I installed Roon and pointed it to my Naim library (mostly untagged wav files) and within a few minutes the whole lot was catalogued. Added my Muso as an endpoint, and added a few radio stations and it played all afternoon without a hitch. The richness of the content is stunning. I have a friend coming over this afternoon with a pi so that I can try the NDS but in the meantime I plugged an old AppleTV into it. It works but doesn’t sound as good as upnp (although I’m accutely aware that the mind can play tricks when doing a/b comparisons). Will be interesting to see if Raat improves things.
I received my DigiOne today. Plugged it into the RCA SPDIF on my NDS (Digital 2), changed the soundcard to DigiOne in the UI, found and added it in Roon (shows up as snd_allo_digione) and sent some music to it, but I’m not hearing anything. Should I be using a BNC ? Anything else I might need to do to get it working ?
Yes, I activated it and then selected it. It shows as “no signal”. I’m using a digital RCA cable. Hopefully one of the 2 ends is looking for something else. Going to buy a BNC cable today.
Besides changing the soundcard to allo-digione, I have done nothing in terms of configuration to the pi.
Tried a crappy audio RCA cable instead of the huge digital spdif RCA cable I thought was required and it sprang to life !! Compared to the sound I got via the AppleTV + optical spdif, first impressions of the sound are very favourable indeed. Will have a proper listen after I pick up the BNC cable later today.
The NDS is indeed worth running, especially with 1 or 2 555ps. I’m using a Sonore bridge via upnp into NDS, and after a bit of trial and error, I believe that the sound is pretty well as good as it was using NDS with the Naim app, but Roon transforms the experience.
What the NDS brings to the party is Naim’s Dac quality together with power supply design (especially 555DR). Forget the feeling that ‘cheap boxes’ will somehow produce the same result - they won’t.
I have 1 555DR. DigiOne into the NDS via BNC. I don’t like A-B comparisons because I think that they are too open to suggestion. I prefer to just listen to music and, after I have forgotten that anything is different (weeks later sometimes), if I keep thinking “wow, the music sounds great today” or “something is broken” followed by “ah yes, I have that new thing in there”, I start to trust myself. After almost a week I am sure that my system sounds more airy, fine-grained and spacious than it did with my UnitiServe running UPnP. At the very least it doesn’t sound any worse. Roon is such a huge upgrade in functionality, so either way it’s a win.
The icing on the cake would be if I could control my pre-amp’s volume from Roon instead of having to switch to the Naim app, and it would be also be great to be able to pause via the front panel of the NDS - something we often do as we are leaving the house. Suspect that neither of these are possible. Do you know if Naim offers an integrated solution that also matches (or betters) the sound quality of the DigiOne ?
I am not a fan of controlling pre amp volume other than from the manual volume control. The consequences of a malfunction would be economically ruinous to me (and maybe to you too).
@David_O_Higgins@Sloop_John_B Did you boys get together yet to compare NDS/555 with low-cost streamer/good DAC? Would be very interested to hear David’s impression…
Short answer is no. I’m quite happy listening to music with what I have (better than ever since my 500ps was DR’d. John is getting his house back together after some major work.
Probably neither of us would like to find out that the other’s system was better!
Anyway, to do a comparison, he would have to ship his bits over to my house and then figure out how to fit them into my system, to do a fair comparison. (Me bringing mine to his place is just not a runner, logistically). So it may be that it never happens, but if it does we’ll let you know the outcome.
Fair enough David. I’m just a bit curious that you say cheap boxes won’t produce the same result yet you don’t want to compare the NDS/555DR with cheap boxes in case they do sound better. Anyway, I don’t know what speakers you have but I do admire your DR’ed 555 and your NDS: that is one fine system. I personally cannot justify that kind of expenditure on source alone now, given the advancements in low-cost streamer and DAC technolology and am therefore keen to find direct comparisons between such systems and NDS/555. Cheers, William
William, I don’t know what the speakers have to do with it, but they are Naim SL2, which suit my room (and my wife!) perfectly.
I’m not afraid of the comparison with ‘cheap boxes’, I just think that the practicalities are against the possibility of doing it. Neither do I know what I would, or could, do if the ‘cheap boxes’ were clearly better.
Meanwhile, I am being hugely entertained by Roon on radio which was started by ‘I am the Walrus’. Highly recommended (depending on your library of course!)
David
David, well the speakers and amp are the same as John’s so each of you would just have to invite themselves round to the other’s place and report back. Come to think of it, I could invite myself round to both of your places to save you the trouble BTW I am also the proud owner of a pair of SL2s
William, the amps are not the same. John has a NAP300. Mine is a NAP500. There is a big difference. Congrats on the SL2s, a pity they are no longer available.
David
Roon definitely improves on uPNP, but the NDS is still doing most of the heavy lifting by doing the DAC stuff. I’d be amazed but not disappointed if the huge power supply and suspended chassis were a complete waste of time. I don’t know how I would find out though because I’m not sure how I would connect another streamer to my preamp and anyway, I reached the point with my system ages ago where it didn’t feel like there was anything to fix - just happy to listen to the music. I only happened upon Roon because my UnitiServe blew up and I needed an alternative while it was being fixed.
I am trying to run Roon with my NDS in a ‘group’ with two Musos. If I cannot group them they are out of syn and it is horrible. I have a Minimac as the core and a NAS for the files. I have tested the NDS/airplay with Roon and have experienced this problem. I want best SQ so airplay was just a trial. Currently I use the Naim app which is inadequate.
I understand that Sonore UPnP Bridge might solve my problem. I believe that this would allow Roon to see my NDS as a RAAT device and thus group it together with the Musos…any comments?
SQ is imperative to me so it is a non starter if it will downgrade this for my NDS.
BTW I am also the proud owner of a pair of SL2s