Poll - New firmware: sound upgrade or downgrade?

More fully, the placebo effect is a psychological effect where a person is given a substance having no therapeutic effect (e.g. an injection of saline solution, or a tablet containing only plain food material), and told it is a medicine, and their condition then improves. And such an improvement in the person’s health can be very real, even though actually brought on only by the person’s mind. It is not imagination.

The same can happen with hifi with hifi where a person can truly ‘hear’ an improvement as a result of belief where they have added or changed a component, even if there is no actual change to the sound.

The same can happen in reverse, where someone is told/believes that the effect will be negative.

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How do you then explain when simply switching to another source provides a consistent and musically engaging performance?

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Not sure what you’re asking? This is getting very removed from the thread subject so would be better elsewhere else.

37 have voted dissatisfied with the firmware. I have asked @Richard.Dane for how many have written to Naim with complaints about sound quality. Remember Naim won’t take the votes on this forum as evidence. So write in with your findings to:

Support@naimaudio.com

If you haven’t done so already.

Dan, as posted on the other thread, I would advise not to take the poll numbers as absolutely correct as it’s fairly easy to skew the results one way or another, if you really wish to do so, which may explain why, after a month since the poll first appeared, it appears so many more have voted here than have contacted Naim support.

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I totally understand your frustration (I would if I were in your boat), but again, you cannot take at face value how people respond after they have read about others’ complaints. People are influenced by other people’s judgements they hear. This is well know and why no pollster, survey administrator, experimenter that knows what she is doing would take seriously the quantitative results of a poll conducted the way this one was conducted. This does not mean people’s judgements would not have been the same had they not known of others’ judgements, it means you cannot know. This is why when I do A/B testing with my wife, I don’t tell her anything or what I change. I just say, close your eyes, listen, and tell me what you experience.

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I have to ask how accurate the quoted number of individuals contacting Naim are? I know of at least three other people not including myself that have written to the tech department. All are reasonably local to me. I just find it a little hard to believe that I know 40% of the individuals who have contacted Naim so far!

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I am not frustrated. I have asked for the numbers. Simple as that. Hopefully @Richard.Dane can provide the number of customers who have contacted naim support and how many are satisfied and how many dissatisfied.

It’s about being transparent.

System is sounding great now since advice given on here. It’s probably minor changes that are needed. I an now quite happy with things. Don’t feel need to change my system any longer! I was having a bit of a downturn when it sounded so shrill!

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Equally applicable to how people respond after others praise. By that logic, the unhappy camp might actually be the majority.

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I should be be able to find out early next week when Flynn is back in the office.

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Great news. I think this will help see what is going on. Thanks Richard.

Naim are a small company in the grand scheme of things. They produce amazing products. That’s why we are here.

Do they always get it right? Of course not. They will sort this out in the end :grin:

Yes, I have been very wound up at times. But I have confidence that new firmware version will iron everything out. And there will surely be a patch repair beforehand. Keep the faith everyone !

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So glad it works for you now. I am actually very grateful to people who were dissatisfied. I have applied the simple changes in input and the like people have suggested and the system sounds better. I was one of the very satisfied customers with the FW update, but I am even happier now. So, continue complaining, maybe my NDX2 will be at the 500 level :).

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Don’t forget people are in general lazy. Clicking on a vote button is far more easy than initiate an email, write it and press send. Don’t underestimate the force in lowering the threshold in getting feedback. Some companies by purpose make it tough to connect to get rid of “those annoying ones that just whine”. Sometimes the reality can be tough to manage and accept.

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NDX2 with a 555psu user who liked the last FW too.

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Thanks @1koenig1, we will get there in time.

We need to give Naim some time. And the thing is this a massive firmware change improving other areas. Sound quality deterioration on some systems was no doubt unexpected.

I agree that Naim should have said something on here. But one of the reasons why I wanted @Richard.Dane to get the numbers on complaints was to see just what feedback they have had. If only 12 customers have made comments then that is insubstantial. Why comment on that? If there are 20 or 30 comments it becomes more significant.

They will deal with it. My experience with them is they are a really good caring company. They invited me to their factory. They made sure my NDS got repaired quickly. They are good people.

Yes, I was mega pissed up with firmware. But system sounds great now. We will get there with this.

It’s a glitch as they say in the system!

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I keep thinking I’m making a step forward but then I realise I’m not. This evening I decided I’d strip back the system a bit after having played with the input settings, so I removed the switch and ran my BJC ethernet cable direct from the router to the streamer. Initially I thought this was better but after about half an hour the sound just became tedious, two dimensional and bland, so in went the switch again but now with Catsnake to the ND555. Better but still nowhere near pre-firmware standards. In frustration at how good the Node was sounding I thought I’d take another tack and decided to try my Shunyata Sigma on the Node. Not an easy task when you see how stiff the cable is. However, from the first note I could tell that this was very close to the sound I had from my ND pre-update. The sound stage was absolutely bloody massive with a piano now sounding like a real piano again, vocals without the glare and timing to die for!

So, I’ve decided this is my fall-back position if the patch doesn’t improve things. I will sell the ND and a power supply and go back to a Node/Ndac/555PS and Shunyata. I think I might also be worth trying a Linn streamer and Shunyata if I end up going down this route?

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we are in the same boat. I will have a look at linn streamers next week. Better having an option at hand, if there will be no fix.
Hope that it won’t be necessary to go down this route, but at the moment I am not in the best mood, when it come to naim.

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@drago and @Geko

Having had two linn streamers now, I can certainly recommend them.

Similarly, updates come over the ether to the Selekt DSM; Edition Hub and fortunately there have been no issues after installing them.

The way mine is configured also means less boxes and associated wiring.

Hope that things eventually get resolved with Naim, so you don’t have to go the hassle of swapping brands, but if you do, I found it fairly easy to do so.

DG…

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Just remembered that you use the same loudspeaker as I do.
So there is an option - good to know.
Also really would like to avoid it, but sitting here and hearing this edge-enhanced music is so frustrating… patience getting thinner

Cracking speakers, what finish are yours, mine are Oak.

I found that one box Linn system worked so much better than my previous nine box Naim system with the 606s.

DG…

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