It’s what I tried to say. “ I doubt it won’t make a noticeable upgrade “.
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Apologies, my bad, I misread what you said and I’ve deleted my reply now.
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Just over 2 years ago my dealer let me try a non DR 500. I had it sitting on the floor beside my rack (the 300 still in place) and it took me around 5 seconds to decide this was a massive improvement. Then it went back to the dealer and then to Naim for the DR upgrade. No looking back!
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Although not such a smooth transition for me, my final opinion is the same. I’m so glad I didn’t sell it in the time it was warming up. How stupid would I have looked?!
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On the face of it, absolutely. But it’s not that simple.
If a speaker works well in a room it will just get better with better upstream components. We ran 552/300 into Spendor S5e matchsticks and they never sounded better. It was amazing what these £1.2k speakers were capable of when fed with a top class signal.
What they were not ultimately capable of was the kind of life size presentation and projection that a physically bigger speaker offered. It took us over a year to find a replacement, that’s how well the Spendors performed with amps which were many multiples of their monetary value, because they worked in the room to start with.
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Having the speakers work well in a room is very important so obviously you get a very enjoyable sound. They will not be able to show the expensive gear to their max but is something for a potential change in the future.
You could spend an awful lot more on speakers and not get an improvement. Also, you could get very good results with your current speakers and ‘lesser’ gear. Your money, your choice and good luck.
How many of us actually get close to realising the full potential of our systems?
FIFY 
Ha ha, some of our accounts are no longer that healthy!
My point was actually that our room interactions are stifling our systems’ potential to some extent. Unless having the luxury of a dedicated listening room, most of us are compromising within a domestic environment whereby the main purpose of the room is sitting, lounging etc. in domestic harmony.
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Short version: B&W 802D.2.
Long version: the speaker which worked best in our room was the Neat XL6. To this day it is the best speaker we have heard in our lounge although the 802D and 803D run it so close as to be nearly a dead heat. The problem with the Neat was that they only worked when positioned halfway down the length of the lounge, well out from the side walls. Superb sound, impractical positioning. When the bloke from our dealer came back to collect them, he laughed out loud. Last time he was here, three weeks ago, he reminded me of how memorably comical they looked.
Of all the other models we tried the next most memorable was the S400 Ovator, but for the opposite reason. We had them at home for six weeks. No matter what I did with positioning, tilt, toe in, they just didn’t work. I was determined to find a sweet spot, but it didn’t seem to exist. They were taken back to the shop for a Naim demo evening which we attended to demo a streamer prototype. The system sounded fantastic. Difficult to believe they were the same speakers, which just goes to show…
About 15 months into our quest, our dealer pretty much insisted that we listen to the B&W 803D. I had a pair of DM14 way back when I transitioned from student to first real job and once on the end of a decent front end and middle, they became sleep inducingly boring in presentation. Down the years since we have listened to plenty of B&W models in shops and at home (because they’re everywhere and in huge numbers) and were never impressed.
The 803D.2 disabused us of our prejudice in seconds. Having brought them home and heard how well then clicked in the lounge, the only remaining question for us was would our room be able to accommodate the size and performance of the 802? This was supposed to be our last speaker upgrade and would last for the rest of our serious listening life. Might as well take the trouble to check we had not stopped at an intermediate point. It was a no-lose proposition. Compared to the 803D the 802 was more of the same but with more detailed bass, slightly more treble height (very close to the beautifully airy presentation of the Neat’s top mounted ribbon), more detailed sound stage and better sound stage projection in all directions. If we hadn’t tried the 802 the 803 would have been perfect. They both worked well in the room.
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Speaker journey is indeed time consuming and needs to experiment a lot. Room and positioning can the ultimate deciding factor as much as I would love to choose based on aesthetic also.
I ran a pair of these in a large room for a while and really liked them.
G
Are those the Naim glass sheet, cup and ball bearing?
Did you buy them new from a Naim dealer?
I jumped from a 250.2 to a non DR500 best move ever…and that was on the end of a 272… I later upgraded the 500 to DR …that was nice… The 552 came later and was the icing on the cake…it really compliments the 500. The two seeming to achieve an even higher level of performance…as the synergy is so good.
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I think I’m power crazed, the YG combination with the 500 has me turning the volume up way too high; on a ‘refreshed’ New Year’s Eve, I had the 500’s fan on the max and easily made it clip with some classic Noisia tracks… Did I read somewhere about bridging the 500, one per channel?!?
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Min stated impedance of 2.5 ohms with, I suspect, some challenging phase angles, the moreso as you increase SPL, isn’t very amp friendly 
Perhaps a pair of 350s for ‘party mode’ is in your future? 
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Bought cup& ball from Cymbiosis. Glass I had custom made. 10mm thick and same measurements as olive casing- as I had a 52/supercap, 135s system then. The classic range casing is a tiny bit bigger but I’m not about to order any more glass to satisfy my OCD. 
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And are the cups and balls Standard parts of Naim Fraim?
yes Naim Cup & ball bearing. Obviously on the Naim Faim you will have the cut out on the rack for the cup to sit in and i think a small rubber ring on the glass to stop the glass from moving. On my rack with a bit of force the glass can move around on the ball bearing but I don’t really touch my hifi gear much and the weight of the Naim boxes does make it a little hard to move.
The Naim design of the cup & ball are far better than anything else I’ve found.
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khan84 a quick question if I may. I have a 52/supercap, CDS3 and 300DR set up and was toying with the idea of getting some Naim Cup and Ball Bearings. Has the addition of the Naim Cup and Ball Bearings made much difference to the sound of your system? Supplimentary question which component do you feel improved the most?
Cheers, SteveT