1 month owner of SuperUniti... Not really happy

Posted by: revmis on 06 September 2012

Hi all,

 

I have been the owner of SuperUniti for a month now. Just upgraded the firm ware to

SU: 3.16.00 western europe+N-stream 3.1.

Speaker is Proac D18 with Naca5.

Control with Ipad 2+N-stream and Ipeng to compare

 

My previous system to compare: Nait XS+Proac D1+Squeezebox Touch (SQT)with soundcheck mod)+ Music Fidelity DAC M1+ Ipad 2 running Ipeng

 

Within the 1st month of ownership, I cannot comment on the sound quality right now as it seems quite good, and I hope it will open up furthermore. But I encounter so many hiccups with my SU, that I would like to share here and hopefully that someone will tell me what I have done wrong, or something is not right with my system. This is a long post and I am not native English speaker so pardon my writings

 

1/ From the day 1 until now: I cannot connect to wired. Have tried 3 cables,switch the outlet,  SU factory reset,router reset, fix IP address. Cables fine,router fine,because I try all cables with 2 laptops, Ps3, Dune D1 they can connect and surf. My Buffalo wireless N router had been rock solid for 3yrs, no problem whatsoever with all the gadgets I have: 2 laptops, 1 netbook, 2 ipads, 1 blackberry, 1 nook, ps3 . Very strange. I can say SU is picky, and if I have to buy a new wireless router just for the SU ... not really happy. So I give up on the wired, use wireless for now.

 

2/Firmware update: SU came with 3.13 so I try to update and oh my god this is horrible. After the 1st stage update, at 2nd stage updating the DSP DAC,the laptop could not find SU. I tried switching the cable,check the IP it just could not connect like 5 times. And this is strange: when I got into setting -system status to check IP,I swore to god I saw it said"WIRED" the first and only time ever. Then somehow after changing cables, re-enter IP, turn on and off,  it could connect and ran finish the update. Magic!! After update, SU back to wireless, cannot connect to Wired ever since, with either DHCP on or off. What the heck??I consider myself fairly knowledgeable in IT and computer stuff, not completely idiot, so i don't know why

 

3/ IRadio: I suspect because it is wireless, not wired, then IRadio drops like crazy every 10 seconds, even Radio Paradise 128kb (forget the higher bit rate). What strange is that my SBT(wired)+ DAC M1 run just fine. And if I connect by coaxial from SBT to SU digital 2, then SBT never drops to feed SU Radio, nice and smooth all day long. And in fact that was how I used for SU breakin, together with cycling track from USB stick. My favorite channel: SkyFM, Radio paradise, BBC1 and 3, Linn station, .. not hi-def, only normal bitrate. Internet speed is quite good,as I can reach to 700KB/s or better, so why it drops?

 

4/ FM Radio: how come it cannot pick up any channel? should I install antenna for it? For comparison, my Pioneer VSX-21TXH and my bed radio clock in the same room with the SU can pick up quite a handful channels?

 

5/USB stick and USB drive playback: never show any album with art work. I have some albums in wave+cue. On my SBT is fine, but on SU, cannot read?

 

6/ uPnP: I do not have a NAS at the moment. So I run windows media 12 as streaming server from my laptop. Laptop also run Squeezebox Server to feed SBT.

This time I got error "Server not respond". Fix that by choose compatible uPnP . but using compatible uPnp disable the play queue I believe, and also disable the squeezebox server (cannot find if in compatible mode)

Then, the inconvenience with play tracks still remains: no album art, cannot select single track from CUE, cannot fast forward or reverse.

 

I have some album in single WAV file with Cue sheet. On the SBT+Ipeng, I can click on the cue and select single track to play or fast forward/reverse/select mutiple tracks...etc. On SU, show only the single wav file, no way to know which track is playing.

I also have some APE files, which can be read instantly on SBT+Ipeng, but no luck with SU

 

So right now I stream by windows media server in compatible uPnP mode but open Ipeng to see tracks, album art. Ah "funnily"painful !

 

7/User interface: I dare say N-stream is miles behind SBT+IPeng. Album art+playlist manage better+ shuffle better+radio is better+file compatible is better. Stable and rock solid for 1 year. On my Ipad 2, if I browse the web then come back to N-stream, always annoy to see "connecting" with the clock cycle then about 2 seconds N-stream appears. IPeng never does this. Anyone has been using IPeng with SBT, can you agree with me on this 7?

 

8/Remote: not backlit. While the remote is nice and sturdy, how come a "near-6K-USD-purchase" come with this?my cheaper Pioneer at least has backlit on the volume key. It is not big deal 'cause after a while i can remember where to click, but inconvenient nevertheless

 

I am an easy guy but after spending much on a set like this , I must say I am not totally happy. Should I return and change to another one?Local dealer is not very helpful as I can sense they know nothing better than me about the SU. In fact when I ask if they have SU in stock,their only answer is Supernait . I read the this Naim forum frequently and I can say that I know about the Naim system better than them, thanks to a very helpful Naim forum

 

Am I assuming correctly that a NAS or dedicated Vortexbox can solve the problem 5-6-7, and switching to another gigabit router can fix problem 1 and 3? I can live with a few hiccups here as soon as the sound is excellent and I think it will be, but of course not happy

 

Sorry for a very long post and thank you for everybody to read this

Posted on: 03 October 2012 by Goon525

I second the recommendation for Apple's Airport Extreme. It's expensive, but it just works in a way that my Virgin Superhub did not.

Posted on: 03 October 2012 by revmis
Originally Posted by Martin Sixsmith:

Hello Revmis

 ........

In the end, I purchased an Apple AirPort Extreme ( expensive but worth every penny ) and have been problem free ever since.

 

it still does not explain why other equipment, which you can buy for peanuts in the supermarket, worked perfectly with the routers supplied by the various ISP's and the Naim did not.

 

One other complaint is the upgrade process which has been voiced many times on this Forum. Naim really needs to wake up and smell the coffee on this issue - I simply haven't bothered to upgrade since I have a Mac and cannot contemplate the thought of dismantling the Uniti to take it 30km to my local dealer.

 

Totally agree with Martin Sixsmith and Goon 525

 

SU is very picky about routers, i guest maybe the SU "thinks" it is expensive so it needs to be so .

 

Oh, the updating process. Well, I was panicked then, very very scared indeed. My thought was something like "Oh god, I hope I do not brick this beast". I had experience with some phones, HTC Touch pro for example, I turned that into a brick a few years ago . The painful memory came back and haunted me . Then somehow magic appeared, after I changed the cable, restarted the router blahblah.. it finished the update.

But I read Phil's comment on the other thread about the updating process. Basically Naim streamer do not have internal OS installed, so we can not update the way we think it should be.

Posted on: 03 October 2012 by Manu

And you have been lucky to update it via wireless, some update versions just refused to work wireless.

Updates should be done wired because they have to reset the network card multiple times and reconnecting to WiFI is sometime not automatic, depending on security.

 

 

When a dealer cannot answer, ask your distributor or Naim.

 

Posted on: 03 October 2012 by jobseeker
Originally Posted by Martin Sixsmith:

Hello Revmis

 

I am pleased that the worst of your problems appear to be resolved.

 

However, I would agree with your earlier comment that the SU is very picky about routers. I have a Uniti, purchased at the beginning of 2010. The only real problem I have ever had is compatibility with routers. Here in the UK I have had Netgear routers ( via Sky), Thompson routers ( via O2 ) and the ( infamous) BT Home Hub 3. All worked fine with my Sony Blu Ray player, Panasonic TV ( both wired) as well as iPhones, iPads, iMac (all wireless). The only problem was with the Uniti ( wired connection); in particular a failure to connect to iRadio " no Network Connection" or sudden dropouts when listening to iRadio.

The BT Home Hub 3 was the worst offender despite having a fibre optic connection with 45 Mbs download speed. 

In the end, I purchased an Apple AirPort Extreme ( expensive but worth every penny ) and have been problem free ever since.

 

it still does not explain why other equipment, which you can buy for peanuts in the supermarket, worked perfectly with the routers supplied by the various ISP's and the Naim did not.

 

One other complaint is the upgrade process which has been voiced many times on this Forum. Naim really needs to wake up and smell the coffee on this issue - I simply haven't bothered to upgrade since I have a Mac and cannot contemplate the thought of dismantling the Uniti to take it 30km to my local dealer.

 

Otherwise, a super product which has really transformed my listening experience.

I have to say that my Superuniti, with a wired connection, has not missed a beat with either a Netgear DGN3700 or, now, a BT Homehub 3

Posted on: 05 October 2012 by Yippedidou
Originally Posted by Martin Sixsmith:

One other complaint is the upgrade process which has been voiced many times on this Forum. Naim really needs to wake up and smell the coffee on this issue - I simply haven't bothered to upgrade since I have a Mac and cannot contemplate the thought of dismantling the Uniti to take it 30km to my local dealer.

 

Otherwise, a super product which has really transformed my listening experience.

+1. Do I ever agree! Exact same situation here.

Yip

Posted on: 08 October 2012 by Eargasm

I am sorry to hear about your problems, stuff that is suppose to make you relax and feeling good should not ever make you frustrated...

 

Naim should send out a tech-dude and fix it ASAP, for the price we pay for the black-boxes it should be included..

Posted on: 08 October 2012 by Phil Harris
Originally Posted by Eargasm:

I am sorry to hear about your problems, stuff that is suppose to make you relax and feeling good should not ever make you frustrated...

 

Naim should send out a tech-dude and fix it ASAP, for the price we pay for the black-boxes it should be included..

 

This is what you have dealers for - to support you if there are issues - however it seems that the dealer is oddly absent here and has not been contacted.

 

We have been working with the original poster on the issues that he has been having and I BELIEVE that they are now resolved (as far as we can - some of the issues are UPnP server related and I'm afraid we are not going to produce a backlit remote) and have been for some little while...

 

Cheers

 

Phil