NDS and the firmware upgrade now the dust has settled

Sounded no different to me.

I've been working with the beta team since late last year & over quite a number of updates there have seen a few SQ ups & downs.

The general consensus is 4.3 has carried thru improved SQ.

Off the top of my head I can't remember if the 4.3 is the last  (dsd) update or the one before, can anyone help?

I felt some changes. I was not happy in the beginning but i moved the PS to a new socket in the wall - furutech rhodium like the powerlines and it seems that it was not burned in and after fews weeks, sound improved for the much much better and i am very pleased with the new firmware now. I found this as explanation ? Did you found some changes ?

I updated to 4.3 when I had my (bare) NDX and noticed (I thought) a...well....noticeable improvement in SQ. I then upgraded to NDS preloaded with 4.3 so I can't comment on what 4.3 has done for the NDS.

At the time of 4.3 release, there was some chatter on here about the resultant SQ improvement to the NDX but this kind of improvement from 4.3 update did not translate (to such a degree) apparently to the NDS. I wonder if there are sound technical reasons why the NDX might benefit more from version 4.3 than the NDS?

4.3 bought DSD & is the latest release 

I cannot say if it is for the update on NDS or for the 300 that has continued to burn in and improve after 6 months, but I feel I have gained musical cohesion and precision just as much as timbres have become sweeter or should I say fruitier.

I clearly prefer PCM over DSD offered by 4.3 on Podger's L'Estro Armonico. PCM downloaded in 24/192 from Qobuz is more PRaT, a bit more forward with more relief, denser in timbre. DSD64 downloaded from Channels Classics is less edgy, and only a bit more transparent in the lower spectrum.  

Chag -  

On a side track (and sorry for temporarily hijacking the thread): every time I uncompress a Qobuz tar download I get a "lone zero block" message. For the specific case of Podger's L'Estro Armonico, for instance, I get:

nbpf@cirrus:~/share/audio/originals/qobuz$ tar xvf Qobuz-Rachel_Podger-Vivaldi_12_Concertos_Op_3_L_Estro_Armonico_192.tar
Rachel_Podger-Vivaldi_12_Concertos_Op_3_L_Estro_Armonico/
Rachel_Podger-Vivaldi_12_Concertos_Op_3_L_Estro_Armonico/01-01-Antonio_Vivaldi-I_Allegro-SMRP.flac

...

Rachel_Podger-Vivaldi_12_Concertos_Op_3_L_Estro_Armonico/01-36-Antonio_Vivaldi-III_Allegro-SMRP.flac
tar: A lone zero block at 6207680

Have you happened to get similar errors? Is it something to worry about? I never get such errors when I untar other downloads, just those from Qobuz. Thanks, nbpf

I'd just like to express my thanks to Phil Harris, the Naim software team and the beta testers for their efforts in particular for resolving the intermittent dropout bug when streaming DSD and 24/192 PCM files. These are now playing flawlessly (touch wood) on my NDS.

Who knows, I may eventually get around to trying out the new Tidal streaming feature but for now I'm very happy with the performance of my NDS with my own music files.

No error message from Rachel on her 24/192 WAV downloaded from Qobuz.

I however have had 4 or 5 dropouts since 4.3. 

Chag -

I have the same, sometimes a small dropout. In my case, i have a very accomplished network and i am quiet surprised it can be responsible from this trouble. Any thought ?

Yes, UPnP media server?? Have you tried looking at the NDS display buffer when you get dropouts.. Is it full or depleted ?

If this is the same drop out problem I and others reported using version 4.3, we eliminated it being network related because I (and a couple of others I think) got the same drop outs when using USB input. It only appeared to happen on NDX and NDS machines when streaming high res files, particularly DSD and 24/192 using version 4.3.

I have to say I haven't had any drop outs using version 4.4 when streaming DSD or 24/192 but I have been listening to Tidal quite a bit and these drop outs I found are random and very intermittent. Others too have reported no drop outs since updating. It is of course possible that we have all been diverted from hi res streaming to reliving our youth via Tidal. 

I would encourage all who are still experiencing drop outs using version 4.4 to report it to Naim as it is possible this pesky gremlin is still lurking in the software. 

But to end on a positive - absolutely great work integrating Tidal and compliments to the Naim engineers responsible. Tidal has brought me a whole new dimension to listening to music. 

I recall that the momentary drop out problem was one of the quicker beta fixes once we had ID'd it.  The Naim elves released the correction beta rev very quickly.

I played non-stop eight DSD & 24/192 albums from UPnP (NAS) on the day it was released & they played perfectly with no hint of the momentary drop out problem.  Since then I've lost count of the DSD & 24/192 albums I've played,  & no drop outs

I assume Chag and Ikoun are on version 4.4 from the above - if so, strange they are still experiencing drop outs. I have had none since using 4.4.

Sorry - I forgot to congratulate the 4.4 beta testers - great job and a big thanks from me! 

As said, please check the buffer display. If showing steady full, and getting dropouts then this might point to a wierd software problem that is still lurking or uncovered. Certainly no issues here with 4.4 or recent betas with the dropout fix, when the buffer display is showing steady full.

I am still in 4.3 playing PCM HD WAVs on USB keys for the very most part.  

Not sure whether dropouts are only on 192 or also on 96kHz. 

Chag -

I am still in 4.3 playing PCM HD WAVs on USB keys for the very most part.  

Not sure whether dropouts are only on 192 or also on 96kHz. 

........ #@*$#@ !!!     get on 4.4 = problem solved

Probably Mike, probably. This is why I was inquiring about SQ before anything else. I couldn't care less for streaming, except maybe for Qobuz.

Chag -