Yup, mine’s showing DOCK as well.
I tried it Richard.
It stil doesnot recognize the USB. It does nothing. Like the USB stick is not even connected.
The only difference is that the input “sync” LED turns off when I insert the USB onto the dock port.
@alexiss - have you checked that the nDAC is functioning normally eg by feeding a digital signal from a CD transport or a PCM signal from a TV using an optical input?
This is what I got from AMZ:
SanDisk Ultra 16 GB microSDHC Memory Card + SD Adapter with A1 App Performance Up to 98 MB/s, Class 10, U1
I was wrong about the cost…it was just £5.73!
And it’s the free adaptor that I’m using to plug into the front port. Also works in the rear port.
It may (or indeed may not) be relevant that I put the .flac into the “root” of the Sandisk
Thanx Suzywong for the efforts.
Yes, you are right. The latest FW is ver 04-11-08.
Mine has ver 04-10-02.
Yes, the reason for USB sounding good is that the DAC runs in Master mode, with no necessity for it to try to follow a transport.
The conversion timing is supplied by discrete clock inside the dac.
This setup has the potential to suffer the least from jitter artifacts.
Yes MDS.
All the inputs (except USB ones) work as intended.
They sound excellent too.
Yes. The thing is that you are running the latest FW which has supposedly taken care of all the glitches and hick-ups of the earlier FW’s.
The USB needs to be fast enough to be able to play High Res files. With USB 2, that wont be an issue ofcourse.
My nDAC does not recognize/read the USB inputs at all.
The dock button is not turned on.
It does nothing.
The onlly thing happening is that once USB stick is used, it looses lock on the SPDIF inputs.
The firmware update is definitely worth doing. It gave a significant performance upgrade. And for free. If I remember correctly, you can download it from the Naim website together with installation instructions. That said, I think you need a functioning USB to do it! 
Next test:
I’ve taken the same USB stick back to the PC, and copied a whole folder onto it. So now the. flacs are one level down from root.
Back to the nDAC front port. Again no problems and I can use Prev & Next to scroll through the folder.
However the SQ is very “toppy” & “brash” (to be fair it is vintage '70s prog - Atomic Rooster!).
The SPDIF input from my Allo DigiOne Signiture is a bit more “tamed”! I’m happy to put this down to the vintageness of the recording!
Either way, the nDAC had no problems in finding the USB stick.
Mike has got it absolutely right. The download is still on the website, and section two of the destructions states
“Ensure you have a Memory Stick (USB thumb drive) that you know works with the DAC.”
Thanks Suzy and MDS for all the efforts.
I am doing exactly as per your recommendations.
The only thing I can do is to try to find some other USB sticks and do it again.
However, I dont think that is the problem.
I’ll call the Naim people tomorrow and ask them.
They might know what the prolbem might be.
I haven’t owned a Naim DAC for a while, but when I did I tried to upgrade it using a beta version of new software (for Naim testing) and it locked up the USB ports. (I wonder if the original owner may have done similar). Naim support talked me through a reset sequence pressing a combination of buttons while powering up and then reverting to a previous version of software. Then the upgrade and everything worked perfectly.
I’m sorry I can’t remember the exact sequence, but somebody might recall it and Naim support should definitely know it.
Hi and thanks for the info. Very good advice.
I have tried to find out more about the reset-sequence but have not been able to find any info yet.
That might actually be the solution to this problem!
i will ask the Naim people tomorrow, and if it proves to be the solution to this problem, I’ll post it here.
nDac can be tricky with most new usb sticks. I have smooth playback with several old Trascend sticks but new ones are not recognized. One new cheap “no name” stick that i bought works but frequently gives scratching irritating sounds. Sometimes my nDac can not recognize anything so a reboot from on-off switch is needed in order see sticks again.
Tried 3 or four Sandisk Ultras this evening ranging from the brand spanking new one to ones I’ve been using over the last year with my various Rpis (and in the course of that they’ve been formatted several times, back & forth from FAT32 to Raspbian)- a quick final reformat to FAT32 and “Robert’s your mother’s brother”.
All perfect.
Hi guys.
The darndest thing happened. I cannot believe it.
I found an old apple, USB-1, 500Mb stick that I bought 20 years ago.
I slow-formatted this dusty old fart to FAT32 type, loaded a couple of .wav songs on it and connected it to the dac.
Guess what… It recognized the USB immediately and started playing the songs!!!
This is bizarre!
Thanks for all your help and advice.
I’ll keep you guys updated, but first I need to try to figure out just what the hell’s goin on…
Cheers: Alex
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Hmm, haven’t tried any .wavs. Can you put a .flac on it and try that?
And here’s an off-the-wall thought.
When you copy files to your USB stick, is said stick plugged into the PC or into a “powered” USB hub?
I ask because “occasionally” I have had issued with plugging usb sticks into the PC, whereras if I plug the stick into my powered USB hub there has never been a problem.
Hi Suzywong.
I started out with 16, 44 kHz. It reads it and plays the music immediately.
Next I tried 24, 96 kHz. No problems. Read it and plays the music. Btw, it sounds fantastic!
Next I’ll try with the .flac
Stand by…
My Goodness…what a difference against the Spdif.
USB connected to the dac sounds incredible.
This is just crazy…
It reads the .flac files with no problem. And it sounds FANTASTIC. Deeeeep, extended.
So the conclusion is that the old FW has problems with the majority of USB sticks.
I’ll use this USB stick to update the unit to the latest FW version.
Hopefully that’ll take care of the problem.
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