I think we will see an FPGA type (like Chord and Linn) in either a Statement streamer or as ND555 replacement. It would be very difficult to get a conventional dac significantly better than the ND555 imo. They have an almost constant recruitment on the website for FPGA software engineers?
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Maybe they could recruit Ted Smith, who programmed the PS Audio dac?
He seems like an original thinker and experimenter, and he likes HiFi.
IIRC he used to work at a big tech firm for many years before that.
And I think the first test is on how good the NC’s DAC.
I wonder if the design would be outsourced……Rob Watt does the Chord designs, but i think he has his own company, so yes a gun for hire might be the case.
It’s the same dac chip. And same streaming board.
Anyone who thought they could never afford a NAP500, get yourself over to eBay pronto and check out Acoustica’s listings 
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Nice…one per speaker…hmmm
Sold already, not surprised at that price
Wow thats actually good value…
Dr?
You don’t want much do you 
Hopefully these sort of prices are a sign of things to come 
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I don’t think you can truly say that any two Naim digital sources use the same DAC, just because they use the same model of TI chip. Some of the functions of the DAC are performed on the SHARC DSP board which precedes the DAC chip in the signal chain. Naim use this to tune the sound to their liking. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them continuing with this approach in future.
The streaming board is, as you say, the same in all current products. The implementation is not always the same though. The board will perform differently in each different product because it’s in a different electrical environment, some are on suspended brass plates to give mechanical isolation, and so on.
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I didn’t said it will sound exactly the same , better probably each time the implementation improves. But since the HDX, Ndx, Nds,….Nd555, there’s a constant Naim sound signature, which I personally like a lot also.
If Naim changes the dac chips they use since many many years now, it may give a different sound signature. We will see.
But maybe they will still improve the implementation and other hardware while keeping the same dac chip. I doubt a bit. For me going from Nds to Nd555 for local streaming was not a big step in sound. Better, yes.
I feel it will be difficult to do something really better without changing the dac chips.
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I’m wondering if any of the advancements in the 333’s DAC implementation will find their way to the nDAC with a firmware upgrade? It would be great if someone from Naim could comment. Steve?
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I’m not from Naim, but I don’t think there will be any updated firmware for the nDAC as it’s long out of production. Awesome product btw
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I remember there’s some heated debate in this forum about the chips used in the NCs, I think they use the same one with ND5XS2 (not even the NDX2’s), but with some modification with the result that is actually deemed even better (than NDX2?) by the Naim development team. So I guess it’s not the same one that ND555 is using (PCM1704).
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