Now that the uniticore is discontinued - any thoughts on what the Naim recommended server is? They have to be optimizing for an alternate source, no?
Also - is upnp on its way out? Roon does RAAT, and BluOs/Nodes do other own protocol
I guess any protocol that allows files to be downloaded is going to be good with naim - like the Qobuz integration…
Anyone remember the HDX? (The hard drive based transport?)
No.
UPnP is most definitely more popular than ever. It’s not on it’s way out at all.
[addendum]
If anything is on the way out, it would be multimedia protocols in general.
UPnP/DNLA and even Room RAAT are born of a time when resource constrained streamers needed the music library to be externally managed and sorted and offload browsing and selection to a control point app.
Those constraints have fallen away somewhat and we are starting to see streaming transports that simply want access over NFS or SMB to a file server. They are capable of managing their own library and doing away with the control point in favour of a built in web app you simply point your browser to.
I’ve zero complaints about the marriage of the Naim app with Asset, Minimserver, or a Core. But I have a few streamers and it’s clear to me that functionally (sound quality aside) doing away with UPnP server and control point app is the way to go. No extra box. No extra app.
For devices that support it at home (which is all the newer ones), I’ve been untethering them from media servers and just going for read-only access to shared directories.
Yeah - I don’t know about that. It’s never been about resources / even 10years ago PCs were nicely outputting both digital out and analog out too if you wanted to put a Dac in it….
That’s not a dedicated streamer though. For example, an 1st gen NDX is very limited in resources. It absolutely relies on UPnP either from a local server like the Core or over the net from a subscribed service. Sure the NDX could access a directory tree structure off a USB device but they couldn’t build a library from scraping the tags off thousands of albums. It is effectively a point [to a file or list of files] and play device. It absolutely needs a server and a control point.
Back then direct file access playback really meant a PC with Audirvana or similar out to a DAC. But now we are seeing actual streamers that can manage the library directly in the streamer and host a web app in the streamer that can be accessed from any browser without a control point app.
They are starting to become capable of natively building their own media database and massively simplifying the experience for the home user. I have a couple hifi streamers that just mount NFS or SMB as is and manage the library natively. They aren’t particularly great at it yet, but they are good enough to make the overhead of a separate server software/device and app not worth the bother.
I’m probably too optimistic, but I’m still hoping for a new Core in 2025
I bought an ex-demo Core earlier this year and love it.
G
Which ones do you have?
Also - a central location to store playlists would still be needed \ whether locally or in the cloud.
Maybe it’ll become yet another subscription- to tie together various steamers one has by using a. Central cloud location to deal with libraries - if there is not going to be a central server like the core.
Given that the previous one wasn’t selling very well unlikely I’d suggest?
Well, I didn’t know that.
Both my Ifi Zen Stream and TEAC NT-505X are capable of mounting NFS or SMB/CIFS filesystems directly. The Ifi is the most elegant in that it also has no app. Just open the GUI in a web browser. The TEAC still uses an app but it works fine.
I can’t really comment on playlists. I listen to albums or create one-off queues on the fly depending on where my mood takes me. But I see no reason why you couldn’t just make the share writeable and let the streamer put it’s playlists there with your music. Making the music files read only but the share writable is pretty trivial.
This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.