Of course, the “real” answer here is for Apple and Naim to get a hotel room together and get Apple Music as a native option on their streaming devices.
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That would indeed make life much easier.
No-one has suggested an input option that negates the need for an external DAC for what I want to achieve, so that seems like the route for now. Seems crazy though.
I also suggested you can use a usb audio to Spdif converter so you can use the Atoms DAC doesn’t make it any cheaper though and it’s still an extra device.
A USB audio to Spdif convertor is a specific device, or a cable solution ? Which input route would I then use to the Atom ?
You would convert to SPDIF precisely because the Atom has an SPDIF input. It’s an extra box but usually a small one
Hi
Forgive me if I’m wrong: I’ve only got NDX, Qute, MUSO & QB (all V1) - I can just plug my iPhone/iPad into the front usb, with Apple lead, & play my music, also got NAS for normal use, but the above works fine.
If the OP needs; will this not work in the higher res format and nothing else required?
I’m learning too, as I’d like to find out re the newer kit 
I have no idea how you made USB audio work directly, but on Uniti and the streamers the USB only supports the mass storage protocol (sticks and HDs) as has been mentioned
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Is it possible it supports more than just stored files ? Ultimately it’s just a input, which then feeds through the internal DAC ?
I think it was different with old Uniti etc as the USB was intended for connection of an iPhone with the legacy units.
Best
David
The support page in the screenshot above states clearly what it does support, mass storage devices like sticks and hard disks.
You have to understand that the physical connector and the supported data protocols are entirely different things. Just because it has a physical USB connector does not mean that it supports the USB Audio protocol.
As mentioned in my reply to JR007 I have no idea what he did if he made a direct USB connection from an iPad work, as he seems to be saying. Nobody else ever did, because the USB socket does not support it at least in current streamers, Mu-sos, and Unitis. I suppose @davidhendon is correct that it may have been different with the Uniti Qute
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Not just Unitiqute, also Uniti, Uniti2, Unitilite, SuperUniti, NAC N172, NAC N272, ND5 XS, NDX, NDS, Muso and Qb
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I see, thanks for clarifying. It would be good if Naim still had the information for the older devices on the support web pages because these devices are in active use and customers obviously have needs to look up things about them
It wouldn’t be all the time for me because if I’m playing music for proper listening, I play from ripped/downloaded music on my ssd drive using the Naim app. I tend to listen this way because I find it the most reliable listening source and far less prone to internet dropout. Whilst this is rare, it is still annoying when it does happen. For my casual listening I’m happy to listen to Apple Airplay, Spotify, internet radio etc and for 90% of listening this is absolutely fine. If Apple Music were your only source then maybe playback quality limited to whatever the current technical limitations of Airplay2 are will be an issue. Spotify is my current streaming source and this is limited atm as well, but it doesn’t bother me particularly because it still sounds pretty good, improvements are in the pipeline and I tend to use it more for musical curation than ultimate sound quality anyway. I suspect Apple may be integrated within the Naim app at some point as well, so it may be worth waiting before adding millions of extra boxes and cables, which somewhat defeats the point of having the Uniti range in the first place. Ymmv though and it is a very subjective and personal choice, but there you go, you know mine.
Aha, the feature from iPod times… (when everything digital needed an iPod dock)
… actually an interesting question, whether it still works with recent iOS; and if it does, if it would work with downloaded (DRMed) Apple Music content. (Likely not?)
Will try the former later with my Pioneer box in the bathroom; won’t find out about the latter, since I don’t have Apple Music.
Older units worked using the iPod connectivity which more or less was replaced by airplay and Bluetooth. It was limited to iTunes quality of 44.1/16 and nothing else. Don’t think any modern systems support it any more.
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The iPod play feature (via USB) was deprecated by Apple, in favour of AirPlay. Naim complied, as an Apple certified partner… so none of the new generation streamers (including Uniti, NDX2, etc.) retain this functionality but since the legacy / original generation streamers (SuperUniti, NDX, etc.) could not be upgraded to AirPlay, they still work like they did before. A rare (unique?) example of extra functionality on old compared to new… but again (as Naim have confirmed) driven by Apple certification and not by Naim.
Regards alan
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Not unique. Unitiserve had built-in transcoding whereas UnitiCore doesn’t have (despite people asking for it many times over the years).
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Hi all; I hope this has helped the original OP, certainly has helped me get a view of the new kit: although I rarely use this connection, it now helps that I know it know it no longer works; as I was considering the Atom HE (with powered speakers) as I might have to ‘downgrade’ from my current system.
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Jumping back to this topic, if I may:
On the assumption I need a DAC to sit between my iPad/iPhone & my Atom for hi-res lossless, and not wanting to go crazy on price for now … if choosing between Topping D10, E30, iFi Zen, or a Dragonfly … all being pretty inexpensive, is there a compelling reason to go for one particular model ? Temptation is the Topping, for the digital readout of what’s being transmitted. The iFi is prettier, and the Dragonfly neater. Those are superficial observations though.
Digital out is definitely preferable to an actual DAC. (This avoiding multiple digital-analogue-digital-analogue conversions.)