Unhappy with the new NAIM update

I’m rooting for you @Daan-1975 . All the best, and good luck. Keep us posted

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Hi @Stevesky
great to hear - same here. I have done all I can as I would have loved to like it, but for the same reasons the others have mentioned (less emotion, too bright, overblown bass and harsh in my system) I could not get used to it. We had a long weekend (4 days) and I have listened very much!
I have already send an email to support@naimaudio.com (is this the Helpdesk?).
Hope to hear from naim soon.
I had a totally disaster day (job is …) and this information here (that I can go back in FW) brought a little light back.
THANKS for that;
BR

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fully agreed! Sigma signature is gone. :frowning:

Or maybe it is more of Sigma you now hear? Geko has same experience. Just a thought :slight_smile: Might be worth trying a different ethernet cable.

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Hi Steve,

Thanks a lot for your reply. I will contact the Helpdesk.

Best regards,
Daan

Whether the change in sound quality was intentional or not is irrelevant. Naim must have known the firmware update changed the sound, it would be pretty amateurish if they didn’t monitor sound quality after a firmware update.

Plus we know sound quality variation is discussed amongst the beta testers. @HungryHalibut

What Naim should be doing, is, next the install update button, put a note.

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Anyway, it appears Naim are not refusing to facilitate rolling back of the firmware. So, all good. :grinning:

The implication from @Stevesky is that the ‘change of sound’ impact is inconsistent between systems (I’m not sure why that could be the case between, say, different 333/332 users like myself?), which may make it tricky to replicate?

G

Thanks Stevesky, that is very welcome news and a big relief.

But there are rumours that our private files sound too sharp without magic

Hi @Stevesky , if I may, I would like to ask you why many people feel a difference in sound (mostly for the better) if the audio processing has not been touched. What might have caused this? I also wonder what systems might be prone to be broken by a firmware upgrade.

By the way I highly appreciate the effort that Naim puts into developing new firmwares for older products.

Presumably when Naim R&D are developing products, listening tests are carried out using equipment that 99% of the population will be using. Good quality router with as supplied power supply, good quality switch with as supplied power supply, good quality Ethernet cables. So, Naim can be confident their equipment will work very well with standard equipment.

However, apparently there are lots expensive high quality switches, routers, Ethernet cables, cable filters, router power cables, router power supplies……etc. apparently all capable of significantly changing (improving ???) the sound of a system.

There are so many combinations, all possibly producing a different sound, making it impossible for Naim to guarantee an acceptable sound, if non standard accessories are used.

If the new firmware isn’t sounding good, going back to basics might be a good idea.

Or maybe I’m just barking up the wrong tree. :innocent:

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Trouble is I spent the afternoon substituting ethernet cables to do exactly that. I went back through Catsnake, BJC, Chord and some cheap free ethernet cable and the sound signature is still there regardless of what I use. It’s just the lesser stuff sounds even worse!

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Hi,
can anyone please help me, which is the correct way to contact naim Helpdesk?
I send an email to support@naimaudio.com. Unfortunately I did not get an automated reply.
Assume I did something wrong.
Thanks for your help

Hi Drago, I used the same email address as you and I got an instant automated response to say that my email has been received - and I was assigned a support ticket number. I sent my email at 10am on Monday morning and no reply so far.

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I have done the same and received also a confirmation email with a code

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Ok - send it twice (just checked again) received a code on Friday.
Think we will get the same response - can’t wait to have the engaging sound signature again.

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This FW update is so odd the way it’s changed the sound signature of my ND555. I was listening to some random tracks from my Core today and the Beetles ‘Hey Jude’ came on. Normally the vocals drive this song along accompanied by great sounding cymbals and bass lines. However, today the vocals had been pulled back into the mix and cymbals completely dominated the song all the way through with the bass no longer underpinning the vocals properly. It sounded horrible and it’s this kind of change that’s really starting to frustrate me. Initially I thought the update sounded okay but the more I’ve listened the more disappointed I’ve become. I’ll be really interested to see what Naim can offer as a solution?

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That is so what I hear ! Same here - cymbals are really overpowered. The group of us struggling is real.
Send them an email as we have.

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Adding my feedback to the most recent firmware update. I am not pleased with the sound of my ND555. The sound is more “hi-fi” and less musical. Sure there’s more detail, but at the expense of the music. And I’m finding it much brighter sounding than before.

Ideally I’d like to downgrade unless a fix is in the works. @Stevesky - please advise.

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@Stevesky offered to send an email to the naim helpdesk, which some of us had done,
Really sure that naim working on high speed on a solution…

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