Music from a thumb drive into a Naim player or DAC establishes the sound quality benchmark — it doesn’t get any better. When you do a network solution, tweak it until it sounds as good by improving siting, isolation, wiring, etc.
Nick
I can see a new thread about " which usb thumb drive is the best?" !
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Hi, @DavidAL.
The reason I moved off iTunes for ripping is the non-standard way album art is referenced but not embedded at the file level. XLD attaches the art to each file’s metadata, so it stays with the file. That said, I still add a copy of the picture (named “folder.jpg”) to each album’s folder in the file system, so all server apps get the art right.
I have stuck with AIFF for sound quality, compatibility and ease with metadata over FLAC, WAV, ALAC, etc.
Nick
Why not rip about 10 albums on your laptop and then transfer them to a low cost USB stick. See how that works on your NDX2 before spending any money on an expensive USB drive or NAS. A 256gb thumb drive will hold a lot of flac albums and is not expensive. I have 720 albums using 375 gb and many are hi res, so larger than a standard CD rip album on a 1TB USB 2.5" sata drive ($90). My backup is my laptop, just mirror the music dir to the USB drive when you need to.
Yeah @dknk that’s exactly what I’ll do. I just wanted to figure out once and for all what to do with these 400 CD’s which have been in a transitory/maybe later/someday state for a while now. But I agree with you, I guess good things come to those who wait.
Right. Well its better than I expected.
As I use iTunes to make ALAC’s, it only embeds the album art at the file/track level.
So when searching the folder/album you don’t get any art. But apart from that it works very similar to a nas.
I tend to play albums to the usb/ndx2 presentation may be to my liking and not others.
But get a cheap USB stick and see if it works for you.
And of course using a USB stick avoids all the tosh about ethernet cables and switches.
Trying to do an A/B comparison nas vs usb.
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You might be interested in one of these:
Bah, humbug! 
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Oooh, I need to play with one…
There goes the kids’ inheritance…
I use an « old » Synology DS416 with the Nova. You don’t need to install something to get it properly work :
1- You can use the Naim App to navigate in the folders and it works well.
2- You can use your smartphone with the Synology Music app, it works well to.
The other options I know are specific apps like Roon or Audirvana (check the compatibility with the
your device) : you get better interface but the downsides are the costs and the obligation to have your MBP 16" “On” when using them.
For ripping, you should check “dBpoweramp” ripper (I like this one) or “XLD”. They have an embedded Metadata search engine. You can also use an app called “Meta” to fill the Metadata manually. Ripping in FLAC and being careful with Metadata is a solid departure.
Best regard
Thank you, I didn’t know this option.
Thank you everybody for your help and especially to Steve @HiFiFoFum in Toronto for the QNap. With his patient help the process was made much much easier than I thought. Great guy and great shop.
Now, onto researching switches…
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No need to research I have almost all the top contenders on hand
Let me know and I’ll lone you a couple to try out.
Best
This looks cool - I went for the external drive first as I wanted the flexibility but once things settle down I might move it all to a one box solution.
This is where I demonstrate how dim I really am.
Is it not possible to install dB poweramp app on my MacBook to rip all my cds in say flac, using the MacBook as hard drive storage and then using wifi to the streamer?
After more than a year I have still not grasped the concept of streaming which may be why that naim streamer remains elusive.
If your laptop has a upnp program running…eg Asset… then yes.
@igahman Yes you can do that. You can stream the music from your Mac to the your streamer through Airplay if your streamer has that capability. The only issue (which may not be a problem for you) is that you’ll have to have your computer on to play music.
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Thanks Neil and Stag. It’s just that I don’t use my MacBook for anything these days other than music storage. Currently it’s in iTunes.
Also wouldn’t you need the wifi on the mac to appear as an access point for the streamer acting as a client? Not sure if that’s possible.
Unless it’s routed through your routers wifi… yes never thought of that.