The future of Naim streamers

You’re missing something. It’s ok though. It’s ok to not like something or, prefer something else that meets your needs but I do find it odd that you need to belittle those who have a different opinion to you.

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Yes you are. You may not need its features, but I’m not sure you know them. That’s fine, but please don’t believe that I am so stupid to spend more if it didn’t provide features that I need.

I’ll stick to my opinion that if Naim (or Linn, Innous, whatever) had come up with Roon, all the ridiculous Roon hate would turn into sky-high praise by the respective owners of said devices

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Maybe the discussion should concern now other points than Roon or non Roon apps.
The future is also a questioning if Naim will continue to adopt big power supplies in 5, 10 years . And if Naim will use a different dac as the Nos TDA actually used. And which ones, AKN, ESS Sabre…others ?

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I think it’s a gimme that they’ll continue with Roon so the question, as you said, should be how they progress in other areas.

I love what they’ve done with the Atom HE. Sounds great, usability features that just make it a pleasure to use. The only two things that jump to mind are digital outs and maybe glass instead of plastic front. It’s just a great network streamer for headphone users.

I know the volume control on the top can put people off because it means you have to place it on the top shelf to make use of it but, it’s just great to use.

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What am I missing that could be useful that I couldn’t get for free elsewhere?

It may or may not be useful to you, but here is a small part of what is useful to me

https://community.naimaudio.com/t/confused-re-qobus-connect/20443/88?u=suedkiez

Multi Zone control of all Roon Approved hardware that can’t work together because its from different manufactures or uses different protocols. Roon radio that will find new music based on your last track. Plus, integration of all NAS Media, Qobuz and Tidal streaming libraries under one app without the need to go from one app to the other. And that’s before we come to ease of use compared to others.

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Have you ever actually trialled Roon?

You seem to have some very strong opinions about it.

.sjb

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I don’t need any of this as I don’t belong to Qobuz or Tidal. My NAS drive and naim storage can be easily accessed from my Naim app, maybe it is not seamless but then neither was my LP and CD collection. For me, I can see no benefit to having it. However, for those that do have multiple streaming accounts, I can see it being useful. However, it still seems very expensive to me but if users are happy with it, I accept I am wrong in my opinions.

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All of the stuff I referenced above, like the detailed metadata and its filter/search facilities, works with local files just as well. As for the price, a lifetime Roon license and a fancy fanless Roon Core server cost me 1K less than, e.g., a Naim Core. And it could have been done with cheaper hardware as well. It’s not prohibitive.

:roll_eyes: you call out a piece of software as snake oil when you don’t stream and one of its main features is streaming integration with NAS files.

Rather than call those who do stream and use Roon to combine remote and local libraries as gullible, all you had to say is it has minimal benefits to me as I don’t stream or require multi room zones.

Edit. About cost. I pay £85 a year approx. Take a look at how much is spent on cables to hardware here and it probably accounts for 0.05% of annual audio spend :joy:

I wonder sometimes if a nice App with a lot of information is the most important thing for most of people, vs sound quality…

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I think that’s very much not a gimme. It’s as much up in the air as all the other questions here. Optical drives on PCs were a gimme until… Extra storage on smartphones a gimme until…

The world changes. By the time the next generation of streamers are out it will have changed again. The idea that anyone here knows what that looks like is nothing more than guessing. I see trends. I don’t know the outcome. Some manufacturers will see it one way and some another. I doubt anyone at Naim saw streamers, screens and turntables coming.

True. However, if Roon is still around then and it hasn’t been bettered then I would expect it or similar to be available on Naim streamers. No guarantee of course so I would just have to look elsewhere if it wasn’t.

As the sound quality has nothing to do with it, I will take the cool interface.

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Not agree with you on that point, as some here who found using Roon inferior vs the Naim app and inferior vs Innuos sense for example, with 500 series systems.
But my point was that people tend to focus a lot on Roon, functionalities, Air Play, Playlist, Metadata, ….and less on the sound of the Naim streamers. A lot compare streamers from different brands on these aspects, not really the sound.

That’s interesting b/c I find Naim streamer fronted systems to be much better than CD player fronted systems. In my case CDS2 and later CDS3 with 252/SC2, 200 and later 250.2. My current system of 272/555PS/250DR is far more enjoyable and hits all the hifi sonic superlatives than did the CDS3 fronted system I had prior to streaming. Though I’ve wondered how much of the improvement is related to streaming v CD or other system improvements, network optimization, powerlines, DR on the 250 etc.

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Yeah I’m not going to go over this once again, everything that needs to be said has been said in the previous Roon sound threads. I have as much evidence and as many technical reasons for my toothpaste influencing the sound of Naim streamers.

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We’re not done yet! What about playing UPnP using the buttons on the front panel instead compared to the Naim App? :thinking::wink:

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Toothpaste not , but cotton swabs, maybe.

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