I believe some CDs do in fact hold some limited data, it’s not metadata as such, which, along with the art, is found online.
dbPowerAmp (at least the Windows version) lets you choose from a selection of databases. Look for the image that looks like a luggage tag on the top line, it offers 4 database options with the retrieved tags to help your choice.
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We have used MusicBrainz Picard to tag nearly our entire CD and downloaded digital collection. Easy peasy.
If the Core uses MusicBrainz to get metadata I’ve seen absolutely no evidence of this working. Many CDs the Core failed to find netadata for tagged correctly when run through Picard!
MusicBrainz also hold the correct values for multi disc albums (DISCNUMBER/TOTALDISCS or whatever) and the Core doesn’t tag these properly.
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I wonder… because quite a few people buy CDs specifically to rip, and that applies especially to secondhand CDs, which are far cheaper than file downloads though sometimes new CDs are cheaper than the equivalent file downloads.
I don’t really want to inspire more frustration with the Uniti Core. I believe for its intended purpose (to store and serve digital music files) it does what it is supposed to do.
I will state that I had so many issues with the UnitiServe that proceeded it that I got so frustrated that I started up a company to build a proper ‘enterprise grade’ server for digital music files.
Funny thing I learned during that endeavor, was that no one gave a damn about any of the the data protection, replication, anti-data corruption and only seemed to care about how it sounded as a player.
Multiple AXPONA shows, and a lot more money than I spent on my actual stereos, later I tossed it all in the bin.
So if Naim, does not burn tons of precious cash on what is really a loss leader for them, I think that is a sign that they are not willing to attack windmills.
BTW during my AXPONA demos, I used to cause quite a stir with my ‘FLAC v. WAV’ demos. I even caused the MQA team a bit of a pause when I compared native MQA FLAC files to those converted to WAV while still preserving MQA. Let’s say that was a hoot.
If you want to see me drone on about DMA, digital music assurance, search for ‘axpona 2015: auranas’ on YouTube. I think it showed my ‘promise’ as a stand-up comedian.
Kind regards,
Ron
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Look, if no other manufacturer could do any better than Naim, then I say fair point.
However, as an example, having owned a Innuos Zenith MkIII, I personally know that this is not the case.
So please, anyone who comes on here and blames the CD or solar flares, is at best, deluded.
If you take a CD and one machine recognise it with its correct associated metadata and the other does not. The blame has to be with the machine, that has the incorrect data. It does not matter, if it is software for the machine or the metadata lookup. 
I am a prolific purchaser of used CDs. I buy used because they only have to perform for one rip.
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I have used a Naim Uniti Core for a number of years. The only issue I have encountered was when the original hard disk failed after a number of years’ use. I changed this to a solid state drive and recovered my music from my back up without difficulty. I have found it to be very reliable and very easy to use. I also have a Melco but am not convinced that it is any better in terms of sound quality and it is less user friendly than the Uniti Core. I listen to my ripped CDs on a Naim NDX2 and sometimes on a Naim Muso.
Frankly I can’t see Naim investing time/effort into upgrading or replacing the Uniti Core. But I am pleased to have it as my principal music store for circa 2k CDs.
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Likewise DAL
I like the Core , yes occasionally there is an issue with metadata not coming through but frankly it’s no big deal and easily fixed manually
The SQ is excellent
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Yeah it does use MusicBrainz, just very occasionally…(example attached)
90% of the time, when it does get a metadata hit, it will be Rovi…A few times when Rovi fails it will revert and get something on MusicBrainz…and a few rare times it will also have results returned from both, though it will default to Rovi and I believe it’s hardwired to do this – I mostly have to trigger a ‘manual’ further lookup to potentially get results from MusicBrainz…
Most of the time, I prefer the MusicBrainz results when offered – they seem to generally honour more accurately how things are tracklisted by artists i.e if there is peculiar spelling or sentence casing etc, which I consider important and like to follow….As example, MusicBrainz was the only one to offer the 
︎ symbol for Prince’s Sign “O” the Times, as written on the CD artwork ….
My workflow (should that be workaround…!) these days, when doing ripping sessions (or afterwards) is to rip on the Core, make duplicate files via backup, use Songkong to get/amend/tweak metadata (which uses a proprietary version of MusicBrainz’s database) which also gives me the opportunity to embed as ID3 into all my WAV files, save, and then re-import into the Core’s Download folder (deleting the original ripped file beforehand, though I do keep separate Archival copies of those) …… 
Even then, with fully tagged files/albums including additional fields such as DiscNumber or TrackArtist (which would be considered ‘standard’ meta fields on many other platforms i.e Apple iTunes) you are still not necessarily any further forward as more often than not those tags are not read and/or displayed by the Naim App for browsing purposes – but that’s a whole other conversation and issue!
You couldn’t make it up….
SC
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Would greatly appreciate it if someone would volunteer to be my mentor and teach me how to use SongKong. I own the Software and every time I’ve tried to use it, I just don’t seem to get it.
@Echolane unwise to have your email address on a public forum.
Ask anyone to contact you via the moderator, who may remove it if he sees it first.
You could also raise a new thread e.g. ‘SongKing’ - how to implement!
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Yeah see there’s no need for us to mess about with manual lookups on the Core. We just want it to work first time.
We rip to a NAS store, and can easily run Picard over new rips to add full MusicBrainz data. Simples.
Maybe the core could let users decide which database to use by default. Rovi seems a little poor.
I don’t have a problem with my Core it does what it’s meant to do and causes little trouble.
As for Naim and sources they seem quick to dump and move on, think cd player.
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Hardly with CD players Pete
First came out in the early 90’s but yes most of them fizzled out around 2018 with CD5i still going
Not a bad innings
I rather enjoy my Core , it’s very good and does what it was designed to do
The main point of the Core, besides it’s SQ, is that you do have to mess about with other software, drives and pagan witchcraft.
Here is a little experiment for all, if convenient. Find in. Your CD collection, the most screwed up rip performed on your Core. Take your CD to your local HiFi store, who stocks one of the reputable manufactures equivalents to the Core. i.e. Innuos. Ask them to rip the CD for you and observe the outcome. 
There’s been one budget cd player for a few years now, if that’s not neglected I don’t know what is. There’s lot of their competitors making better players.
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Quite apart from its simplicity of operation & its sound quality I like Core’s understated good looks. It looks great with my other Naim stuff. Obviously there could be improvements but that’s also true of our car, house etc. I don’t own a computer and have no interest in buying one. I don’t mess about with speaker cables, interconnects, Ethernet cables, power cables etc and I don’t want to mess about with computer software. Core works out of the box & even I can change the internal storage. That’s a great selling point.
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That would have been an appeal for me but the travails with regard to metadata were what ultimately put me off.
I think the meta data issue is over played. I’ve had very few issues in almost 4 years, any problem has been quickly resolved.
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