I would hate for him to go for it and regret it. I wouldn’t push him into it. I felt much the same as him but I had nothing to lose as nothing could sound worse. Glad I did. 
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Another favourite of mine. Subtle timing changes and just listen to the power of his voice a few minutes in. And then you have that great raspy sax!
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Your description is highly compelling!
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It’s weird just how right everything sounds now though it does feel like I’m using even less of the volume to get room filling sounds even on older recordings that used to need sending past 9oclock it’s now 9 or lower. Hope whoever is involved in tuning can keep it like this going forward.
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In my system with the new firmware 3.12 I find low volume listening has actually improved compared to 3.11.
David
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I think much will depend on your speaker choice, your music choice and the effect your room may have on the overall balance of your system. With 3.11 I could find quite challenging pieces of music to play loud and other pieces that quite suited 3.11’s slight ‘U’ shape frequency balance. What I’m already finding with 3.12 is that it treats music much more evenly.
I was listening to Radio Paradise yesterday and with each track I found myself turning up the volume until it was really quite loud. Every single track was sounding stunning. It was as though the amp was adjusting the dynamic levels on its own. Normally I’d be adjusting the volume levels for the type of music I was playing but with 3.12 it was all sounding really good. I use to get a similar effect with 3.8, so I’m convinced 3.12 is going in the right direction.
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I have found I can listen at higher volumes too post the update and by some margin!
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Hi Richard. Are you saying that 3.12 only fixes bugs and doesn’t change the sound?
Possibly more a question for @Paul.B rather than the forum senior moderator don’t you think?
ATB, J
See my posts on this earlier in the thread;
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I did the update couple hours ago on my Nd5XS2 into Ndac and I can’t say if I hear a real change, I have been listening for hours yesterday evening and have been listening to the new firmware this morning for a couple hours too.
It sounds lovely, but again so did it yesterday 
I have to say I would usually be on the sceptic side of the hobby as I just returned a 2.5k Nordost QB8 that I had on try and that I didn’t really like or feel like it made a significant change, especially not for that crazy amount of money…, so I would fail to see how an upgrade that wasn’t aimed at improving sound could benefit the SQ in any way, but hey maybe I am wrong and maybe the patchnote doesn’t get into some secret tricks from naim.
I have however ordered a DC1 BNC cable to replace my Nordost blueheaven I got with the streamer and that I always felt sounded a bit edgy compared to a chord clearway I had on spare and tried a couple of times, I’m curious to see what the “Naim sound” full loop can sound like. (I think I have an issue with Nordost as I really believe they are selling air, especially with some of their Qv2 and other “plug in” miracle blue LED dodats for the price of gold)
Long story short, I like this update, haven’t had any issues with it, update took about 5 minutes over wifi, no volume issues etc.. and I am still very pleased with how everything sounds.
I will however surely be influenced by the confirmation bias as everyone seems to love it so much, free upgrade hehehe!
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The radio stations sound audiophile.
Try JB radio 2
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Julien you seem to be in an upgrade mode, have you tried an external PS to the nDAC ?
The ND5xs2 with nDAC is really good, and then adding external PS such as a PS555DR, the source is staggering more musical and enjoyable, it sounds like every component gets upgraded to their optimal capability.
Then v3.12 comes along and elevates the whole feeling of euphoria whilst listening.
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Great recommendation for Rachelle Ferrell, I wasn’t familiar. Good stuff!!! Thank you.
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That’s the best of this forum, to get recommendation from others on great music. I picked up quite some recommendations here……
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Thanks soundorg
Well, bought my NDX 2 S/H last month to replace a ND5 XS2. To be honest I was a bit disappointed with the sound into my 52: sounds like more HiFi, lot of attacks, and sometimes shrill for some Japanese albums. ND5 XS2 performance is limited, but at least more engaging and easier to the ears.
But the 3.12 changes that: most of the shrill gone, less dry, and not as aggressive, smooth and lush, I’m in love with it, now it’s really a class above ND5 XS2. I’ve got clips of my bare NDX 2 with 3.11 and 3.12 firmware, listen again and it sounds like so.
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Bloody odd that day 4 I am hearing a much more open and brighter sound not bad but more like Naim as I remember but I also read that that won’t last as up to yesterday it was all very smooth!
I totally agree, I found great inspiration and expanded my music collection a lot thanks to this forum.
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Maybe you’re having an off day and it’s causing the music to grate a bit?