Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsSound-perfect beautiful speaker
Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2018
Those would be my first impressions of Naim Qb. I might update this review later if there would be something I need to highlight.
Sound.
I bought this speaker first and foremost for the quality of sound, and it certainly stood to the expectation. Sounds are balanced, crisp and clear. Violins sound as if I am standing right next to them, and bass is exactly like I want it - present, observable, but not overpowering. In general, I value precision and truth to the original in speakers (i hate when the sound is altered to accentuate bass, or warmth, or anything else), and Qb does the job just like I want it to.
Setup.
(Related to App below in certain way). Setup was easy with minor hiccup. You need Naim app to setup the speaker. When powered on, speaker turns itself into wifi hotspot, which you need to connect to with your phone. App will guide you through this process step by step - click here, click there, check indicator color on the unit, and so forth. Than at some point it asks to enter your home network credentials, at which point Qb shuts down hotspot and connects to your home WiFi. That process worked reasonably ok, with minor issues. First, the app could only detect available WiFi networks when location on the phone was turned on. No idea why. But when I turned it on, it worked just fine. The other (potential) issue is that hotspot created by Qb is open. I can only hope that it at least transfers my network credentials encrypted when I set those up. Overall, I'd feel more comfortable if hotspot was password-protected. Other than those two issues, setup went ok.
Usage (and app)
I have seen a lot of grief about the Naim app online. I do not think it's justified. Granted, the app is not polished. However, first, it works, second, you only need it for initial setup and connecting to internet radio (maybe even radio can be done without the Naim app). If you are into playing your own high quality music source, the app can be avoided. Qb is a
fully functional UPnP renderer, so any DLNA-capable streaming will work. I used completely different app on Android phone and played loseless audio from my phone. I haven't tried it yet, but I am sure it will work equally well with NAS. Overall, I feel complaining about app for Qb is like buying a house in the best school district and complaining about it's painted color. Yes, paint is visible, but this is not why you bought it! Probably, if you start joining Qb into stereo pairs, app will become more annoying, but I have only one so far, so it's not an issue for me.
Appearances
This is truly a thing of a beauty, and there is not much to add.
Bottom line - I think it's a wonderful speaker, and i can only hope it will live up to the initial impression of it I have.
