Thanks. So a Nova plus Audiolabs CDT would probably be the best option then
PS. I’m only half joking. At the end of the day I will need to make a choice and this thread is helping me navigate through the various options. Ranging from the most sensible (stick with the Atom, add a Audiolabs CDT) to the middle ground (Star all in one) to the more premium (Nova + CD transport). I’m going to give the dealer I bought the Atom/Sonus Faber speakers from a call and see what they advise in terms of pairing either a Star or Nova with those speakers ie. worth it or not.
Indeed it does, interbear, and I do use it, but I also find the ability to instantly change album or track, or browse during playback, which I can do using the “servers” option, quite handy. I ripped my whole CD collection, and some from family members, so the ability to rapidly change albums is handy,
If only my Uniti1 had had the same sound…
OK so a quick chat today with the dealer that I bought the Atom / SF Lumina combination from. Summary of the advice from them was that (1) The step up from Atom to Star would not be worth it unless I really wanted the CD play/rip/store capabilities of the Star. Sound quality wise it would likely be a small improvement but not one worth shouting about or spending that much on and (2) I should first try using a SSD/USB drive with my ripped CDs on the Atom before considering buying a CD transport. Advantage being that I could also play those files via the Naim MuSo in another room. So that’s my plan. I may end up acquiring a CD transport but for now will stick with what I have.
Thanks for all the opinions and advice on this thread, very much appreciated.
You dealer’s advice seems pretty sound. As I wrote previously, buying a CD player to play CDs that you could easily rip seems rather pointless.
I don’t know how many CDs you have, but remember that if you use an SSD in the back of the Naim, you need to remove it and connect to the Mac every time you want to add another CD, or downloads if you buy them.
I have about 2,000 CD rips on a NAS, as well as another 2,000 downloads. I’m a big fan of using a NAS. I ripped two CDs on the iMac yesterday, and copied them to the NAS. They then appear in the Naim app within seconds and can be played on our Nova or Qbs. No faffing around with SSDs, it all just works. If you are happy ripping on the Mac then a Core would be an unnecessary use of funds I’d suggest.
I agree, seems to be sound advice. I did a quick test of some high-res tracks downloaded from Qobuz and some older CD rips on a Samsung T7 SSD drive plugged into the back of the Atom. Worked just fine and sounded just fine. So, no need for a CD player. I understand your use case but don’t really need a NAS, I have no issues with removing a SSD to add more music files as and when I rip / download them. I’ll buy another SSD specifically for music files that I can keep connected to the Atom for this purpose.
Also checked into the “server” mode on the Atom mentioned by @geoff_2043 earlier. That’s a bonus I was blissfully unaware of, it seems it will allow me to stream the files on the Atom connected SSD to the Naim MuSo in another room. I like this!
Glad to have been of help. I use playback from the Album file, as trying to sort into Artist or Composer seems to tie the system up for ages. I never minded changing discs physically, as I play LPs regularly, and they also sound better. Metadata retrieval is variable, but it can be corrected. It’s been a learning experience.
Can I ask whether I will be able to copy music from, e.g., a laptop, onto my WD harddrive without compromising all those I’ve already ripped, please?
Enjoy your music, wherever sourced.
My first choice, as others have mentioned would be to just add a NAS and rip CD’s and play through Atom.
Second choice would be add a CD or Transport player to Atom if you really need to touch the physical CD.
Third would be save for a NOVA and that would work with either the NAS or CD/Transport you add to ATOM.
With the number of members that have mentioned the trouble that they have add with the STAR product I would personally not own one. There are a lot of members who have no problems but I could not role the dice with my luck.
The Atom is a streaming platform, presumably the OP is familiar with Spotify/Tidal etc.
Of course there are CDs which are not available on streaming services, but I would think for most people this would be only be a handful of CDs which, as a few people have mentioned, could easily be ripped to a USB/Network drive that the Atom could access. A free solution!
Is there a SQ improvement from having a CD player as a source over, say, a CD quality Tidal stream? I would imagine it depends on the DAC in the CD player vs the Atom’s DAC, but i think this improvement is small when considering moving from the Atom to the Star. If SQ improvement is the goal, then Star would be a good improvement.
I do occasionally get CD nostalgia, and have the urge to play a CD. However most of my CDs are in the basement, and I don’t have any CD players. However, I would be tempted to get a Cyrus CDt Second hand.
Im curious if this if love for the CD format, disappointment with some aspect of streaming or rationalising a nice upgrade.
Yes indeed, two in fact, but neither of those you mention. I use Apple Music via a family subscription to Apple One. At home it also works very nicely with the Apple TV connected to the Atom for lossless tracks. I also have a personal subscription to Qobuz Sublime as I thought I’d trial high-res music for a while - from a streaming and download (purchase) perspective it’s very good indeed, I can notice the quality difference via the Atom. I have this sub for a few months yet but will have to decide whether or not to keep it beyond that, as I am not escaping the Apple Music family sub and I’d rather not pay for two streaming services. I may just use Qobuz for the odd high res purchase / download.
No love for the CD format specifically, it just annoys me to see them on the shelf unused so I was exploring ways to re-engage. I’ve concluded that it’s not worth the effort given streaming services and the ability to rip the CDs and easily use them on the Atom.
You can copy from different sources towards the same drive, no problem. When you connect the drive to the Naim streamer, it will scan the whole drive for audio files.
I personally use a copy-only-things-which-have-changed command and occassionally sync new music from my Mac to my external drive. With an external SSD (standard issue, better than most USB-sticks, but not super fast), the sync goes pretty quick.
I’m a great believer in the words of William Morris; ‘have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be beautiful or believe to be useful’. If the CDs are not being used and are simply taking up space then get rid of them. Just make sure you have a backup of the files.
Many thanks, PhilippVH, I wondered if that was the case, and I’ll give it a try. I have several tracks which I downloaded years ago from several sources which I’d love to hear at better quality.
Fingers crossed.
So having started this thread I thought I’d update with where I ended up. I concluded that buying a CD player or a Star was unnecessary. I bought a Sandisk 1TB SSD USB hard drive instead, ripped all of my CDs to Apple Lossless (ALAC) on my Mac and connected the SSD to the Naim Atom. The CD rip files sound great on the Atom. I also downloaded a few Hi-Res albums from the Qobuz store and added them to the SSD. They sound fabulous. So, that’s me sorted. Digital files all the way. No need for spinning disks. Finally I’ve caught up with the 21st century and have no regrets about the CDs sitting on a shelf teasing me
Just curious, when playing ripped files from an SSD that is directly connected to the Atom USB port, does the Atom (and Nova etc) show the full album art when playing?
Yes it does in my experience so far. Starts by showing the album art and track info, then after a few seconds shows the album art full screen. Looks good actually.
Ah, many thanks for confirmation. I didn’t know the new Uniti range was capable of displaying artwork when playing ripped files from a connected USB hard drive / SSD. I thought the display would only show a generic folder symbol? I take it this is much snappier than using UPnP?
Interesting way of doing things. Unnless I’m mistaken I think most people on the forum seem to be using UPnP and a NAS / computer (Mac mini in my case) to access and play ripped CD files.
I’m not sure if it’s snappier than using UPnP as I haven’t tried that yet. I would assume it is though as it’s directly connected via USB.
I should perhaps try this UPnP thing also though. I’ve a MacBook Pro with all of my music on it, so theoretically should be able to, I just have zero idea how to go about it.
One advantage of the USB SSD approach is that it’s another back up. My music files reside on the MacBook Pro, the USB SSD connected to the Naim and are also backed up to another hard drive via Time Machine and also to OneDrive. Hopefully that’s enough!
