Naim streaming amps 172 XS, 272 and UnitiQute do not play well with Amazon Echo devices

I hope this post saves you time and frustration. I own both the Naim UnitiQute and the Naim 172 XS. I bought the UnitiQute a few years ago and my experience of network based inputs had been disappointing. More often than not I would go to play music and find that the network interface was down. I would have to press a number of buttons on the remote to start the network interface and then play music. After a variable amount of time (sometimes 30s, sometimes several minutes) the music would stop. In the case of the UnitiQute the source of music was a NAS on my local network. This NAS was happily providing service to other computers on my network without interruption. Roll forward to my purchase of the 172 XS and signing up for TIDAL streaming service. I would routinely see the pre-amp network interface shut down and restart. Every time the music stopped I would get frustrated and wonder whether it was TIDAL, the Internet, or my network. However even streaming from the NAS would result in network interface reset.

I tried many things to troubleshoot the issue. I plugged the streaming amp directly into my internet router. I switched from WiFi to wired. I changed my router and my switches and my access points. I engaged the dealer that I purchased the 172 XS from and Naim. This included swapping out the 172 XS for a 272. Still no solution.

I had success when I isolated the Naim amps from the other devices on my network. When I put the amps on a separate VLAN they performed without issue. My problem with this was that my NAS doesn’t have multiple network cards and I needed it to serve files to computers as well as the amps. I slowly introduced more devices onto the VLAN reserved for the Naim amps. When I added the first Amazon Echo Dot I started seeing the network interface reset. When I moved it off the VLAN the amps performed without issue. So I had a root cause. I could isolate the Amazon devices and move the amps back to the network where the NAS and computers resided.

I ended up moving all home automation devices to the separate VLAN and reverting the Naim amps back to the default VLAN. This worked for a couple of weeks until I started seeing the same behavior. I looked at the network configuration and found that one of the Echo Dot devices had reverted to the WiFi SSID that was on the default VLAN during a power outage and subsequent reboot. I addressed this by telling Amazon to forget saved WiFi passwords and then moved the Echo Dot once again to the separate VLAN. No more issues.

I am surprised that the network interface on three different models will shutdown in response to one or more packets from another device on the network. As yet I have not performed a packet capture to isolate the "poison pill". After spending so long getting to a working solution I don't feel like spending more time on it, but I expect my curiosity will win out and I will find the packet sequence. If and when I do I'll provide it to Naim and Amazon in the hopes a new buyer can have these device types coexist from day one.