ND555 firmware update to 3.4.0, sound quality

Never
You hear what you hear at that time and point, tomorrow you will probably be different and then the next and so on, but one thing is sure your brain and ears have not had a software upgrade

I am not so sure. I rather think that human ears and brains keep on receiving firmware upgrades. Cells die out and, in the best case, some eventually get replaced. The brain firmware is in a never ending flux. Unfortunately, at my age, most of the upgrades turn out to be regressions. As you point out, our brain tomorrow is going to be different from today. What is this burn in time of software we are talking about?

Infirmware.

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:joy: :joy: :joy:

Hmm, I also have a nagging feeling of a more “impressive” but possibly less engaging sound, e.g. making me swapping track in the middle of a tune more often than before.

It sure would be nice if one could reverse the firmware to check if this is just in my imagination…

“Hmm, I also have a nagging feeling of a more “impressive” but possibly less engaging sound, e.g. making me swapping track in the middle of a tune more often than before.”

Your choice of words are spot on, nagging, impressive, less engaging.
I also find myself agreeing with

@Merlin

“The sound has moved from being rich, and ‘real life’ to what I can only describe as an extremely clean and detailed ‘studio’ sound”

“exaggerated top end (albeit with loads of detail) which makes listening a ‘toil’ rather than a pleasure”

@StoogeMoe

“I think I noticed a change on my NDX2 in sound quality after the firmware update. It used to be more mellow sounding. Now the highs are either elevated or opened up. Definitely less mellow sounding. Anyone else notice this?”

On the positives the information now being revealed is very impressive and for free.

My hopes are that the wider window is revealing an issue elsewhere in my room or system and that to address it won’t be too expensive, perhaps a little housekeeping.

There is no free lunch, as they say :woozy_face:

Just hope the guys at Naim haven’t thrown the baby out with the bath water.

After a couple of weeks with “the change”, I think I have already adapted. In fact last weekend was a sweet listening experience. I enjoyed my NDX2 more than ever. If you find it irritating, I suggest just giving it more time.

What would be funny is if Naim did absolutely nothing to the sound and we were all imagining some change. Talk about power of suggestion. :upside_down_face:

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No “ irritating” is not my experience and my apologies if I have misinterpreted your post.

Although I have a lowly Atom the upgrade to 3.4 is not a pleasurable one for me either. More.detail yes, but I can’t listen to it for long without getting fatigued. Tried everything now so I am at a junction as to whether move on to something else that does not suffer from changing SQ.

This mirrors my feeling with the Nova, which is consequently having a big impact on my thinking for the next upgrade. It’s also something that is a concern for the next upgrade and the one after that etc.

What everything have you tried?

Speaker replacement, factory reset, reseat all cables, tried different speaker cables.

I noticed something after listening to the new firmware for a longer time now. Still overall a great improvement in detail and roundness of lower end, with better flow to the deep low, however…

One thing which is annoying if you have an album with the drums relatively forward in the mix, then the cymbals can sometimes sound a bit too edgy, for instance in the album the real McCoy Tyner.
The strange thing about it is that high notes etc on classical piano sound great. Anybody the same experience or other thoughts on this ?

What’s the network setup and is the Atom sharing a power socket with anything containing a SMPS?

I’ve had network cable choice and, in a more complex system, plug order, both make the sort of difference you describe. This was all before the firmware update, which seems mostly beneficial to me.

Could that be related to room interactions?

Direct sound mixed with delayed sound from first reflexion points could be the culprit.

Normally I would say you could be right however it would then need to be audible on a broader spectrum then just some very specific albums. And in addition my room is acoustically treated especially for those kind of effects.
So I must almost assume it’s in very specific albums, a side effect. Interested to hear thoughts from others on this.

Apparently, it is unlikely that the DSP code has been changed. Which means that the FW update hade a global impact resulting in a lower noise floor.

A lower noise floor reveals what’s actually inside the record. More details more of the good things and the not so good as well.

What you’re hearing might indeed be recording related.

What album is it? I could give it a try on my system.

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For instance the Real McCoy Tyner is a album where I find the cymbals edgy

I’m just playing it now. The copy I have is the RVG remaster, ripped WAV to NS01, streamed through a system very similar to your own, but I use NBL loudspeakers. Whilst the cymbals are forward in the mix, I wouldn’t really say they’re particularly edgy, but quite a realistic cymbal sound in my opinion.

By the way, I played a lot of McCoy Tyner yesterday, but for some reason neglected this, which has to be his best outside the JC quartet.

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Just tried it again myself. Now it sounded forward but not edgy, odd…, perhaps an issue with the quality of electricity or something else…