Mac/NAS/AppleTV2/NaimUniti

[admin_exported]

Hello all
Glad to be a new member of this lovely place!
So I am upgrading my living room, and want to get everything available in there streamed from the office.
My Mac/NAS/router are in the office, I intend to run ethernet cable to the living room because i dont want any loss/jitter with wireless.
I am a couple of weeks away from having Naim Uniti action, and i wanted AppleTV2 to control lossless music selection/photos etc on the TV screen menus from my NAS.
Can I have all this control through the AppleTV2 without losing quality of my music coming from the Uniti??

Thanks in advance for the advice

Jon p.s. I know that i need an app to stream my lossless to Uniti

 

[John Duncan]

Yes you can. In fact, I think it's almost the ideal setup - I listen to the vast majority of my music via Spotify through an airport express, but if I had apple TV instead, I'd have visual control of my iTunes content via TV as well.

You only need an app to stream to the Uniti if you mean to use the Uniti's UPnP server - in which case you will need something like Elgato Eyeconnect to transcode Apple Lossless on the fly. However, with an Apple TV in place, just plug the HDMI into the telly and the optical out into one of the two digital ins on the Uniti, and you're done - use the free Remote app from the App store to control it.

 

[amcluesent]

If I understand what you're about, you'll have a UPnP server on the NAS and the Uniti as the player and you want to control playback. For this you need a UPnP controller like the Songbook apps (http://bookshelfapps.com/songbook.php) for Mac and iOS devices.

The Apple TV is really a player that connects to the iTunes library so it itself, I can't see any way it'll help you control what is being played on the Uniti. iTunes/AirPlay and UPnP are in worlds of their own.

>with an Apple TV in place, just plug the HDMI into the telly and the optical out into one of the two digital ins on the Uniti,<

I'd want to look very carefully at any transcoding and sample rate conversion in the chain.

 

[John Duncan]

Agreed, but if the OP is really worried about that, he's going to need to rerip all his content into FLAC so that the Uniti can read it natively, since Apple Lossless only works natively from an iPod plugged into the front USB slot.

I'm making the assumption that an Apple TV sounds on a par with an Airport Express, but I have to say I can't tell the difference between AE into the Uniti and bit-perfect (EAC) FLAC on USB or via Twonky. This is all 16/44 material, granted, and if you get some higher-res material then it *will* be an issue, since the Apple TV and Airport Express both downsample.

 

[Anonymous]

Dear John, please help. What is the best way to reproduce music that I have purchased from itunes and ripped into itunes from my cd's collection please. I currently have a Pioneer set-up, TV, AV 919 amp and 51 Blu Ray. I also have Apple TV2, Mac Mini (new verison) with Time Capsule (new version). I am hearing a lot about lossless, not sure if the music I have purchased through itunes or ripped is lossless? I can rip my cd collection again if required as its not extensive, but what about the music I have purchased...can I upgrade via itunes? I have a budget of around £1000 to spend if I must? Hope you can help...Christmas is the holiday time I get to do this sort of thing so any help would be much appreciated ))

 

[DavieCee]

richythompson:

Dear John, please help. What is the best way to reproduce music that I have purchased from itunes and ripped into itunes from my cd's collection please. I currently have a Pioneer set-up, TV, AV 919 amp and 51 Blu Ray. I also have Apple TV2, Mac Mini (new verison) with Time Capsule (new version). I am hearing a lot about lossless, not sure if the music I have purchased through itunes or ripped is lossless? I can rip my cd collection again if required as its not extensive, but what about the music I have purchased...can I upgrade via itunes? I have a budget of around £1000 to spend if I must? Hope you can help...Christmas is the holiday time I get to do this sort of thing so any help would be much appreciated ))

I re-ripped all my tunes as Apple Lossless just so I "knew" I wasn't missing out on anything. Took a while and a whack of memory but worth it as I had ripped some albums at lower quality settings. If you have the time & memory, why not?

Downloaded tunes are 256 AAC (I think) max. You may be concerned that this is less than 320 but from listening, I wouldn't be over concerned. This only for recent downloads though. I seem to remember that up until a couple of years ago the download quality was less unless you were signed up for the premium service. On the other hand, I would still recommend buying a CD over downloading if possible.

The Apple system hits the buffers if you try HD Flacs but a simple conversion takes it down to "only" 4600 so I don't think that's too much of a problem and I still have the original Flacs should the hardware catch up.

I already had the Mac & HiFi so adding an AE & DAC wasn't too much of a stretch but so,so very worth it

 

[Anonymous]

Dear John, please help. What is the best way to reproduce music that I have purchased from itunes and ripped into itunes from my cd's collection please. I currently have a Pioneer set-up, TV, AV 919 amp and 51 Blu Ray. I also have Apple TV2, Mac Mini (new verison) with Time Capsule (new version). I am hearing a lot about lossless, not sure if the music I have purchased through itunes or ripped is lossless? I can rip my cd collection again if required as its not extensive, but what about the music I have purchased...can I upgrade via itunes? I have a budget of around £1000 to spend if I must? Hope you can help...Christmas is the holiday time I get to do this sort of thing so any help would be much appreciated ))

 

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