Not sure I understand that, WAV files are WAV files…
I wish I’d known then what I know now about these UnitiServe units. If I can retrieve the music off it I’ll probably move it on after that with full disclosure of it’s chequered history and hopefully I can break even. I won’t be replacing it with another Naim server though. I’ll just play off my Synology server instead or get another ripper from elsewhere. The nature of this forum means I can’t really ask for recommendations but I have done a bit of research when it first went tits up and I realised I wasn’t going to be able to get it repaired anytime soon. I’m still loyal to the brand but it seems the US is a bit of a lemon generally.
Sorry, That was not about the UnitiServe. I was just replying to Trickydickie regarding the Naim N-Vi.
@Devil_20, I bought my US, one of the first 2Tb version, in 2012, from memory. Despite going to hospital in Salisbury a couple of times in the early years of its life, it has performed faultlessly ever since.
Always remember to use the correct shut down procedure, it caught me out in the early days. My dealer also told me that during the repairs, Naim fixed known weaknesses in the US. I did subsequently invest in a NAS as a backup though!
So I would have a discussion with your chosen Naim dealer before you choose to ditch the US.
I’ve always done the correct shut down except when it failed and I could only power it down on the power switch. Cheers, I will have that discussion with the dealership and see what they say. Apparently, when it goes in for repair they’ll give it a full service and replace any bits that are out of spec and re-cap it regardless so it should come back fully refurbished. So that says to me they should be able to guarantee it against any breakdown for at least 12 months anyway. I’m not sure what guarantee they give though. Again, something else that needs to be discussed before it heads to Salisbury.
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Without wishing to harp on, once you get it back, do get it to convert WAV to flac before backing up to your nas. If you back up the WAV files then Asset or Minim on the Synology won’t see the files as albums.
Good advice by HH. I forgot to mention I had my US convert all my WAV files to Flac and then backed them up on the NAS.
As a server I set my US to convert to WAV on the fly.
Thanks for all the good advice. It’s my fault I haven’t got a recent backup of the stuff on the US. The vast majority of my music is stored on the NAS already but I didn’t really appreciate how much was still stuck on the US and hadn’t been backed up. I’m usually better than this. The server is over 4 disks on RAID5 so that’s safe from disk failure and I also have a lot of that stuff backed onto another server. I also have several stand alone external hard disk drives containing music. I back up pretty much everything as flac files. I rarely use .wav .aac or .mp3 More likely to be monkey or ogg vorbis when they were de rigeur. 
The only problem is that flac sounds worse than WAV.
The flac came about for space reasons on my portable devices. About 57% of the size of a .wav file.
See Nigel B’s comment above - there is absolutely no difference between native WAV files and flac transcribed back to WAV on the fly. They sound exactly the same, unless you have the hearing of a bat!
I understand. Before my experience of going from a CDS3 to an NDS, I would probably of agreed with you. However, the self same CD’s ripped to the UC sound infinitely better through the NDS than they did through the CDS3. I did side by side comparisons for months. The only reason that I was given for this was jitter and error correction when using the CDS3. When converting flac to WAV what do you have? Jitter and error correction. However, I am no expert in this area, I just know what my ears tell me.
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No they dont, you drank the naim cool aid there.
For my money I would rip the harddrive out and stick it in a sata usb inclosure, if its recoverable it will mount in windows and you’ll find the 3 folders that are usually shared.
The naim wavs are easy to get meta data into using the file names themselves using MP3tag.
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Oh, well, with that level of input, that‘s decided then.
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Silly question but does the Uniti Serve come fitted with the h/d or is it like the Core you buy and fit your own.
The Unitiserve comes fitted with a HDD and that drive holds the operating system as well as the music. You can’t change it yourself. So if the HDD fails the only option is back to Salisbury (or maybe another major Naim service centre elsewhere in the world).
Best
David
You stated as fact its better, I stated as fact its not. Just trying to keep the balance.
I have never heard a difference between the same rip of flac and wav, and god only knows back in the day when I gave a crap about it I really really tried to hear a difference.
Therefore my statement is as valid as yours.
If all you are looking for is agreement, then forums are not for you.
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On my 272, even with my dodgy hearing, WAV sounds a bit more natural than flac. I’ve tried comparing transcoded flac to WAV with native WAV and can’t hear any difference. Anyway, it’s a diversion. One of the best things I did was sell my Serve while it still had value. Having the music on a nas is just so much easier. Easier to tag it how you like, easier to back up. And all for a quarter of the price too, with rips done on my antiquated Sony Vaio laptop.
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Well now my US has gone US then looks like I’ll be ripping from my Laptop too. I’ve bought quite a few CDs during lockdown and havn’t ripped any of them. What do you use to rip them. Last time I ripped from my laptop I used Exact Audio Copy. Is there anything better out there currently?
I use dBPoweramp. It works really well, ripping to level 5 flac. It accesses the accurate rip database. Because it’s made by the same people who make Asset, it’s easy to get all the metadata correct. You can also use it to convert WAV to flac and vice versa. That’s not to say it’s the best but it’s what I have and I can work it, which given my computer aptitude isn’t massive, must mean something.