Hello, can anybody please advise? My entire music library is held in a database called Music Bee. Is there a way for the Uniti Star to detect the tracks playing on the front display? I tried running an HDMI cable from my PC to the Star but it didn’t detect any signal.
So I’m currently running a single RF cable, from the green audio port on the back of my PC, to the analogue inputs on the Star. Is this the best way to do it? Should I buy a decent sound card and then use an optical connection from that to the Star for better performance?
The HDMI is an HDMI ARC and only works with devices supporting that. So that is why it did not work.
I am also connecting my PC to my Atom HE using an external box and then the analog inputs. But I would assume that an optical solution would give you best performance. If you are using analog you are relying on the external DAC (in your computer) to provide the analog signal. If you can send the bitstream uncompressed from your computer via optical it will bring the Star’s high quality DAC into play.
This is if you need to keep running your library on your PC. But in none of the two solutions above will the Star display the cover art or track information. If you want that you will need to move to something like Roon or copy the files to a drive attached to the Star’s USB.
The Naim Uniti Star has various ways of playing music and one of them is as a network player, this means it can discover your library if it is shared in your local network. I’m not sure if music bee (first time I hear about it) would share your library in the network but if it does, you would see it in the Naim (Focal & Naim) app after tapping Servers. If you don’t see your library shared there then you need to set that up first in your computer. I’m sure the topic for sharing your library is extensively covered in this forum. Once your library is shared in the same network, the Star will pick it up and you’ll be able to search and play from it! Remember that the star has 2 ways of connecting to your network: wifi and ethernet. I like ethernet better but wifi is great as well.
As a proud owner of a Star, I can tell you that is not the only way to play your music via network, you can also do it via Apple’s airplay or Google’s casting with the caveat, as always, that the quality is limited to the source output. In that sense, if your library is above CD quality then native network streaming is best.
I re-read your statement above and I believe you are using your computer’s audio output port, then a cable to plug it into the analog inputs of the Star. One of the reasons why the Star is such a good unit is because it’s digital to analog capabilities and the best way to feed it is with digital sources. The Star includes an analog input mainly to plug in a record player where the signal is inherently analog.
Here’s my recommendation to you, first, connect your Star to the network (if not already). At this point you can Airplay or cast directly to it from your devices. Second, publish your library via a UPnP or DLNA server to your network and then you can play your library via the Naim app. If you still need to plug your audio source to the Star, do so via the digital interfaces like the HDMI. All these playing scenarios can coexist so you have a range of ways of using your Star.
Looks like music bee is similar to jriver but doesn’t have any upnp support.
It really depends on whether you want to use music bee as the driver software ie choose what you want to play using music bee.
Or do you just want to be able to play the music on the star using the Naim app.
If your star and pc are on the same network; install asset upnp, point it at the music files, and the star will find the music via the upnp option in the Naim app.
Hi Kryptos,
so…
I’m having a nightmare here.
I bought a soundcard for my PC (Creative Soundblaster ZSE) and installed it.
This is because I wanted to improve the audio quality from PC to Uniti Star, as I was using an analogue phone cable from the single green port on my PC to the two analogue ports in the Star. That sounded pretty good.
But I thought it would be better to do a digital connection from PC to Star - hence the soundcard with a new optical cable. I did this because someone said it would be better to use the Star’s DAC rather than the PC’s.
But it sounds much worse!
I’m playing around with the settings in the “Sound Blaster Command Module” but it was all way better with the phono to phono.
Have I just wasted money on a soundcard and optical cable???
Hope you can help.
Thanks so much
No idea. Never tried anything like that. Only straw I can grasp at is sound format being streamed. Should be stereo PCM as far as I know. The Star cannot handle surround formats.
