New Naim Mu-So Owner!! Initial Impressions & Various Control Options
Posted by: PrazVT on 05 June 2016
Hi All! So I brought home my new Mu-So yesterday and so far I'm quite blown away by it 
I came from a NAD VISO 1 AP / SB Touch setup and was looking for a little more audiophile experience (all my proper hifi stuff has been boxed away for few years as I moved home to save on $$). Definitely an UPGRADE.
I know it's only been about 24 hrs, but wow - I love the clarity, detail, and separation (it helps that the Mu-So is as wide as it is), and clean bass response. This is the first Naim kit I've ever bought (mostly I've been a NAD, Parasound, Schiit, etc. guy), but I'm very impressed.
My house is hardwired (gigabit LAN), so the Mu-So is connected via ethernet and pulling FLAC from my DS415+ NAS. So far UPNP / DLNA access has been flawless. My TV is connected via optical, so audio for the DVR and PS4 are taken care of as well. I've experimented w/ several ways of controlling the device outside of the Naim app, and thought I'd share what I find works so far, if any other owners are interested. I hadn't seen any recent posts on this, so apologies if I'm repeating anything already posted.
1. Synology DSAudio: IOS, Android apps allow you to choose the Mu-So as the DLNA playback device. Playback is native (no transcoding) and volume control works. Same thing w/ web interface.
2. JRiver Media Center (on Mac): I can playback songs from my library directly onto the Mu-So and stop / next / shuffle / repeat / volume functions work great
3. Logitech Media Server: Since I'm used to using Squeeze Commander / iPeng type apps for music selection, I setup the upnp/dlna bridge plugin by phillippe on LMS 7.9 beta (Synology NAS version). After a few configuration steps, the Mu-So shows up and then I just set a few parameters to ensure all FLAC files were played natively w/o transcode to PCM. Works perfectly!! Volume control works as well.
Outside of that, Tidal support rocks and my Harmony One Ultimate remote has the Mu-So in it's database, so I'm one happy camper.
Anyway totally happy w/ the Mu-So; so far no hiccups, drop-outs, or glitches. I test drove a bluesound Pulse 2 and couldn't say the same. So again, great work Naim.
-Praz
Welcome PRAZVT!
Not sure if your post has only observations, or if there is a question there as welll... 
Enjoy the music!
Adam
Just observations right now I'm loving this speaker and issues have been minimal. I can bypass the Tidal issue by accessing Tidal through logitech media server. Getting the muso to switch to optical in via my harmony one ultimate remote has been a challenge though. Since there's no direct button to get to optical in one click, it requires some manual intervention.
Otherwise, I feel like sound quality is improving as the muso breaks in. And I am listening to music a lot more again, which is a good sign
It is a lovely piece of kit and although I did have a trial of Tidal I have lazily and cheaply fallen back to Spotify which satisfies my simple needs. Every time I feel a wallet attack coming on for bigger and better gear I switch it on via whatever device is at hand and my wallet closes itself almost automatically