As time goes by, legacy streamer like my nd5xs are oh so old, I barely can‘t use it any more. After 4 years of use! That‘s exaggerated, surely I still use it and its great sound makes me happy.
Some of us say the legacy streamer are made just to stream from a hard disk, and they do. But four years ago there was internet already! And streaming from the internet is of course what our legacy streamer should be able to. They do not concerning Qobuz.
I absolutely agree with Naim that I can‘t complain that the new Naim devices make a better sound. Just have to buy a new one.
Stop moanin‘.
Looking ahead.
What do you do to upgrade, to modernize.
Do you connect a Bluetooth adapter? Which one? How?
LAN Filter?
New dac?
Tell us how you make your legacy streamer future proof.
I use Roon with my legacy streamer (NDS) with a bridge doing the bit in the middle. With Roon there is no need to upgrade further as long as Roon keep going and developing their platform which they certainly seem to be doing currently.
Roon and a SonicOrbiter Bridge (or one of the software/Pi solutions).
Why I never bought into the classic Naim streamer line - just didn’t seem like good VFM considering how quickly this tech is changing. My 1971 160BD on the other hand…
Then thing is, whatever function you brought your ND5XS for, should continue doing that for many more years. Which is the same as the Amp you brought, and speakers. I think that is the best way to look at it.
Of course technology moves on with streamers unlike Amps(ish) so I suppose it’s natural to try and squeeze a little more out of it - especially if you are a member of this Forum . I personally see sources (CD/Streamers/TV/etc) as long term consumables, in that it’s almost expected to change them after some years, but your main body (Pre/Amp/Speakers) remains firms, and solid and dependable.
Since I only to local streaming, I’ve not lost or been denied any functionality I want.
But hypotyeticlly, if sound quality isn’t an issue, add a streaming transport and use the ND * as a DAC. It’s a shame they don’t have ASIO USB input. Then adding a micro PC would be dead simple and cost effective.
To stay with Naim products to get latest streaming functionality going from nac272/nap 250 I think my choices are new uniti, nait + ndx2, ndx2+Naim pre amp + power supply+existing nap, wait for new streaming preamp
Current work round is Sonos connect.
My NDS makes everything sound so good that I’ll be keeping it and just adding a ND5 XS2 to it to bring it up to current spec when qobuz is available in Canada. Till then my iradio and ripped CDs on the NAS are perfect. I have a USB with MP3s on it that I stick in the front, and it sounds great as well. So really, I’m just waiting for Qobuz before I bother getting the ND5 XS2.
Audio wise I am happy and content with my 172 streaming FLAC files from my Qnap NAS running MinimServer.
Security and technology wise, I keep my eye on updates and attend to “issues” as they arise which is thankfully not very often.
Try Volumio with RaspberryPI you can build one with a good digital output to go into the NAIM dac from HiFiBerry and do Qubuz and any new functionality you might want. I still am flabbergasted they have not updated the 272 yet…
So, what is the Problem with our legacy streamer?
Hardware? Then all the other legacy streamer of Linn & co have the same problem. Do they?
I‘m happy about my nd5xs. From my Nas HDD it plays 24bit pieces.
A software on the Nas emulating a HDD would be the solution (qobuz in - HDD out). Naive?
I’ve got Bubble UPnP Server running on a Raspberry Pi4. It provides Qobuz to my 3 legacy devices (NDS, Uniti and UnitiQute 2) as well as transcoding to .WAV
Control is Bubble UPnP running on my phone. Only thing I miss is not being able to pause a track, it will only resume from the beginning of the track.
. I personally see sources (CD/Streamers/TV/etc) as long term consumables, in that it’s almost expected to change them after some years, but your main body (Pre/Amp/Speakers) remains firms, and solid and dependable.