Planned obsolescence

That’s a great theory. Can you name one of those products which has had a longer shelf life than an equivalent Naim product directly in consequence of being upgradable? I’ve yet to come across any?

Dcs, the streamer, the ring dac, both can be upgraded with new software as and when. So when new streaming platforms come out, dcs can add it, also the ring dac can be upgraded for when higher resolution comes along.

So dcs do there best to keep the life in there product’s, so you don’t have to sell, plus the upgrades are free.

Take the rossini, its been out for quite some time now and has had many updates, the biggest being the 2.01 software, which was basically the vivaldi, upgrade for free.
Its like nds owners now having a nd555, but naim gave it away for free, you get what I mean.

So the dcs might seem expensive at first, but when you look into it, its quite the opposite and against say a naim owner, that had a new Nds and then traded it in for the nd555, they have lost thousands and as soon as the nd555 gets replaced as it will, even more and so on.

Streaming looks to be the way and even higher resolution on its way, dcs have already said they are ready to update the dac once it becomes being used more.

Must say its nice to know, I am in safe hands, lol
Cheers

I don’t know how DCS will evolve in the future. I hope for you that the Rossini will be easily upgradable, without having to sell it in order to have a new Dac. For now the upgrades can be downloaded, but how long?
Since the 90’s, DCS produced many different dacs and players but each time it was a new component, new case .
Recently there was the Debussy, then Puccini, and now Rossini ( all in one players). But the cases are each time different and users had to sell one to have the updated model.

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Does this hack work with an iPad and a 272?

When you say ‘plug in your iPhone’ do you mean plug it into your streamer via a cable?

It works, as far as I know, on all the old platform streamers (including 272) and with all iDevices (including iPad).

Yes, exactly: use your USB to Lightning cable and make the connection. Select USB as the input on 272. Select a track (stored on the iPad) from the Naim app to begin playing, then swap over to iPad screen and play from whatever iPad source you like using a different iPad app.

The 272 will show and play iPad local content from the Music app, but you can “manually override” this from the iPad screen… in essence, that override is the hack.

Best of luck!

Regards alan

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So can that flatish hole I use to charge the iPad also send data signals out?!
Is that a lightning connector?

Yes - that’s the one. It’s where the data flows when you connect to your computer to do a backup, for example. In devices like iPhone without a headphone jack, it’s where you plug in a DAC/adapter, etc. Good to go using that one.

Regards alan

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I never knew that!
Thanks Alan
Jim

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Its ring dac is upgradeable, and like i said has already been upgraded to the what was top off the range vivaldi spec, the vivaldi has also been upgraded to a higher level.
But as said they are ready for the much higher resolution that is coming, some material is already out there apparently, but right now not much, but it will be here soon, dcs ring dac in the Bartok, rossini and vivaldi, can be upgraded to use it, by a simple free download. Plus as i said so its streamer side, so if we get a nice new product that comes out, dcs can provide the software to run it once again.

A great product and really when you think about it, this digital part of hifi is so fast moving you really want a product like this, or you have the sell and buy and lose out all the time.

Can the old dac chip set in the nd555 and other naim streamers, run the much higher resolution coming? As we know naim won’t be using them again in the next generation.
So i guess it will be once again sell and upgrade to the new model, ching ching.

How do you know?

If a DAC is really superb, doing a stunningly good job of converrting digital to analogue, why would it ever need upgrading? I am very happy that Dave is not upgradeable - and the last thing I want is a firmware change that changes the sound quality in a way that I find worse, as seems to be common with Naim DACs in their streaming products.

The renderer [renderer stage of a streamer] is different, at least if you stream from online sources, because those sources will change and the renderer has to be able to receive software changes to keep up. For me that is a very good reason for keeping the renderer and DAC separate (another is the ability to change one without the other, so if not yet at the top you can upgrade whichever part needs, at less cost.

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One issue with renderer platforms is that they are basically computers, and over time the demands of new services can reach the point where the old platform simply cannot take whatever new software may be needed, just like a PC. So, no matter what brand, at some point additional services or adaptations to changed services inevitably becomes impossible, or so limited that it will be unsatisfactory to the user, so in that regard will become obsolete - though it will still do whatever it did before, e.g. streaming from local source. The will apply to every brand, DCS or Naim or any other, though the time to that point will depend on the platform chosen including its ability to be upgraded hardware-wise, e.g. with additional memory etc. - it could be 5 years (bad), 10 (tolerable) or 20 (excellent)

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Jim, its been talked about lots off times, even on this site

The dcs dac is truly sensational and by far the best i have ever heard, but as things go forward, so does technology and its nice to know that it can be upgraded.

I guess go back to 2012 and the nds has just come out, lovely sounding and probably one off the best at the time, as an owner very happy and thinking this is it, move forward 6 years and suddenly its old news and can’t do even the basic streaming we now take for granted, but it still sounds good, i will give it that, just not at the top level these days and more midrange.
So yes i am very pleased that the dac can be upgraded and very happy that my rossini is now running vivaldi dac software and i guess at some point it will be upgraded once again to run the new vivaldi software, so once again a nice sound lift in performance.
Chord dave is nice and hope you dont want to, or feel the need to upgrade to the new dave that can’t be long away now, as the new tt2 is not much behind it and the dave is probably next to be updated

If Dave is updated, I anticipate the main change would be the output power capability to catch up with TT2, but I would be surprised if the DAC part is significantly improved. I also doubt the MScalar will be incorporated, though it is a possibility (though separate is more flexible, allowing people to upgrade rather than have such a big single step) one thing that would benefit from changing is better muting circuitry to prevent potentially speaker-damaging switch-on/off thump if accidentally turned off or on at mains while connected to powered amp. Whilst the latter improvement is desirable it wouldn’t make me want tge cost of changing, while for me the amp power is irrelevant unless I decide to change to very efficient speaker like horns.Meanwhile Chord hasn’t yet finished its development work on the Davina ADC, which may be more of a priority tgan improving tgeir flagship DAC.

But of course these are only my guesses, and we will only know for sure if or when Dave dies get a Mk 2 release.

It seems that Naim do listen to us. The latest update to the iPhone app (and, I would assume, apps on other platforms) enable you to disable the Favourites input.

Perhaps, eventually, we’ll be able to hide all unused buttons.

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Can you not already do that in the App @Richard?

This is what my view looks like:-


Spotify, Tidal, Favourites, etc all hidden

Not with a first gen Mu-so.

Ahh, understood.

Er, it’s not easier, Steve.
You have 2 more boxes, something to put them on, and the extra cables.
(Not to mention the expense).