Product review: Naim Mu-so & Mu-so Qb

Naim – Go Deeper.

British audio pioneers Naim Audio are world-renowned for products conceived, designed and engineered entirely in service of the sound, revealing a pure experience of music that is as close as possible to its original live source. Mu-so is their critically acclaimed family of all-in-one wireless music systems, comprised of the stately Mu-so and the more compact Mu-so Qb. Finely tuned by specialist engineers, the Mu-so range combines Naim’s expertise in streaming, amplification and speaker technology to deliver an exceptional quality in sound.

“The Mu-so looks stunning, and that powerful, subtle sound is as close as we’ve heard to hi-fi from an all-in-one wireless speaker.” – What Hi-Fi? on the Naim Mu-so

 

The Mu-so range has received high praise and awards from major publications in the hi-fi world. The Mu-so got glowing reviews from AV Forums, decorating it with it’s Highly Recommended badge, while What Hi-Fi? magazine bestowed a coveted 2017 Award in the ‘Best Wireless speaker £500+’ category.

“The Qb has the fundamental ability to sound fun and to do more than simply give you a simple facsimile of the music.” – avforums.com on the Muso Qb

 

 

 

 

 

 

Though smaller in size, the Qb is no slouch in the awards department, picking up a 5-star rating from What Hi-Fi?, praising it for it’s “huge sound and great connectivity”, while AV Forums gave it their Best Buy Award.

 

 

 

At the heart of both Mu-so speakers is an active arrangement of amplifiers inspired by the technology developed for the premium in-car audio system for Bentley motors. These drive custom-designed speakers to offer a staggering sound that defies size. The Mu-so features six 75 watt amplifiers deliver an incredible total of 450 watts of power, paired with a carefully designed porting system for serious bass kick from a small cabinet.

Even with its reduced footprint the Qb pushes out a staggering 300 Watts of power, using a unique arrangement of five drivers, offset and angled perfectly to create a left-right dispersion asymmetry. For low frequencies Naim installed two pistonic passive bass radiators. These work alongside a custom-made woofer that’s driven by a 100W amplifier to create an astonishing bass sound for a system this size.

However, power means nothing without control.

That’s why Mu-so features a 32-bit digital signal processor capable of millions of calculations per second. It’s the audio brain of the system, controlling software that’s been fine-tuned by engineers in Naim’s listening rooms in Salisbury, England. It means that every last drop of performance is extracted from your music. From the aluminium heat sinks (that also house built-in Bluetooth antennae), to the touch panel control and illuminated base – every component used in Mu-so has been considered and refined. The end result is a range of wireless all-in-one systems that deliver an unbelievable sound.

You can access your music from virtually any source, including Airplay and Apple Music, Bluetooth, Spotify Connect, TIDAL, internet radio and USB. Analogue and digital inputs for your TV, CD player or turntable are also on board. Speaking of TIDAL, Naim has partnered with the high-resolution streaming legends to offer some fantastic trial offers of their TIDAL Hi-Fi package, which allow you to stream music in a lossless format, which pairs perfectly with the amazing sound from these units.

One of the most exciting features of these speakers is the ability to play music between any combination of Mu-so wireless music systems and Naim streaming products in up to five rooms of your home. Choose the same song in beat-perfect sync or play different music in different rooms for the ultimate mulitroom experience. Why not have a Mu-so in a main sitting area for robust hi-fi sound, and link effortlessly to a couple Qbs in other rooms, for detailed and dynamic sound all around the house? Or maybe link two Qbs together for a fantastic stereo experience? Multiroom technology adds exciting layers of flexibility.

If you’re ready to hear just how amazing your wireless music can sound, why not call or pop by your local Richer Sounds today to hear the Mu-so and Mu-su Qb in one of our comfortable home-styled demo rooms today?