HDX how does that little screen work

"It is far the most enjoyable and the most intuitive equipment to use of this category. It is a real happiness to navigate in its menu via its touch screen and its classification possibilities are impressive. In this point of view we actually have the impression that we only touch the surface of all its possibilities during our tests and the writing of this review. It is obvious that its designers worked a lot before releasing it to the market. But they can be sure that the result is excellent, even if unfortunately the price is still very muscular. So now it has to be the audiophiles and the passionate music lovers who need to be ready to jump into the 'virtual' music without physical support. And that's where the real challenge of this excellent innovative equipment."

Just in from Haute Fidelite France,(please excuse direct english translation, it does have its charm) see they like the ui!its a personal thing some will, some won't, sorry you don't.

Is that your hitherto unheard of fluency in French coming to the fore there, Paul, or a Babelfish translation?

Connecting a HDX to a telly is not the answer to my mind. I don't want the television on whenever I listen to music. That big screen is distracting and it uses lots of power to run.

A small iphone sized screen that comes on when i touch a button, allows me to select my choices then after a few seconds goes off. Now that sounds convenient and elegant and worthy of a high end user interface. HDX should be high end in audio performance and in its user interface. My CD5x does it with a humble remote and the display on the player with the nice big numbers (that a 40 year old can read) which go out after I have made my selection.

I don't see the point of Paul's post above. Maybe the screen works a treat. Fine, but its on the machine which is too far way for me to read even if I can operate it with the remote.

I guess Naim's issue is that they have a product that they need to shift and it does not have what I and some others would like to see in regard to a hand held user interface. We have seen what can be done with the humble phone/ipod. Our level of expectation with hard drive music accessiblity and user friendlyness has been set. And of course the customer is always correct.

I'll be sticking with my 5x for now. Fortunately it is sounding wonderful tonight, thanks Mr Naim, full marks for that one.

quote:

And of course the customer is always correct.

even if he is a tad naive

But the point is this, naim have created this product and what ever you feeling about the price, that is what it costs.

So now you are saying naim should go back and create a device to control the HDX? Why when there are hundreds of devices out there right now that can do just that.

I honestly think naim are damned if they do and damnned if they don't.

Jon,

Very well thought out and articulated argument. I was thinking that Naim could have re-badged something that would work, but you're dead right about the built-in obsolescence in these gadgets. The supplied remote would change over time as the manufacturer moved along the new-model gravy train. I'm not 100% sure that would be a problem, though.

I disagree that the gadget would need a keyboard. Look at how easy an iPod is to use with vast libraries. OK, no on-board playlist generation, but having simple queue function would fill a lot of the gap.

I'm not saying that the HDX should NOT have an on-board screen, but that it needs something else as well. I wouldn't need it to do much other than allow me to quickly pick an album and press play - without getting up from the sofa. Something a bit like the remote application on an iTouch or preferably just a iPod classic-style interface would be perfect for me. I don't need any more functionality than that. I actually don't much like touch screens at all, but am a big fan of the click-wheel. I'm just saying that something like that should ship as standard.

If I really wanted to stuff around with playlists and editing all the meta-data than I accept I should suck it up and get a computer to control it with. I have no real desire to do that, though.

Cheers,

Winky

Well, click wheels have there own issues, especially when you need to search and add letters, very frustrating.

Personally, I'm perfectly fine without Naim having the "duet" or "sonos" type hh device and using my own solution, with tablet, and now the mini pc looks interesting with many having 6 hrs or more of battery life. Would be nice to have volume control on the UI, but probably can't due to the way the system is set-up. No major issue.

I will say since I use a sonos hh and my tablet for the HDX, you do need a robust good size interface for functionality and enjoyment if you are "tasking". I don't know what sonos has done with their itouch interface and what technology is involved there. The smaller UIs are fine if your just selecting and playing, but without a stylet can become a bit difficult at times. I'd like to see how sonos has you do playlists from the track level on the itouch and not just search for an artist or album.

quote:

I don't see the point of Paul's post above

Briz you have to read all the other posts.

sherrif, of course its possible to have a naive customer who thinks he/she is always right, we will talk to anyone....as you know.
best
Paul

quote:

Originally posted by garyi:
Well basically there is an HDX without screen its called the ns01 I think.

No - the HDX has completely different audio circuitry to the NS01...

Cheers

Phil

Yes Phil, I have been corrected