Naim Uniti Core and Roon

I have music from CDs ripped and stored on a Naim Core. Some precious and rare CDs aren’t recognised by Naim’s database, so when I have imported the music, I often have to add artist’s name, album title, track titles, and cover art to them by editing the metadata. The trouble is that Roon doesn’t seem to be able to find this ‘user altered’ metadata, and the albums don’t appear in my Roon library.
There must be a way around this. Does anyone know how, please?

See this post:

Are you using a Naim app to edit the metadata? If so, then I believe that the issue is that Naim store this metadata in a database on the Uniti, rather than as metadata in the files themselves.

Roon has no access to this database, so can’t use the metadata in the identification process.

There are apparently two shared folders published by the Uniti:

\Music is where the Uniti Core stores its ripped CDs. Editing the metadata can only be done using the Naim IOS or Android app - and Roon won’t see the metadata.

\Downloads is where you save your downloaded music files. For these albums and tracks you are responsible for the metadata and artwork. I believe you could use a third-party metadata editor on these files - and Roon will pick up the metadata from files in this shared folder.

I can understand that, Geoff. Thank you. I’ll have to try extracting these files to a folder, editing the metadata IN the files, and then drop them into the Downloads folder.

If you rip your CDs to FLAC the metadata should be accessible to Roon.

Chris, Do you mean I should rip to Flac on my Naim Core, then Roon will find my edited metadata? Or do you mean to rip to Flac, into a folder on a computer? Thank you.

If you set the Core to rip to FLAC you should find that Roon can see the metadata as unlike the Naim WAVs it’s saved in the same file as the music.
Unfortunately the (Naim) Core does not allow you to convert WAV to FLAV in the way that the Unitiserve can, but I would suggest that you rip an album to FLAC and see what happens.

Remember that if you make metadata edits on the Naim app these will not show in Roon, because Roon uses its own metadata by default. You can tell it to use the metadata stored in the music folder instead if you prefer.

Greetings all - my first post, very much a Roon newbie!

I am just upgrading from my Naim Unitiserve to a Naim Core. My dealer is copying the files over to the Core for me from my US. What are the things I need to know about in connecting my Core into my Roon setup?

I note the differences in metadata between WAV and FLAC. I believe my Unitserve is all ripped to WAV, and I am not inclined to re-rip them…Will this cause me problems?

Happy to be pointed at another post if all the basic info is there

Mike

You can use Songkong to read the naim metadata on old and new style cores.

Hi Mike
Ask your dealer to convert WAV files to FLAC on the Unitiserve before moving them. The Core cannot do this, so once the files have been moved it’s too late.
If you were moving the files to a non-Naim device you could do this yourself later using Soundiiz but you cannot use third party software to alter files in the Music folder without messing it up.

Hello Chris - And thank you - You have actually responded to a question on the Naim Forum recently! (VintageMike - you recommended I upgrade my speakers next which I am auditioning tomorrow)

Unfortunately, my Naim dealer has already done the transfer, I am due to pick it up tomorrow. I could try and call him now and see if he could re-do it…Presumably he could wipe it and re-do, I am auditioning £5k speakers with him…

However, if Roon adds its own metadata, does it matter if the files on the Core are ripped as WAV?

UPDATE - Very friendly Naim dealer, has agreed to wipe and convert to FLAC for me. ready for me to pickup tomorrow

That should make life easier! Do you already have Roon up and running?
If I’m honest, the last thing I would buy to replace a Unitiserve is a Core due to it’s limited functionality. Also, if you’re fully committed to Roon then a £50 USB drive attached directly to the your Roon Core would work just as well, or if you have a NAS with a Unitiserve backup on it, just use the backup folder as your Roon library. Then you’ll have a spare £2k to spend on something that will give you a sound quality upgrade, like speakers!

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Thanks Chris - Yes Roon is already up and running and I am on day 5 of my trial but already a convert!

Interesting thought re the Core, I was steered this way by my Naim dealer. I did get £900 for my U/S towards the Core which I was happy with as I have had problems with the U/S and it will have a battery fail again at some point.

I’ll speak to the dealer tomorrow, maybe he will let me switch it towards speakers. I have a backup of the U/S in .WAV which presumably I can convert to FLAC in dBPowerAmp but I’ll probably have to edit all the metadata?

You really want the Unitiserve to convert its own backup to FLAC so that the metadata is correctly incorporated into the files, then you can use it however you like, including on Roon or other non-Naim interfaces.
Alternatively you can do it yourself and use Songkong to sort the metadata if you are not going to use it with a Naim server.

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As Ged kindly said with SongKong you can very simply embed the Naim Wav metadata into the wav files themselves, that way you can keep both the existing metadata and continue to use wav files if that is your preference. I added this for melco audio to make it easier for customers to move from Naim to Melco - SongKong Niam Wav convesion and because it just converting data from one format to another is very quick.

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@paultaylor That’s fantastic, Thank you. I have Jaikoz, but not SongKong. I will investigate over a glass of wine later! Which Version of SongKong do I need to purchase to have access to this functionality?

Hi, you need a Melco license from SongKong Music Tagger this license works fine on your PC/Mac/Nas ecetera but unlocks the naim data optionm but you can see a preview of full results with free SongKong Lite without purchase.

If, as you said before, your dealer has converted your library to FLAC on the Unitiserve, the metadata will be incorporated into the files so you won’t need to do anything else to them.

Chris - I decided not to go for the Core based on our conversation and chopped the U/S in as a credit towards my NAP 250DR. I felt guilty asking him to convert to FLAC and put onto USB drive for me as I wasn’t taking the core. So I am going to convert my U/S backup on the NAS instead - which I think was also your suggestion :sunglasses: