In an ideal world it would be nice. But in practice often you end up reinventing the wheel + the large tech companies like Google, Apple, Amazon, Spotify etc. don’t want to be supporting and certifying lots of different platforms nowadays. They’re all focusing of that a few system integrator (SI’s) do the work and then lots of big manufacturers all benefit from a known code base. The art is to work with that SI and create something special and bring something to the relationship. In Naim’s case we’re a pretty strong software house and a lot of key features run on the Naim platform before others get it as we have the skill to debug things when the going gets tough. Many others are driven by project managers who tick a box of a wanted feature and expect it delivered, with no idea on how it works.
Thanks Steve - makes all sense and is the absolute right long-term strategy imho (coming from SW industry myself). But also please do not forget and put last your customers’ requirements and desires for state-of-the-art and leading UX, useability, ‘se.y’ F&Fs, plugnplay and compatibility! Naim still lacks respective quality in their SW - and in HW more and more as well, unfortunately. Compete with the best in these fields (such as apple) but not with 3rd party suppliers constraints! Naim customers are willing to pay premium prices for best in class performance - but not for regular crashes and bugs of their 555….
Cheeky monday morning bump - are we looking for a release this week potentially? I’ve no clue how long it stays with Mr Listener… Got my fingers crossed though - a week of WFH!
OK, so the golden ears at Naim are not 100% happy with the firmware update yet, so some tweaks to do before we release.
Incredibly frustrating, I appreciate, but i’m sure we’d all prefer a firmware that has the optimum performance, not just functionality.
I’ll continue to keep you all updated.
Thanks Clare, appreciate the update. I am naive as to what is involved with implementing this sort of update but am intrigued nonetheless. I would have thought it involved software changes so that Tidal Connect ‘works’, ie, more an operational update so that the unit can receive the file from Tidal, rather than anything that influences sound quality as such. Are you saying that Naim can tweak the update in certain ways so as to bring a certain SQ with it? I may be misunderstanding what you are saying so am curious to clarify.
Software code is a complex series of interactions; you don’t just ‘plug in’ the TIDAL Connect bit (wish it was that simple). Any changes can affect the whole, including sound quality. Therefore the final stage of every software release is ensuring everything sounds as it should, and making adjustments if it doesn’t.
It would be fascinating to get a “peek” into this listening part of the process. Essentially, a bunch of experts are “auditioning” the new release - we may be able to get some good tips for when we replace/upgrade gear.
It’ll be before the end of the year; that’s a hard deadline. Once we go into test phase, we’ll be able to give a more detailed ETA. Right now, i’d predict November, but let’s see how that testing goes - it’s a major release, with a lot more in it than just TIDAL Connect…