So I’m one of the people with a virtually unusable front panel on my SU. I’ll have to send it in for service and recapping I guess.
Until I can do that I have two problems to solve:
I want to change the network settings. While I can access the SU at its static IP…I see nowhere to change settings on it (I thought there used to be one?) nor can I find a spot on the Naim app. Can’t believe I never noticed this - seems like a glaring lack. I can’t see any other way to alter it.
I want to pair a Bluetooth (BT) item to it assuming I can find my BT antenna. The instructions say to choose the Bluetooth (UPnP/PC) input and press the Play/Pause key on the handset. This should set it into pairing mode. I’ve tried doing this blind…with no success. It’s possible that what I’m doing isn’t quite being replicated on the unit itself…can someone please test and give me exact keypresses? If so…I might succeed!
You need the front panel display to be working to change the network settings as it’s one of many different setup options that is accessed via the remote.
If you are in UK then Naim has a reduced rate to just fix the display on the old units like SuperUniti. You have to go to a Naim dealer and they will talk to Naim and find out cost and timescale.
I can’t answer the BT question, but you do need the BT antenna to be on the unit.
Yup - I’m hooped for the time being then; it’s not urgent, and it’s working fine as is, so I can manage, but I wanted to move it to a different network.
I’ve actually emailed back to the Focal folks in Canada (I think they’re in Toronto) and they can overhaul the SU and replace the LEDs etc for a (fairly) reasonable price. The shipping/return cost won’t be fun though.
The SuperUniti is an excellent unit and as long as you don’t need the streaming capabilities of the new platform then it’s well worth getting it repaired in my opinion. I have two and they are much loved…
Incidentally there is a way to reset it to factory settings without the display (but I forget exactly what you have to do). The person at Naim who knows could tell us if he were awakened from his normal busy life! That would I think reset the network settings to the default DHCP. But I don’t know what else might be reset that would cause you a problem.
If you want to try that, respond to this and I will ask him.
This is the process, if required, as written by Neil S from Naim.
“If you do a factory reset, it will default to DHCP.
Switch the unit on while pressing & holding the front panel stop button (hold it for at least 10 seconds). Then press the front panel play button. Leave the unit to run through the reset procedure - 2 or 3 minutes. Then you should be good to go.”
I really love my SU…great unit and it’s done everything I want so far. My only real challenge is trying to stream things that aren’t “native” to the app or the unit itself. I’m a little surprised that Naim hasn’t moved forward on that score to make other streams more accessible on the app. Really, all they need to do is offer a front door to the platform of choice and a link to push that through to the streamer. Seems …not hard?
Have been noodling about various possibilities lately: Amazon Music (possible), Apple Music (less likely), Tidal (too small a library, or at least not my stuff), not Spotify (ugh). Or, return to ripping every CD I have …I kinda gave up a while back. Oh, and adding back my Rega Planar.
But it’s all going to have to start with getting the SU back to full function again. I believe they’ll also recap it.
The issue is that the streaming powers of the SU are limited. When the old platform was implemented, on line streaming didn’t really exist. They squeezed in Tidal and Spotify but as Scotty said, she cannae take any more. The new platform is much more powerful and flexible. It could handle Apple Music happily, if Apple would allow Naim to implement it.
So that’s curious…is it the codecs that are the problem? Because resolution in, and of itself, don’t seem to be. I can play 24/192 FLACs. I have gigabit fibre which has no issue on the bandwidth side.
I do get that Apple, Amazon et al may not want to develop an API that allows others to integrate with them (why not? wouldn’t that help sales?).
You would be very hard pushed to get 24/192 streams to work at all, never mind reliably, from a web stream. The issue is not bandwidth but latency (round trip delay) which requires a bigger buffer than the 1st gen Naim streamers have.
It’s conceivable that Naim might add Amazon or Apple Music support to the new streamers at some point, although it may have to be through a service aggregator as these global corporations ae not interested in talking to small companies like Naim.
Yah - that makes sense…ping times to local servers is good…but once one starts going cross-country the latency (and jitter) rises, so that makes for a poor listening experience. Even listening to Radio Paradise can be painful and I’m “relatively” close in internet distance terms.
The workaround, if you can be bothered, is to use a proxy server. Thus buffers the incoming stream and serves it to the SU as if it was a local stream which the small buffer can cope with. BubbleUPnP server or Roon can do this……or bite the bullet and upgrade your streamer!
Ah - that’s a hell of a thought! Certainly less expensive than upgrading the SU (and if I were to do that…to what…without totally breaking the bank and upping the box count LOL - never easy!).
I’m still trying to figure out what to do with all my stored Fraims…which I held on to “just in case”.
I do like the simplicity of the SU and the SQ from it is just dandy to my becoming-less-critical-as-I-age ears.
The Nova is a great updated version of the SU if you want to upgrade it without adding boxes. You could always sell the Fraim to fund it, killing two birds with one stone as it would reduce the temptation to but loads of boxes!
It will give you AirPlay, but not Amazon at present. Qobuz support is great though.
Not that I need it, I am fine with Tidal. But for the newer stream services the SU does not support, would getting one of these small streamers, ideally without a DAC (like Arylic), make any sense? Stream content from the network into the little box, and then optical connect to the SU. DAC and amp jobs taken care of by the SU.
Yes, it’s certainly a viable option to add a separate digital source to the SU via either digital or analogue intput. Perhaps not the most unobtrusive option if it means adding an extra non-matching box to your system, but it could certainly work. Also you will probably have to use two separate control apps, one for the streamer, and another (or the remote control) for the SU volume, input selection etc.
Hi All,
Joining the knackered screen club on my SU. Spoke briefly to Naim who said they could only do the screen currently if I had the 128 boards as they are needed with the new screen. They can’t due to shortages, do the boards at the minute… I have to admit I don’t know if i do? its an older non BT unit but it does have Spotify and Tidal.
Is having tidal at all a guarantee of the boards?
Have to admit kind of sad at this whole situation as was a very big step for me to get a new SU in 2012 and this will be the 2nd time its going back in 10 years.
Off to Doug Brady tomorrow to see if its slowly turning into a door stop.