Hi all. Listed my gear above. I went from a nait to the nova (one box solution) except for the flatcap…any thoughts on streaming from tidal ? Is it best to use a network cable to the nova to actual files stored on hard drive at my mac… Or does streaming from the naim app sound as good. I’d have to wire the cable to our modem in another location and therefore need to open up a wall to pull wire to me listening room. Thus the question. The proac sound a bit underwhelming so I’m wondering if it’s the file playback or something in the speaker. Any thoughts would be lovely.
I think most of us prefer wired connections for stability but you may find wi-fi works well.
Ethernet cables do make a difference believe it or not, there was a huge thread on the old forum.
A Chord c-line ethernet cable gave good ‘bang for the buck for me’ - bits are bits but they can apparently induce noise into the system affecting audio processing (which wi-fi might not incidentally).
I think the Naim app is simply a controller and the Nova would pull the streams itself - I have Qobuz which is not integrated currently.
An extra outlay, but do give the Roon app a shot on your Mac which includes Tidal and Qobuz support - I love it and stream from an old Mac Mini over wifi fairly successfully.
I think where audio quality is concerned local streaming is generally better but there may be little in it, and best to try yourself and compare.
If you have music stored on a hard drive, the easiest way to play it is to attach the drive to a USB port on the Nova and look for it in the Server input (not the USB input!) then your network setup doesn’t matter so much.
Still best to run an Ethernet cable if you can, although you may find that WiFi is OK. This will depend on the quality of your network equipment and the environment in which it has to operate.
You only need to enable server mode if you have other UPnP streamers and want them to play from it. The files are still available on the host device with server mode disabled, and I prefer this, as it reduces power consumption and the unit is quieter in standby mode.
That’s what I thought too, at first, but it appears in the Server input as ‘Local Music’ with server mode disabled. Much better than trying to browse the same files via the USB input.