All we can say is that if we were, right now, in the market for a new streamer and did a demo of an NDX2 with 3.12 (as transport) we would have zero hesitation in buying it.
As others above have posted, 3.11 was good but some recordings didn’t play to their full potential. I wouldn’t say we were avoiding anything though.
With 3.12, after only a day, any of those kind of thoughts are gone. It conveys our 4 test playlists with ease (treble/midrange/bass/dynamics). 3.12 has detail and slam.
Strugglin to keep on working, did the update, had the volume issue, fixed that and was amazed how the staging and level of detail have improved. I can now hear Eva softly play her guitar in “Ohw, had I a golden thread” while the bass and organ play their tunes during her singing. Never heard that. Backing vocals are now heard throughout and I have found a new level of sustain and decay… Seriously impressed with my DIY speakers again. Tempered my urge to look around for new speakers.
Well done Naim, & Thnx for those in the Software Dev dept and the Beta testers for their efforts!
With firmware 3.12 installed on the ND555 powered by dual power supplies, the presentation takes a distinctly different direction from 3.11.
Version 3.11 impressed with its organic, cohesive nature. A sound that felt naturally connected, flowing effortlessly while still delivering impact and drive whenever the music demanded it. It had a certain physicality and emotional continuity that made listening deeply engaging.
Firmware 3.12 shifts the perspective entirely. The soundstage opens dramatically, creating the impression of a much larger acoustic space. Instruments and performers appear closer and more tangible within that expanded environment, while the overall presentation becomes exceptionally quiet, refined, and immaculately clean.
There is an unmistakable sense of increased precision, as though the system has undergone another stage of polishing, revealing a more crystalline character. The tonal balance is subtly different as well: more neutral, more transparent, and distinctly more “NSS” in character. Rather than searching into the recording for detail, 3.12 presents the entire musical picture effortlessly, almost as if illuminated under a magnifying glass.
What stands out most is the shift in musical insight. The detail is no longer hidden within layers waiting to be uncovered; instead, the music is laid out with remarkable openness, clarity, and composure.
It is still early days, and more listening time is clearly needed before drawing firm conclusions. But for now, the experience feels less like revisiting familiar recordings and more like rediscovering the music through an entirely new presentation.
Before you attempt to roll-back, which I think is unlikely to be made available, you might want to try a power down for 20+mins and then power things up again. If possible, I would also recommend you do the same with your router and switches. If that fails to improve things it might then be worth doing the full hard reset. In previous iterations of firmware this has often solved the odd issues with an overly bright sound. It worked for me with 3.11 and 3.10.1. Finally, you can try playing with input/output settings in the app as switching off anything that’s not used/needed has quite a calming effect on the upper frequencies.
The volume going up to 100% by itself is a bug in the Android Naim app. Naim have fixed this but the update will take a few days to make it to the App Store. In the meantime, use the slider control (instead of +/- buttons) for volume control.
Can you give some examples of tracks which are problematic on your system?
Our “dynamics” test playlist has heavy rock/metal and also some pretty extreme metalcore, death metal etc. and there were no issues. Always looking to add tracks which stress a system in different ways.
SWMBO is out with dog for lunch and I’m currently on Coronach by Hellripper and it is sounding good!
Now I actually think I hear a difference in my Nova. Maybe it’s because I’m paying more attention to it now, I don’t know, but I think I’m hearing clearer vocals and slightly thicker bass.
as a non-techie 555/500er listener for many years can I ask a basic question: how could a “minor” firmware release update change/improve the audio characteristics in such a groundbreaking (good) way as described by many of you? What kind of new or different fw-algorithms had to be developed and coded so that the existing (old) hardware could be tweaked accordingly …? In other words: how can ‘0’s and ‘I’s in existing old software only can do so much magic? I am happy that naim seems to move on with hi-audio quality standards (and to provide some investment protection …). Although additional functions & features would also be appreciated… Tx much
I would love if Naim released a new firmware update with absolutely no changes at all and then have a long thread with hundreds of posts maybe thousands arguing that is better or worse and then tell them all that there was no change.
It’s because any change to firmware in a digital audio device will likely have some effect on the sound in some way (others with more tech knowledge than me here can explain why, but I believe that it has been explained at some length before on previous threads) - the more revealing the device, I guess the more it will be perceived by the listener?
Anyway, I first encountered such things in my early days at Naim, and I believe this was reason why Naim used to try to minimise the amount of code their CD players would use (hence the very limited features) and would code very deliberately and specifically to ensure they got best sound.
Hence whenever firmware is changed and developed Naim do tuning to ensure that performance is maintained, or even improved if possible. As for what Naim do to tune, that’s a bit of a trade secret, however, on a forum visit to the factory last year we were lucky enough to hear the effects of a new “raw” code drop and then also hear some initial tuning steps. It was fascinating really. But what really surprised me to hear was that Naim are one of the few who bother to tune after new firmware.
As far as I know it is technically entirely plausible that a compliance update changes the sound — not through deliberate modification of the audio pipeline, but as a side effect of changed system processes, CPU load, or driver behaviour on an embedded platform where audio processing and general computing tasks share the same processor. It is an inherent vulnerability of software-defined audio hardware.
Tx much
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