Phew! Sorry for the late response, been travelling so welcome from Mumbai (no Naim dealers I can find though)
Anyway some musings
I mentioned Naim from an old school perspective because things were simpler then. In hierarchy, upgrade path and of course product environment etc. It was a no brainer really if you were in the Naim world.
42? go 42.5
110? get the 140 upgrade done
Crome bumper go olive
Older olive? PX to Classic, if not after 10-15 years get everything serviced.
Add a PSU of your choice.
But for a longtime Naim user the big change recently, beside the takeover, is the environment, by which i mean internet enabled, room connected, networked and streaming area.
I do not doubt Naims superiority in sound, IMO of course, but this opens up, after some thought and reading, a massive new area for the company and its users. To our UK system LP12 Aro CDX sources I added the ND5 XS2 (even that’s a mouthful TBH) 2k+ CD rips and about the same in vinyl plus Tidal and IR.
Its amazing value for money, easy to use, in-fact the whole family use it all the time, normal Naim burn in, after a few months now sweat, smooth, detailed and powerful.
However, I work in our HQ based in Germany and have a small apartment. Grieving not having the system to hand, bought a Muso2 here.
And here lies my original comments, granted its easy to gripe. At the same time I do expect things to “just work” . But having given some thought to the IT side of things, it’s a million times more complex.
I still think the app needs work, but to be fair i was thinking how many permutations of room, layout, router, wifi coverage, internet provider, property construction, age of property, country, mains supply, cables, protocols, users, control devices, wifi fog from neighbours and location, especially in a town centre apartment block (I’m in the sticks with 3 neighbours, 1875 building made into 4 flats, 4 items show in my network settings) I guess you know what I’m saying, if calculated, every one of the 10,000 or so network products Naim have sold (be interested in the correct figure, I have no idea) every one of those is in a DIFFERENT environment, yep no 2 are the same.
In the meantime i changed my router to a more powerful one (claimed) reset and configured that and the Muso2 from scratch and so far its much better. Occasionally I have to power everything off and reboot for the app to find the Muso and sometimes refresh the app till it find the Muso but all round better.
I think the other issue is how far ahead the product is in sound quality in relation to use of it. Its like having a Lexus LS and every few hundred Km you hear just one squeak! Ive demo’d it to some local colleagues and they are absolutely astonished at the output and sound quality from this thing. Its hearting to experience the type experience when people hear Naim products for the first time.
“no no, play that”
“before we go what was that album from Yellow, Bach, Mahler, Gary Boyle (insert your own music)”
“put that one on again from 2 hours ago”
Naim users know the score!
Anyway, Im back in Germany next week and will follow up on the situation.
BTW should have brought it in a second suitcase for my hotel room. Might have bust my weight allowance though. Ah just checked 11.2kg. So a Muso and a toothbrush next time.
Martin