I want to move to Roon and somehow I’d like keep my Naim Uniti Core as a ripper, but it’s not Roon Ready and I can’t figure out a way to incorporate it into the mix. Any ideas?
My living room system is my main system and for streaming has a Berkeley Audio DAC Reference Series 2 feeding a tube amp and Quad Esl-63 electrostatic Speakers. The Berkeley DAC is made Roon Ready with an Audio Alchemy DMP-1 Digital Music Player.
The TV system is Roon ready by virtue of an OPPO UDP-205. This space could accommodate the Naim Uniti Core.
The other two music systems are Windows Core i7 and Core i5 Desktops equipped with excellent audio gear. The Core i7 features an Audiomat Arpege tube amp, Spendor S3/5 Speakers and an Audio Alchemy DDP-1 DAC. The Naim Uniti Core could reside here as an option.
The big problem is the 1000 ripped CDs and 500 hi-res files that reside on an SSD inside the Uniti Core are not in Roon edited format. What procedure would work to allow me to continue ripping in the Naim product and then sending it on for Roon editing. Just writing this out makes it seem like it would be a cumbersome process but perhaps someone has some creative idea that will make this workable.
The uniti isn’t a roon device so that doesn’t work, you could use the uniti as a, very expensive, file server serving up your music for a roon server.
You need a roon specific server, a PC, Mac, Roon ROCK etc.
That’s true, but used objects are rarely worth what we paid for them new. However, you did get the use of it for however long you have had it. That is worth something. If you sell it for a reasonable amount, that might fund the purchase of a device that will work with Roon or partially pay for it.
If the Naim is visible across the network on your Windows PCs (particularly the one Roon is on) you can drag and drop them into your music folder or suitable storage. If the Uniti has USB or spdif in it can be made to work as a dumb endpoint using a suitable device.
@Echolane, if I understand your system and the capabilities of the Uniti Core correctly, I think all you need to do is configure Roon (which computer is Roon running on?) to watch the folders that the Uniti Core exposes as file shares. The Uniti Core will continue to function as a cd ripper (and upnp server should you wish to continue to use it as such), and the ripped files will be available to Roon to serve to the Roon Ready endpoints on your network.
I have noticed in other threads that there can be problems with the share. Microsoft have turned off by default the sharing protocol used by the Uniti Core (and my elderly NAS, which is how I found a similar issue… ) but it can be re-enabled fairly simply.
Another note. If the Uniti Core ripped files are wav, Roon will be unable to see the metadata (because it’s in a separate database on the Uniti Core) but should still have enough information from the folder structure and file naming conventions to identify your music. If the rips are flac, the metadata is embedded in the files, and I think Roon will be able to use it if you so choose.
As mentioned above, you can use your Core as a store, and your Roon Core will have access to it. The Naim Core then still functions as a ripper, store etc. If you prefer, you could sell it, and just connect a cheap USB drive to your Roon Core if you’re happy to use a computer for ripping etc.
@Echolane Yep no reason to ditch the Uniti core and continue to use it as a ripper and essentially a Nas to feed your Roon core on another device. If I remember did you not buy a Sonic Transporter or did you get rid of that? Either way decide on if you want a dedicated device to run the core on or to use a general purpose pc. Personally I would if you don’t still of the SonicTransporter to get an Intel NuC and install. Rooms operating system on it called ROCK which will make it a dedicated Roon core that is very simple to maintain and can be left always on.
You’ve got a good memory! Yes, I did buy a Sonic Transporter, but it’s down right now, won’t power up. To complicate things even further I’ve been offered an almost new Roon Nucleus. So which way to go? Repair the ST? Or accept the Roon Nucleus?
Either way, I still need a ripper. I already have a good one in the Naim Uniti Core but it’s damned awkward to keep using it. Roon doesn’t like Naim WAV files and that creates difficulties with metadata. So if I abandon the Core, how shall I rip then? I tend to get real analytical and from my reading it sounds like rips can vary quite a lot in quality of the rip and the accuracy of the metadata, giving me further pause about abandoning the good quality of the Core. Even more importantly, I really don’t want to have to sit at a desktop to rip, since I have back problems that make sitting very painful. The Naim Uniti Core makes this process really easy for me. OTOH, I can attach a ripper to the Roon Nucleus! But that begs the question of what to buy to do those rips? Will any old CD burner/ripper do? If that’s an easy question to answer, then I think that’s what I ought to do and just sell the Core.
I’ve read several threads about Roon Nucleus vs Sonic Transporter and perhaps I missed something but as I recall, nothing sounded all that conclusive, either one is a good choice. Which suggests I should stick with the ST and repair it.
Go for Nucleus it’s designed to do one thing run Roon and do it well. Is the ST not still under warranty?
Yes you can attach a USB CD drive to the Nucleus which you choose is up to you really buffalo external drive is supposed to be good I just use cheap LiteOn one mysel. But be aware ripping via the Nucleus does not add metadata to the files themselves as Roon does not alter files, it leaves them unmodified it won’t even name each file for the tracks they will be track 1 etc. It puts them in folders but that’s all. It does all the metadata matching automatically in Roon taking the CD info and matching to it’s databases. So if you later want to use the rips outside of Roon they won’t have any metadata for other apps to use or see. I know from previous posts your a stickler for accurate metadata. You can add metadata to the files using any external metadata editing app such as SongKong, mp3tag etc afterwards if you want to. This is what I have been doing. So this is something to bare in mind and you might find the Uniti Core is better suited to ripping. But leaves you with two devices.
Naim uses a proprietary form of WAV which Roon can’t interpret so all my obsessively/meticulously edited metadata is unreadable by Roon, all made worse because virtually all my music is opera/classical which Roon and others don’t handle that well anyway. Fortunately, there is software called SongKong that can read those Naim WAV files and translate them into a readable variation of WAV format that Roon (and others) can understand, thus preserving my metadata.
Thank you for that bit of bad news, that all my rips will again be unusable if I want to go elsewhere! And I don’t think SongKong has an app so I will be stuck sitting at a desktop to tidy up the metadata but to what purpose if its not ultimately transferable. That is far from ideal for me. Makes me think going to one of the InnuOS products might be a good solution for me.
I do own the music I’ve ripped. I don’t even yet subscribe to a music streaming service because I am so enjoying listening to my own music. All my CDs are stored in my garage waiting for the time when I’m willing to let them go. Good thing I haven’t let them go yet as I may wind up ripping them again. Don’t want to do that.
My CDs are ripped to WAV. I have sent my file of rips through Roon and the result was not pretty. A high percentage of my albums had the wrong cover art, sometimes Disc 1 had different metadata and album cover art from Disc 2 and more. It was hard to recognize my music. That’s when I discovered SongKong could rescue me. Meanwhile, life interrupted, the Sonic Transporter went down and some months later I am trying to resume use of Roon.
Last I looked I’m not having that problem, though I haven’t looked in awhile. I’m forced to have my computer rebuilt and hope there won’t be any issues retaining my dual boot Windows 7 and Windows 10 installation. I should be covered with one or the other.
Sorry If you add the metadata yourself using an additional app its such as SongKong as all you do is point at your files and it will trawl through and then gives you the choice to change its not all manual this metadata is transferable as you have added it to the files. It only Roons metadata that is not ut in the files at rip as its licensed to Roon only. But if you export your library via Roon as it has this feature it would tag the files with standard id3 tags so they have metadata. Its not like the Uniti Core where it stuck, its just Roon doesnt add anything until you want to move them. But if you want to have tags now you have to add them manualy. But as i said it is all transferable…