Err what happend to the DSD firmware updates for ND* range?
Posted by: feeling_zen on 01 June 2015
Wasn't this supposedly in beta in early April (with good results at Naim according to one thread) with an intended release of mid May?
Does anyone have any more recent insight on this?
It would be nice if this forum had a little less sanctimony. There is a clouded area between support of existing products and development of new products. Roadmaps can fall in either camp, but I doubt whether anyone is asking for Naim to divulge *COMMERCIAL CONFIDENTIALITY*, although when it suits, they do not seem to have a problem announcing a product 6 months or more before you can actually get your hands on it. Racking up pre-orders seems to be the name of the game, creating a level of anticipation. Many companies do this.
What bothers me is maybe more in the arena of support for existing products, especially in the distributed audio area. Many argue that you buy a product knowing it's capability, of course, that's a given isn't it 
How many here would totally decline their streamer being brought up to the capabilities of similar products already offering those features, even if they didn't use it / them. A huge pat on the back all round and collectively on Naim's back, we all congratulate ourselves on that being one of the reasons we buy Naim. What a company! British as well! Yayy! (oops, sorry .. americanism creeping in).
Naim make great shakes on supporting all (or most) of their products for years and years. Again a major reason why people buy Naim. And generally they do a great job on their hardware, particularly amps and power supplies. We won't mention AV, but to me the jury is out on distributed audio. Great leaps were taken in the early days, hardware that embraced the medium without pushing any boundaries too far. You could tell that they were learning along the way, just as we were. A decision somewhere along the lines was made regarding Naim servers, and I worry slightly about Naim streamers now too. Someone has seemed to miss the fact that web services is the next big thing, like it or not, adopt it or not in personal choice terms, it is here to stay in one way or another. The companies that own the media see lifetime revenue, what's not to like from their POV.
Naim have certainly struck me now as a company that makes the software fit the hardware, rather than the other way round. They are getting caught out time and time again now with what appears to be a difficulty to bring new features to their hardware, and one has to question is this software or hardware related or both. Really? Difficulty? Well yes, that can be the only explanation *IMV* for this tardiness.
There may well be *COMMERCIAL* reasons why lossless streaming hasn't arrived onto Naim units, frankly I am not interested, that's *BUSINESS*, their business. What I don't buy is that leaving everybody else to find their place or niche in web streaming, if a company like Qobuz/Spotify/Tidal/Deezer go down, then move to another. That's *BUSINESS*. It should be simple, an agreement and a change of code in the firmware. Or have more than one service available, even better. Unless you have tied yourself up in knots with either software or firmware, or have hardware limitations somewhere? Built to fit the hardware, rather than built to be expansive and available to changes that might need to happen quickly, with hardware ready to accept those changes.
I am not an engineer, so I have no idea really what it takes to introduce DSD and lossless streaming to a unit. All I see is a difficulty to deliver this on my NDS (and by default, all the other streamers except Muso perhaps). I have seen for a while that Naim servers have gone as far as they are prepared to go with them. I do wonder if the current streamer range have hit a similar fate.
And I do get left wondering where has all that joined-up thinking gone
So just to end, and where I started, explain to current server / streamer owners what they have in store for bringing those new features, be it software updates or hardware upgrades, should not take this long (we are talking when the Muso was released here, not just a few weeks). That is more support related to me, not giving away secrets of future products. Leaving it completely open-ended suggests issues to me, that's where things have changed.
Allan, I've always read your posts with interest, although not necessarily agreed with all of them. May I however say that this is to my mind an exceptionally fair, balanced and perceptive posting.
I am also surprised at the degree to which Naim seem reluctant to disclose likely future improvements for existing hardware and software. There does indeed come a point at which this inevitably raises questions in a potential buyers mind about the degree to which a potential (expensive) purchase might be at risk of becoming "forgotten".
In one sense, I've already been caught out on this, having purchased an HDX. I bought mine second-hand 5 years ago and it's run faultlessly ever since despite having ripped 1500 cds and run constantly all that time. In truth, I don't really feel hard done by and I'm happy that had value for it. However, I agree that it does appear that development of the HDX and the server range has long since ground to a halt.
This being so, I'm currently dithering on whether or not to go NDS or Klimax DS and for the 1st time leaning more towards the Linn option. This isn't just the fact that the KDS is one box, etc etc, but the fact that Linn keep moving it forward. This doesn't seem to be the case with the NDS.
Given that the latest greatest thing now appears to the 272, it's difficult not to wonder whether this is in fact where Naim are moving and, as a result, what I should be holding out for is a 572 or some such thing.