Tidal is available in the US, UK and several other countries ...

Well I could and did predict this for a start.

Geo-blocking has been a fact of life nearly for as long as media services on the internet have been around. When I bought my NDX in 2013, I had never heard of Tidal and Spotify had not been whispered for Naim yet. However, there were plenty of streaming services available and I could use the NDX as a DAC to a PC or something. And my existing streamer (a Denon BDT-3313U - actually a fine sounding streamer by the way) even has buttons on the remote and the GUI for Netflix and Vidu which are geoblocked here despite the unit being manufactured 40 minutes away. Knowing there is a need to check these things is obvious.

So at that time, thinking the NDX may be useful as a DAC for Spotify via a PC, I did check that (and several other) audio streaming sites and confirm that they were not available for broadcast in my country.

As to the second point, I am not saying to ditch Naim at all. No one buys an NDX for what it might do. They buy it for what it does today (unless they have some crystal ball I am unaware of). Even 5 years ago, with the NDX's limited functionality, there was nothing to stop you connecting a PC to it and getting Spotify that way - so you would know if the service was available or not. And if you buy an NDX today, you buy it for the current functionality and that includes Spotify and Tidal which, I would hope, you had already paid a visit to the said service's website to determine the availability. If you are buying one today and Tidal/Spotify is a main reason more so than UPnP - then yes, it probably isn't the right product for you depending on where you live.  

Same goes for them rolling out a new service. I've not bothered with the firmware 4.4 because I don't suffer any glitches and I already know Tidal is not available. I don't need Naim to tell me that.

Adding a Disclaimer would have saved time for many people upgrading to 4.4

Furthermore, I was under impression that Tidal functionality would have been fully integrated, ie. associated with the Naim device in a exclusive, direct way (eg via MAC number) and not related to the region

What was provided instead was nothing more that just another user interface - really not a big deal given the amount of advertising

Bobby

It is not about any fault.  You are missing the point.

Samsung and Sony state upfront on their products that some of their Smart TV services may not work in certain regions.

Tidal music is a subscription based service from tidal.com and you need a valid subscription in your country for it. If tidal.com can't offer this service in your country then you cannot use it. Feel free to complain to tidal.com. But this has nothing to do with Naim.

Naim is only offering support for the Tidal service in their streamers. Since every streaming provider uses a different API to allow access to their web services this is a big deal and many users with Tidal subscriptions have been asking for it.

The only big deal for me is the lack of transparency which would have been achieved by an upfront  Disclaimer stating Tidal regional limitations.

That would have saved time for unnecessary software upgrade users outside of UK US EU.

I would always upgrade to latest Naim software/firmware. As well as features that may or may not be of interest, there is often a myriad of bug fixes and optimisations underneath the covers.. As was the case with the recent upgrade.

As a network device connected to your home or work network, I would have thought it there are desirable security updates rolled in to Naim's firmware updates.

No Simon, that makes way too much sense.

I've seen it all now, a customer complaining that Naim should not have implemented something that can be used by a huge portion of their customers. Why? Because Mr. Complainer himself cannot benefit. Instead, he wanted Naim to invest in other features . . . that others do not give a hoot about, but HE does. Selfish, selfish, selfish!

Mr Poster, you have largely misunderstood the essence of Mr Complainer's line.  But I do not blame you for your simplistic take on this post, including your rather interesting, albeit poor reference to selfishness. 

So to make it simpler for your honourable understanding, Mr Poster, Mr Complainer thinks that an up front Disclaimer on potential restrictions would have been fair to the small minority (by the way only a few billion people live outside of Tidal-covered regions, right ?) of customers.

Or, the World as you perceive it exists mostly within these regions?  Please enlighten me.

With compliments.

Bobby

I wrote to Qobuz after Tidal got integrated and asked them are they planing to join Naim , and here is what I got back

I agree. I just do this after a month or so - enough time to hear about any new regressions that might have been introduced..

I don't know the numbers, but there are a lot of people still running Windows XP.  There is some mindset that "it's working fine for me so why should I upgrade/update?"  It's not just that they don't know of the upgrade, but they are 'raging against the machine' and flat-out refusing.  The same happens with Naim streamer / player updates.  The know better than Naim.

Upgrading software/firmware cannot be handled with a one-size-fits-all policy. Firmware upgrades are generally the most risky if they go wrong and depending on the unit and role it plays, you might not want to upgrade it unless there is a specific problem. Some types of hardware device even come with a "don't flash the firmware unless you experience specific problems that are resolved in the newer version" recommendation. With devices that play a security role, such a conservative approach makes less sense since the changes are designed specifically to reduce risk. This is why the two extremes of "if it ain't broke don't fix it" and "always upgrade to the latest version" are, in my opinion both wrong. The context of the upgrade, it's purpose and risk will vary from device to device.

In the case of the streamers, the risk is that it goes sideways and you end up with a unbootable unit that has to go back to Naim. It is small but it is there. Inconvenient but since it is a personal appliance, not critical. I would still evaluate the published change log. Since I experience no software issues at present, cannot use Tidal anyway, and Naim have not stated any change to the DSP code, it doesn't make much sense. There are also very little, if any, security implications for this type of device. A failed upgrade would take the best part of GBP500 to get to and from Naim.

It would be nice though if Naim had a failsafe firmware boot. In my home, even the washing machine is net connected, as are all the TVs, BD players and my Denon streamer also. They update automatically and if their juice is cut during firmware flashing they just go back to a default "gold" image and try again.

To be fair to Naim, they never claimed that the upgraded includes the Tidal service, only that it includes "support for" the Tidal service which is "available in more than 45 countries".

There's been a bit written about the firmware, I think written by Phil; if an update fails midway, it can be restarted as the internal firmware will permit it. A failed update will not per se "brick" the unit. 

I am sure Phil wrote that, and I wrote it too. The streamers have a bootstrap. This is a core functionality that cant be overwritten. (I believe) This core bootstrap puts the streamer into a state ready to receive new firmware if all else fails. So if you damage the firmware and there is no working firmware, the bootstrap will always allow ( assuming no hardware has failed) a new firmware to be uploaded with the loader apps for the PC and Mac

Simon