That’s great news. I think it was probably the finest thing from Naim I’ve tried on home demo to date.
Possibly made the wrong decision staying active with SBLs and olive 250s, but the old NAXO at the time would not have worked with a brace of mixed NAPs.
Mine is flying back from the Bahamas tonight with my daughter. She messaged asking to upgrade her seats. I agreed and slipped the 300 into the conversation.
Although i did say due to a design fault by Naim it doesnt play George Michael.
FWIW, I got a 300DR yesterday, replacing a 250 after 30 years. Fed from 52 into B&W 804 D3s, it is clearly a bit better at everything. As a non-fan of 282 or non-DR 300s, I was a bit surprised that this was the ‘right’ answer, but not in doubt this morning.
as I cannot afford at 300DR now, I will keep myself happy with my clearly a bit less better 250 DR…
after years of reading the comments of this type “300DR is so much superior than a 250DR”, it is refreshing to read your comments.
Of course the curiosity will eventually get the better of me, especially the “low volume” clarity of the 300 DR, but still I have decided to put all my upgrade monies into source improvements.
One of my Naim friends did the same, upgraded with an XPSDR for his NDX2 instead of 300DR (he has 282/HCDR/250DR), the result was dramatic, and the low volume listening was so much more enjoyable also so I do wonder, source upgrades or 300DR?
I am still sticking to source upgrades for my upgrade path.
The XPSdr has probably been my single most impressive upgrade since moving to separate boxes. I say probably as time erodes your memories. After a week with the 300dr…yes it it is very good, it should be, but it also shows just how good the 250 is. I wouldnt say the change is transformational.
Some of those saying how big an upgrade a 300DR was may have been comparing it to a 20+ year old 250 that they had never had serviced.
It’s a good upgrade IMHO if source and preamp are up to it, and it materially benefits any source, playing anything I have tried thusfar at any likely volume - if I were attaching scores for hi-fi bore issues (image depth, slam et al), I’d say they were all improved. However, it costs as much as changing my 82 for a 52, which was a bigger upgrade in clarity and PRaT. Adding an XPSDR to my NDX2 only affects 1 source, but I’d say it too probably had a bigger effect on overall SQ.
I did those two upgrades some time ago. However, I recently had cause to power up my old 82 and 250 and the 52/82 comparison sounds now as it did then - the 82 manages to be duller at lower volume and splashier/ more smeared and confused at higher volumes - so this is not a making a comparison over many years with all the vagaries that implies.
Getting the 252 wouldn’t cost much with the trade-in of the 282 - and would be a compromise between sticking and going the whole 552 hog.
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Unless you think you will get the 552 some day in which case missing out on the intermediate step does make some sense?