250 vs 300

You have to love the way that some people say that because they are an engineer they simply ‘know’ that something cannot work. Never mind that they haven’t listened or tried something. They ‘know’ because they are special. One would hope that an engineering training opened the mind rather than closed it. It’s rather sad.

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To be fair to Naim they insist on using good engineering principles. Both electrical and mechanical. And I guess that some of this goes against what the accountants would like to see. A lot of hifi firms do not. Have a look at how many of the designs have been implemented. Poor quality choices when it components. And often dubious build.

Blimey! I agree with you for once :flushed: :flushed:

No one can safely promise a specific change to the qualities of bass that you hear by changing your Psu.

But I bought my 555DR triggered by Xanthe who said something like that you get more of everything that’s good when you add a 555DR to a 272.

Naim refer to the 555DR as the Ultimate Upgrade for good reason.

And the 555DR makes a great improvement especially to the 272 because it goes to work on the streaming board, the dac and the preamp.

Just do it.

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@Richard.Dane But going back to 250 vs 300 it’s difficult to believe the NAP’s can be almost identical in components and it’s just a layout change with some extra isolation for the PSU that makes such a big difference.

The character of the two amps seems completely different and the extra detail from a 300DR is awesome.

The strengths of the 250 also seem to take the music to a different place.

Overall, as others have said, you would need to demo to make a personal choice but in a suitable set up the 300 is actually worth double the cost of a 250.

Hate to think you might pay the extra just for a second chassis so this might also be an influence IMO.

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I’ll try again. It’s not about the snaic for me. Despite things not being measurable, it is easy to explain as far as I am concerned. Especially with weak alternating signals. My point is that someone claimed the Burdny cables of a nap300 needed to be de-stressed. In the eyes and also technically substantiated this is plain nonsense because there are no weak, alternating signals. Bringing in vibrations is no longer an issue, as indicated by Richard above, the power supply is in another cabinet. What matters to me is that it seems that people extend a story very well explained by Naim for a specific cable to a cable where this does not apply. To immediately start throwing the terms that we have to change brand because we don’t believe Naim seems a bit premature. I have been playing with Naim in various performances for years and I consciously choose to do that again because I like the sound. In addition, I deliberately chose Naim because you don’t have to deal with different brands of cables and special power cords. Simply the factory cable is the best. Then I am very surprised that hocus pocus stories suddenly appear on this forum. But yes, it is a wonderful hobby that people do everything to achieve the ultimate experience. Personally, I think that room acoustics and a power supply upgrade does more than all the other side issues that have come up above.

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But shouldn’t this be a reason to try and not circumvent this gain by transmitting them via the burndys after all? (Plus I also think it’s not just about device vibrations but also music vibrations from the air)

To immediately start throwing the terms that we have to change brand because we don’t believe Naim seems a bit premature.

In case this is directed at me, it was specifically in response to:

Although, I am indeed also interested in the answer for the ringing casings.

I am completely with you about reasons for choosing Naim, same for me, but I would not do it if I was thinking along the lines of “if they really cared”.

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It’s not someone but Naim and a lot of burndys users who claim, by experience, that destressing burndys is beneficial for sound quality.
Strange that you still persevere in your nonsense claim.

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You need a good shake out :joy:

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After using my new fraim/fraimlite combination that replaced my Target rack in order to make space for the 300, I’ve finally installed the 300. My plan was to use the fraim in combination with my faithful old cb 250 of c. 25 years for about a month to give it a fair crack against the newcomer. The fraim itself turned out to be such a great upgrade it really wasn’t that difficult to keep my hands off the 300. In fact I became reluctant to change anything as my system had never sounded so good. The thought of having to potentially take a step back into the running in of a newly DR’d 300 didn’t seem that attractive. Darran at Class A, who kindly organised the upgrade for me, said that in their experience it can take up to about 3 months for a 300DR to come on tune!

Anyway I took the plunge a couple of days ago and rebuilt my whole single stack with the 300 in place and boxed my trusty 250. So far it looks like I need not have worried. After being powered up for only a day, the 300 is giving a very respectable account of itself, only occasionally does it sound off. Not withstanding it’s off moments, I feel its pretty much left my system sounding where it was with the 250. Its sounding pretty musical and in addition showing glimpses of the other strengths mentioned on the forum, such as wider deeper sound stage, better bass definition and greater detail and space. One thing is for sure is cable dressing activity has gone next level. It’s been

a very promising first couple of days and I’m very much looking forward to seeing how things develop from here. I’ll check back in if there’s any major change.

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Hello everybody . I recently upgraded my speakers to Focal sopra 2. I am currently driving them with 252 / 250dr and am in the process of upgrading to 252 / 300dr. the focal are new and therefore need a few hours of running in. do you think there is the 300dr can drive them better? I don’t know if it’s because they are new, but I have the impression that they have a slightly swollen bass. I hope the 300 can give it a slightly tighter and drier bass.

I would wait. The 300 also goes through ups and downs while being run in. If you compare 250 vs 300 while both the Focals and the 300 are running in, you will not be able to separate the variables.

That said, the 300 is fantastic and for me it was an obvious choice when choosing between 250 and 300

Edit: And did you rule out room influence? That’s usually the most likely cause for bass troubles with new speakers

hi Suedkiez. the room has a fairly well-done acoustic treatment, but I don’t rule out that being the tops larger than my previous speakers there can’t be something to revise in the treatment. the transition to the 300 was already planned. I believe that by the time the 300 arrives I will have already done about 150/200 hours of running-in with the focal and I will be able to understand. do you think the 300 is still able to have more control over the bass than the 250?

Even if the room is well treated, the Focal will have different properties than another speaker. Just before reading your post, I came across this one by Thomas that sums it up perfectly:

In theory, the 300 should have some more control and is a bit more powerful. In practice, it will depend on speakers, room, and you. To my ears and in my room (as well as at the dealer’s), the 300 does everything better than the 250, but it’s not just about control and power and instead it was clarity, precision, detail that was the big game changer.

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If you put the power supply box to the right and the amp side with fan to the left - one of the distances from burndy connection to t’other is very small.
The other distance is still minimal - how do you dress both but does having them the same length?
Would you loop the shorter distance one?

It is indeed a bit annoying that the burndy plugs are on the same side of the 300PS. They don’t need to have same length though, necessarily, if you can avoid both touching the floor. The typical solution is to put at least one of the head unit or PS higher up in the rack.
The loose knot is an option for interconnects, I would be reluctant to try with a burndy, but I don’t know.

Thanks
Contemplating going from 250DR to 300DR but alas both units would need to be on the bottom shelf of racks side by side.

Cabling would be the potential problem/dealbreaker

Hi Mick, this was the only way I managed not to end up with my 500 Burndies lounging on the floor. Maybe this could be adapted to your situation and they are not touching each other nor the wall btw.:+1:t3: ATB Peter

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I see. Let’s not forget that proper dressing is important to get the ultimate but if it’s not perfect it won’t make the 300 a poor amp. It’s about minimizing the vibrations transmitted to burndy and units - these are never zero. You can also pad them with heating isolation foam tubes or use clever suspension like PeterR.

My dealer e.g. is not super diligent with dressing when demoing. Can you audition at your dealer with the burndys placed as you will have to?

Thanks Peter and suedkiez.

I wouldn’t be auditioning at a dealers, I always jump straight in.
Never gone wrong with naim (just don’t ask the bank manager🤣)

Thinking out the box I could swap boxes and put the psu side on the left (below a 252 supercap anyway)
That would help a bit👍

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