Review of the Naim Muso

[shp]

I've been a fan of Naim gear since I picked up a 3.5 CD player in 2000. It sounds great, functions well, and has never broken. (But do be careful where you leave the pucks.)

 

A recent model on my house moved the audio gear to a semi-dedicated music room, leaving the living room acoustically bare. So I decided to give the Muso a try courtesy of the Apple Store's 2-week return policy.

 

Here's a quick review.

 

1. Out of the box, the Naim is as elegant as an Apple product. The aluminum (?) casing might not be everybody's cup of tea; I could see a wood trim option being popular. Think B&O Beocord 9000.

 

2. The manual is very sparse. If you don't know anything about network/streaming audio it really won't help you. I was able to connect my Ethernet cable but I'll note that the instructions don't tell you how you would provide a WEP/WPA key for wi-fi connectivity.

 

3. After initial power up and connection to my iPhone, the Naim app alerted me that a firmware upgrade was available. I confirmed downloading the update and was surprised that the update actually flows over the phone, not over the Muso's own network connection. Don't switch apps, lock your screen, etc., while the update is happening. (The phone app does tell you this, but if you're not paying close attention, you might not notice it. Unless I'm the only dumb-dumb.)

 

4. AirPlay /Bluetooth worked fine and pretty seamlessly. If you know how to use Spotify connect, you shouldn't have a problem either; if you don't know how to use it, the Naim instructions are barely helpful. There were occasional dropouts.

 

5. I'll give uPNP it's own section. I am using JRiver on a Mac, which I installed just for this test. The Mac is a 2012 model with 16 GB of RAM. While JRiver was indexing my library, connectivity and performance were a bit patchy. Changing tracks could take a disorienting amount of time (>10 seconds). Even now that JRiver has fully indexed everything and I cleared the Muso's cache (expecting that to force a refresh), it's not a very smooth performer. (I have about 300 CD's worth of music). I haven't tried J-River's remote app, but think the Naim app isn't up to the Muso's physical elegance.

 

6. Speaking of physical elegance, the piece does look nice. And that control wheel has a great feel.

 

7. The sound. With "loudness" on, the bass is impressive. The mids were also pretty good given the configuration. Both were better than my girlfriend's $50 Logitech satellite/sub system. But we were both really disappointed by the high end. You could hear a stick on a cymbal, but none of the "crash" or reverberation that follows. In general musical decay wasn't lacking (again, given configuration). So this is really a frequency response issue and I'd be surprised if the Nam was flat past 12 kHz.

 

The Muso is a physically attractive bit of kit. The wheel control is elegant. And the networking/connectivity works reasonably well if you at least kind of know what you're doing. It might well be the best sound bar on the market.

 

But it's not a substitute for a modest system if you have the space to accommodate one.

 

I'll bring my Muso back to the Apple Store some time this week when I get a chance.

[Audio_ELF]

Can I ask... What situation was the Muso set up in? Dedicated stand or just "dumped on a side board"? Did you experiment with location as you might traditional speakers?

 

Also re UPnP lag - did you try any UPnP server other than J.River as I find the Naim app works fluidly with MinimServer running on Linux (a customised Vortexbox)

[shp]

I didn't experiment with placement of the system. But I did listen from multiple positions. Of course sitting straight ahead gave better treble response than sitting at an angle. I still found treble to be a weakness.

 

I did not experiment with other OS's or uPNP servers. Once JRiver fully indexed, skipping stopped over uPNP. But title navigation was slower than I would like. (I should say it wasn't much slower than iTunes using its remote app.).

 

Skipping was an occasional problem with Spotify Connect.

 

Software performance can always be improved. And the sound was great for a sound bar.

 

But if you can swing a traditional system in your space I think it would sound better. In a different thread you had suggested a Marantz receiver to me (it was for the same room). Or maybe something like the price-reduced PS Audio Sprout and a pair of reasonably efficient speakers.

[Audio_ELF]

Thanks for the further details, I was just curious further about your experience...

[shp]

Was watching The Avengers: Age of Ultron last night through the Muso. Amazing upgrade over my television's speaker system. Everything sounded better.

 

In a college dorm room or studio apartment I could see it working very well.

 

It's growing on me a bit.

[realhifi]

Was watching The Avengers: Age of Ultron last night through the Muso. Amazing upgrade over my television's speaker system. Everything sounded better.

 

In a college dorm room or studio apartment I could see it working very well.

 

 

Or a nice den or bedroom or small living room or......