It’s a Qnap TS253A.
I have a Unitiserv - not as good as the Core - but rips CDs fine , controllable from an app , less than half the price and comes with disks.
There are many for sale on auction sites.
I actually use it connected into my 272 - but works absolutely fine over the network.
No compelling reason for me to upgrade to a Core.
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A Uniti Core was the first Naim item I purchased. I was so impressed I went to SN3, NDX 2, and HiCap.
I do not find the sketchy Metadata to be much of an issue anymore.
I have the CD’s so the booklets are always aailable, and if there is anything that I really want the data for I scan the booklet as a PDF and store it on my iPad (or in iCloud)
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I enjoyed the Unitserve too. But I find it a bit risky to buy a second hand one today. The firmware is old now, not followed by Naim, and it may be out of order any time soon.
I wouldn’t swap my Unitiserve for a Core, it has too many limitations. If the US dies, I’ll be looking elsewhere, although its showing no signs of giving up the ghost so far.
As well as getting first hand experience/comments from the Forum, you should also read the independent reviews on the Core.
The point to keep in mind is that here you will get quite diverse and often emotionally led comments that ring true for one person, but invariably not another. And can quite literally get you in a right muddle. At least with the press there’s no emotional bias or personal preferences leading opinions to factor in…at least not to the extent found on the Forum.
Good luck.
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Many thanks HH
I might be too late but I have gone the following route:
Qnap
Unitiserve
Core
Melco
I hated the qnap - I am not very comfortable with IT and having to rip into my laptop and then drag and drop onto the qnap was a huge pain and I never got round to adding all my cds.
The unitiserve was a huge improvement and the core was easily as good if not better. Really like the way you can amend the art and metadate from the Naim app for the core’s content
The Melco does sound better than the core but probably not enough to justify the extra money (with hindsight) - and clunkier to use than the Core which is very user friendly indeed
But that is from my perspective of someone who hates mucking around with computers. I like things that just work. Never tried innuos though
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I leave it on when I’m at home, except when there’s a chance of lightning (having learnt the hard way that Ethernet cables can carry a large current from a lightning strike!!)
I tend to leave the backup NAS off most of the time as I don’t rip that many CDs any more. The US automatic backup still runs, and performs backups as needed when it finds the NAS is on.
Evening gents …….
Perhaps not the best place to ask but here goes……
I have a Core - wonderful machine but I have a slight problem. I am currently ripping all my cd’s again - SQ better than previous pc rips - but I have 2 albums (so far) which have 2 discs and both have the same music! The 2nd disc on one of them is purely instrumental versions and the second has different vocals and singers. When I try to rip the 2nd disc it merely overwrites the first disc. And if you try re-ripping disc 1 the same occurs. I have tried to rename the disc/artist/titles and change album art and then rip again - and all it does is rip with the metadata it picks up and once finished it deletes the edited version!
Is there any workaround this?
I always thought that no 2 discs could be identical and that any change in the 1’s and 0’s would therefore be recognised as a different disc?
Thanks if anyone can help or has come across this b4…
Hmm I have had it on one pair of discs. Got it to work but cannot remember how (would have been 2-3 years ago) - maybe changed the name after ripping one but I see you have tried that
This is a defect that has been present in all Naim rippers. I don’t really understand why they couldn’t at least have corrected it when they developed the Core. Use a non-Naim ripper and stick it in the Downloads folder.
Ah well at least I know it’s not me - they’re not going to be big misses as mentioned one is the latest pet shop boys where disc one has vocals and two is instrumental and the other is from a band that one of the members here put me onto Star One! I think I’ll just put then onto a usb stick for if and when?
It’s strange to me because I’d always thought that if the tracks are different in some way, then the size of the actual tracks would be different and therefore you would have different discs - ah well….
Thanks chaps
I have had this problem with about a half dozen disks as well. Example - I have 2 versions of Beethoven 9 Furtwangler 1954 - one is actually the dress rehearsal on emi and the other is the actual concert on a different label. They kept on overwriting each other when ripped.
Solution - rip them on your computer to the downloads folder instead.
Also I remember some of the Grateful Dead dicks picks sets have this issue also.
Naim should clean up these little niggling issues.
As a previous Core owner,i do not miss it at all.All my listening now comes from Tidal using connect. At $120 dollars a year i see no point in playing the 2,200 albums i have sitting on a hard drive. Tidal connect also sounds better than using Roon as well. The money people spend on servers/ripping solutions can be better used on upgrading your Dac/streamer IMO.
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So Tidal connect is the premium service from TIDAL ? Or just the new name ? I like the idea of the romance of putting a CD or even rearing the Vinyl discussion here. Save money on the Innuos Zen mini or Core and buy a Vinyl Deck for those occasions of wanting to sit and listen ?
I will run a trial of TIDAL this weekend. I am of course limited to a MuSo and a QB in my house, its small so I probably wont benefit from a lot more money spent. but I do like the simplicity of the Servers and flicking through CDs last night i found albums i had not listened to in years, stuff I would not find on TIDAL by just flicking.
I may pursue a USB plugin drive for now but that little Innous is tempting because i cannot host the CORE next to my Mu So seems a lot of money to have hidden in a cupboard. 
Keep the thoughts coming this is brilliant community. Great variety
Or another way is to rip the first CD in the Core. Copy it from the music folder to the downloads folder, then using the app delete the first copy and rip the second disc using the Core.
Or actually you probably don’t need to delete the first copy as the second CD rip will overwrite it.
There are good reasons / arguments for and against the Core, and physical media / streaming. My take is this: My partner didn’t want racks and racks of lp’s, cd’s, Blu-rays and dvd’s in the lounge which is also the listening room, which I think is fair enough as the hi-fi system already takes up a fair amount of space. I was lucky enough to have a small room (converted half of a double garage) which acted as an office/computer room where I could store all our physical media on various shelves. When my mum passed away about 5 years ago the idea was put forward about converting the other half of the garage, along with the downstairs toilet and utility rooms into a self contained unit for my father. This was done but meant no room for media.
What I did have though was an external hard drive onto which I had ripped all my cd’s (this was so that whilst I was away on my previous job - coach driving - I could listen to anything on the system in my hotel room). So for a while the turntable was taken out of use and a laptop was used as my front end. Please also bear in mind we had no fixed internet availability at home.
This wasn’t the best solution though so I went and had a dem of the Musical Fidelity Encore - that sounded great so problem solved - or so I thought, as the Encore needed a permanent internet connection. Internet was duly installed and hard drive rips were transferred to the Encore.
Fast forward to a month ago and I have decided to swap everything to Naim & their equivalent if you like is the “Core”! After ripping some new discs and transferring the old rips I discovered two things - the rips on the Core sounded better than the old computer rips and, I couldn’t edit the metadata of the old rips - some had come across with no artwork and various other information was missing. So I am now going through that old laborious task again. Except that it isn’t as I’d forgotten half the stuff I’ve got so once ripped I can go back to them, and it’s like discovering them for the first time!
Ok if you’ve got this far you’ll be thinking why didn’t I just opt for streaming - well here’s why……
- Previous to the Encore at home we had no fixed internet.
- Our internet connection at home is not always what it could / should be.
- When streaming started a lot of the music I like wasn’t then available via streaming platforms.
- What happens if the service I choose disappears / goes out of business?
- And this to me is the important one, although you will probably laugh or think I’m a complete whatever…… I am free to pick my choice of music from my collection of music. The internet and the mobile phone are nowadays looked on as essential’s - yes they are good for some things but personally I prefer a time without them!
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When I am going to sit and listen to music I much prefer listening to ripped CDs from my Core they sound so good preferable to Qobuz etc don’t get me wrong Qobuz is excellent but I find using the Core via the Naim app a better all round experience .
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