It’s the top of the highway for our favourite high-end Bluetooth speaker, the beautiful Mu-so, from British audio producer Naim. But you needn’t fear, the close-out is to make approach for the Mu-so 2nd Generation, now on show on the High End audio present in Munich, Germany. I had a possibility to listen to the brand new part at a pre-show demo in New York City.
The Mu-so is way more than a Bluetooth speaker, in fact, and its substitute seems to be much more complete. The new mannequin is “intentionally similar in looks, but 95 percent changed on the inside” in accordance with Naim Audio Group Director of Design Simon Matthews. Matthews says the second-gen all-in-one music maker has been in growth for 2 years, in an effort to make the speaker sound even higher and be simpler to make use of than the unique. Despite the lengthy gestation interval, the brand new unit will value simply $105 greater than the unique: $1,600.
“We reworked the power supply, all the digital architecture, the signal processing, the streaming platform and the drive units,” Matthews mentioned. The speaker’s inner bracing makes use of “the same polymers deployed in riot shields, and [there’s] a larger down-firing port system that now runs through the entire cabinet for better bass.” On the skin, the 28-pound metallic and acrylic-wrapped cupboard bears a hanging resemblance to its predecessor, however is barely deeper, measuring 24 inches vast, 5 inches excessive, and 11.5 inches deep, together with its signature large warmth sink.
Matthews defined how one Naim engineer, a 30-year veteran, spent “hundreds and hundreds of hours fine tuning the digital signal processing, the crossover point…. This engineer listens to a really eclectic range—jazz, classical, rock, pop, even EDM—and wants to understand how they all will play here. This is not a product tailored to do just one thing well. It tries to be as capable in every genre as possible.”
Jonathan Takiff / IDGNaim additionally offers an excellent distant management.
Naim and Focal collaborators additionally needed to take into account the brand new mannequin’s enhanced performance as a TV soundbar. First-gen Mu-so clients took it upon themselves to push TV soundtracks to the system by way of an optical cable. The new mannequin makes that connection a lot simpler by way of HDMI with ARC (audio return channel) and quantity management by way of the TV’s distant.
I barely skimmed the Mu-so 2nd Generation’s stylistic floor in my comparatively quick listening time, however I got here away impressed by its discrete air of sonic luxurious, its unusual ease, openness, and nice element with audio salon standbys similar to Nils Lofgren’s dwell recording of “Keith Don’t Go” and Steely Dan’s breezy “Hey Nineteen.”
Jonathan Takiff / IDGAn enormous warmth sink makes a design assertion on the again of the Mu-so and is thermally environment friendly, dispersing the warmth of the mom board and energy provide bolted to the within.
Sultry soul singer Janelle Monae steamed the room with “Make Me Feel,” likewise heated with a house-thumping bass, Prince-ly plucked guitar, and polyphonic synthesizer surging with such vibrancy I might virtually chew on the notes.
My solely quibble got here when one other reviewer dialed up the movie rating to How to Train Your Dragon on the Naim’s properly wrought pill app. He claimed the orchestral rating featured “real” string gamers, however to my ears the violins sounded too buffed, missing rosin-on-the-bow grit. And OK, severe stereo channel separation was barely in proof on the Mu-so 2nd Generation, although that shortfall may need been an element of the unit’s placement within the resort demo room.
