Damn April 1
I haven’t noticed those white lines at the bottom before. I have, on rate occasions in the past, seen two tracks highlighted at the same time. Not sure why, and for me it was always short lived.
It’s a Qobuz playlist within the Naim app. Apparently we’re now able to play two tracks at once, it was actually the top track that was playing. Selecting another track still left the second highlighted, a bit odd.
Further oddities:
If I select track 16 within the same playlist it jumps to 12, track 12 jumps to 17, track 17 to 13. Track 18 even if playing which should restart the track jumps to track 14.
Is this known issue ?
I would have suggested that you check you didn’t inadvertently hit the random button, but is appears that you haven’t!
I do think Qobuz occasionally manages to tip the streamer into some sort of unstable state where it jumps around like this. Is it a hi-res album?
Yes all HiRes and as you noted not on shuffle.
I had a reply from Naim support about my request to revert to a previous firmware version for both my Atom and Nova, in my case v3.6 to v3.4
The reply suggested that I power off for ten minutes which I did but the issues with the change to sound remain. ( heavy, less subtle sound).
The reply did not include anything about my request for information on how to revert the firmware version.
It is disappointing the Naim have not said whether or not that they changed the sound profile in v3.6 or even acknowledged an unintended change.
Some prefer the sound change but many have not. For me it’s the latter and I would of not purchased my Atom or Nova as they currently sound.
I’d suggest giving it a few days. Following the latest upgrade, my Nova went from one extreme to another (started with increased bass and then progressed to no bass + overemphasised, almost distorted high end. The sound settled within 3 days and I have been very happy with its signature since!). Somehow I get a feeling that whenever the unit is reset, unplugged or updated - it takes some time for the sound to settle. Hope your unit gets back to its “normal self” soon!
Some of you guys are writing as if Naim were playing with a hidden equalizer, jacking up the bass or whatever. They are obviously not, so there is nothing to acknowledge or deny.
Edit: Not saying that there cannot be any changes at all, but see post #456.
Naim had said that there is no explicit change made at all to the digital output feed - where it is perceived as sounding different, which for me it does - then it is due to effects of noise-ingress from other parts of the digital processing and not any tweaking of the frequency response.
When you have correlated noise, meaning noise that is associated to music patterns playing, then this will get integrated into the overall response as part of the signal and add ‘something’ of colouration to the end sonic signature.
…but it is not a deliberate change to the original frequency response.
DB.
Everything that a streamer does uses electricity and creates some tiny form of noise, and there are hundreds of things happening at the same time, all the time. There are many thousands of Naim streamers in people’s homes, feeding into thousands of different system configurations, playing millions of different types of recordings. It’s absolutely impossible to control the unimaginable amount of possible scenarios in such a precise way as a lot of people here are sometimes expecting.
It’s really too bad that this topic is so shrouded in mystery, it makes people much too eager to look for small (or large) changes that they attribute to tweaks by the Naim software developers.
It’s too bad, and it’s also detrimental to Naim’s reputation, if you ask me.
If you hear an improvement, well done you. If you don’t hear an improvement, carry on. If you hear something bad, sell up and buy something else.
Please could we just keep this thread to reporting any issues - good or otherwise - on the latest Firmware. Thanks.
It’s ironic right ?
A could of times since my last post reporting things were going well I have had a couple of issues. Twice a ripped CD has started playing then stopped about 10 to 15 seconds in. Screen was frozen and I was unable to restart CD or change to another rip stored locally on my Star. Rectified by changing to internet radio stream and then back to ripped CDs and selecting same CD and it played perfectly. The other issue is that a few times now CD artwork has been frozen whilst playing another CD, turning on and off with remote cleared this. Otherwise, all seems good still and definitely an improvement as no random reboots have occurred.
For me, in my configuration, 3.6 seems to have definitely fixed the screen freeze on my NDX2, good point!
The sound quality? Well I found more bass at the start, then it eased off and seems to be back to where it was before. To be honest, a lot of factors influence how we perceive the sound of our materials: type of song, time of listening, the attention of our brain, quality of our hearing (which fluctuates).
For having experienced following the test of many Naim components at home, we quickly get lost on what is better and how of one product compared to another …
Only the emotion felt makes me say, I like it or not, and there, I like!
In addition, this update seems to solve existing problems, and for that, well done Naim!
My Uniti Star still has the occasional issue where no album artwork is displayed via AirPlay. Pressing the pause/play button on either the remote or front panel always restores the artwork.
I also still occasionally notice the case is warm in standby sometimes, but cold most of the time. (Nothing is plugged into the Star apart from speakers and the server mode is turned off in the App.)
Otherwise no other issue following the 3.6.0 update.
I reset all the settings and unplugged the device than plugged it again. I played on the Nova some tracks I know well and my listening condition haven’t change, but the shift in SQ is still there.
In my system the sound output had been minored since the update, the bass aren’t popped, I’ve recessed medium and the highs are upped. The rythm seems slower. The only positive aspect regarding to the SQ is a better instrumental separation, a slightly wider spatialisation and the background seems black now. For the rest, the sound seems liner, less charnel and joyful in the mids. Vocal jazz is barely audible.
Please Naim, can you tell us how to downgrade to the previous firmware ?
I am reporting very contented update. I was early adopter of the Nova September 2017 and certainly much more glitchy with screen freezes, art display earlier on etc. SQ in recent updates improved. This one by largest margin to my ears especially SQ. I am listening at lower volumes which I put down to just greater clarity, presence and musicality. Proof for me is how I’m drawn into longer listening time.
It has also resolved HDMI ARC problems with Samsung TV I bought in May last year. My previous Samsung TV worked flawlessly, but new TV suffered random drop outs. No drop outs to date which is huge relief as was getting several per evening. On slightly separate point, I note some forum member issues with TV’s. I struggled to get the new TV to connect trying both optical and HDMI on PCM. I resolved by turning up input trim to max 10. Notice BBC iPlayer has much lower output than You Tube (45 for typically same volume 25 on You Tube)
What is less clear to me if Firmware alters SQ for vinyl? Hard to compare as listening less to my P6/Ania these days, and no clear memory of SQ.
I like idea I have bought into product whose core sound/functionality will improve over time with Firmware updates. Well done Naim team!