Thought that may grab some attention.
Do you prefer your equipment to have the button lights illuminated or just your nice green Naim logos?
Screens on or off also.
- Button lights on.
- Button lights off.
- Screen on.
- Screen off.
0 voters
Bad poll. No I don’t have a screen option.
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Don’t select a screen option then. 
To be honest, I set the 282 to have no lights on as I had heard it improved the sound.
I didn’t hear any difference and even if I had, I’m not sure it would have offset the inconvenience of not being able to see the volume, mute, and mono button status without getting up close or stabbing at the remote to wake up the display. So I turned them back on again.
Always have NDX screen set to timeout at 10 seconds though.
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My Star makes the choice for me, it is always a mystery every morning whether the screen will display or be blank.
More seriously, I have the buttons etc, on the lowest light setting.
I like the fact that Naim kit with the light off is the very opposite of bling hi-fi. Recall that Martin Colloms when reviewing thought the sound was better with lights off. Must say I have never been able to hear the difference. He may have superior ears.
All of the above. The Qb in the bedroom off (doesn’t have a screen), the Star in the living room on (both illumination (but not at full brightness) and screen.
2 Qb mkII in other rooms. I bought them specifically because the illumination was bright. They were to be musical nightlights for my kids. Book at bedtime played from the NAS and a nice glow to keep monsters away.
2 Likes
In answer to the thread title, on when doing anything except going to sleep or watching a projected film - I like to see what I’m doing! If purely listening to music then lights low, but not off as the room then has distractions from spurious lights (equipment, moon, or whatever), and because I am more likely to doze off!
As for equipment, a light to remind you something is on is good - but as minimal as possible while doing the job, so a single indicator light nothing else -especially if in field of view when sitting relaxing or listening to music (or watching a film etc). Illumination of buttons is only needed if you operate the equipment using its buttons when the room lights are off or very low. Screens on when using, off when not. The only screens on my hifi are on Dave, which illuminates when I activate a control button on remote, normally volume, and set to go off after about 10s (it also has several selectable colour options), and on the iPad I use for music selection, which I lock (screen off) except when using.
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If there had been an option for dimmed buttons… that would have been me. I like the screen as I can see what’s playing when Roon is doing its random radio thing.
Dimmable lights and screen? That puts the new 272 back another 6 months.
By the time the new 272 comes out < cough >, it will come with auto adjust based on the ambient light… a bit like your mobile phone screen! And will have a “Thought Pattern” override allowing you to just think of the required brightness and it will adjust for you without getting out of your seat!
I’m still hoping for a new 172.2 with no screen 
In all honesty… I only value a screen because I’m within 4ft of it. If it was across a room it would be hard to make out what’s on it… which diminishes the need for it!
Got me thinking how it would be nice if the ND/Uniti/Muso streamers supported voice assistants such as Google/Amazon/Apple.
I use this on my Echo Show and Sonos a lot.
I’m a lights/screen off type, just don’t feel the need to see what it’s doing/set to. I prefer minimal visual distraction, certainly not done for any performance reasons anyway.
My NDX2 is right next to the sofa, possibly even closer, but I suspect we are a small minority. Still, I could live without the screen.
1 Like
- Button light on demand.
Well, it all depends on the situation; hence I strongly believe in making these things configurable by users.
Depending on number of options, you can develop scenarios, home automation integration, … - but often some 2-4 settings you can quickly change are enough.
I mean, when watching a dark movie in a dark room, I don’t want the sound caster to illuminate everything. (Hence: light on dimmest setting, display off. I’d even like “all lights out”.)
When listing to “random” stuff and being in the vicinity of the unit: display on or this “wake on approach” is nice. (When it’s faster than checking the phone/tablet.)
…
Thing with versatile digital stuff is, the developer will never know, how people will use it. You could imaging many user scenarios, but people find more. (Okay, I guess, that was already the same in the analog world.)
Problem is, when people are convinced they know perfectly what’s right, and try to enforce it on all users. Then it can get annoying.
(While most people actually often don’t want too many choices or too complicated settings to handle. 
)
Though I’m not sure, if music products would warrant an “expert user” mode in the app, with more configuration options… or the option to login to the unit with SSH for CLI or configuration file editing. 
Though of course a per-input setting for display&stuff would allow some fine tuning. Plus the light sensor in the unit mentioned already above, of course!
Before I digress even more (hot day, tired… ) … good week-end to everybody!
The screens on the new range surprise me a bit. Most serious streamers on the market are still doing text only or no screen. Having a full colour displays puts them a bit in line with the lower end streamers from JVC etc. Personally, if you like the screen then fine. Aesthetically I far prefer the older green screens or the no screen approach of the ND5xs2.
If I got my way (don’t worry, I won’t and my opinion is usually in a minority), we’d have the green screens back with higher resolution to render non roman alphabets. And a simple backend HTTP interface for configuration in the event the screen (or your iPhone) dies.
Truth be told, although I set my NDX to screen off after 10 secs, if it wasn’t for the longevity problem, I’d probably want it on all the time. Heck, I’d probably use the clock on my UQ2 if I wasn’t worried about the screen.
I prefer candle light 
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