I agree that 4.9 has a slightly edgy top end and the mid feels slightly less warm too. In all a bit more hifi and a bit less organic/natural sounding.
Im going to give it a couple of weeks though as I found similar when I first loaded 4.8 from 4.4 but after a while 4.8 seemed to settle and sound much more relaxed and less edgy.
I use the radio a lot so this is an important consideration for me. Other than radio I listen to wav files streamed from my nas and optical input from my tv, I don’t use any other streaming services. Going back to 4.8 and losing the radio is a game changer for me and would possibly mean selling the nds, which I really don’t want to do.
Just as happened in the days when beta testing firmware for NDS & NDX there is a difference of sound between the models, also different & oft conflicting opinions, better or worse.
My NDX sounds marginally better, more alive, realistic & defined with 4.9.
I also remember having an issue with a previous update which settled down with time, not sure if it was 4.8 though. Hopefully it is just a matter of our ears or system adjusting, so please post back if it works out for you.
As a temporary solution I’m going to try connecting an old iphone to the front USB and use that for iRadio. It’s been a long time but I think the older streamers support this with IOS devices. Might be a workaround worth considering if 4.9 doesn’t come right for you.
That was my first feeling too. More highending sound, good for selling product, less old Naim sound…
But it is very personal and I tried live with 4.9 for some days and today is the sound more acceptable than first day
Firmware 4.8 is 37mb in size and Firmware 4.9 is 80mb. Quite a large difference.
So I think they are doing a bit more than just fixing the radio channel issue.
I only listen to local files, so will wait to see what you guys think.
A new firmware often programs into a different address space on the chip, which requires some burn in to tame initial brightness. Stick with it for a few hundred hours before judging.
I can’t point to where here I read it and anyway it might have been in the beta group (although we did no beta testing of 4.9, we were told when it was released), but a Naim person confirmed in a posting that 4.9 only fixed the internet radio service to replace vtuner and nothing more.
“A new firmware often programs into a different address space on the chip, which requires some burn in to tame initial brightness. Stick with it for a few hundred hours before judging.”
Can you explain this for a layman please. I can see how this might be true for speakers where mechanical movement and flexibility might be involved. Or even at a pinch for cables where metal crystals could change shape or oxidise. But how would this work for chips where only electronic levels are involved. How do the ones and zeros get tired or worn out?
Where do you think the 1 and 0 are stored? They are stored on a physical layer of a programmable eeprom chip. The PS Audio forum and the designer of their DAC’s have done extensive tests of this, where just moving the same code from one part of the eeprom to another then makes the sound bright and fatiguing at first - and then it burns in and goes away.
You are free to claim its rubbish of course, but giving it some burn in time wont hurt.
I was quite nervous during listening music with new 4.9 firmware, I was looking for what is wrong in my settings. Today I desided test of 4.8. This is so big different in sound quality, that is no way back to new firmware! My advice is spend time and try 4.8 again. I lost iRadio, but have classic Naim sound I loved all times
I am new member who inherited NAC-N 272. Can somebody explain
how to obtain and install 4.9 update for this streamer to work.
Would be greatly appreciated.
alesN
Pure fiction surely? How on earth does a code being addressed to a different address on the chip alter over what you call burn in? Surely if this was happening no code would ever be stable.
The new 4.9 firmware ensures correction of the ‘sq:product value’ ratio after a recent update saw an obsolete product topping a very expensive current product in sound quality. A bit like Porsche ensuring that the flawed 911 cash cow always had more performance than the better balanced but less expensive Boxster/Cayman.
