Perhaps @obsydian could enlighten the thread and OP, as he changed 7 times his Nova.
There was a specific point when the sound changed for me a few years ago and probably coincided with significnt new features being implemented as originally planned coupled with bug fixes.
The current/recent updates have all been very good and any sonic differences marginal, no doubt helped by the beta group providing feedback and I suspect Naim’s internal testing being aware of previous concerns.
Again, I would stress it’s all largely subjective, but also down to our unique system/listening environment factors.
To show just how subjective these things are, from memory, the firmware the OP suggests was good was close to one of the ones I really disliked sonically.
Given that some have suggested the OP may be from Asia, could that be a factor? I could have sworn I’d read that some manufacturers tweak their products to sound different for certain international markets individual preferences. If not it may have been something to do with colour reproduction in digital photography where regional preferences came into play for some reason.
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Then if there is another Chinese member here who can help translate, that would be useful.
You may have done this, you may not, but if not do check all interconnects especially the power cable are ok.
Power down the Nova fully via the main power button into Deep Sleep then turn off at the mains if switched, or unplug from the mains socket.
Next check that the IEC connector is firmly plugged into the decoupled IEC socket on the back of the Nova - it is very easy to think it is seated properly when it may not be.
I’d probably even unplug power lead from the Nova, plug it back in again securely and leave it for 30 minutes or more, before reconnecting or switching on at the mains wall socket.
I stress powering down properly and then turning off/unplugging at the mains as I’m pretty convinced that removing from Nova and reconnecting without doing so when I reseated a badly connected power cable caused a temporary screen glitch.
Someone else may have mentioned it, but might also be worth trying a factory restore which would require setting it up again. Factory restore will not revert firmware but some people anecdotally thought it helped after new firmware installations in the past.
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My friend i just got over them RMA nightmares 
.
I have never had a bad sounding Nova/Atom, just a number of faults and yes some unit to unit variability.
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When you say bad anything in particular.
My system wiring is a complete set of Naim wiring, which is actually the first star I bought. After upgrading to 3.50, the screen doesn’t light up, and I took the opportunity to change a nova. The star has a good voice appeal, while Nova has a faster and three-dimensional sound. Because Nova may be a prototype, and the foot pad is damaged, I replaced it with a completely new one. This one is perfect in appearance, but the sound is less energetic and dull. I think it’s too new Maybe I don’t have enough time to cook. Although it’s been three months, it doesn’t last 24 hours. I’ve been watching the forum these two days. Don’t some people need 5-9 months for their equipment? I won’t contact the dealer for the time being, because the merchant said that the judgment of voice is too subjective, and it’s not in a city, so it’s necessary to deliver goods. If it’s difficult now, it’s also difficult to communicate with each other. Let’s look at the pot again, the effect of the equipment should be fixed in nine months, and then consider the treatment method
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Odd the OP mentions maybe a prototype and some prior damage ?
I don’t know. But he thinks that is better to wait still 9 months more to run them and wait an hypocritical great improvement. Nobody agrees here on that.
The “prototype” was apparently fine sound-wise but damaged, and so he seems to have replaced it with a new one, and that’s the one sounding bad.
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Nova right out of the box sounds different (and better) than Star. This is from my personal experience listening to them. Don’t wait, don’t research, don’t cook, just call the dealer is my suggestion. Bring it back to shop and compare side by side or have the dealer visit you with a Star and another copy of Nova if that is doable.
I don’t think FW SQ difference is bigger than difference between Star and Nova.
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I suspect the OP has got the message by now. No point in repeating the same advice.
Maybe we should try to understand the why the OP is not willing to speak to his dealer, if indeed a dealer was involved in the supply of the replacement Nova and what the situation is with any kind of remaining warranty.
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Yes, I’m a Chinese user. It’s very inconvenient for me to communicate with Naim dealers
Because I’ve been turning on Nova and playing it these two days, and its sound is changing. Now the treble is not stuffy, and the treble has begun to shine and sharp, indicating that it needs to continue to change and wait for improvement,
I have a general understanding of firmware sound: 2.61 low frequency is tight, medium frequency is more, and high frequency is condensed. 3.2 firmware version: relatively balanced version, medium frequency is less, 3.4 extension is more, and dynamic is large. As the sound field becomes larger and the sound is diluted, the music appeal will be reduced, but the details and quality will be improved. 3.51, the sound is more modern. Due to the display problems of some songs, I prefer version 3.2,
There’s another problem. I plug in the mobile hard disk directly to play songs. I find that when I load the super long song directory, the cover will freeze. Firmware 2.61 and 3.2 have happened, so I can only shut down and restart.
2.3 firmware, loading a long playing directory, will the album cover freeze? That is to say, if the cover content does not change, you can only restart the device
Try leaving the Nova on when you’re not playing music, and leave the hard drive plugged in to.
The more songs on an external drive/USB device the longer the Atom/Star/Nova will take to read or catalogue it.
I’ve got a small USB drive plugged in 32 or 64GB maybe. It’s not full but onlly has a few albums.
Once plugged in a 1TB SSD but it didn’t seem to handle that as well, but it was far from full.
I can’t really comment on differences with USB devices with different firmware as I’ve not tried a lot. The small USB stick is always plugged in.
If you are not using the Nova as a server for other devices at home, then turning that Nova function off might be worth trying and only allowing the Nova to navigate directories as it needs to, but your best option would be a NAS or always on computer running a server on the network (asset UPNP is free for basic functionality, many other options). I’d post a link to turning the Nova’s server function off but can’t find it in the online ‘manual’. Can’t remeber if it’s a setup option or in the app.
Many use something as simple as a cheap Raspberry Pi computer with attached hard drive to serve their music files.
As Mike_S says most Naim equipment is traditionally best left on even when not in use, the sounds tends to stabilise.
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Let it run in 24/24 on radio mode , even with volume off. It will run in. After 1 week, so 168 hours, if it still sounds bad, time to send it back and ask for a change.
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A Nova that goes from very bad SQ to a bit better after 3 months tells me this Nova is not right and leaving it for another week is not the solution.
May as well try though.
It depends how many hours the Nova had worked during the 3 months.