Another Nova Problem

Have you had a series of problems nick? I’m only interested as I bought an ex demo one made in September 2017 and it’s been  perfect but all I this talk of issues is worrying 

My first one (brand new) went pop with smoke and an electrical burning smell, replaced with another new one and it just had the artwork stuck on the screen. Don’t get me wrong I love the Nova, the sound is in a different league to my Superuniti but I can’t help being concerned about the reliability, I’ve owned Naim equipment for the last 32 years and never had one issue with any of it, until The Nova!

Nick

Sorry to hear, artwork freezing, just accept it happens, for me it happens it flip flopping Tidal allot, seems to get caught out and then paralysed.

The stuck artwork is a known software problem....turn off at the mains and then repower....about time Naim fixed this!

How long has the Nova been available now? A year? It’s pretty pathetic that these issues still persist. Still, at least it hasn’t exploded yet. 

I must give mine an easy time then as I don’t tend to flip around much but maybe Roon works differently from native tidal?

Yes seems to be luck of the draw if you get one that’s fault free and I’m sure the majority are fine however I’m on my second and it appears to have issues too so I could be heading for my third unfortunately, very disappointing and frustrating too as they have so much going for them if they could just get the quality issues sorted. 

I'm on lucky no4.

Obsydian posted:

I'm on lucky no4.

Maybe I got one of yours! 

So is it a hardware quality control issue, this very unlike Naim or is it mainly software?

Nick

I love my Nova, too (and the Atom!) but given what I know based on my own experiences and also the things I read on these forums, I believe most issues are related to the firmware and software.  It took several firmware and NAIM app updates to finally get the Tidal implementation right in my UnitiLite.  I think the same is true with this new line of products. 

Folks that want to avoid software glitches ruining their audio experience should stick to devices that spin physical discs.

Regarding out-of-the-box hardware faults, I am sure that Muso and Uniti products will always be more prone to this as they are mass-market products that are not built to the same standard as proper Naim equipment.

I bet that the new expensive streamers won't have anything like the failure rate that affects the Uniti products!

EnglishRogue posted:

Folks that want to avoid software glitches ruining their audio experience should stick to devices that spin physical discs.

Regarding out-of-the-box hardware faults, I am sure that Muso and Uniti products will always be more prone to this as they are mass-market products that are not built to the same standard as proper Naim equipment.

I bet that the new expensive streamers won't have anything like the failure rate that affects the Uniti products!

I'm not sure I'd agree with that! OK, the Musos are made in China, but the Unitis are made in the same facility as the other Naim streamers, and run variants of the same firmware, with all products controlled by the same app. Most of the issues people have had are software related, and I don't see how the separates would be more immune to these problems.

A couple of thoughts. I have one for a month and it’s just opened up beautifully in the last week after burn-in. I haven’t had any glitches, but I purposely got a Core to run with it, so that I have a dedicated audio streaming system that avoids interface issues with computers as such. Anything software related can sometimes just get confused and a power down and up will do wonders.

Before the Nova I only had a UnitiCute2 streaming from my Mac. Initially that was a bit twitchy until I upgraded my router (I run through wire Cat 6 Ethernet). Now the Nova and UC2 work fine from the Core, though multi-room isn’t quite there (not that I’d use it), I’m on another, standard IP router now, as we swapped from broadband to high speed fibre, so if I wanted multi-room I’d probably upgrade the router.

in summary, dedicated audio separate from computers will simply things and reduce the potential for interface complications. If you are streaming on a network, you need a quality system of routers, switches if needed and cables for speed.

Still, the comments about faults is concerning and would have potentially put me off a purchase if I’d heard about them earlier.

Software, don’t you just love it. If Microsoft can’t get it to work all the time how do you expect Naim to?

Roon may well be the answer, it seems to be more stable than Naim software all things considered. 

.sjb

I suspect my issues are more hardware related - screeching on the first one and popping on the second. They’ve been perfectly stable otherwise. 

Nova is made in house, recall on my prior return they full normal Q&A checks where done in house.

Bottom line not some outsourced lesser sibling.

EnglishRogue posted:

I bet that the new expensive streamers won't have anything like the failure rate that affects the Uniti products!

I certainly hope not, as I intend getting the new NDX 2.

My UnitiServe was at Salisbury being repaired, more times than it was in my house. It just had to go!

I'm on my 2nd Atom and I agree with [@mention:1566878603876139] I completely ditched the Naim app and use Roon or Spotify connect and its way more stable. Its still prone to fall over when switching inputs though. I do still get the frozen artwork from time to time but its rare. The main thing for me is how different it can sound from one day to the next and a power cycle then improves it. Never get this with my Arcam. Memory leak perhaps somewhere. 

I run a Nova, Mu-so and QB. Bought them all on release and every unit has been faultless. Updated OTA at every prompt with no issues.

I have on one occasion had a  Tidal artwork freeze, so long ago i cant remember. It was fixed by powering down at the wall socket.

I run mainly Roon / Tidal / iRadio / and a TT. I put it in standby after use or sometime let it go to sleep by itself.

Not trying to say hey look at me but rather give a different perspective / experience of ownership. 

Zero problems with my Nova (which replaced a beloved SuperUniti), but I also don’t watch the artwork I use iPad as remote with either Roon or the Naim app.  No problems with Muso QB either...

I have learned to be patient with Naim, when they announce something like AirPlay2 support ‘coming soon’ I just chuckle a little.  That was 5/18.  Its 9/1 and no update in sight, but that’s a ‘champagne’ problem as it were.  MQA?  Qobuz? Etc...they sure do take their time...

I’m getting ‚a note’ image instead of album artwork recently. Plus do get the artwork frieze from time to time