Hi Skip, my understanding is that Naim do not repair the Muso. When i asked my dealer he said Naim come to some sort of “deal” with the customer dependent on the age of the product. Presumably you get a new one, but might be expected to pay some amount towards it. Be interested to see how you get on?
Just spotted this after being away. The end of CD for Naim maybe, but not me. I have invested a lot in cds and will continue to play them after deciding some form of hard drive storage or streaming was not for me. I have three cd players, two in my “main” system. Most recently I got a Rega Apollo cd player to use alternatively with my CDXS and to me there is no difference between the two. If and when I get perhaps a DAC to run with this I may well better it.
There we are.
You are so right! No repairs on a Mu-So. I spoke to Mu-So Support today. They said the boxes are sealed at the factory and cannot be opened. I stand both corrected and surprised! The flashing red LED is fatal. Fortunately, thanks to Venice Audio, and owner Peter The Great, we have a new Mu-So on the way.
This little episode is testament to our Naim Audio addiction and redoubles our commitment to CD. We have two of them and both seem to have plenty of life left in them. Plug and play is hard to beat.
Skip thanks for the update. I know they use a couple of factories in China to keep costs down. Interesting, how long can you keep replacing? But at least you got sorted👍
I understand from Peter@Venice that he has only had one flashing red LED, and it was crib death on a new one in the box. He said he has never seen the issue from one in the field. He did his part and invoiced the new one today to ship tomorrow.
On topic:
If it were me, I would much rather have the CDX2 if the rest of my system could do it justice. You might want to check w Naim and see if they still have the parts. You can add a power supply and take it all the way up to a PS555DR I believe. I just saw a second hand CDS3 online today. Better yet.
It is not the end of CD (as a source), but the development and production of new CD models has declined to such an extent, its future as a ‘mainstream source’ is ending.
There will of course be an ongoing, but deminishing, market for those who prefer to spin silver discs but manufacturers will be hesitant to invest substantial sums on ongoing premium product development in a market that is now relatively small and is in decline.
What I do find somewhat perplexing is a general lack of support and advice to facilitate those who have limited technical knowledge (let’s face it, the majority of us) to migrate from CD to streaming, particularly local streaming, with local storage, serving and rendering (if indeed that is the accepted nomenclature). The industry and dealer networks could and should do more to make this transition pain-free IMHO.
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What I find a little odd is the fact that most people will play again and again the music they already own and love ‘‘a lot of it on cd’s’’, but a mysterious force lead us to complicate the matter by transferring this invariable data on another kind of transport.
Is this really the best way to enhance our enjoyment of music or is it just a fashion too attracting not to follow?
After all, a CD player is a dac with it’s own transport. Too simple probably, can’t be serious don’t you think? Anyways, it will be sad to see the last Naim CD player disappear as much as it was to see the Naim FM tuner disappear…
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I totally agree with NigelB. I used to be able to plug in components and felt like I could assemble a system. Now, I feel like I will not be able to get music out, unless I have my children help me. Naim could do a great service to its customers by developing an online course on networking hi fi equipment, even if its only Naim equipment. Booting that issue to the dealers is like burring their head in the sand, because the dealers don;t know it either. We both need training and education.
I am confident that if one checked in with local computer shops or some of the companies like the ‘Geek Squad’ in the US you can find competent resources to set up a NAS and Switch. Most everyone already has an internet router in the house, someone that works with networks everyday could get this done in short order.
The greatest feature of a NAS or similar devise is being able to find an album incredibly easy with no plastic CD covers or CD box sets hanging around and cluttering up the house.
I can understand the lure of taking an album out of the cover and placing it on a turntable, a wonderful tactile experience! Putting a CD into a player never gave me a thrill…
The NAS with a IPad/IPhone works quite well for me in queuing up the music.
A TT would be nice but I crunched the numbers and the table I would want and the albums I would want to purchase to build a catalogue just do not fit into my financial future as I head towards retirement.
Surely this gap is bridged by something like a Core?
I mean, you don’t have to use all the features. You don’t even need to pfaff about with networking if you don’t want to. You can just sit it in your rack and run a single cable from it direct to a streamer or DAC and leave the more esoteric configuration options for the birds. Just use it for ripping and playback of your own CD collection.
Of course if playing discs as is is your thing, I don’t think even Naim would dispute that there are still a lot of very good non Naim plain vanilla CD players on the market. I’d not force myself to wrestle with a Naim solution for the sake of avoiding a non Naim badge in the rack if what I really wanted was just a box I can put a CD in and press Play.
And if you wanted that Naim sound, connect that non Naim CD head unit to a Naim streaming DAC.
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Core still needs a network connection for control via the app …
You don’t need to do anything though. Assuming you have internet at home, just turn on the core and let the default DHCP setup the network.
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I have a Meridian 508.24 CD Player sitting unused on my desktop because I cant find a replacement transport and I can’t bear to throw it away, recycle it, or try to sell it because it has such wonderful sq. I keep thinking that one of these days some entrepreneur will be able to make a 3D print of my needed part.
In fact, why hasn’t some entrepreneur stepped into this market! I just paid a very painful $4400 to buy a new gas furnace because I could no longer obtain one minor part. Similarly, I have a perfectly wonderful 40 year old double oven that needs a couple of minor parts that are no longer made. New ovens are too big to fit in the old space and “they don’t make them like they used to” is more true than ever because an appliance saleman told me that a new oven could be expected to last a mere ten years on average. That’s a crime of sorts in my opinion.
I just bought an Oppo UDP-205 DVD player from one of the last Oppo production runs and i wonder if I should buy a spare transport just to have it on hand if I should need it. But then it’d be some other part I’d need, wouldn’t it.
Again, I wonder when some entrepreneur will step into this potential market.
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I remember on the old forum Phil Harris was trying to be helpful in explaining on a dealer visit the Naim and other streamers were not working. He told how he bought an inexpensive router from a nearby shop, and in 20 minutes he had them working. I thought and said at the time it did not give the normal customer much confidence if a dealer could not get them working, or even buy in IT expertise. Certainly more could be done, don,t know what we would do without the help on the forum.
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It is sad but true that there are many Naim dealers who have the networking set up skills of a retarded goldfish - I include my closest dealer in this category due to bitter experience.
Given the mark up they get there is no excuse for this situation but unfortunately Naim seem to tolerate this despicable state of affairs. (Reporting my experiences got sympathy but no action - Naim were clearly aware of the problem but unwilling to do anything to remedy it).
If you buy Naim kit, your dealer should get it working to your satisfaction in your home - no ifs no buts. There is a reason why many on this forum have to travel a long way to a find a decent dealer even if there are some closer.
I guess, but local streaming really is starting to decline as well, it’s had its moment in the lime light, after all it been with us since the late nineties, early naughties. The transition now is to internet streaming and for the masses that is the simplest of all… you just buy or subscribe into a service and hit play on your phone, wireless speaker or Smart TV … you don’t need specific infrastructure, NAS and all that paraphernalia , or even think about storing and inserting media into or on top of players etc. I have seen this change across all age groups, from kids to 80 plus in some of the volunteering work I do.
So we need to accept local streaming is going the same way as CD and vinyl, it will be a niche capability for enthusiasts… it’s music as a service where it’s now at.
For me I think Naim need to think about this… and develop the local media Uniti Core Server, to become a service aggregation point… a bit like a Roon Core, or media proxy service, that way they can better address the evolving market and music delivery platforms … whilst maintaining top flight SQ commensurate with Naim… and we experience Naim can often have a SQ impact when using these web services natively currently.
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I have a Meridian 508.24 CD Player sitting unused on my desktop because I cant find a replacement transport and I can’t bear to throw it away, recycle it, or try to sell it because it has such wonderful sq.
For many years I too owned a Meridain 508.24 CD player, a fabulous bit of kit but when it became unecenomical to repair I moved to Naim CD5XS and found it much more insightful with a better realised bass.
I am hoping that CD will survive long enough to see me to through to the pearly gates and that Naim will support/repair existing CD players for a few years yet. I may dip my toe into streaming in the future if hi-res streams become available (at an inflated premium price no doubt).
Agreed, if the Naim Core became a Roon Core, I think that would add to its appeal. Innuos seem to be heading in this direction, as their servers run Roon, Tidal, Qobuz, iPlayer radio etc. That would be a big leap for Naim, though, as your streamer becomes partly redundant, as you just need a DAC.
Perhaps Naim’s road map involves developing the server capabilities of their existing streamer/DAC range instead, as the new models already run their server for local storage. So for many, the need for a NAS is no longer there.
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The Core doesn’t have WiFi so you do need an ethernet connection. Also the Core needs an ethernet connection to the internet to fix nd metadata when you are ripping.
Best
David
In the business you call it a ‘hybrid’ model… and typical assumptions are that in such scenario that approx upto 20% of the storage capacity would be local and greater than 80% would be cloud service.
So for the enthusiast a ‘NAS’ of some description might remain, but it would be small and only contain rare or choice media artefacts. The same sizing would apply to application services as well, though possibly less relevant for Hi-Fi.
I didn’t follow the streamer redundancy bit… as the strategy with Naim for a few years has been to move away from streamer dependency on service connectivity… hence the support for Roon and Chromecast… the whole Qobuz/Tidal integration development saga was painful for them and still rumbles on with the legacy players, and despite that is only relevant for a relatively small part of the Naim customer base.