What do you like best about the sound from your Naim equipment?

It's musicality....

Emotionally engaging for me.

Nice, H! Enjoy! I think I like best what you like best: I just find myself listening to it for hours.

Detail & musicality for me.  I know I can never reproduce a live band/group/combo in my home,  I gave up on big band & full orchestra ions ago.  But something that excites & stimulates,  music, memories, emotion & pleasure is all good.

What about the other stuff apart from your ND5,  amp, speakers, NAS, how you have it wired  .......  post it in your profile.  

That is a really good question but one I am struggling to answer.

You did touch on listener fatigue and I think you may have something here. I think listener fatigue comes from having to concentrate too hard when listening to music and the brain having to compensate for deficiencies in the quality of the sound produced. The sheer mental effort required to 'engage' with some systems and 'listening' for those musical cues you know should be there is mentally exhausting and after an hour or two you have had enough. As I have upgraded my Naim gear over the years I have noticed less and less listener fatigue as I have had to concentrate less to engage with the music. Entry level Naim gear was not great on this aspect and it wasn't until I entered the classic range did I begin to appreciate a lessening in listener fatigue and really start to relax and properly enjoy music, free of the effort needed to 'listen' if that makes any sense. The music just washes over you which is a glorious feeling. Then of course you have been bitten by the bug and the rest is history.

I am not sure what aspects of musical reproduction contribute to the reduction in listener fatigue but I guess I could summarise the quality as mellifluous and effortless. How you achieve this (other than going up the Naim hierarchy), I am not sure. It does seem to me however that the quality of source and pre amp in particular have had a lot to do with me achieving this quality from my system over the years. I would always advise you spend as much as you can afford on these components, even at the expense of the others in the chain. Others on here will agree and indeed others will disagree. The only way in the end is listen for yourself and preferably demo new kit at home in your own system. Your own ears are the only true source of reliable information for you at the end of the day.

Welcome to Naim and enjoy the music. Long may you live happily free from the dreaded upgraditis.

musicality, detail - when you sit back the music brings you IN -

It's the music itself I'm enjoying! Very important! It's how the NAIM system reproduce and delivers the music in a way that's so engaging and enjoyable! I'm a new owner of ND5XS, NAIT XS2 and KEF LS50.

Musical portrayal (call it accuracy, realism, believaballity, life like detail and tonality, insert description here) and timing.  How something is being played, who is doing what, who is playing what and how they are playing including off each other. Why are some bands telepathically tight live? Timing. Why does Naim sound so realistic and make musical sense? Timing.

I've updated my profile with details of other equipment. I use my system for films too hence the surround amp and sub. My NAS setup is as simple as you can get, just a router with USB connection. Not sure if this setup leaves me short compared to other NAS setups? 

Your ND5XS will always sound better with wired ethernet leads rather than wireless connection. It is usually recommended to put an ethernet switch (Netgear supply good but cheap ones) between your NAS and ND5XS. So with ethernet cables (I think we are now supposed to call them streaming cables) connect the switch to the router and connect the same switch to the NAS and to the ND5XS. To keep this part of the network free from other traffic, do not connect anything else to this switch. I would connect your AV gear (DVD, Blue ray, surround amp etc) to another switch or direct to the router. Don't be tempted to spend too much on ethernet cables. Good quality Cat 5e or Cat 6 will do. Oh and don't forget to remove the wireless aerial when you go ethernet wired as it is still capable of injecting noise into your network.

As a general rule I keep as much distance between my network devices (router, switch, NAS etc) and my hifi gear. This is to minimise the amount of noise (produced by the network devices and their noisey wall wart power supplies) affecting your streamer.

The usual recommendation for good hifi racks (you don't have to go to the length of Fraim although I think it is the best), speaker stands/cables and interconnects (again don't spend too much yet and Naim stock cables + NACA5 speaker cables are a perfectly fine starting place) applies and will give you an improvement in SQ. Also play about with speaker positioning to achieve the optimum SQ from your normal listening position.

Follow these simple steps but watch you don't develop OCD about it and spend too much time fiddling at the expense of time listening to music!

I'm connecting through wifi at the moment! Will there be significant improvement with SQ if I connect through ethernet?

So am I and all's working great and sound quality is awesome. I guess it's the law of diminishing returns, my guess is it would be subtle? 

Nic Chan posted:

I'm connecting through wifi at the moment! Will there be significant improvement with SQ if I connect through ethernet?

Yes - I believe Naim recommend a wired connection. Whether it is 'significant' or not is a judgement call for yourself.

G

I am wireless also and it not only sounds good & never drops out, but it keeps the "noisy" NAS and modem/router some 25 feet away in another room.

An ethernet wired solution will always sound better than wifi connected IMHO and should prove to be more stable, particularly when streaming the highest res music. I would imagine the step up in SQ from a wired solution will most likely be more pronounced with the higher quality streamers.

You can of course experiment quite cheaply with a couple of lengths of ethernet cable - one to connect the streamer to the router and one to connect the NAS to the router. If you notice a worthwhile improvement you can then invest in a cheap switch and get further improvements in SQ and stability.

Remember to unscrew the aerial when you go wired and you will need to change the settings on the streamer for the wired option.

Try it, it won't cost much and you might be surprised. Good luck

To be honest the only reason I'm currently using Wi-Fi is that I have no easy route to lay a cable other than drill a hole through the ceiling. It's a shame that naim only use the 2.4ghz instead of 5ghz which is less crowded. My Wi-Fi is good but I understand wired is better, I'll see what I can do about a solution, it certainly won't harm anything. 

Wifi should sound good, although it puts slight additional load on the streamer PSU and this might be audible. The biggest drawback of wifi is throughput reliability and not really suitable for the higher bandwidth hidef file formats.

Interesting comments about Wi-Fi, the convenience is obvious and so far the reliability has been good, even with 24bit 192khz Flac. I do so love the sound (listening whilst writing this), the comment on PSU I guess is a fact and little understood. When I've mentioned to my friends about a possible upgrade costing £1800 and it's the power supply they don't get it. Just wonder if anyone has a ND5 XS with external power supply on here that can advise if it worth it.... My guess if they have it the answer is yes ☺

Literally the only time I ever had a drop out was when my AT&T supplied router (which I have to use for U-Verse internet) was dying.  Had to literally yell at AT&T on the phone to get them to part with a replacement unit ("Uh, sir where is the router located?" "In the same f***ing place it's been working in for the past 3 years.  It's dying, now send me another damn router!"), it arrived 2 days ago, and no issues at all.  If Satan ever started a company, it would be AT&T.

Lol ��

Took the advise and ran a cat6 cable (normal priced ones) and I'm blown away. Definite increase in SQ. More PRaT than wifi is obvious! Bass is tighter too. Don't have the time to test Tidal yet (occasion dropouts). The cable is staying I just need to tidy it up a bit so it will look neat running across the wall.

Thanks guys for the info! I'm really happy with the increase in SQ.

Nic Chan posted:

Took the advise and ran a cat6 cable (normal priced ones) and I'm blown away. Definite increase in SQ. More PRaT than wifi is obvious! Bass is tighter too. Don't have the time to test Tidal yet (occasion dropouts). The cable is staying I just need to tidy it up a bit so it will look neat running across the wall.

Thanks guys for the info! I'm really happy with the increase in SQ.

Nic, glad you have seen an improvement going ethernet wired.

I am a little concerned that apparently so many Naim streamer users are out there using Wifi connection and appear oblivious to the availability and value (in SQ terms) of ethernet wired connection. This is such a cheap and basic means of getting a significant improvement in virtually all aspects of SQ.

Why aren't the Naim dealers who are selling streamers advising these customers as to the connection possibilities and the pros and cons of the alternatives? In fact the only 'con' I can think of for wired is the faff of arranging ethernet cables but for me this is more than compensated for by the SQ you are rewarded with from a little TLC.

It simply isn't good enough to say 'RTFM'. Newbies to streaming, especially those with limited technical knowledge, need some helpful advice to get the best from their gear. I remember when I first started down this route, I didn't have a clue.

Maybe Naim dealers should go through a standard 'awareness and familiarisation' process each time they sell streamer gear to those who are new to it.

Just an idea.

Well said Nigel! I had to do a lot of research on forums and the net to find out things I should know! I'm enjoying the learning curve tho and luckily I dun have any audiophile friends lol (it might lead to a bank account disaster.) but yes definitely a better documentation on NAIM will be a great help for newbies! Maybe a sticky post made top on this forum will be a good start.

nigelb posted:   Maybe Naim dealers should go through a standard 'awareness and familiarisation' process each time they sell streamer gear to those who are new to it.

 

+1 Well Said  ...............  "dealers" have always been a pain & pleasure for me especially in my work life.  My company sold throughout the world with dealers & I was heavily involved in my various career stages with working with, training & in the later years qualifying them. I was part of dealer improvement group that verified all aspects of dealers abilities & business mngt.  It was financially incentivised with graduated grades. The variables when we first started were quite extreme,  but after about 10 years of hard work we managed to drag the performance levels up & with most of the significant high value dealers on the top tiers,  the growth in market share was amazing.     

I too have worked with dealers and retailers in a consultancy role when I was in market research so I am also aware of what a struggle it is to shift performance levels even by a small margin. It is a shame (but also a reality) that financial incentives is often the means to really get a dealer's attention. Most (if not all) Naim dealers however are totally committed to the brand and the work they do from my experience. They might simply need a reminder (and possibly a mandatory process) to help and advise customers on how to get the best from their gear AFTER the sale. For all I know, this may already be a part of the requirements laid down by Naim for their dealers and it simply needs to be implemented exhaustively and consistently.

Paul - if you are watching I think I have spotted another need for some dealer mystery shopping! And you thought I had gone away!

I do understand that dealers do not have the resources to offer every customer a free install. BUT something really simple like 'the top 5 tips to get the best from your new streamer' could be very helpful if it were made a mandatory part of the process for all streamer sales (to those customers who are new/inexperienced).

There would of course be much to gain for Naim and their dealers. Gear performing at its best means fewer aftersales queries, more satisfied customers and hence a greater possibility of up-selling/upgrading in the future from those customers.

Kerching!!