Poll - New firmware: sound upgrade or downgrade?

This StreamUnlimited NP800 module is one small but important part of the front end of the streamer that handles TCP/IP and USB network stack protocol and application I/O and is largely isolated, although it could contain vulnerability fixes.
I suspect this has little to do with firmware sonic change including when the streamer is providing digital audio, it’s the elements down stream of the LVDS connection that are more likely relevant, such as the ARM host controller, SHARC processor and clock programming.

The NP800 module was jointly developed by Naim and StreamUnlimited, and is exclusive to Naim, but manufactured by StreamUnlimited.

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Never mind the ARM, what’s important is that the next iteration of the firmware has legs.

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And perhaps a bit more body… and a less shrieking call.

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…and a good head

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More of a wood pigeon than a parakeet then.

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indeed - we could do with some coo-ing

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Garcon, my impression of the new fw on Atom HE with ZMF headphones is that it is excellent. Listening to Anna Lapwood’s ‘Luna’ at the moment. Deep bass and high treble with no distortion. I’m glad all’s well with your Nait 50 as that may well be my next purchase. Stokie

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Great to see it works well in a very good headphone setup too, which is probably actually more telling than with speakers.

Somewhat in that sense, I got curious and decided to do some additional comparison between my two setups in close sequence with the same music (Qobuz source). As the 222-250 and the HE-N50 have a similar signature and behaviour, apart from more superior cabling, the main difference is that my main 222 setup is connected to a pair of Marten speakers, while the HE - to Spendor D1s.

With more careful listening, with the Martens I believe I hear a very clean, nicely improved SQ, and especially in terms of (all seamless) transparency, separation and believability. In comparison, the D1s may be show some HF energy that kind of sits slightly on top of the music rather than fully integrated, if this makes sense?? And I am not even sure if it was not there before in the first place (never done this A-B for this purpose) but if it’s a phenomenon from this FW update, I guess it could be that the D1s are possibly showing it somewhat?? More likely just the difference in speakers and no complaints as such as it sounds all very good but thought to mention as it could be that speakers may play a part in how the new FW plays out in terms of more HF if it’s the case?

Next I might even swap speakers but I am pretty sure the 222 and HE are very similar as I’ve done several configurations between them, including amps, before.

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Improved for me.

I’ve changed my mind / vote

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Although HH said I didn’t need to contact Naim I have sent them an email with my findings of the firmware update. @Richard.Dane says the figures for disgruntled customers is only just in double figures.

Contact:

Support@naimaudio.com

I suggest everyone contacts them with a description of the problem if you are not satisfied with the firmware.

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In ny set up The sound has not changed after the firmware update The sound is the same before I done the update I don’t know how the firmware can Change the sound.

Well, as a process is faster due to an upgrade for example, that may effect SQ.
Every process that’s altered or added in the firmware may result in altering SQ. But how these differences can be managed in the code is beyond me.

You might be thinking of the wrong sort of ‘code’ … this is, so I have understood previously from Naim, specific machine code operands in specific modules which controls the timing of loading and writing data onto the I/O and memory bus, with respect to other low level machine controller operations. This will be likely associated with the SHARC. Machine code, which is hardware dependent, is vastly different to high level programming languages such as C++, C, Python where such considerations are abstracted away through many layers and hidden from you and are typically hardware independent. These days the word ‘code’ is used as a short hand to refer to high level programming languages and scripting, not hardware specific machine code.

If you have ever engineered machine code… you will know down at this level it’s all about controlling and timing of low level hardware associated with the sub systems… ie the functions that directly create a hardware digital interactions which in themselves cause a specific environmental reactions such as EM, in the ground plane or power lines.

A great illustration of this was the powering up of the Apollo 13 flight computer in such a way that did not exceed the very limited power budget available on the stricken space craft as it hurtled back to Earth … seems a long way from hifi, but at this level some similar principles apply.

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hi dan
would be interested to know if you get a ticket number - i didn’t and am worried they have stopped counting - have raised with richard dane on the other thread

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Yes, I got a ticket number. This is on the automated email as opposed to an answer from Naim. Did you get an automated emaill to start with?

It’s getting confusing as you appear to be posting the same thing across two threads.

AFAIK the support email system works on a numbered ticketing system, so all correspondence from the support email will have an associated ticket number.

sorry richard
i am also getting confused - i will now wait for a response to my email to support - and will keep quite till then

I got a ticket number a few weeks back, with a bit of chat back and forth, including:

“The issue has now been reported and logged with our software team, who are working to resolve it.”

I’ve largely ameliorated the changes I was hearing by adjusting toe-in (toe-out) and distance from the back wall. I reported this back to support. Still a touch ‘toppy’ on some recordings but, given my experience of firmware changes over the years, I’m sure it will be sorted.

G

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