Expanding Naim Mu-so....With stereo pair of pulse flex, a Node 2 and an Allo USBridge

Audio Gear Talk
1

Hi there, very excited to make my first steps into the roon community!

Have read so many topics and boards and it won’t stop getting better and better…I discovered roon after researching for a downsizing of my home stereo (rip my dear old Cambridge Audio one plus and a pair of floorstanding Motive 2s…well they are tucked away in the cellar for now…:disappointed_relieved:). Reason being our toddler who we want to let go into any corner without worrying he’ll be chewing and pulling on cables etc.

Therefore I got myself the following:
TV --> toslink --> Audioquest Beetle --> AQ Big Sur 3.5 jack --> Naim Mu-so
NUC 7i5 (not yet here, roon core) --> home Ethernet --> NAS Synology 214play (Music library) --> Home Ethernet–> Allo USBridge --> wireworld USB --> Naim Mu-so

What I want to do:
Watch TV with enhanced sound, hence the beetle/ Naim.
Listen to roon/Spotify in our living room, hence the Allo USBridge (better SQ than BT from beetle, max. 192 kHz Vs 96 from beetle).

Now after listening to the Naim for a while now, I very much like it for what it is, but I’m missing my stereo sound.
Therefore I’m now researching for an active wireless speaker solution and the only possibility I have found for my setup was the bluesound flex, BC they are supporting RAAT out of the box, adequately priced, small enough and as a USP mains free with the battery pack.
BUT: I’m hesitating especially because of the listed 20W output of those speakers, knowing that there are so many active boxes out there for a comparable price ( e.g. Genelec G one) and providing double the output.

Our living room is ca. 35 sqm, l-shaped…

Long story made short: is my setup the right one or should I toss out the beetle ( use it in another room) and get some decent roon ready dac with toslink input (TV) and 3.5 jack (Naim) plus RCA cinch output (e.g. Genelec G one) to connect everything together?
Are there any suggestions for some good active speakers with great SQ, powerful output that I can integrate without too much cabling…?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions, hope I did describe it understandable…:grin: (Next time will be less text…)

Cheers
Christian

2

Can I suggest you edit the title of your post to include bluesound or active speakers.

I use the Pulse Flex (which I presume is the one you are talking about) and am highly impressed.

Others here particularly @RBM will more about their room filling capability, 35sqm is quite a big room.

.sjb

3

Thanks Sloop_John_B,

The room is big but I still want to keep the sound hardware as small as possible. Therefore looking for some high quality small active speakers to get back some stereo feeling.

I have just started to get into the streaming/audiophile game, so I’ll make a step after the other…

Where do you use your pulse flex and what is your main system?
Reg. Power outlet is the SQ more important or Watts?

Cheers
Christian

4

Ah…and as requested I did change the title…:wink:

5

Trying to understand what you meant with “more”…:thinking:…sorry not a native English speaker…

6

“will know more” is what I meant to type, and I am a native speaker!

I have one Pulse Flex in our kitchen and another in my office.

My main system is a Naim separates system

Actually had the flex in this room last week as I needed a Bluetooth connection and it was more than capable.

The only possible issue I see is that if you are using volume levelling, for example listening to a shuffle, that the flex may not have enough volume.

With volume levelling turned on I need the Flex at about a volume level of 60% whereas with it turned off 30% is fine for kitchen listening.

Running 2 in stereo may allow lower volumes though.

Hopefully some more people will chime in with more information.

.sjb

7

Lovely setup indeed, I am a bit of a naim fan…and this is awesome!

Appreciate your observations and this kind of gets my hopes up higher that both combined ( Mu-so and a pair of pulse flex’s) can work out quite fine for what I wanted!

Thanks! :blush:

8

Just did it. After reading many more posts about the whole Bluesound ecosystem, I guess it is a good way to start.

Got myself a pair of pulse flex, stereo setup plus my Mu-so for center. Maybe getting a node 2 (just read one more good review, see link below) in too, but that’ll depend if there is a good discount. That way I could even Stereoplay my TV sound…

There is room to upgrade so I guess this won’t be the last time I’ll have some questions around here…:grin:.

Christian

9

Here we go. I jumped in and now having my 2 week roon trial with following setup:
Audioquest Beetle : AQ 3.5 analogue cable : Bluesound Node 2 : AQ RCA to 3.5 : naim Mu-so
Plus stereo paired Pulse Flex

I’m still switching between rooning AQ beetle over Bluetooth plus the RAAT pulse flex stereo pair, or node 2 plus stereo pulse flex, or grouping node 2 and the pulse flex into one zone and rooning to that setup directly.
So far every option works perfectly!!

I probably won’t continue using the first option, because the beetle only allows max 24 bit/48 khz over Bluetooth (but the beetle is doing a great job and it was originally bought to enhance TV sound only).

Didn’t yet encounter any playback trouble as mentioned in the big bluesound and roon post, but I did have to adjust the pulse flex to a 250 ms delay as they were not synced to the beetle: naim Mu-so. With that all flawlessly…

Next up: I’ll connect my Allo USBridge to the node 2 just to see if there is any influence and as a second option connect it to the naim directly and then roon : USBridge plus roon : node 2 and the stereo pair…

So many choices…:astonished:.

All in all a really exciting experience so far, now I’ll go back and re-rip all my music again to FLAC…:sweat_smile:

(TV sound is also taken care of by toslink: AQ beetle : AQ 3.5 analogue input : bluesound node 2 : RCA to 3.5 : naim Mu-so plus the two stereo pulse flex…but that’s another topic and nothing to do with roon as everything is running over BS App.)