NAIM AUDIO NSS-333 High Resolution Streamer

Description

The quality of a hi-fi system depends on its sound source, Naim Audio’s NSS-333 high resolution streamer is compatible with file formats used by top streaming devices and services and really delivers on it’s promise. The built in DAC converter improves the performance of other devices in your system and is compatible with the entire Naim range. This NSS 333 allows you to control your system easily from the Focal & Naim app.

With Naim’s NSS 333, you can find the most recent streaming platforms such as Spotify connect, Apple Music, TIDAL, TIDAL Connect and Qobuz and listen to your favourite radio stations. Thanks to the integrated AirPlay2, Chromecast, UPnP™, Roon Ready and Bluetooth® AptX technologies, streaming your content from your smartphone or tablet is easy and high quality. For total listening pleasure at home, this streamer is multi room compatible with many connected Naim products.

The NSS 333 can be linked with New Classic products, but also with previous Classic Series lines via a new range of specific cables.

The intuitive Focal & Naim app allows you to control your NSS 333 easily. You can access all your music, including your favourite radio stations, playlists and streaming services or explore artist biographies and discographies. Moreover, you can update your system wirelessly. It also allows you to control both servers and Naim streaming products, eliminating the need to manage two separate apps.

Simplicity is the key. Buttons on the front panel allow quick access to standby mode, play/pause, inputs and favourites. Enjoy the features of the bi-directional ZigBee remote, even without direct visibility of the product. The inputs are configurable and a “Standby” option, consuming 0.5 Watts, reduces the electrical energy of the product.

Under the leadership of Naim Audio’s Technical Director, their engineers have developed specific electronic circuits to give the New Classic products superior performance. The best components have been chosen, such as the NP800 streaming card, an exclusive DSP with integrated crossover for a high precision result and a high end DAC distinguished by its audiophile management of the audio signal.

Naim’s founder, Julian Vereker, immediately understood the many benefits of aluminium for wrapping Naim electronic components. He knew that delicate audio components are very sensitive to the effects of magnetic fields, thermal instability, unwanted vibrations, etc.

Naim products are designed to be both contemporary and timeless. Naim Audio’s creations forgo any unnecessary adornments that would detract from performance and sound quality. The design of the NSS 333 is razor sharp, combining a sleek design, premium materials, a colour screen and adjustable logo brightness.

The wider view: Naim NSS 333 reviews in brief

The NSS 333 is the streamer in Naim’s 300 series, one step below the two-box ND 555. It has its own DAC and no preamplifier, so it feeds a preamplifier or an integrated amplifier, and Naim’s NPX 300 power supply can be added to it later. It streams through the Focal & Naim app with Chromecast, AirPlay 2 and Roon, and it takes other digital sources through optical and coaxial inputs.

What Hi-Fi? gave it five stars in March 2024 and called it one of the most musically satisfying streamers it has heard, praising “an engaging and emotionally charged performance”. Its testers found the tone even and full-bodied and the imaging precise and stable.

Jonathan Gorse of SoundStage! Ultra reviewed it the same month and went further. He called it “one of the very best products Naim Audio has ever made” and expects it to be remembered as a design classic, the streamer for anyone who has long felt something was missing from digital.

The Ear heard it with Naim’s matching preamplifier and power amplifiers. It found quieter backgrounds and more information than in Naim’s earlier ranges, with the timing Naim is known for. Adding the NPX 300 brought more bass weight and dynamics and took the timing from excellent to spectacular, and it recommends the DIN connection between the streamer and a Naim preamplifier.

There is no USB input for a computer, and the NPX 300 is a costly addition. What Hi-Fi? heard a slight hardness until it warmed up and a wider soundstage from a rival, and The Ear notes the slightly dark Naim balance, which it puts down to clean highs.

It suits a Naim system built around the 300 series, or any serious system that wants Naim’s rhythmic drive from its streaming. Talk to us about where it fits in yours.

What the reviewers say, in a nutshell

• What Hi-Fi?, March 2024. Five stars. Musically satisfying, full-bodied and beautifully built. No USB input for a computer.
• SoundStage! Ultra, Jonathan Gorse, March 2024. A future classic and among the best things Naim has made, for listeners who never warmed to digital.
• The Ear, March 2024. Heard with the matching 300 series amplifiers. Quiet, detailed and full of timing, and better again with the NPX 300.

Read what the critics say about more of our streamers in The Hi-Fi Review Bible.