Steve got a direct question from me and even though it’s not his responsibility he answered. That’s what I call service. The alternative is to end the direct contact they have here with us and do like all other companies, take everything via formal channels and marketing.
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Cannot agree with this more.
They have all to win and nothing to loose starting to communicate. I believe they are stuck in the past or under a management that is offside. Clearly some want to communicate and it’s obvious people are happy getting feedback even if the feedback means delays. Thanks Steve for caring and understanding 
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Naim has had what they needed to add Tidal’s hi-res platform to their streamers for over 6 months(verified by both Naim and Tidal) yet we still haven’t seen a firmware update to allow streamers like my ND5 XS2?? Other companies including cheaper Chinese companies updated their players within a month or 2 from with Tidal’s hi-res platform yet nothing from Naim?
Is this the norm for Naim when it comes to updating their equipment with such things arise? I am totally disappointed and sadly even though my ND5XS2 goes great with my SN2 I doubt my next streamer will be a Naim… 
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As noted in another post above, some of blame falls onto Streaming Unlimited. Believe they only released their firmware update in March. At this point, Naim needed to start modifying the firmware to their specifications for the streaming board, plus update their software app. So figure an additional 3 months time. There have been rumors the update was supposed to drop sometime in June.
The other thing is this firmware update is more than just Tidal Max. Includes latest Chromecast updates, Spotify updates, and hopefully ability to plug a pc or phone directly into usb for streaming.
For those who wish to beat Naim with a stick, you should look at the likely commercial viewpoint. How many customers will they lose because of this “delay”, for which they are being pilloried? 10,000? No chance. 1,000? Highly unlikely. 100? Maybe, but I suspect it’s actually 50 or less. And are they sitting with a stockpile of unsold NS whatevers as a result? Also unlikely, so the net loss is negligible, if there even is one. And there are well-documented workarounds.
What if they followed the BMW approach and issued a firmware update, but users had to pay a subscription to access the enhancements? My mate’s car has a heated seat installed, but he refuses to pay the monthly fee for it, so he gets a cold bahookie. The only thing that would disappoint me about my hifi system is if it didn’t sound up to scratch. If I want Tidal Max I can get it pretty readily.
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A lot of men guessing and a me point of view in there. Customer is always right in that companies cannot force their ideas on people. The good thing about the free market. You can go elsewhere if they don’t do what you like.
And for BMW.
BMW drops plan to charge a monthly fee for heated seats
Customers can now toast their tushies without paying a monthly subscription after the German automaker removed it from its digital store of added features.
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I am sure it will come.
We got the update back on may 9th, and use the same streaming board.
I had this in a reply to an email to Naim this week and I have since seen the exact same wording quoted elsewhere, so I guess it is the official line currently:
“The implementation of Tidal Max into current Naim products is on our roadmap for 2024. We had originally planned this to be around the start of the year, but due to unforeseen circumstances, we made the decision to delay this until such time that it could be given our full support. We apologise for any inconvenience caused - as soon as we have a clear date of release for Tidal Max, we will send a formal communication to our retailers and customers.”
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Well that clears that up then 
I really wish Naim communicated the situation earlier and then directly to those obviously most invested (here).
It’s not difficult but you need to make it a priority and have the resources.
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I can’t see anything which says it isn’t a priority.
Equally bewildered as to how one conjures resources if something unexpected comes along. That’s surely the nature of unexpected things.
Hi Mike
Naim are hardly going to say to customers, this isn’t a priority.
I reached my conclusion because we’ve had multiple communications to individuals in “responses” to their queries/concerns. As a previous comms prof, this screams not enough people/resources thinking through proactively what we need to tell people before they go feral.
It’s really no big deal to me, what I’ve said doesn’t change the fact that this is a great forum.
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I don’t see why they wouldn’t tbh. I’ve had dealings with other companies such as Innuos where they have said exactly that and repeatedly. Nobody died.
Bottom line is you can’t be resourced for every eventuality and people going feral or trying to reason that they should won’t ever change that.
The bottom line is that this forum is about customer engagement and customers going feral don’t leave great impressions on the non-feral customers 
I think we’re well past that tbh. The little interest a thread like this generates is generally not “Ooh aren’t the manufacturer terrible”. It’s much more “Hey, take a deep breath and a wider perspective”.
Anyone looking at reviews and/or social media nowadays does so with one eye on what might be something either fake or from someone who simply prefers to kick off in public and loses respect in consequence.
There is great hilarity to be had reading online reviews but most people are simply not so stupid as to take someone “going feral” here or elsewhere especially seriously.
One of my fave restaurants has highly entertaining 1 star reviews. With 1 exception, which they took very seriously and responded to publicly, it’s not exactly hard to see most were posted by over entitled clowns. The 5 star reviews are nice but generally tell you little. The 3 star reviews are the most interesting by far. Some are nonsense but most are measured “This was good. This less so because…”
Not my job to tell people to not go feral but nowadays I doubt manufacturers give it a second thought as most owners and prospective purchasers will look at such things and just take a deep breath and chuckle.
Always good to remember we’re truly in the realm of first world problems here. If this is your big issue then life is good.
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A development that could be very relevant here. Last night I received an email from Tidal stating:
On July 24, 2024, we’re replacing the music in Tidal’s MQA catalogue with FLAC versions…
Surely this development should make it easier for anyone to implement top tier Tidal within their streaming products.
This great news but I think Naim streamers just played MQA as is with no conversion, so doubt that was any hold up. And the streaming board already received their firmware update months ago. But I’ll be switching back over to Tidal after this date. Didn’t like the fact still had so many MQA albums left.
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Actually that isn’t what Naim did. They had arranged with Tidal that if they were serving a music file to a Naim streamer, then they would send the CD quality no-MQA file. So the Naim streamer never saw any MQA file at all.
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Just read the review on Tidal by Whathifi. Here the last part which summarises the differences in sound. Strangely they don’t compare with Qobuz.
« Amazon Music does counter with an occasionally more open and detailed delivery, but it’s the Tidal streams that are most musical. Apple Music’s ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) streams match Tidal for openness and subtlety and, actually, we noted how they can sound just a touch clearer. »
