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A fundamental tenet of the Naim philosophy has always been the vital importance of the source component in any system - 'Rubbish in, Rubbish Out' as they used to say.

In the age of the ripped file this has never been more important, and getting the file ripped and stored correctly the first time and every time is the bedrock on which to build any server based solution.

There is no better way to do this than Naim's own UnitiServe which provides the ideal file for playback through a Naim system as well as comprehensive management of your music library and a wonderfully intuitive user interface.

Jason Kennedy certainly agrees and you can read his review from the AudioBeat here:-

http://www.theaudiobeat.com/equipment/naim_unitiserve.htm

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Comment by Gavin Wilson on March 1, 2013 at 13:32

It’s interesting to see the UnitiServe being talked of as a source in the context of ‘source first’ which is normally said when thinking about optimising sound quality.

When I had a naim DAC, I initially thought of the DAC as my source, with the connected digital player being merely data storage and transfer. Over time I came to the conclusion that the digital feed to the DAC had an impact on sound quality, so I began to think of the ‘source’ as being a combination of both the naim DAC and the connected digital storage/supply, although it’s fair to say that the greatest contribution to sound quality came from the DAC.

I use an NDS now, which I’ve had for about 6 months. I use it as a network streamer, so the digital input arrangement is quite different to how I used the DAC. The NDS is connected to my computer network via a switch, along with a desktop PC (upstairs in my office room) that I use for serving the stored digital music. Straightaway though, the concept of  source begins to creep upstream of the NDS – in the sense that I took care to rip my CDs direct to WAV format using dbpoweramp with Accuraterip because WAV is recommended as the best file format for the naim streamers.

After many months with the above arrangement I started to look for an ‘always on’ option rather than using the PC, which I generally turn on and off as needed. I guess a NAS would be the most cost effective solution, but I decided to try a UnitiServe. Why? I value the support that naim offer; I like some of the features that come with n-Serve (the naim iPad app) where you can for example edit metadata from the comfort of your armchair; finally, in conversation with someone from naim, it was suggested that an arrangement like mine, using a standard PC as server, may not get the full potential out of my NDS.

The comment from naim has proven to be an understatement for me. Within just a few seconds of listening to the first track ripped and served from the UnitiServe, I was struck by an obvious step change improvement in sound quality. It didn’t seem possible that there was scope for improvement but there was. In the context of my system, I have found moving from a desktop PC as server to a UnitiServe to be comparable with my upgrade from naim DAC to NDS. A previously unrecognised layer of digital glare has been removed, yielding an even more real, three dimensional, organic presentation. Clear to myself and my wife.

Don’t get me wrong, the NDS sounds absolutely terrific with my desktop PC server, in fact it’s terrific with any source, even my freeview TV decoder, but moving to the UnitiServe has been a revelation to me. Perhaps the right NAS would have given me the same gain for less cost, but I’m content with my choice.

It seems that once again I am having to view the whole digital arrangement: DAC, streamer, infrastructure, ripper, storage as working together in combination to form the ‘source’. I get the impression that this view is quite controversial at the moment, but after reading the Black Art blog post about ‘UnitiServe as source’ and Jason Kennedy’s experience, I am prompted to report my experience, for what it's worth.

Gav

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