After almost 2 years waiting for my CDS3 to be fixed, I give up and purchased a used NDS (collecting it today). Now I know nada about steaming, except of what I’ve read on this forum…to be honest, Im no more wiser than I was before, lol.
My needs are very simple. I don’t need any complicated connections, components or the need to listen to every internet radio or streaming services available. All I need is to listen to my ripped CDs, downloaded FLAC files and the occasional internet radio station using the supplied remote control. All my music are on my PC.
So, for all those before who has gone this route, what is the simplest way to achieve my goal?
Hi Nan, you need somewhere to store your ripped CDs and some server software to serve the music to your streamer. I would advise purchasing a NAS (Network-attached Storage). Recommended makes are QNAP and Synology. You would then save your albums in a folder on the NAS. Most NASs come with some server software installed and ready to use, but it’s often rather basic in comparison with dedicated server software. Forum favourites for this are Asset and Minimserver. These allow you to search your stored albums to find the music you want to listen to and play it. And that is done using the Naim app on your phone or tablet.
One other thing. The server software uses information stored in the music files (metadata) to do the searching. So when you start ripping it’s a good idea to use software such as dBpoweramp as this can usually find and insert the metadata for you.
It’s all quite logical but there is a bit of a learning curve before it becomes intuitive.
And apologies for teaching you to suck eggs if you know all this already.
The easiest and best sounding way,use an USB stick,plug it into the NDS and control and play from the Focal & Naim app.
It is a big upgrade from the CDS3 and the NDS is the second best Naim streamer.
As you have the music our your PC, you just need the uPnP software installed and connect the NDS to the server and connect through the Naim app and your good to go.