Hi Gents,
To put the record straight, Naim has always kept an open mind on new formats / market trends. Outside of the long winded forum debates of if its the way forward or not for audio nirvana, we take the view that if a technology hits a critical mass on adoption then give the customer what they want.
On some technologies we do this earlier than others. For example fully functional Roon Ready or Airplay2. On technologies that need a critical mass of market adoption and/or financial stability to survive we take a more careful approach. Being an early adopter can be a great way to burn a lot of cash and a product feature spec sheet that is a history lesson of dead technologies. … .
At a platform level all the new products (Atom and on-wards) can technically support MQA as a software upgrade. This includes the latest Muso MK2 and Qb MK2. Currently Roon users can get 1st unfold of MQA on the Naim platform and Roon exposes the Tidal Masters view…
Overall, we respect the work that the guys at MQA are doing. They’ve encouraged many a label to release native 24bit recordings to end consumers in MQA and native formats. For Hifi enthusiasts getting one step closer to the original is never a bad thing, especially on newer recordings where it will typically be in first generation 24bit format throughout the recording/mixing/final master process. .
Best regards
Steve Harris
Software Director