Uniti software update is here!

I have to eat some humble pie.
After losing the screen and the room on my app I turned the Nova off at the mains and went and made a coffee in order to overcome a huge urge to throw it out off the nearest window!
Came back, switched it on at the mains and pressed start. Greeted with the usual psychedelic screen which restored the screen and app.
Put Joe Pass on and the sound was completely different. The harsh brightness had gone and the sound was more balanced.
I have to say that the current sound is better than pre upgrade.
There is a bigger soundstage, more detail and the sound is a little forward compared to the original which I quite like.
I’m very pleased with the current sound and am once again listening for longer periods of time. It is now really rather good.
Pleased to say the guy from Naim will no longer need a hearing test.
Two things puzzle me, why did I have to spend twenty hours listening to an awful, bright row and secondly I tried switching off at the mains and power back on previously to no effect. Why suddenly did it change this time?
It can’t be just me as there appears to be an even mixture of Nova owners who have received either the awful bright sound or the new improved sound.
Anybody receiving the sound I’m currently experiencing will be very happy indeed.

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Good stuff, pretty much replicates my experience. I don’t know how much of this mularkey is cognitive and how much is real, a bit of both I suspect

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It must relate to the Nova design as at first the sound was so terrible there was no mistaking something was amiss.
I’d like to know why it came good in case it happens after future updates.
I’m surprised it’s not happened at Naim HQ when developing updates.

The wonderful thing about Naim stuff at my age is the urge to throw 20kg is dimming, even though its frustrating.

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DId you perform a factory reset on your Nova after the update at all? They are fickle things these Unitis as the sound is never full consistent. Before the update my Atom had started to become like your Nova sounded, excessive hi freq and very fatiguing. I had tried everything to make it sound better and failed. I had for a while not been putting it in standby after use and leaving it on as many seem to think it helps it sounds better. In my experience it did quite the opposite. After the update it felt like normality had been restored and it was much more balanced, I also returned to using standby when not in use. But a few days later it started to get fatiguing again which I posted here. I have just returned from being away and just started to listen to it again. So far so good but lets see if this is maintained.

I just switched it off at the mains in frustration.
When I came back I switched it on at the mains and pressed the front panel power button and hey presto different sound.

Just tried this on my Nova but it didn’t restore the sound quality, it sounds as if you’re listening at low volume, there are no dynamics, no impact it’s pretty monotone midrange. Does anyone know how to restore the old firmware?

Nick

How long has it sounded bad? I say this because I’d put up with it for about twenty hours before turning it off this morning.
I’ve read on this site that holding the power button in for more than five seconds can have an effect on performance.
There seems to be a stability problem with the Nova as a number of people have suffered different problems following upgrades. They also seem to resolve them in different ways which is a little disconcerting.

After a week of really not being able to listen my Nova after the upgrade, I tried the power off and switch on again. And this time I won the Nova lottery. I’ve been listening for the last few hours and the sound is completely different. The harsh bright sound (which by the way wasn’t just a little brighter or a little harsher but an unlistenable delta) has gone and it has been sounding at least as good as before. Jury’s out on whether anything has really improved, but if it has, bass is tighter and separation better. Everything else seems present and correct. I’ve throughly enjoyed the last few hours and to think, this morning I was playing my Mojo into the Nova to by pass the DAC completely. Even that sounded better!

I just hope this is permanent, I really can’t be doing wondering every time I want to listen whether it will be Nova or Mojo.

Right off, for some more listening (too scared to turn it to standby)…

JohnF I updated it on the release day but I’ve probably listened to it for 4 hours total, I can’t stand it for any length of time. Did you just turn the power off, leave it for a while and power back up or did you do something on the Nova?

Nick

I have Uniti Atom and SQ is always fluctuating. I doubt it is a permanent solution to fix SQ. SQ improvements are always temporary, no matter what I do (all kinds of resets, power off/on, listening on high volume, pulling off and putting back speaker cables, using different kind of extension blocks, filters, etc…). SQ always worsens again, very sad…

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It is not about hidden Atom defect. It could be some kind of circuit (or software) design flaw of Unitis. Naim is very strong company in hardware, but I doubt they are strong in DSP programming and programming in general.

A lot of people from this post installed firmware update 3.2 and felt very big difference, but after some time (several days or week) SQ changes (many reported that). Also, there is post, that Nova changed SQ after 9 months. There are more people who complained about random SQ changes in this post. Also there was really big post in archived forums about SQ changes after firmware update and also random SQ changes. And I can’t find this post, so I assume Naim deleted it. If it is deleted, obviously there is something to hide.

So I didn’t understand your position about “For other user is very confusing reading this“. Unless you are directly from Naim.

I tried the reset shortly after the upgrade as the sound was terrible. This had no effect. I hoped playing would improve matters so I left in on whilst I was gardening.
It was because I lost the screen and room on the app that I turned it off at the mains.
That’s why I’m not sure if it clears itself after being played for a certain length of time.

Try to play very loudly with heavy bass music for several minutes

That was my post, what I was saying is that the Nova SQ improved over time as it played in. After 9 months it got even better. As with any software/hardware combination, a restart every so often will discharge the power and clear any “congestion” that builds up - it’s always worth a try.

I think the SQ on. Uninitiated is fine after the update, but there is the option to revert to the earlier software version for those that want to.

I understand it, Mike. But it does mean that SQ changed. You are happy it didn’t worsen again…

Yes, I’m happy with it. Very early on it would go through improvements and dips - this is reported with all of the streamers. It settled down after a few months, then improving gradually until the last improvement after about 9 months. But I also had new speakers, so they were improving too.

I own a Nova & a Core - have done for quite a while. I bought them because I bought into the online streaming blurb.They are still in their boxes, unused, never been connected. I did get them out once to have a look at and they certainly look the business.

However, I haven’t used them because there has been so so many problems in so many different threads identifying issues/problems with software, firmware, networks, the Naim app, support etc.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the interest, patience or inclination to spend time sorting out IT problems, (again and again and again, it seems), when I just want to listen to music - nor do I think this ought to be necessary.

Luckily, my Nait 5si & CD5si never give me these problems and the music sounds just great.

Just my 2p fwiw …

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Very good point

Sorry but your wrong. My Atom is the same as Luc. Constantly changing. You never know what you going to get. And over a long period of time it becomes wearing. I’ve had two different sets of speakers and 3 different source servers for the music and it’s always had this issue. You think you get it sounding just right then bam the next day you go wtf. It’s either a design flaw or too susceptible to environment issues.

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