Ok I have had a Naim Uniti Atom for a few weeks and listened to a lot of music on it, especially Tidal dreams from the inbuilt Tidal or from Roon.
There is a big difference between native and Roon and I am preferring the native. Roon sounds flat whilst the native app sounds more vibrant and alive.
Surely they should be the same?
I have an Atom and have thought this. I suppose Tidal via the Naim app is tailored specifically for Naim products. I thought the gap lessened after the last Room update.
I’m glad it’s not just me then. It’s really nagging me as I can’t stand using Naims software it’s plain awful but the sound is putting me off as Roon feels lifeless in comparison and it’s the Tidal integration that sold me on Roon. With the constant playback issues I am also getting with Tidal via Roon its not looking good for Roon and me. 
@support what is the latest RAAT SDK, the Atom is using 1.1.21 just wondering if its the latest or not to try and work out why Roon does not sound as good on the unit as local Tidal and on further listening its inbuilt uPnP. Having been on the Naim forum there are a few people also saying similar things that Roon does not sound as good as it should.
For the record I run core on a custom i3 with SSD Linux PC running vortexbox 2,4. All music files are on QNAP NAS. This is mounted ad a local directory to Roon core. So listening via upnp or inbuilt Tidal on the Atom sound significantly different than with same sources via Roon and the former to my ears is better. So was wondering what the RAAT setup is for the Atom and is it up to date.
Hi Simon,
I’ve shifted this thread into Audio Products/Naim as it is more likely to find Naim users who may be able to assist here. Support are good at tracking down issues where Roon is not working, but that is not the case here.
The Roon Ready version on my mR is 1.1.23. I don’t know if Naim have released firmware to update to that version.
They have not released any new firmware for a long time I believe so its definitely behind, Might be good to reach out to Naim and flag this? I know they are working on a new one but no idea as to when its due.
I’m just a Roon user like you, not a Roon employee so I’m unable to reach out to anyone on behalf of Roon. I’d suggest posting on the Naim forum to enquire what their plans are.
I have no support people really follow the forum so it hard to get any answers at all.
This is even more the case now with with the Tidal Connect option.
I own a NAIM Mu-so 2 and when I saw this thread I immediately tested my TIDAL account in two ways: directly with the TIDAL integration in the NAIM app and next with the functionality in Roon. First impression was “yeah, much better with the internal NAIM app integration”. But when I disabled crossfade time to zero and switched off volume leveling in Roon it sounded relatively the same.
Quite a few Naim users have found that native Naim app controlled sources sound better than Roon, I would say more often with locally stored files but with Tidal or Qobuz too. It’s certainly worth playing around with Roon settings though, as you are certainly not the first to discover that they can close the gap.
Another setting some have found to improve things with Naim streamers is to set the max sample rate to 24 bit instead of the default 32 bit. No guarantee it will make a difference for everyone, but easy enough to try.
Of course, you also have to watch that Roon has selected the same version that you use in the Naim app to be sure you are making a fair comparison.
Can’t say I have heard a difference between Qobuz native or via Roon. On mine , they are not exactly level matched so it’s not even to start with but one doesnt necessarily sound better than the other. When I had Tidal Roon sounded marginally better though.
Updates change stuff. At the moment I prefer Roon again.
Doesn’t happen to me. For me Roon has a better sound. If I reproduce from Tidal app, I notice a sort of veil.