Some of us have been talking about the fact the original ND5 XS streamer would only play 500 tracks from our music collection, because, and I quote “this was a limitation of the app” but, if one were to select the main folder of local files and hit Play (with Shuffle on) from the unit’s front panel, it would indeed shuffle our complete music collection… For some, this is something they’d never consider (Shuffle all) for others, it’s the only way we listen to music…
I’ve always been frustrated with Naim’s app (compared to the smoothness of Sonos or Roon) but someone recommend the front panel work around and it seems to work
Here’s the thing… if the only way to achieve a true ‘shuffle all’ (of our complete music library, not just the first 500 tracks) and the ND5 XS-2 does NOT have a front panel controls… How do we achieve a true shuffle all in the new model?
It’s not too different as if BMW suddenly decided to stop making 4 door M cars… and all those guys/gals with families that enjoyed the flexibility of a 4 door sports car suddenly had to do with 2 points of entry! Why? “Oh well… you see Mr Family man, now our cars have a 3.5% stiffer chasis, and, and! We saved a few pounds in window mechanisms and door handles!” - daft
There is some value in the haptic response of physical buttons. Not all of us want to pull out our phones for EVERYTHING. Not all of us use our systems to play albums back to back in the dark.
Forget the “shuffle all” , having a screen and buttons gives us that instant access to functions and menus thar phones can’t. Yeah, yeah, one can’t see the screen from the sofa, but you know? some of us just want to walk past and press play, without having to go through all the extra steps a smartphone forces us to do.
For the sake of saving a few pennies and being able to claim “oooh, we’ve removed the sound-quality zapping screen” (!?) they’ve taken so much more from us.
@Richard.Dane may I make a suggestion here. This is an issue that has cropped up every so often for years, even if only a small minority want it. I’m sure there are other feature requests etc. that have been aired periodically, and remained unanswered. This invariably leads to negative posts from disgruntled users, and I don’t think that’s good PR for Naim.
I think a good solution might be to adopt a similar approach to Roon, who have a ‘feature requests’ room on their forum. Naim may not need to go quite that far, but at least give some sort of response, as they do, such as ‘on road map’, ‘not technically possible’ or ‘not enough demand’.
Who knows, one day they might even tell us whether or not there will ever be another DAC, streamer/pre, or cassette deck, but that’s another matter.
