The new dem room at the factory is also known as the training room, and Mark/Jason/Mike have been receiving dealers in for training sessions. I believe the sales people like Paul and Fabian will be training dealers in other parts of the world but obviously this takes time. I know also that Jason and Mark regularly visit outside of the UK expanding the knowledge base. I guess the equipment available will likely differ but at the same time brands like netgear are sold everywhere. It also requires investment from the dealers to set up their shops.
Personally I’ve found a netgear gs105 switch and a fully wired network gives zero issues with streaming at home via the Naim app or roon or jriver - I use all 3 with an ndx2, a qb v1, and a unitiqute, and now a 16 way netgear switch. Then again I work in IT, I have installed a network across most rooms in our house, and have no problem setting things up. That should be all that’s needed to have a robust seamless streaming experience in the home environment.
There are many threads on this forum with muso streaming issues, or Naim app issues, or my WiFi keeps disconnecting. All very frustrating for those involved. My ex manager had problems with his Star and a virgin router.
I guess there are many variables at play, and 100s of home user network equipment in use, be it routers or waps or switches or whatever. They should all function the same but clearly that isn’t the case.
I do think there is a role for those dealers with the highest level of expertise and experience in this field to share their learning with Naim, so exchange of knowledge can go in both directions.
I think your last sentence is key…some may be ahead of Naim with their, and their customers experiences. But just a reasonable level to get a customer up and running…and point them to the forum would be a good start.
I tend to agree with that. Here in France there are too many dealers who lack pc, network, knowledge. They sell streamers, servers, …but don’t know really how to install it properly.
Installing a streamer to stream Qobuz is easy, but Nas, servers, handling metadata…a lot don’t know.
I have to say the Transparent Ethernet cable I bought to connect my streamer made a substantial improvement. And I was VERY sceptical before trying it!
Ahh yes, but be careful, cables and their interactions with connected equipment has no bearing on network optimisation or functions apart from extreme cases.
There are two key quite separate considerations I suggest.
Physical Connectivity: This is referring to rf loading effect of cables, and modulation clock stability of connected devices. These aspects are independent from the functioning of the home network and are not network related. Ie this accounts for cables and some switches sounding different (irrespective of any data actually being passed)
Network related: This is data related, and streamer processing related. Such aspects here are interframe timing consistency from media servers and proxies as well as filtering redundant group data info data (IGMP snooping), and transport latency (dropouts on the old streamers)
I would say the vast majority of commentary on this forum is 1) Physical, and not 2) Network related.
Albeit Naim have control of aspects of 2) by providing their own UPnP media servers. It was also 2) that Naim (under Trevor W) worked hard to mitigate with their new generation streamers and took networking very seriously.
However physical coupling and RF loading is going to still potentially effect the new gen streamers as different forces are at play other than the network…
As far as 1) Physical I have suggested in any future high end streamer (Statement streamer?) Naim might want to consider SFP connectors to allow customers to use fibre if they wish or stick with twisted pair. This suggestion was met with a smile and an acknowledgement that it could well be advantageous. It won’t eliminate clock stability Issues, but should entirely eliminate RF loading effect of cables, but may in some environments introduce a new phenomena of sound pressure based jitter… but I feel the introduction of suitable ‘audiophile’ fibre cable could address that.
Clock issues and jitter (if any) could be attended on the streamer side in a rather predictable and measurable way.
There is potential for some real improvements there. Getting rid of all the inherent to metallic connections issues should be a priority, shouldn’t it?
I quite don’t understand why the NP800 doesn’t include that type of interface
There is room for an upgrade the ND555 and NDX2:
A new NP801 streaming plateforme
Hi Thomas, it won’t be the clock in the streamer NIC that will be of most interest, it will be the clock of the host at the other end of the segment… ie a switch. Its Physical layer serial modulation clock will if less stable or has more frequency jitter, produce more sidebands in the modulation voltages in the send twisted pairs to the streamer. This acts like a mini FM transmitter sending noise to the streamer.
This is I suspect the benefit that some are noticing with these mini ‘audiophile’ switches.
Couldn’t those issues be attended on the streamer side? Even if not perfect the streamer’s behaviour would then be consistent and less environment dependant.
Well they can be mitigated, but it’s a case of careful decoupling… probably requiring separate ground planes, and possibly separate powersupply and physical separation…
I personally think it would be and in my experience easier to decouple the DAC from digital transport.
It will be interesting if and when Naim produce a Statement Streamer they undertake this sort of decoupling… as Naim say separation and decoupling is in their ‘DNA’
Yes to a large extent… but it is still a common ground reference if I am not mistaken. The NP800 however then couples to the clock and DSP via the LVDS electrical connectivity…
I am not so sure, I think that advice is spot on… clearly there are those who want to tweak and they feel there is benefit in how it modifies the sound on their systems, but you don’t need to do it.
I think it’s important to get perspective here, perhaps those new into Naim or those who simply want to enjoy their music, they don’t need to do many if any of these tweaks discussed on these pages… if they did Naim would advise you to do so in the getting started guides.
How would people here feel if naim did weigh in with ‘we tested various cables and switches both standard and blind tested and its our opinion it makes no difference what so ever?’
I suspect a lot of you simply want naim to confim your belief.
I have used various cables, cascaded switches and gone wireless with my ND5 XS 2. In all those instances i have enjoyed the music just the same. Some of these tweaks may add a little salt and pepper here and there but it’s a much of a muchness overall. After using a dedicated switch and a boutique cable and then having gone back to just using the basic method, in which Naim suggests, in their quick setup guide, i have been rather surprised at how little differences there are in sound quality. Especially if one has a rather basic network to begin with.
I now firmly believe that once you start adding more and more SMPS (and cables of all various types) onto the mains, that it starts to negate what one is trying to achieve in the first place. This is one of the reasons why i gave up on cascading and prefered a single (if any) switch, back in my experimental days. You could call it ‘dancing with the devil’ if you like.
