Uniti core

I hope this is in the correct area apologies if it’s not. I have asked about the uniti core before but forgot to ask some questions about connection - as before I warn you in advance that I know nothing about connecting equipment or how it works. I n the naim start vieo on their site they say you must connect to your router using a network type cable - does that mean I need to have a LAN?? it doesn’t connect to the router via the wifi like the uniti atom and my old mk1 Mu-Su did??? I understand that the core needs to access metadata for the various cd tracks and uses various online databases. is this network cable just another connecting cable? Where is the best place to order an approved SSD? My dealer is online and french so does not offer any service like an installation at home. they have a physical location in the nearest city but I have never visited them.
thanks in advance for your help and sorry about the typing Im on the mac as my wife is on the ipad so its all a bit different.

Hi,
The Core connects to the router via an Ethernet cable. These are the standard networking cables that are used elsewhere in your home network. Are you in France? Then your router is likely to be your Livebox. You simply plug one end of the cable into the Core and the other into the Livebox. Voila! As for an HDD or SSD, Amazon is your friend!

Adding to what mat says, the Ethernet cable doesn’t need to be anything special. Cat5e is fine. You could use cat 6 if you want, but it’s usually stiffer and not so easy to make stay flat. The UnitiCore doesn’t have WiFi so you do need to use an Ethernet cable between it and your router.

I also agree with mat that you should buy the SSD from Amazon. It’s easy to install yourself. You don’t need a dealer to do it. Ask any questions you have here and we will be able to help you.

Best

David

Just to complicate things slightly more, if you have a large CD library to rip, then a backup of the Core is essential. I do this by plugging another SSD drive into the rear USB port and scheduling the backup via the Naim app. As David says, any questions, just ask.

Hello,
I’m new to this forum. And this is first post.
I need to know if I could delete a track from an album that was ripped from a CD. I thought I saw the answer was “NO” in two different threads but those were quite old. Wondering if that issue has been taken care of with the latest updates. If the answer is no, then can I just create a back in an external HD and then delete the tracks I don’t want in various albums using a computer and then restore those files back into Core? Will that work?
I would greatly appreciate if someone can confirm. Thanks a lot.

You can’t delete one track in a rip that has been done by the Core, not can you edit the rip in a PC and load it back into the Core. If you do try to do that, you can break the indexing and end up having to rip everything again from scratch.

But you can achieve this by copying a ripped CD to the downloads folder and then deleting the original rip. Now you can edit the rip in the downloads folder yourself in any way you wish.

Files in the music store and in the downloads folder appear in the Naim app almost identically. The giveaway that something is in the downloads folder is that there is no option in the app to edit the metadata of the album (because you have to edit files in the downloads folder with a PC or Mac).

Best

David

Thanks Matt for the quick response and helpful advice. Yes I live and used to work in France ( confirming my sense of humour) I live in the very south of the country now I’ve retired. The small town of agde is near beziers and not far from Montpelier. Physical site of my local naim dealer. You and the other forum members have saved me the real trauma of a telephone discussion with my dealer due to my poor French and their lack of understanding of customer service. I’m a bit cynical because of my experience of running a French company servicing French hospitals - I can assure you it was all fun! So does the uniti core log into the network via the iPad app or is it just automatic? As you can probably tell I Dont understand networks at all. Feel free to talk to me like I’m a baby. Once again thanks for your time and help

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Thanks for your helpful advice David, is there a brand or model I should be getting that is best for the naim caddy?

You just connect your UnitiCore to your router with an Ethernet cable and the Core will automatically connect to your network (using DHCP, but you don’t need to know that).

Best

David

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Naim suggest the Samsung 850 EVO but that’s not available any more, so the 860 EVO is the one to go for. 1TB will cost you around £100.

You want the form factor that looks like this, not the bare pcb version.

Best

David

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Gosh…when i bought my Core they cost hundreds of pounds more.

I just checked and 1TB is £96 on Amazon currently.

Best

David

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Hi, David’s advice is spot on, just follow that.
We lived in Normandy for some years, I ran a company in Port-Jerome and know all about dealing with the CGT and CFDT via the Works Council! We kept the house since retirement and used to visit quite often, pre COVID/Brexit. A fellow member of the local Chasse is looking after it for me, Lord knows when we’ll see it again. ATB. Don’t worry about asking questions, my French is quite good, especially business/technical, if the dealer becomes an issue.

Astonishing isn’t it? They have truly become commodity products.

Yep, it was eye watering at the time…now they are a commodity.

Ah the works council - that brings back memories, none of them good! Before moving further south I used to live in the countryside in a small village outside of Toulouse. I am familiar with la chasse as they used to meet often near our village to hunt le “sanglier” that were often in the maize fields. We always had to make sure we had our animals were all inside as the locals would shoot anything that moved. With all the information and advice I’ve got from the forum I feel confident I can do all this without the need for a discussion with the naim dealer, who managed to get the unit atom to me with the minimum of fuss. Hope you get a chance to see your old place again it’s still a great country! Still very different as well.
Many thanks
Brian

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One more thanks that really helps.

Thanks David. When you say downloads folder, where do you see it? In the Naim App or in the PC? I do not see that folder in Core.

Also, can you clarify - “The giveaway that something is in the downloads folder is that there is no option in the app to edit the metadata of the album (because you have to edit files in the downloads folder with a PC or Mac).” This tells me you are asking the CD I ripped in Core to be ripped in a PC download folder. Then I edit/ delete tracks as needed. I also need to delete the ripped CD/ Album from the Core. And then, do I copy that CD or album from the PC to Core with a USB? Does this mean, once I delete the original rip and I delete tracks in the downloads folder from the PC, there will be no metadata to show the track/ album/ artist info in Core or Atom?

Sorry for all the questions and thanks for the clarification.

Ok I will reply properly tomorrow, explaining myself better!

Best

David

You really should spend a few minutes looking at Naim’s online support videos for the Core! Anyway the answer is that when you install the internal disc in the Core and define it as a Music Store, the Core puts some folders into it. The important one is /Music/MQ which is where the Core puts its own rips. But alongside that it makes a folder /Downloads and that folder is a place for you to put downloads, rips you made on a PC and anything else that isn’t a rip made by the Core. The Naim app looks at all the music files in album folders inside the Music/MQ folder and the Downloads folder and displays them in the app for you to play. There is no obvious way to tell whether you are about to select a rip from the music folder or a download, although once it starts to play, the bit rate should give it away.

Now the key thing here is that you can only edit metadata in the Music folder with the Naim app. You mustn’t use a PC or Mac and if you do you may break the indexing and get to a place where you have to start again and re-rip all your CDs. Similarly you will find that you can’t edit metadata of music in the downloads folder with the app. The menu option is simply not there. You have to use a PC or Mac and navigate to the downloads folder and edit the metadata using a metadata editing program. You can delete individual tracks if you want to.

Now here is the bit I was mentioning in my earlier post. If you have ripped a CD in your Core and you want to delete one or more tracks, then the workaround is to use a PC or Mac to copy the album folder into the Core’s downloads folder. Now the music will show up twice in the app and to overcome that you can delete the copy in the Core’s Music folder. But you must use the Naim app to do that. You delete a rip by pulling down the menu for that album and the bottom option is to delete the album. You know you are in the original rip and not the downloads folder copy if you can see the Edit Metadata option or indeed if you see the Delete Album option. Neither appear if you have selected an album in the downloads folder.

I hope that is all clearer?

Best

David

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