Why spotify?
Posted by: 4411 on 17 December 2014
whilst excited with the update news I am dissapointed in Naim choosing Spotify .
why have a hi quality piece of kit and not have a hi quality streaming music service like Tidal.
or if we had to have a way of using a streaming service why not have airplay receiver installed or have the facility to use a usb connection that would stream hi res files right upto DSD as Cambridge audio do.
Why Spotify?
Because I have found Gregory Alan Isakov via Radio Paradise and listened to his albums.
Have now purchased The Weatherman and This Empty Northern Hemisphere. That's good enough for me.
Merry Christmas All.
I'd rather they just add support for these on the Uniti series. I can understand why they'd want support for all kinds of services, but maybe an add on unit that is configured to just do that - with better software support is a better bet. It just needs to have an digital out.
Just like 'radio' tuners in the past.
A brilliant idea, the Naim DAC-less streamer. Did I imagine it, or did someone from Naim mention to me that this was one of Doug Graham's pet projects ?
Could someone could explain to me why can Sonos add apparently an unlimited number of streaming services to their players but to the likes of our beloved Naim, it takes what feels like eons?
I am aware that this issue has been raised before, even highlighting the fact that some of these Sonos players out there go back almost 7-8 years and still manage all these updates.
What has not been clarified so far is what is the basic technical limitation of a Naim streamer that stops it from accepting multiple streaming services.
Alonso
> On 25 Dec 2014, at 5:50 pm, Naim Audio Forums <alerts@hoop.la> wrote:
>
Hi Alonso -
Three reasons come to mind
1) Business - each streaming service has to be licensed by Naim and, to date, they have not negotiated a contract with anyone other than Spotify. Jmtennapel posted above that Naim is only interested in working with "services [that] have world wide appeal and more market penetration". With 6 miillion paying users in 180 countries, Deezer fits that description perfectly. It is debatable whether or not Qobuz or Tidal do.
2) Resource - Naim is stretched too thin, and does not have the developers, time or money to add streaming services, or
3) Technical - Uniti and network player products have some design limitation (processing power, memory size, and so on) which prevents Naim from moving forward.
IMO, (1) is a red herring, and Naim could easily contract with Deezer, Music Vault and others. (2) is a very real possibility, and would easily explain why it takes Naim so long to roll out new software releases and new features compared to their competition. (3) is possible, but we simply will not know unless Naim tells us.
Paul Stephenson has commented that Naim is very conservative about adding non-essential features because they are concerned about the impact on overall sound quality. I think most of us would agree that the Naim sound is superb, and it is what draws us to the brand. But I struggle to understand why Spotify is doable, but yet a higher quality lossless streaming service like Deezer is not.
Perhaps Naim will surprise us all early in the new year with some new announcements. CES is right around the corner, and the start of the new year is always a good time to be optimistic!
ATB.
Hook
Hi Alonso -
Three reasons come to mind....
Hook
Hi Hook! thank you for taking the time to reply... All that you say makes sense.
Right now I am definitely sitting on the 'Could-not-be-happier' camp. I was/am a Spotify heavy user so the Connect integration to Naim was right up my alley and I really do not miss any other service.
Having said that, It is evident that our Naim streamers are gagging for a lossless streaming service but it is just a matter of time for it to happen (yeah... this has been already said a gazillion times)
Anyway, thank you again for taking the time to reply