Replacement Bluesound node 2

[toscana]

Are you using the Naim app or Roon as your main interface?
If it is Roon, it might be worthwhile having a look at a Harmony remote control in conjunction with the Deep Harmony extension for Roon. It requires a bit of tinkering but this setup would allow you to change the volume of your amplifier in the Roon app.

[lauis]

Thanks for the tips. Unfortunately, that’s not options for me. I want to work with the Roon interface from my phone or tablet (not the Naim app). Also, I don’t want an additional remote control. If I pay so much money, everything should be perfect (for me). Maybe I’ll get a Bluesound node again, the power supply only worked 4 years, but I was satisfied with the sound quality and the handling.

[toscana]

I am curious: how did you change the volume from the Roon app with the Bluesound Node?

[lauis]

With the corresponding slider. Bluesound app: Variable volume, Roon: volume from device. Just like now with the ND5, only that it worked. The slice control can now also be seen in the roon interface, but it only has a function if I set the ND5 to analog output. Digital Output without funktion (only mute is working).

[toscana]

Thanks. Understood. Do you have the option to select „DSP Volume“ as volume control mode for the ND5XS2 in Roon?
But I guess what you are ultimately looking for is a Roon transport that supports device volume in Roon.

[alan33]

It would be a cool feature request for Naim to implement the analog system automation volume control on the ND5SX2 and NDX2 as a supplementary part of their Roon Ready implementation and certification. The Roon volume control in the new Uniti devices is super convenient… and since Naim owns both the Roon interface and the System Automation interface for the NDxxx devices, perhaps it’s in their power to join the dots?? Perhaps one to share with @Will and the software development team.

[ChrisSU]

It would need Roon to be prepared to support this at their end, as you obviously can’t have a slider controlling a dumb analogue volume pot as used on all Naim amps. Perhaps new Naim separates will move away from this and adopt a hybrid style control as seen in the Unitis, which would be nicer to use than the old Alps pots.

[alan33]

? Doesn’t the Naim app have a digital control (slider, + / - buttons) that the NDXxxx can pass through to the amplifier and control the analog volume pot? If so, I’d guess that Naim would just have to make this available to the interface they use on their Roon Ready end point… not that the Roon app would have to talk to the analog pot directly. Rather it would talk to whatever control is already in the streamer that gets translated to the (wired) system automation volume functionality. Maybe I’m missing something, but my idea was that if one app has digital access to the volume, then Naim could enable that same mechanism for the other.

[ChrisSU]

An analogue volume pot cannot use a slider. Naim get round this in the Unitis and NAC-N streaming preamps because although volume is adjusted in the analogue domain, it is done with a digital controller that can give a numerical value to the volume level which relates to a position on the slider.
The fully analogue Alps pots cannot provide this, which is why the app reverts to a basic +/- button control when system automation is used. The tiny servo motor in the pot takes the +/- commands to rotate the pot in the right direction, but it has no digital element and it doesn’t know what the volume is.

[alan33]

We are obviously talking at cross purposes… but maybe I see where you’re going.

My idea is that, regardless of the NDX streamers knowing what the volume is, they can implement an up and down control… which could just as easily map onto the Roon + / - control as the one in the Naim app. The Roon slider control would not function, you’re right, since it would somehow need a separate workaround to keep track of “how loud am I playing now” that Naim didn’t implement even in their own app.

I’m not trying to architect the whole software solution as to which control would do what here… but I remain convinced that adding a Roon accessible raise and lower volume control via the Roon + / - buttons (and possibly mute / unmute, via the Roon speaker / !speaker toggle control if that’s a separate analog button on the amps that’s also available within the Naim app) would be a big leap forward in useability.

Anyway, thanks ChrisSU for taking the discussion further along and noting that full functionality equivalence - ie the two-way info embedded in the slider control - is unlikely.