I also used to be in the “pooter” camp. I don’t have a problem with this method. I did find keeping up to date with NAS updates and DB Poweramp updates a bit of a pain. And I note that I can update DB Poweramp “at a cost”.
With the Core I just “whack” a disc in and let it do its thing. If it’s a new release and the metadata goes AWOL it’s no biggie to edit the metadata. I must confess to not having noticed any difference in quality between the journey of ripping (Macmini/then QNAP/ and now Core) so if you have the time then maybe “pooter” is the way to go. For convenience the Core ticks the boxes for me.
Thank you all for your advice. I will take the plunge into the streaming world with the Uniti Core. It’s as modern as I can get while still avoiding computer use.
One more question though: Naim recommends a Samsung 1 TB 850 Evo SSD drive which I am having difficulty finding online. I think Samsung has moved on to a 860 model. I am not sure if that makes a difference. Are there any recommended SSD drives I can use? Can I go to a 2 TB SSD of any manufacturer?
There are some great black friday deals on the 860 2 tb ssd on Amazon, it replaced the 850 and is fine. When i got my Core that would have been £800, now almost £100.
When I started on streaming I went with a NAS: Synology 8TB DS716+II 2-Bay using dBpoweramp software on my MAC workstation with a CD attached to rip my CD’s. Pretty inexpensive compared to the Core. There is a lot of threads on the Archived forum regarding installing a NAS and members are always helpful answering questions.
I started with the recommended spinning disc @2Tb in mine but changed to a Samsung 860 of the same size, to some benefit to sound quality I thought. Get a usb drive or two of the same size to back up while you’re at it. You can automate it in the app.
What sort of music do you listen to? The main source of criticism that has been hinted at above is the near total inability of the Core to handle metadata from Classical music and compilation albums in a way that many people would find usable.
If you don’t have a Classical collection you may find that this isn’t an issue for you, but at the very least, I would ask your dealer to let you try ripping a few albums on his demo Core before committing.
Hi Stag,
I bought a UnitiCore as a retirement gift to myself a couple of years ago to replace an early CDX2.
I don’t miss the CDX2 at all:I have great confidence in the Core as a “reference” in my system connected by BNC to DAC to 52/250/SBL’s.
For me,any future upgrades will happen further down the chain.
But you will need to budget for a tablet (ipad mini as iOS is much better) and an SSD (no moving parts)
Best wishes
Thanks Chris and Eddie. Actually, about 25% of my 400 Cd’s are classical. I suspected the fetching of metadata may be a minor issue but I assumed there was a way to manually fill any gaps left by the Core. I will keep an eye out for that, thank you. And thankfully, I have an iPad.
Adding my 2 cents: The Uniti Core is the best sounding ripper/server. I tried the Melco and the Naim is much better… Even the Melco dealer agreed it sounded better. Having said this, try Qobuz first. The high res stream is very good and you may be better off saving for a better streamer (NDX2) rather than ripping your CD’s. Just a thought.
The Core does, to be fair, make metadata editing extremely simple. The problem is that it uses only a very small number of metadata fields, making it rather difficult to catalogue and browse a Classical collection.
If you have downloads as well as CD rips, it can’t edit these at all. You have to use a separate metadata editor on a computer.