Err what happend to the DSD firmware updates for ND* range?

Well said.  Tough position to be in.

@Phil and @Allen I do love surprises so hopefully in the near future the next update will be spectacular and leapfrogs the competition.

https://forums.naimaudio.com/to...ing-roadmap-campaign

Is it 6 months already?

G

Thanks from the Newbie.  Good to see this has been discussed ad nauseam.

indeed, it makes for quite an interesting read revisiting it all. 

S

What is the reason Naim won't spell out their roadmap for say the next year, with regard to streamer firmware/software. I don't get it, as said above, some companies scream for the highest hill yet Naim stay zipped.

I don't get it

Hi Foxman,

The company I work for would never announce something until they were ready, and would under no circumstances ever release any development roadmap information publicly, so I do not find this at all unusual, frustrating as it may be for those that are dissatisfied with the pace of change they would like to see.

Not only do you lose your impact when an announcement is actually made, but your competitors get to know your business ahead of the game and can reorganise themselves to counter anything you are bringing to market. (regardless of whether it is 'just' other streaming services or something else completely).

Just wanted to offer a different perspective.

I agree with Chris. In our company (also electronics business) we are working on many new features etc. but roadmaps are changing all the time and only part of it is finally released.

I really love Naim products, maybe some of you who are Naim users many years you are more and more demanding but I like that Naim is different to the others.

I will wait for DSD and if loseless streaming will come now or later I do not care too much.

I have enough music to enjoy :-)

A different perspective, I work for a large organisation that although would never publish uncommitted detail rollouts or product development roadmaps or internal market strategies, does however publish and communicate roadmaps for key capabilities. Specifically we are compared with our competitors by maketing companies like Gartner and showing ambition, direction and intent with approximate timescales to deliver against (H1 H2) is seen as a strength attribute and differentiation and tends to score higher in terms of value and ability to innovate over rivals that don't.

The rivals who don't show this absolutely have a very valid place in the market, but they tend to be more about about the commodity supply and the ability to follow the market with their ability to execute.

Simon

@Chris, @Martin while i agree with you from a development point of view, this really isn't what i'm talking about. I'm talking about Naim letting their customers know that they are not being left behind and that the functionality that other companies have already implemented will also be implemented within Naim.

To me because Naim keep quiet some of us believe, rightly or wrongly, that something is wrong and the functionality is on coming. I do not see any reason that they cannot let us know.

Unless of course there are problems

I agree Simon, i work for a technology company and they are always banging on about what they can and intend to bring to market.

Our company motto even states we are at the fore front of technology, and i believe our customers look to us for exactly this.

Fuji do a lens roadmap but have missed projected dates on a number of occasions and altered specs. Nikon keep eveything close to their chest. Neither seem to be suffering a loss of customers, at least not the ones who value photographic capability over seldom-used frippery.

DSD is an irrelevance at the moment.  Where are all the actual DSD recordings for all these Naim defectors to listen to? For that matter where are the 24/192 or 24/384 mastered recordings?  About as relevant as a 20mp camera on a phone (try looking at one on a decent 24 inch monitor if you're wondering).

The quality hifi market is not about to morph into the phone/tablet model. Not even the tv model (lot of people paid good money for the 3D future).  Every Naim streamer does at least 24/96. If your ears are actually up to higher definition you are in a very small minority. The vast majority of Naim customers will happily slum it until any update comes along, or even if it doesn't. 

Be proud. You have a Naim.

Andy

I've also spent my entire career working in IT and have seen both sides of this. I don't think there is a hard and fast rule.

For consumer related products (which I have the least experience in) it seems that there is the "announce early and announce big" camp (Sony) which tries to engage the market interest. Sometimes, things don't pan out which is embarrassing but generally they only have to answer to investors. Then there is the "keep it top secret until the day it goes to market" camp (Nintendo) which achieves other goals (keeping competitors in the dark, preventing current product sales being cannibalised against a future non-existing product etc.). And then you have Apple with tightly controlled rumours and trumours which test the water and may allow them to monitor user sentiment while in production and change course if needed.

At the enterprise level, things tend to be very different. If the product entails a large investment by the customer then indicating new functionality that then doesn't appear can drop law suits in your lap (seen this happen when customers outlay millions of Euros for infrastructure to support a feature that is nixed at the 13th hour). So when releasing roadmap items to the customer base this tends to be very carefully orchestrated and based on a body of work that is already completed and board approved - often the features that are actually announced ahead of time are hashed out with key players in the user community. 

But since this is a consumer product company, Naim are pretty much free to decide how to release info. We may not always like it but there large pros and cons to each way of sharing future product features. I've never decided to go with or drop a brand because I didn't agree with their chosen policy on information sharing about future products/enhancements. Naim were pretty early to the streaming party (for a change) and I think their product lineup shows they are committed. I don't think being tight lipped about this should really make anyone think Naim is about to leave them behind.

The (then) Managing Director of the company has been in here, personally reassuring the membership that development continues and the company has all the visible bases and some invisible ones covered. If you don't believe him then fine, that's your choice. If you do believe that Naim are working hard, how many times a week/month would you like someone to stop working and come here to tell us that they're still working?

Paul is still our MD until July at which point Trevor Wilson takes over the reigns - however we don't get rid of Paul that easily as he will still be very much active and cracking the whip within Naim for a number of years to come, just not as Managing Director.

Phil

In the same way that Naim don't share their roadmap they don't have to share the reason for not sharing  .

I get it.

When my old cmpy released pre-production info &/or field tested new models & components,  sales of old units tailed off in anticipation,  & with an 18 to 36 month development cycle, it made a real mess of sales objectives

- & bonus  

There is no right/wrong/easy answer

Oops. Sorry I don't have the authority to promote Paul prematurely, although some of his bosses who post here might possibly be willing to rubber stamp it.

Ah, meta-secrecy, I like it.

*chuckle* I can just see Paul reading that and thinking "Great! I can go fishing today then!"

"The first rule of fight club is..."

I have mentioned it before. But I think it would be good to give an indication of the direction of the roadmap - it would enable customers to guide a little bit the direction of what they do. F.i. I have just closed a streaming contract with Qobuz, while it also has a lot of other benefits it might proof to be the wrong bet. It would help to know what is ahead to avoid frustration and moving to in between workaround solutions.

i would f.i. be very interested to know if we can expect a streamer at the top of the range in the coming 18 months or if the NDS stays the best offering from Naim. Room correction I would be interested to know if Naim would consider that. streaming integration, would be interesting to know the direction.....

It's all in your head and you're probably bonkers?

Yeah. That tracks.

Bert, they are a commercial enterprise.  If they tell us 18 months in advance that a new streamer will be coming out above NDS level, how many NDSs will they sell over the next 18 months?  You can't expect information that will impact on sales and viability to satisfy the curiosity of a few forum users, even if we would welcome that information.  Second hand NDS prices would be interesting to watch too

I don't know about 18 months but Paul is already in print saying that a Statement level streamer, assuming it can be made good enough, is in the works. 

But I wouldn't be expecting monthly bulletins pinned to the railings for a number of obvious reasons (see above).

We are certainly going to have some money set aside for this possibility. And if we buy it, we will buy it for it's musical performance and feature set. Not for facilities and features which it doesn't have at time of purchase.

Ok, yes you have a point, didn't completely think it through.