Perhaps they could do it for free !
Afaik Roon does not support upnp, so it would not be an option for a good portion of users (apart from the extra costs).
Also it would seem that Roon filters would in principle degrade sound quality, since they are done in software as opposed to curve adjustments/presets that are done in the DAC.
So i don’t think this is an approach that would be advisable when looking to achieve the best results.
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It’s not reasonable to frame it like that, it will cost at least $120 per year, with a minimum of $699 for a prolonged period of use (lifetime subscription). That’s a serious investment for a piece of software that in principle does the same thing as the Naim streamers/apps are capable of doing. And it’s obviously way too much if you are only looking to get a bit more tonal control.
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I use a Sonore UPnP Bridge to “Roonify” my ND5XS. SQ is the same for both Naim App and Roon in lossless configuration i.e. no DSP of any sort.
Yes, there is an annual subscription but for me and many others it’s worthwhile regardless of whether you use DSP or not.
For me the small amount of Roon DSP results in better SQ. There’s no ‘curve’ in the nDAC nor do I up or oversample - I leave the nDAC to do it’s stuff which it does very well.
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Though I agree that Roon may be a bit of overkill for the particular problem under discussion, there is a huge gulf between the capabilities of Roon and the Naim app
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Certainly, i mainly meant that within the scope of this topic/thread.
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Got it 
Yes this is on Spotify and is great if you track hop. Well worth adding because one listens differently when streaming due to the choice.
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I like that principle. However the mix engineer has to cater to people listening on gear with a wide range of capabilities so unless he aims for the high end audience he might exaggerate the bass might he not? What is the industry approach?
I have never found tone controls subtle enough and it’s good to accept what you’re given and not fiddle.
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Old school EQ controls in the form of bass/treble are very crude yes, but it’s different in the case of DAC timing curves. Those are not traditional tone controls but they can have a significant effect on the perceived output signal:
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The Uniti Qute had a LOUDNESS control (by many seen as the worst devil in the world of audio), and the world did not collapse so giving people a choice of some sort of tone control or few versions of ‘Naim signature sound’ should not capsize Naim believes. Same goes with the display – giving customers an option what they want to see on it should not hurt.
Its all about sound… but also about features and flexibility, these days.
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Naim NACs from the 12 to the 552 have had no tone controls by design. Tone controls in the analogue domain are a bad idea.
I do have a 1950s radio with tone controls - a quick tweak and it betters a 500 system 
I kind of struggle to reconcile that with the 470pF input capacitance on the SN3. That will severely alter the frequency response of most (all?) cartridges, and that’s even without accounting for the 100-150pF that the tonearm and cabling will add to that. Realistically it’s 570pF - 630pF we’re talking about.
I just did a quick check of a few popular MM/MI cartridges by Nagaoka, Ortofon and Audio Technica. Recommended capacitance ranges from (less than) 100pF to about 300pF. None I checked list anything higher as acceptable. So a SN3 based setup will provide between double and six times more than what’s recommended.
Assuming the 470pF is not a typo, this can only mean two things:
- Naim have released a product with a badly engineered phono stage
- Naim chose to alter the frequency response and not “deliver authentic sound”
I don’t believe it’s the former, so for me that leaves the second.
Out of interest, could you share which cartridges Naim used during the design?
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I think you’re getting confused about how the Supernait 3 phono stage actually works. These, with in-depth insight from our Technical Director, should clarify things:
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Thanks for the links. I’ll read them in more detail later, but a quick glance didn’t show anything to contradict my conclusion above.
But I did find something that seems to support it:
To be clear, this is not criticism. We all love Naim, it’s why we’re here, and we do trust them to produce good sounding products. I wouldn’t have bought otherwise.
I was just pointing out that you can’t quite obviously alter the sound while at the same time claiming you don’t.
470pF is in line with Naim’s tradition - the Stageline N and N phono boards - as well as many others out there, past and present.
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As i’ve made clear, there’s a world of difference between compensatory changes and offering tone controls on products. Read those reviews (and many, many others) - natural sound is the result.
It might very well sound great (and knowing Naim it likely does), but with a load over 470pF for MM, it won’t be “natural”. At least not with any cart I’m aware of.
That’s really interesting. Do you know which cartridges are used in the development process in the past and/or present?
Have you heard one, out of interest?