Poll - New firmware: sound upgrade or downgrade?

I am not sure about that!
Often the initial wow moment fades away when you are able to compare to the more musical sound signature.
I bet that a lot more will say „yes that’s better as it much more natural and pleasing“. Once the patch is out, most will love it. I promise :blush:
The more revealing the more different it is - there will be also a good amount of people noticing less … what is good!
And us „hard suffering ones“ will be pleased to have our expensive sound back!

2 Likes

It’s the variability that’s really annoying me. It sounded absolutely great this morning but this afternoon I had to stop listening . It had just gone really hard and bright sounding with this horrible podgy bass. I just give up it was sounding that bad.

1 Like

In my case it’s sadly without variation - only some albums are ok.

So what you say is you 6% (6.5 persons meaning 4.5 persons except you and Geko) are right and the other 94% (100.5 persons) are wrong. I’m glad democracy is not working same way :wink:

New software has been out for 3 weeks today so the “initial feeling” should be well behind.

If I updated software and such a majority thought it was better except me I would investigate what in my system/room is not giving the same end result. It might very well be that something you both share in your system is the link to why it now sounds worse than before when the great majority find it sounds much better :man_shrugging: Maybe you have been taming/hiding an issue somewhere.

1 Like

We (l) do not say that anyone is wrong - but it is without a doubt that something is strange with this FW.
Naim is aware of the problem which - I assume - has been brought to them by more than 4,5 people.
This is no problem of us few being psychic. It is really annoying and kills all the fun. I am very happy that naim is working on a solution as I really thought about giving up with streaming.

Edit:
There is nothing wrong with my system and room (as I think is with @Geko and others). Before it was wonderful balanced and musical and the FW changed it. And even it is room dependent that is not our fault. We all had balanced our system to room and ears! And a simple fw update should not not disturb this - no kidding, difference is really hard to overhear.
If the fw was a new box I demoed it would long be back at the dealer.

3 Likes

To the best of my knowledge (and admittedly my memory isn’t amazing) Naim never officially detail the inner specifics of the firmware changes beyond a very simple and high level release notes. What’s interesting to me is that it can be such a divisive aspect of owning their streaming products, some claim it’s “night and day” different whilst others either notice no difference (I’d say that’s probably my case) or consider it as good after as it was before.
Is it always the case that they change or modify the actual digital to analogue codebase or filters, or are the changes more to do with service compatibility, stability and ongoing security?
It’s also quite likely the streaming services make changes over time, things outside of Naim’s control regardless of what they do with the code they actually maintain.
Hopefully everyone ends up in a happy place, from past experience it usually settles in to the background of concerns within a few weeks of release/upgrading :smiling_face:

The challenge with upgrades, software or hardware, is that if you change one component only and you believe it change the sound for the worse it might actually be that component that is a great improvement and that you need to solve issues somewhere else when the system gets more transparent. If now Naim have made changes to the software that let’s information through in a more correct way you might now hear issues you have had in other places that you couldn’t hear before.

Similar to why some say full loom of Powerline or Super Lumina is needed to hear the benefits.

4 Likes

Is that based on actual DSP firmware development though or just conjecture?
I think it’s totally fine to trust your own ears and accept a difference, but I imagine there aren’t many on here outside of Naim staff like Steve Sells that can give an actual factual answer to that topic.

Sad - unlikely to happen this time (settle down to background of concern) Currently have to turn down volume - sibilance is really bad. This is a sound signature which is not my liking!

Hopefully Naim can support you directly, you’ve made a substantial investment in your system, only fair they make it right. :crossed_fingers:t2:

1 Like

I’ guessing a potential patch will be sent out to individuals wanting something similar to the past. But the SW signature as is for the mass market will stay as is given that the majority finds it better and I’m sure Naim have come to the same conclusion prior to pushing it live.

Thanks - that is exactly what I am referring to!
I am fully confident that naim will fix it - as they are the best of the best :blush:

I hope there is not a suggestion that there will be another “patch” update because a few are unhappy with the change? What exactly have Naim said they are doing?

I have no idea how a patch will solve this. It’s either making 94% of the user base unhappy with a change or keep it as is and move on. To start distributing personal patches and continue pushing out software releases keeping track of this will be a software hell for developers.

1 Like

Actually @Stevesky did recently explain in one of these threads. I’m sure it won’t be hard to find, but he certainly wasn’t talking of a firmware rollback or patch, but rather a systematic process of turning off non-essential software processes - services - to discover what actually was wrong in each customer’s case.

3 Likes

Would be interesting to see what setup is similar for those saying it is now worse from incoming signal in the house/apartment all the way to ND555. I believe Geko and Drago shares PhoenixNet and Shunyata Sigma ethernet. More?

1 Like

Hmm, that was a while ago, and users are claiming a patch is to be issued, so there does seem to be some confusion.

1 Like

Be happy with your nds!
How it is done is interesting but is not my choice. I love naim as they do keep an eye on things like that - even it is only for 6%.
(6 % of all nd555 sold might even be a lot :wink:)

For every product released.

“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”.

1 Like

This is what @Stevesky posted before on this