Just for the record, I tried the AccurateRip function of dBPoweramp on my first batch of ripped CDs. The good news is that apparently it worked quite well: in a few minutes it checked the entire selection and provided a detailed report of each ripped CD, track by track. The bad news is that 93 out of 107 CD turned out to be affected by ripping errors, with an average of about two faulty tracks per CD.
1 Like
Great that you could automate it. I was aware of automatic ways but tried to keep the steps as user friendly as I could 
Glad you could find a less labor intensive way.
Personally I rip so little that I just end up listening to the albums instead.
I agree £4000 for a player and cd ripper…come on NAIM comment please and sort it out. I can pick up a £50 CD player that will rip with no issues so what have you done in software that is so catastrophic to break this…
Yes I agree, the silence of Naim over a machine that cannot achieve as advertised is deafening. As is the fact that they are still selling it in spite of over two years and possibly since the Stars initial release that it has been shown to be incapable (surely, this is not legal?).
1 Like
…as a consumer I am amazed that folks just do not return the product if you are unhappy.
Any product problems then work with your dealer and customer support to resolve.
Lots of great advice on the forum for how to use and connect products that work but the issues with the ‘Star’ appear to go a lot deeper.
Good luck to all who are having issues but I would be directing my communications directly at my Naim dealer and customer support if I had spent the $5,000 to purchase a model in the USA.
This is not always this cut and dried it would seem.
My own journey with this issue started when I got my new Star in 2019. Due to this problem as well as the issues the unit had in terms of freezes the local importer of Naim decided to replace my unit with a new one. I got the new Star about a month or two after the first one. All the issues were present in Star number 2.
Because they are (were) intermittent issues it was not easy to demonstrate them to the dealer. The dealer in question offers one of the best levels of customer services I have ever had. But they are can also only support what they get support for.
After much effort I heard from the dealer that they got the info from the importer (which got the info from Naim) that all those issues were firmware related and would be solved in the next release. I think this was 3.4 still.
When the next release came a couple of months later the freezes were mostly fixed but the ripping gaps remained. The feedback I got via the dealer was that this one was going to come in the next firmware release.
By the time this came my Star was quite a few months old. And to return a unit after months on something that will “definitely be fixed in the next firmware” is not the easiest thing in the world. By then my CD’s were ripped and I knew how to work around it and the rest of the performance of the unit was pretty darn good. So honestly I ran out of the will to fight this and get my money back. Perhaps I should have carried on but there comes a time when one cuts your losses to be able to just enjoy the music in peace.
It also does not help that there are Star users, also on this forum, who experiences no gaps after ripping very large CD collections.
3 Likes
Purchased the Star a month ago and have ripped 100 CD’s to an external SSD. Repeatedly I hear drop outs of one second on the ripped files. Wind it back and the drop out is can be heard again. I also have perfect CD’s that play on other devices that just cannot be read for some reason and just sit there ‘Loading’.
I have sent a note to Naim asking for an answer but as yet nothing back. My last email to them took over a month for a response so I think they are inundated at the moment. I though I could overlook this issue but today again having a listening experience with dropouts I have bit the bullet and talked to my dealer. I have decided to spend the extra and go for the Nova with an external CD transport (Audiolab CDT6000). I and sure this will be a better route but feel this is a bit of a chink in the armour of Naim in my estimation of the quality they sell. Speakers are Kef Meta’s and REL sub TX7.
1 Like
No need to be careful, as the Music share is a read-only SMB export from the Star. 
Only the Downloads share is read-write.
Well I certainly never attempted 
@gjvoosten is right. Nevertheless you can bypass that if you really try hard, but you really shouldn’t.
My dealer offered here the worst support I ever had. He saw no reason for do anything, even repair or taking back the device because “Naim is working on a software fix and it will be soon available”.
I returned my Star after few weeks and got my money back, but had to put some pressure on the retailer to do so.
It was definitely my last Naim device.
One thing to look for here may be warm up. It is possible the Star has an issue with ripping, but warm up may also be responsible. Here’s what I mean…
I just went on a trip and shut off and unplugged everything, including my Core and Questyle CMA Fifteen dac (which has now replaced a Chord Mojo whose battery died). When I came back I plugged it all back in and played some digital hi-res. Drop outs left and right. I switched to cd rips - some drop outs but better. Next day no drops on either. Perhaps this explain some issues?
There’s really no conceivable way how warm-up could/should affect ripping. You don’t have to warm up the PC before calculating something in Excel
1 Like
And the comment was even about playback! If you get dropouts during playback something is broken. Either the hardware of the line feeding the bitstream or power.
Hey guys my point is not that warm up affects ripping. My point is it may affect playback. So are you sure on the Star it is a ripping problem…or is it possible it is a playback problem. I leave my equipment on and I get no dropouts of any kind full stop. But after my trip when I turned it on from cold I did get dropouts…but they were gone after it was on overnight.
One way to check on what is the actual situation is to copy the rips from the star to iTunes and see if they play correctly. If so there is no ripping problem…it is a playback problem.
Appreciate the effort to try explain it. But the gaps are file errors. Can be confined with other devices and independent software.
Which brings me back to saying that if playback incorrectly decodes a file with gaps there are bigger issues at hand.
1 Like
I think another way to tell which it is is to confirm that the gaps are in the same place in two or three different replays, maybe on two different days.
If the gaps are in the same place each time, it’s a ripping problem and if the gaps move on each play, an unlikely scenario I feel, it’s a replay problem.
1 Like
I think the Naim Core is a bit temperamental sometimes. But boy…through spdf and Naim dc1 cable into Questyle the sound quality is just outrageously good. I’ll let it be a bit temperamental if it wants…!
I’m intrigued. First the Drive in the Star is probably a DVD rom drive. It could be a CD rom drive but not likely. Since I assume that when one just plays back a CD it’s fine then the problem is most likely the ripping software. My guess is Naim is trying to get someone’s ripping software to work with Naim hardware and someone else’s drive. The simplest fix is to rip one’s CD’s on a computer using DbPoweramp and store the rips on a NAS or a USB drive for playback. Of course it’s strange that not all units have this issue. But it computers.
3 Likes