt, give one a go and compare. For me, the inability to transcode and the restricted metadata makes it a non-starter. But then, I’m a Core non-believer.
Only one way to find out - audition for yourself and let your ears guide you. For me, the UnitiCore sounds better than a NAS, however that’s the fun of this hobby - lots of options and lots of different opinions and advice.
In addition, I strongly doubt that Jason would be using the UnitiCore in a demo if there was another product that out-performed it with Naim streamers?
Forget all the forum bubble ’advice’ and let your ears be your guide. I did.
ATB. George.
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Naim demo only Naim components. They will not demo other cables even if they sound better, neither better racks or better nas/ server.
Actually, being a company with a single-minded ‘performance-first’ attitude, Naim have always been keen to get in for evaluation anything that their extensive network of partners have felt might possibly offer an improvement or enable Naim kit to perform better than before. In my day there were regular evaluation so of some very exotic cables (i/c , speaker and mains), supports, racks (Naim were always trying out the latest “best” thing, mains conditioners, you name it. The problem was that while you sometimes found something that brought an apparent improvement is a particular area, it so often came at the cost of more fundamental areas of music replay that Naim did not wish to compromise. But sometimes its certainly showed areas where existing kit might be found lacking, and enabled Naim to develop even better kit that kept the fundamentals intact while bringing enhancements in other performance areas.
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I think what he said, so far as I recall it, was that the Core is better than the best CD player because it does a bit-perfect rip and plays it without needing to use error correction.
I didn’t hear him make any claims for Core vs a NAS. But personally I am very sceptical at claims that a QNAP or Synology NAS produces better SQ than a Core.
Best
David
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Thanks, I’m enjoying listening to it.
Phil
…when looking at cost benefit, from my own personal point of view, purchasing a quality NAS with DISK storage was the main factor in the decision. The cost of my NAS was 2K+ less expensive then a core.
I am not sure of what the difference between the SQ using a core vs NAS is since I never made a comparison. I do know that I am extremely happy with the music (SQ) being streamed from my NAS to my humble NAIM system.
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