Spin back to around this time in 2014, and you may remember the release of a gorgeous all-in-one wireless music system from British hi-fi veteran Naim Audio. The award-winning and pundit-pleasing Mu-so has now streamed into its second generation, which has the same stylish look but offers "game-changing performance, feature and functionality upgrades."
The striking aluminum-clad cabinet has been re-engineered for better bass delivery, and though the Mu-so rocks the same 450 watts of sonic output as before, this time it comes courtesy of an all-new driver array optimized with French hi-fi specialist Focal. Naim also says that processing power has been increased by more than 10 times to improve playback accuracy.
The Mu-so has been built around Naim's own music streaming platform, reported to have been developed by 25 engineers over a three year period and designed to deliver "the very best performance whether playing your own digital music collection, a world of Internet radio, or music streaming services such as Tidal and Spotify." The system has Chromecast built in, is compatible with AirPlay 2, and is capable of playing digital music at up to 32-bit/384 kHz resolution.
As you might expect, Wi-Fi has been upgraded to 802.11ac, there's Bluetooth 4.2 too, and Ethernet has been retained for those who prefer to hard-wire their setups. A USB Type A input takes care of music playback from thumbdrives, and folks can now connect the all-in-one to a TV thanks to the addition of HDMI ARC.
The Mu-so can stream on its own or as part of a multi-room setup, with second gen users getting three ways to fly – with other Naim products using the company's iOS/Android app, with any AirPlay 2 wireless speakers using the Apple Home app, or with other Chromecast devices via groups controlled by the Google Home app.
There's a new touch control panel with 15 buttons atop the familiar volume dial, with a proximity sensor that lights up the display as it detects a user's hand approaching. And the system comes with a new remote control handset.
The second gen Mu-so goes on sale today for US$1,599.
Product page: Mu-so