Happy with the new Naim update

Go Dutch!

The recent Newport album, whilst very different, shows her longevity.

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My exact reaction when I first installed the Beta a while ago :grin:

Even 44/16 Tidal sounds rather better than before.

I think there are good reasons for.

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Yes! Free upgrade :smiley: Music is grabbing me and pulling me in a little more than usual. I seem to suddenly have a bit more of everything I like. Early days perhaps but everything seems to be in a bit more of a hurry. JJ Cale’s After Midnight for instance might have lost some of it a laid back languid groove. I’d be interested if anyone else feels the same way.

Richard mentioned on another thread that it should be available this week.

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I ran the updates today. What’s with the “new radio” - is it just the layout of the ‘internet radio” - I’m not seeing a Naim radio as such, just new layout tabs etc.

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This is a really significant change, whereby Naim are hosting the iRadio service themselves, rather than relying on vtuner. As well as hopefully greater reliability it gives access to better streams in some cases, and to improved metadata where available. The longer term plan is to enable users to add stations via the App.

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Wow, i have just installed the latest update on my NDX 2 and have to say that i’m rather impressed with the sound quality streaming from Tidal Max. What a lovely surprise. Thank you to all who were involved in bringing this to fruition.

'Appy days! :+1:

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Well, that all sounds very nice. I don’t seem to use the internet radio that much, so it will be nice to play with it a bit more.

With some local streaming from the Core the sound quality seems to have had a good lift on the ND555, more open with a more sparkly top end. The ongoing mystery of firmware versions affecting sound quality. I’d start a thread, but we all know how that would go….

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The App does not affect SQ, but the firmware does. Firmware can be tuned to get the desired sound.

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Ah yes, I think I meant that :sunglasses:

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Yesterday when I first updated my ND5XS2 it sounded okay, and then got worse than it had been before.

This was probably a mixture of having a bad cold and the disruption of the update.

Expecting the worst, I switched it on this afternoon and was amazed that it sounded so good, just as you describe above.

I’m delighted by the change - it sounds the best it ever has done.

Well done and thank you to @110dB and the team at Naim.


The series of short drum solos that begin about 8 mins into the above track sound very crisp and alive and realistic.

I’d love some clue as to how this is possible. :slightly_smiling_face:

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FLAC 44.1kHz 16-bit is not Tidal Max Jim, it’s the same bitrate as before.

From reports (and own experience of it) it seems that also 16/44 Tidal has improved over the previous firmware.

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It’s good if that’s the case, but hi-res isn’t.

It’s not just Tidal. I stream from Qobuz in 16/44 and beyond and it sounds fantastic IMHO. I would have been happy just with the Internet Radio update… :-). I’ll trial Tidal Max soon.

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I’m happy with new update. But I have a question. I have a subscription to CalmRadio. I see all the channels but can’t ear any Music. Where can I give my user id and password ? Thanx.

Hehe yeah I did not want to complicate my response. Also hear it everywhere, even local files.

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Having been using Tidal Max with our NDX2 for a year with various hardware and software workarounds, I can confidently say this new firmware with the native Tidal implementation sounds better than we’ve ever heard.

System has been in constant use today. I’m re-evaluating my previous opinion that 24/96 was a sweet spot for the nDAC. Have listened to loads of 24/192 Tidal content today (Tidal Connect) and it sounds fabulous.

The width of soundstage is incredible, would honestly think we’d tweaked our speaker positioning.

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Noop, on my NDX2 it rather often stand and rotating when a new track try to start. When i jump a track forward and back again it start the track that previously failed.

Sound great show!

Hi @Alley_Cat , can I ask you how you revert to an older firmware in case you are not happy with the sound? Also can one choose the firmware to revert to?

I wonder if this last update affects sound quality in general and not only streaming services like Tidal.