Show is on 5th.
So 4th?
Show is on 5th.
So 4th?
January?
CES starts 5th of January. Naim is there. Likely they will start pushing out the news on 4th to get visitors/media showing up at their booth looking at and reporting on the new toys. I’d guess they are at The Venetian.
Feeling Zen,
I’m not sure I agree with your analysis - I think the truth is that stereo became the standard because it was the best we could achieve at the time with existing hardware and software. The difference with Atmos is that you don’t need new software (i.e. records/discs/files) at all, indeed because it folds down to work on even just stereo speakers or headphones then you arguably (beyond decoding) don’t even need new hardware to experience it in a limited form.
I think it’s going to become the standard and replace stereo for music. The reason DVD-Audio etc never caught on is that most of us couldn’t be bothered buying our music collections again on disc. With Atmos we don’t have to. I think there’s enough industry momentum - Apple, Dolby, the recording studios behind this to make it ubiquitous. Also worth noting that many will play music in Atmos on their soundbars and many people already own those.
I certainly take the earlier point that was made about Naim not necessarily being an early adopter of technology - they certainly didn’t rush into CD although they were a lot quicker getting into streaming. I think there’s a big threat to Naim if they ignore this though and say Cambridge Audio or Auralic come out with an Atmos enabled streamer - who wouldn’t want that?
I have two hi-fi buff close friends. One runs a Unitiqute and Pro-ac speakers but is enjoying Atmos on his Apple products. The other like me runs a Naim pre-power system which is fully integrated into his home cinema multichannel projection system. For us to enjoy music in Atmos requires just a streamer capable of decoding it and a home theatre amp capable of sending it to a speaker array leaving our stereo naim amps to deliver the front left and right channels as they do for DTS/Dolby home theatre now.
Pre-out really is a god-send on your AV receiver because it enables your naim system to integrate fully into a surround setup without compromising the quality of pure stereo replay.
I completely agree re the surround sound v stereo. My suggestion for a surround amp/system was for AV propose and being an Naim product (amp) that would ensure that when used for music (stereo) it would deliver the Naim sound. Allowing those with more than one system or a desire to have a good quality av amp to have the best of both worlds. .
I think this is a really good video interview with Heff - PMC’s in house producer discussing Atmos which I attended in the Summer. I’m posting it here because it will inform the debate and hoping it doesn’t break any rules.
Jonathan
Damn it’ll be the 6th here, there should be a launch on their website before hand though
ATMOS does not fold down at all. True ATMOS requires 64 discrete channels with steering metadata. The ATMOS you get in home media groups data into 5 or more channels and still requires all the spacial steering metadata.
Replaying your existing collection via ATMOS isn’t going to acheive anything. It’s the equivalent of playing a CD on an AV receiver and pressing the “stadium” button. I.e. just a toy.
If there is no ATMOS metadata, there is no ATMOS.
Thanks.
That was a good explanation for something, that I knew nothing about.
Much appreciated.
DG…
Zen,
Totally agree that playing your existing (stereo etc) collection via Atmos speakers achieves nothing, my point was though that for the first time ever a new surround encoding system for music does not require a whole new music library because for £10 a month or whatever to subscribe to Tidal or Apple music you have a lot of the world’s music already mixed in Atmos. That in my view makes this very different indeed to quadrophonic LP’s or 5.1 channel DVD-Audio.
Then there’s the other benefits like the fact that the producers of the world are enjoying mixing in it with higher dynamic range, better instrumental separation etc. Heff’s worked with a huge number of top artists from Frankie Goes to Hollywood to McCartney, Oasis, Whitney etc etc and I can assure you that off camera he was just as enthusiastic about Atmos as he is in the video. This is a revolution in music recording and production and personally I think it’s going to revolutionise home listening too.
One of the things I think that defines ‘the high end’ from mere hi-fi is the way truly great audio systems deconstruct a mix, enabling you to hear more of how a song was put together, to discover details at a low level buried in the mix. It’s exactly why people go out and buy 552’s and it’s exacrtly what they talk about when they do. To me Atmos is the ultimate example of that - it enabled me to hear more clearly and deeply into every recording I heard and I came away convinced that it is the future and the best hope yet for high end audio reproduction in the home.
I like the words collection of products hopefully we will get a few things next year. I currently have atmos off due to some poor mixes when apple music rolled it out. As long as they fix any poor mixes then I’m fine with it. I can’t really see myself having a full atmos set up but it will be interesting to see how it develops.
Only for those who are happy to subscribe, and subject to the vagaries of availability, with stock lists subject to change with licensing changes etc.
That’s a fair point Innocent - despite having Tidal, Netflix, Prime and Disney + I’m still a heavy disc buyer of one sort or another. I can never get past the feeling that I don’t own an album, film or whatever unless I have a physical disc. As you say things disappear from streaming services (especially video) with alarming regularity!
The other reason is that frankly CD playback via my elderly CDi and CD’s ripped to local NAS (on my NDX) always (imho) sound better than Tidal streaming.
Having directly compared standard blu-ray with 4k streamed movie there is no comparison - a 1080P blu-ray disc wins easily and a 4k blu-ray disc demolishes all comers.
I was however sufficiently impressed with Atmos from Tidal (in a fully optimised room with high end multiple speakers) to think that I might finally stop buying CD’s. The sound was better - especially on the legacy recordings such as big band jazz, the Beatles etc. I think in the Atmos world it is especially important that object placement is done with great care to ensure that the core elements such as vocals, drums etc are anchored at the front but just with more space around them.
2 more days of patience …
My humble opinion.
The content of the programme, the ability to reproduce and the efficiency of its extraction = wealth of information + happiness.
What’s the betting it will be a non event?
Guaranteed non-event for some, but surely it makes sense to target the mid-market (big?) and rationalise naim’s crowded and confusing offer between the Uniti & 202/200?
G
Personally I think it’s important. For most of us the Naim classic range is what we buy and dream of owning so if that is indeed what they are launching the next generation of, then it’s a significant milestone. It’s worth remembering that Naim have only ever done this about every 15 years - first came chrome bumper in 1974 which led to Olive in 1989 and that made way for the black tryptich in 2002.
21 years later here we are waiting with baited breath to see what Naim have in store… I still think olive was the most iconic and best looking series they ever made but that’s probably just my age, I was about 19 or 20 when olive launched and I can’t tell you how many nights I went to sleep with olive reviews such as Malcolm Steward’s NAC52 review on my pillow lol!
But you know what? This shizzle still excites me at 53 just as much as it did at 19… To be quite honest a lot of other things don’t excite the way they used to, but even a trip to HMV, or a new review item arriving or going to the Bristol hifi show still thrills me just as much as it always did!
I feel pretty good about that, in fact it doesn’t even matter to me if I can’t afford to buy it - I love to share in the excitement of seeing a beloved hi-fi brand launch a new range packed full of their latest innovation and thinking and design.
Impressed that you still use a CDi Jonathan. Wonderful machine!
For me what is very important in the new streamer is that there is a hard disk possibility or at least a solution of a extern usb with the total use of the app including album covers. Extern usb with Ndx 2 with album cover does not work.