Hello,
I am fairly new to the world of streamers as have listened mostly to vinyl.
As of late I have listened to lossless files via a macbook connected to the amp through a dragonfly red.
I am considering upgrading to a proper streamer and after researching a while I would be opting for an nd5 xs2. I have been advised to install a NAS as well and given reliance on Itunes it appears synology would be the better alternative (Ds218/ds418).
Has anyone experienced compatibility/connectivity issues between these items? if not what would be the best connection?
router -> ethernet -> nas -> wifi -> streamer
router -> wifi -> nas -> usb (other wired connections possible?) -> streamer
router -> wifi -> nas -> wifi -> streamer
No problems with Naim & Synology compatibility.
Best avoid wifi if at all possible, ethernet is best & incidentally the only wired connection type for this set up. If you must go wifi then its only possible between router & streamer. The iPad or Android control point is wifi.
Your suggested connectivity will not work, the router sits between NAS & Streamer (see drawing).
Depending where all your bits are located, it might make for a simpler wire routing to incorporate a switch. (see 2nd drawing)
Many Thanks Mike very clear.
Unfortunately it will take some proper work (or a lot of ethernet cable…) to be able to bring an access point to the HIFI location so i guess the streamer will have to be connected via wifi to the network.
So just to confirm. The music will be the streamed form the nas/router to the streamer via WIFI.
In any case, would it have been possible to play the music via a USB connection directly between the nas and ndx?
I don’t know for sure as I’ve not actually done it, I’m sure someone who has can chip in.
I do play USB from flash sticks on odd occasions, but apart from no difference with the music quality, it’s not a great experience, very basic & clunky. Compared the way these streamers are intended to play, media server UPnP software on the NAS + the Naim app on a tablet or s.phone with excellent browsing options & search facilities, plus cover art & album information.
Re your router to streamer wifi link, it will depend on distance & wall structures, if that does prove problematical you will need to think about adding wireless access points
Hi Giacomo, the new Naim streamers like the ND5XS2 have an improved USB input compared to the old models, and you may find that a USB hard drive is all you need. It’s best to then enable ‘server mode’ on the streamer, and you can then browse the music just the same as if it was on a separate NAS/server.
If you have any other music streamers in the house, they, too, will be able to access this music from the ND5XS2 over your network.
A good Synology or QNAP NAS is a versatile device that you may decide is worth having, but to get you started, a USB drive is much cheaper, and very much easier to set up.
Regarding network performance, the new streamers also have much better WiFi performance, and if you have a well set up home network with a good signal, you may find it is reliable. If not, run a long Ethernet cable to it, or maybe consider upgrading your home WiFi hardware.
An alternative, if you just want to play from the storage to the ND5 XS 2, might be to connect your ND5 XS 2 and the NAS to a simple network switch in your listening room, and then use a WiFi-to-Ethernet bridge to connect the switch to your main WiFi router so the ND5 XS 2 can be ‘found’ by the app running on your phone or tablet. This will also provide an Internet connection for the online streaming services the ND5 XS 2 supports.
Otherwise the suggestion of using a USB drive straight into the ND5 XS 2 is perhaps the most sensible suggestion if you have to use WiFi - you can’t connect a NAS straight into the ND5 XS 2 via USB, and the only real way to do this would be to use the NAS’s USB output via something like a Gustard U12 digital interface into one of the ND5 XS 2’s digital inputs. However then you’d need some way of controlling the NAS, as it will be acting as the player and the Naim as no more than a DAC - that would get messy, and would make most of the Naim functionality redundant for file playback.
My experience of using the new Naim products – NDX2, ND5 XS 2 and even the ND555 – over WiFi has been a bit patchy: yes, they’re better than the old ones, and if you have a good wireless network they can be persuaded to handle files at up to 192kHz/24bit without an Ethernet connection, but I’ve still encountered some buffering and drop-outs occasionally, and would certainly stick to a wired connection if at all possible.
(As an aside, I’d say all three units, when connected with Etherhet, sound best if you leave the supplied antennae for WiFi and Bluetooth in the box)
That’s why I suggest the NAS and ND5 XS 2 into a switch, which is hung off the WiFi using a bridge - the wireless should be fine for control and online streaming services, while the wired connection will be best for music from the NAS.
Many Thanks for your input Andrew. Very helpful.
I think i will go in steps and test the various options gradually in order to avoid overdoing it.
I will first connect the ND5XS2 via a wifi-ethernet bridge and have a storage for the lossless files (Itunes doesnt seem to handle lossless nicely) connected via USB.
If that turns out to be clunky in playback or in updating the library I will get the switch and the nas.
And if network will start being too slow (although with fiber and decent router i hope it’ll be ok) I will get around laying several meters of ethernet in the flat directly to the switch.
If you connect a USB drive to the ND5XS2, remember that browsing the files will, indeed, be ‘clunky’ and the solution is to enable server mode in the Naim app settings menu. (This will obviously make more sense when you actually have the streamer!) You then find the files in the ‘Server’ input, where you can browse the files properly and see album artwork, as long as they have decent metadata.
In order to add music to the USB drive, you will need to remove it and attach it to a computer, which is a small inconvenience compared to a NAS.
Your other option is to install Roon Core on your computer and use a usb direct attached storage mechanism for your local music. You can then do the following:
1: Use the computer as you have been doing, with the dragonfly to listen to music locally
2. Roon will find and catalog all your music media on your computer and expose it on the network
3. Depending on your streaming service (QoBuz or Tidal are supported), Roon will integrate and expose those services on your network
4. Any Roon endpoint (a Chromecast device, a qualified Naim Streamer, etc,) can be used for playback. Hi Res files can be streamed reliably over Wi-fi (if you have a good WiFi solution - i find the more modern mesh WiFi products do this well)
Hello everyone, I have a new ND5 xs2 for 10 days and with a little 'disappointment I write because I expected a leap in quality and listening after the NA7004 that I still own and it works.
NA7004 connected alone ethernet (router + cable qed performance cat 6 + devolo power line 650 + devolo power line 650 + cable qed performance ethernet cat 6. Power supply from plug t + a.
ND5 XS2 connected in WiFi for now.
I’m taking the idea of connecting my wireless phone to the Marantz 650 power supply.
It seems to me that the Marantz sounds good and this naim seen the cost and the technology should play at least twice as good.
I understand that the machine is more evolved and better usable …
Come and see me Unitiserve 2tb and a WD my 3 tb clod that I use very, very often …
Is powering the ND5 xs2 its normal network cable? Should I replace it?
Advice, I accept every improvement
Hello everyone, I have a new ND5 xs2 for 10 days and with a little 'disappointment I write because I expected a leap in quality and listening after the NA7004 that I still own and it works.
NA7004 connected alone ethernet (router + cable qed performance cat 6 + devolo power line 650 + devolo power line 650 + cable qed performance ethernet cat 6. Power supply from plug t + a.
ND5 XS2 connected in WiFi for now.
I’m taking the idea of connecting my wireless phone to the Marantz 650 power supply.
It seems to me that the Marantz sounds good and this naim seen the cost and the technology should play at least twice as good.
I understand that the machine is more evolved and better usable …
Come and see me Unitiserve 2tb and a WD my 3 tb clod that I use very, very often …
Is powering the ND5 xs2 its normal network cable? Should I replace it?
Advice, I accept every improvement
If you don’t feel the ND5XS2 sounds good enough for the price, my advice would be, don’t buy it!
One thing you might try is to switch off the Devolo devices, as these can put very high levels of electrical interference into your whole house, and this may affect your hifi, even if it is not directly connected to them.
I would also suggest that you try to connect the NDX directly with an ethernet cable rather than using wi fi and see if you hear a sound quality difference. Many on the forum recommend the wired connection for best sound quality.
Sorry for the thread hi-jack but just wanted to ask if the ‘Ethernet via your mains sockets’ system is preferable to WiFi? Instinctively I feel that the audio quality must be impaired by ‘tunnelling’ the ethernet signal through the mains supply?
This vlog and post from Darko.Audio seems to cover the subject very well.
I am off the opinion that a well designed / implemented modern mesh WIFI can easily handle the bandwidth and latency requirements for quality local device streaming and removes or reduces all the really inconvenient stuff people do with ethernet : long cable runs, dedicated high quality ethernet switches, power supply upgrades etc. In my opinion, if your home / building allows for mesh WIFI use, it’s the easiest to get a decent sound, because its isolating of electrical noise.
As regards using Ethernet over power, this seems like the worst audiophile thing to do as it creates more wall warts, more signals over power and more ability to introduce electrical noise into the ethernet signal and thus jitter.
It may not give the best sound in the absolute sense, but it does within the triangle of ease of procurement, set-up and management.
Sure, I could go to the trouble of running ethernet cable around my 140 year old house, I could go and pick up a Cisco 2960 and figure out where to put it in a non-ugly way and be happy… that’s a lot of hassle - been there and done that in past places, or I can plonk three small cylindrical google mesh nodes down in convenient locations and run an app on my phone to configure them and be up and running with no glitches and DSD 128 streaming running like a charm in 30 seconds - done.
I can spend time getting the ethernet right and tweaking it to remove potential EMI from the 100s of yards of cable etc… or just sit and enjoy the music, maybe not 1000/1000 but perhaps at 980/1000 of the potential SQ.
I agree with you. However, I was responding to the OP who was comparing an NDX on wi fi to a Marantz on hard wired ethernet. I suggested that to make a proper comparison, perhaps the NDX should be on an ethernet wire also. If you are going to run an experiment, change one variable at a time.
