Hi Jay, yes I understand this and I also understand from info on the forum that the older naim streamers wont reliably stream hi-res FLAC from Qobuz historically or probably Tidal in the future due to technical limitations.
Just checking as your post didn’t mention the specifics of the situation with legacy streamers. I don’t know about Qobuz but hi-res obviously hasn’t previously been available from Tidal because that involved of implementation of MQA.
Legacy streamers can decode hi-res from local streams (Uniti Core, Serve or NAS, etc) so it’s obviously doable under certain circumstances. As a friend said to me earlier today, I don’t imagine Naim will bust a gut improving the features of legacy products like these.
I disagree, nDAC got a firmware update years after it had been discontinued, and I think I read the legacy streamer are due to get an update. Do not abandon hope 
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Naim have released firmware updates to legacy streamers since they were discontinued, not least in order to keep Tidal working, so they certainly haven’t stopped supporting them. What they can’t so is provide hardware upgrades to provide a larger buffer.
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Thanks Chris, purely for my interest, is the buffer for streaming remotely vs streaming locally different?
They use the same buffer, but a local stream only needs a small one, and that’s what the 1st gen streamers were designed for. When a stream comes from across the globe it tends to be less consistent and there are delays during which the small buffer can run out.
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Makes sense. Many thanks!
Hi ChrisSU
That would be my expectation, as an early 272 adopter - that the buffer might not cope with “internet lag” vs. LAN connections. My son’s Muso 2 seems to be automatically updated and comes with the latest buffer/hardware.
How would we invoke a response from NAIM themselves (e.g., Richard, et al)?
Hi John, the Muso 2 has, like all of Naim’s 2nd gen streamers, a large enough buffer to cope with internet streaming services. It was a hardware limitation of the 1st gen streamers, so not something that could be updated. Naim’s director of software, Steve Harris, has posted here on a number of occasions to explain this.
Hello, I read now that someone has my same Streamer ND5 xs2 and that can read formats in FLAC up to 192khz of Tidal?.. how do you manage to do this? To improve listening on Tidal I had to connect the account to Roon and it can read 96khz formats as I often do with Qobuz. Only Roon and App Naim can get me to listen to Qobuz at 192khz but Tidal doesn’t go beyond 96 and only with Roon. So if anyone knows how I go about listening in “Max” quality on my Tidal HiFi Plus I would be very grateful. Thank you
Same here. Listening to Tidal (Hifi Plus through bare NDX2 using Naim app) and selecting the above mentioned tracks (or any tracks for that matter) for me, does not result in 24 bit 192 kHz (Max).
On my side I use my Iphone on which I have the Tidal application and also that of Naim which controls the ND5 XS2.
I’m a Tidal plus subscriber.
On the Tidal application I select in settings: wifi streaming - max. This selection is important.
I select the hifi quality on the Naim app settings.
I cannot see via the Naim application the sample rate resolution at which a piece is played unfortunately.
For me without Roon that’s how it select.
Excuse me but of course I put HiFi on Naim apps and Tidal Max apps otherwise I wouldn’t have spoken. Max low quality appears on your smartphone’s Tidal app while the track is playing on your Naim? Maybe just for those few songs you mentioned but if you change songs it should go back to High quality right? Yet there is something that does not convince me. I only manage with Roon to be able to hear Tidal better with my Nd5 xs2.
And just to confirm, when you press and then view the track playing screen it shows Max?
Here is what happens for me with the above mentioned Sade album (using Nova atm):
Screen I see when I select the album showing Max available:
Screen I see when I play that album using Naim app (noting Tidal connect not yet available with Max quality for Naim streamers):
So this shows only “High” level playback and not “Max”.
To confirm that when I play this album using Tidal connect I only get “High”:
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you cannot get 24 bit flac from ios app tothe Naim streamer not yet. Chromecast cannot do it, Tidal connect cannot do it yet. So it is rune or another third party hack you will have to use.
To read you I begin to doubt.
My apologies if that is the case. I was also biased by the fact that I changed my internet cable at the same time as Tidal’s Hires announcement. Will Naim adjust and create a firmware update related to this (read hires Tidal)?
Is there a way to address this state of affairs to Naim team?
It’s frustrating to have a Naim streamer-Dac with 24 bit - 192 khz playback specifications not adjusting!
Tidal have not yet released any info regarding when they will make these changes available to Naim and other manufacturers. You can be sure that when they do, the relevant firmware update will be rolled out.
Naim generally take their time over these things and will not release them without a period of testing, so you may need to be a little patient.
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I am afraid you can’t be listening to Tidal Hires via a 272 unless your streaming from their own app directly connected to a USB dac as it’s not available to any 3rd party streamers just yet and it will require an update to firmware to allow it.
And not just for naim owners. Over on the Lumin forum the software lead has been trying (unsuccessfully it seems) to engage with Tidal on accessing max playback via API.
I queried Tidal support on Connect timescales for “max” and they would only regurgitate what their website says, coming in late 2023.
So by the time that translates into manufacturer firmware updates it may realistically be 2024 before third party manufacturers like naim can get this capability out to us.
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Same story on the Audirvana forum. But assuming Tidal eventually make hi-res available via Audirvana, it’ll be another option for legacy streamer owners to get hi-res (as they can currently with Qobuz).
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