So when Tidal Connect arrives, will that be given access to the volume slider? From your description above, Tidal HiFi subscribers might assume not, whereas Tidal Premium subscribers might assume that it would, like Spotify, be available.
Hi @ChrisSU ,
On Tidal Connect + standalone streamer (NDX2, ND5XS2, ND555) the deal is:
- Hybrid mode/Volume mode - tidal app volume slider works, but uses digital vol.
- Fixed mode - the slider does nothing and output is at fixed gain.
Note - with the slider set to max then the digital volume is neutral and doesn’t affect the samples.
Best
Steve
1 Like
Great, the last part answered yet another question I was afraid to ask 
@Thedomestique, I forgot something when I wrote this: You cannot just use the NDX2 remote with system automation, but the volume control in the app will also work the same way - when you change the volume in the app, the NDX2 sends signals over the cable that make the 282 rotate its volume knob. However, the app will show volume +/- buttons and not a slider. (Which is necessary as the system automation does not tell the NDX2 what the current position of the volume knob on the 282 is, the NDX2 can only send “volume up” and “volume down” signals)
In addition you can change the 282’s inputs from the app. And when you start playing music from the app, it automatically switches the 282 to the correct input. (For the latter, you must correctly configure the input that the NDX2 uses, in the app settings for system automation)
1 Like
Note that it will automatically switch if you previously chose the input from which it is switching by using the app. If you had chosen say phono by pressing the button on the amp, and then try to play a upnp track using the app, the amp won’t switch unless you press phono in the app first. This is because the app cannot tell what has been done independently by pressing input buttons on the amp.
1 Like
Thanks, I knew that one from you but also forgot to mention this detail.
However, I don’t understand the explanation. Why would it have to know “what has been done independently by pressing input buttons on the amp.”? I’d think if I start music in the app, it should switch to the appropriate input and it would not matter if I had pressed phono or cd on the pre before, obviously I now need the streamer’s input. But maybe I am missing something?
What you say makes perfect sense, but it doesn’t seem to work like that. You’d think the app would just look at where you want to go, but it somehow needs to know where the amp currently is.
Select tuner in app, listen to radio.
Press phono on amp, listen to record.
Choose an album that lives on your nas. Press play. Song starts but amp does not switch.
Stop track.
Select phono in app.
Choose the album in your nas again. Press play. Amp switches to streamer input.
Who knows why it behaves like this? Let’s ask @Stevesky
Yes, I can repro that and actually fell victim to it once, before I read one of your posts about it (so thank you once again), but makes no sense to me. I might be missing something but even if it can be explained, I guess it would look like a bug to any regular user. Poor Steve, but what can you do
Hi, I have a related question. What is the optimal setting for the volume slider in the Roon app (or the Naim app, for that matter) when streaming to a Naim streamer? Or does it have no effect on the sound quality? Should I set it 100% and then set my amp to the average volume I listen to, so I can use the slider just to lower the volume? Of course, not all source material has the same loudness (it seems that hi-res audio is often a bit less loud), so maybe setting the slider at 80% is better as it gives me some room both ways. I value anyone’s opinion on this.
The optimal setting for sound quality is “Fixed” in the volume mode settings in the Naim app, and use the volume on the amp to adjust it. With system automation enabled in the Naim app (and the cable attached), it will automatically be “Fixed” and you can use the volume buttons in the Naim app (as well as the streamer remote and the amp remote) to change the volume. However, not from the Roon app.
If you want to use the volume in the Roon app, you will need “Variable” in the volume mode settings in the Naim app (based on my understanding of what Steve wrote ,“Hybrid” would not work), but then this is not optimal
Thanks, I will experiment. If I don’t hear any difference in sound, I’ll keep it on ‘variable’. My amp doesn’t have a remote control, so in ‘fixed’ mode I would have to get up from the couch each time I’d want to change the volume, something my wife encourages (both the getting up and the volume adjustment 
)
Not a Naim amp? It would help if your system list in the profile contained more than “Naim streamer”!
If you find out that you don’t hear a difference, then you don’t have a problem, just use variable. About the best slider setting in this case, I don’t know but based on what Steve wrote further up, it seems like the less attenuation by the slider, the better (which is logical considering how digital volume control works), so I would set it to max or close to max, to have leeway in both directions, just like you wrote.
I find Roon volume levelling useful - I almost never need to adjust the level at the amplifier. Sounds fine to me; others may have better ears!
Yep, that is correct “easy peasy” (with the help of the forum members) once you navigate thru the different nomenclature, conclude that the RC5 on the PreAmp is really a connection input to the NDX2 streamer (for system automation) and the connection on the NDX2 is a 3.5mm jack labeled IR Out…it all comes together rather smoothly and works like a charm. You smile for a moment proud of your small win ---- Then you feel like an audio-ignoramus for not being able to figure it on your own.
Cheers!
Don’t. It’s a surprise that anyone can figure it out without the help of a dealer and no useful documentation whatsoever. “IR out” to “RC5” is not exactly obvious!
Unfortunately it is also grating for forum members who decided to answer this question, frequently HH and myself, because there’s a new thread every few weeks, and how many times can you answer that without losing it. And even dealers … in one instance a few months ago, there was a user whose dealer also didn’t get it and installed an LED IR extension at the NDX2 plug and glued its LED to the Naim logo on the amp! So we had to sort out this one as well!
I also gave the feedback in the beta thread a while ago.
1 Like
There is a document that details how this works, it could do with an update though.
https://www.naimaudio.com/sites/default/files/products/downloads/files/system_automation.pdf
Yes, but you can only find it through Google apparently, I never had success trying to find it on the Naim website. And for Google you need to know what to search for. And then it is outdated and all the configuration info is wrong. All it is good for is to explain the principle and the cable you need.
Point being, at least someone who takes a look at the manual of their unit (not existing for the new streamers) or the Naim website should have no need to ask on the forum. But they ask because this is not so
My thinking on this is that if I could work it out by myself with no manuals or instructions, when I got my NDX2 and SN3 - which is the first time I’d ever used system automation - and I’m pretty dopey and not even an engineer, then anyone should be able to do it.
But that may not be the case. I’d suggest that @Richard.Dane adds something to the FAQs. I’m happy to help write it.
It should be on the main Naim website under Support and in the manuals, if someone has to go to the forum for it, it’s already a fail.
And it’s impressive that you figured it out, because without the info from my dealer (and anyway knowing that it is possible from the forum), I would not have - and I am quite technical compared to the general population.
Not even the 252 manual mentions it, and I certainly would not have connected seemingly random connectors on the two devices with a cable without knowing what I am doing
1 Like
All this searching on fora and help pages. For me, a decent manual would have sufficed.
1 Like