I am discovering lot of sound variations depending on the software, for exemple Audirvana sounds better than Roon for vocal Jazz but and plug-in directly a Hard drive into the Nova and playing the tracks from the Naim app still the best sound experience. Unfortunately I have to use Roon for the convenience as it is clearly a better aggregator for very large libraries especially for “classical” music (I’ve ripped all my cds).
If your system is like so, then differences between RAAT and UPnP/DLNA should be marginal and not noticeable (assuming your servers are functionning as they should).
Connecting something to the Nova is a different situation.
In the past, before firmware 3.6.0? Yes.
Now with the new 3.6.0? I don’t know if anyone reported one in the above posts. If not, may be pure chance as well. They seem to be not widespread in general
I have an Atom. Owned for 1 year. I have not experienced a reboot at all.
I have it connected to my network via wifi, and use USB SSD for main library + Apple Music via airplay.
Interestingly I had the warning signs of a reboot on the NDX2 yesterday which didn’t happen! Bit like a sneeze that won’t come.
I have had very few reboots on either the Nova or NDX2 but they (almost?) always seem to be when streaming from Qobuz. Yesterday, when well into an album on Qobuz, it started to stutter and then stopped. I waited for the reboot - nothing. The app was still working, went back to the previous track which then played from there to the end of the album without issue and has been fine ever since.
May have just been one of those things and nothing to do with the reboot issue but the lead up to it was identical to when I have had reboots in the past.
Perhaps not would I should need to do, but.
Any microprocessor based item benefits from a power cycle every now and again.
My ndx2 gets it at least once a week.
My NDXS2 has started stuttering and stopping and disappearing from the App ever since I switched to Quobuz a few days ago. Was going to start a separate topic about it.
FWIW: i have a collection consisting mainly of classical music with quite a lot of opera, some jazz and a little bit of pop. I have invested a lot of work in tagging my collection the way it works for me: beside the usual composer, conductor, ensemble, etc. tags, I index the “form” of a work (whether it is a piano sonata, a symphony, a berceuse, an étude, a string quartet, etc.) and I have a tag to name the work itself (thus that I can search for all interpretations of, say, Sibelius’ “Streichquartett in d-Moll, Op. 56 “Voces intimae” (1909)”). I have also tags for educational works (e.g. for learning piano) and tags for works of critic and introductions to operas.
For this, I have found MinimServer (2) to work best. Better than Roon and much better than the Naim UPnP server that, for me, is pretty much unusable. Of all streaming services that I have tried, I have found Idagio to work the best for me.
I went through my reference tracks and noticed that, for roughly the same volume level, I had to turned down the potentiometer (volume knob) by 20-30 minutes.
Has the firmware 3.6 increased the output level of the ND555 ?
Pending authoritative answer from Naim people - I have not so much found volume greater, but the dynamic range is definitely more, which does give more peak-volume.
So I don’t think anything has changed - on average (the ‘level’) - but that the reduction in distortion has led to less smearing and more of that energy back into the fundamental notes, so they are louder, but correctly so.
Just how I hear it.
…it is also sounding stunningly good now - there has been a run-in effect with the rest of my system and a lot of music I know well has exploded with information and tempo I did not before hear. Notes that before heard as single becoming fast double-plucks…that sort of thing.
It brought a lot to the low mids, lows and deep lows as well.
Recording venues like churches are, a lot, more present/audible which gives the illusion of space and distances.
As you said, we also have more details and definition in the lows (pluck or bow attacks, etc.).
For me, highs are now a bit harsh or strident (violin, last octaves of piano, cembalo, young girls voices, etc.). Regarding this precise point only, previous firmware was better (for me).
I have no sound reflection issues (especially in the upper frequencies), the room as you know is well treated, and the Magicos are rather revealing speakers.
This bothers me because, for me, highs are a so important.
Not what I’m finding at all here - more detailed and fine delicate details rendered better.
Obviously it is not that way for you, but I’m also very sensitive to HF distortion, but there are forms of it that get me more than others so it may be that or different expression in our systems.
With the Active system it seems that it has been ‘waiting’ on all these updates as they arrive and not been any impediment - the constraint has been at the source-end and not even the format, but the Streamer/DAC unit and its operation.
I also found significant improvement with using the ER switch - but again many others notice nothing, so there are threshold effects in some systems I think too.
Also again with cables - I found the SL cable tending to bright and occasionally harsh with my old 552 Pre, then it all run-in over a long time and was fine - then the S1 Pre blew-away the HF-end clarity to far better and the SL cables seemed even more suited to that - and then this final update seems to have briefly brought back some of the ‘run-in’ for a week or two and now it is far better again.
With the SL cables I did need to re-tune my system for them - or I would not have been able to live with them - but I found it was more HF showing poor set-up; moved the items on Fraim to better positions by listening and the zing went and it was far better, so that can happen when the bandwidth for resolution opens-out - you need to check on everything.
Same with more bass energy - that can cause problems you never had before and need of a general re-check of the set-up that was fine before now not being good enough.
…not saying it is that, but free to check it if minded to.