Naim Muso home music system launched
Top-notch wired and wireless sound that retains Naim's quality, at a price that's a little friendlier on the wallet than the company's usual range
Naim has launched the Muso, a complete home audio system which, compared to the company’s other hardware including the UnitiLite streaming music player, will be priced at a relatively low £895. We got an early listen, in admittedly a less than ideal acoustic environment, but were impressed by the power and richness of the Muso’s sound.
It’s a compact and rather stylish looking system, with a rippled grille in a range of metallic tones that looks distinctive but will still fit in well to most living spaces or bedrooms. Behind the grille, you’ll find six 75W speakers: two tweeters, two mids and two woofers, each driven by a dedicated digital amplifier, adding up to 450W RMS.
The Muso’s six speakers each have their own amp
While we’ve previously taken issue with the limited connectivity options on some Naim hardware, that’s not going to be a problem with the Muso. As well as support for local audio streaming via UPnP, AirPlay or Bluetooth with support for the high-quality AptX codec, there’s also support for internet radio. It would appear that Naim is in negotiations with popular online streaming services as well, and although we couldn’t get a Naim representative to confirm any particular names it seems Spotify is high on the list. Touch controls and an infrared remote are par for the course, but the Muso will also work with a dedicated mobile app for iOS and Android.
Inputs include optical S/PDIF, a standard 3.5mm analogue input, 10/100 Ethernet and 802.11g Wi-Fi. Although the networking standards appear a little old hat, a unique patent-pending Wi-Fi antenna system helps to boost wireless performance despite the Muso’s metal chassis. There’s also a USB port, which allows you to play music directly from an iOS device or USB stick, and the system supports high-resolution audio files of up to 24-bit/192KHz in a range of popular formats including FLAC and AIFF.
A simple design means that the sound system will fit in almost anywhere
The Muso system will be going on sale from September onwards, and the company is planning for future additions to the range in a variety of sizes. Naim’s Muso is set to integrate easily with other Naim or Apple AirPlay hardware to create a wireless multi-room music system to provide a high-end rival to the likes of Sonos.