500 series replacement imminent?

Well for you naim guy’s it’s the S1 at the moment, but i can see a new option appearing at some point.
Outside of naim then there are many way’s obviously.

I know this is a targeted question but if you’re actually trying to move on from the 552 I would suggest you move the 500dr as well. The 552 is the right partner for the 500. I’ve tried other amps in the past and always reverted back to the one that was designed to work together. For instance, I think the 52/135 amps are made for each other. There is a fantastic synergy between them. Likewise 500 series. Chopping and changing may provide a few improvements here and there but I’m convinced it will ruin the fun factor that these amps exhibit.

But they’ve revamped and simplified the Classic range from top to bottom haven’t they ?

And, what has that got to do with anything?
The 500 series doesn’t really have much choice now, one amp, one pre amp, one power suplly, and one streamer/dac.

I’m at a place right now where I don’t have the time or the energy to consider a complete system overhaul.

I love my Naim stack and it brings me tremendous amounts of joy. I’m in a safe and happy place, and perhaps that’s what I need right now. So whilst I’m willing to consider changes, they need to be incremental rather than wholesale.

Dunc, you’re an outlier on this forum and a very welcome one imo. We all need to be challenged, it would be a very boring place otherwise. You’ve gone to great lengths in your own pursuit of sonic bliss and that’s to be applauded. I accept your view that the 552 is a weak link, but unless someone can suggest something I can swap it with without major surgery to my system as a whole then, to me, it remains a vital and integral and much treasured piece of my wonderful musical jigsaw.

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Why would you want to do that? Surely it’s going to be very hard to beat a 552 with a trade in plus 30% ? Maybe a ND555 in place of the NDS if you really need to change anything?

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I don’t! Unless there really is a better alternative for me and my situation. I’m not seeing anything, just putting it out there.

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That’s great. I think it’s best not to be distracted into thinking there is any issue with a 552, even though a S1 is better. You have a superb system to enjoy as it is.

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That’s what he wants to know … as a start, give us the first 20 of your “many”.

@Stu with an all Naim system you have perfect balance with 552 DR and 500 DR. You would benefit from ND555 or 2 555DR PSs.

Or both. If content leave it alone. You have done everything to your system other than that and seem very happy with the NDS.

If you change amps to other makes you will end up changing the lot. It looks great, and I am sure it sounds amazing.

As new 500DR owner I think it is a very special amp. Paired with 52 Supercap 2 it works superbly. I have heard it with 552DR. To be honest I think the 52 isn’t that far off. The 500DR works surprisingly well with my 52. This is more than I hoped for.

If I was you I would go ND555 then 2nd PS. Max out your source on your glorious amplification.

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To be fair, as long as you are enjoying what you hear then leave it alone is my advice.
We can all read that this and that is better and the way forward, but really does any off it matter?
If you are happy then stay put, as change can be great, but at the same time it can completely ruin everything.
I had to completely change everything to really bring a big change, yes i am happy i did, but it could have easily gone wrong. It’s really go for it or stay.
But saying all that, you never know what’s next with naim, i could be back, but i don’t think my dcs kit will every leave me, as it is simply about as good as it gets.

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@Dunc you have reached the pinnacle of streaming (vavaldi stacks) , no more ladder to climb for you anymore :laughing:

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When I first had my electrics done, had three runs of 6mm2 from Type C RCBOs, each to two double sockets (12). Essentially three radial circuits.

Since changing the system, this was changed to three runs into three single socket (3).

Naim recommend 10mm2, but that wasn’t physically possible for our situation, hence 6mm2. If you cannot do 10mm2 or 6mm2, could you consider 4mm2?

DG…

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Thanks DG. I’m going to check with my Sparky to see if we can fit two double sockets in a ring with 6mm feed from and back to the RCB and 2.5mm looping them together which would be equivalent to full 4mm loop size wise in the socket terminals. That way I would hope that both sockets (because it’s AC) would benefit from the lower resistance of the 6mm cable. Of course the 32amp RCB has to be able to accept double 6mm cable. Then for my third double socket I will have a 6mm radial. This gives me options to experiment with to determine which works best

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You should be able to get two lots of 6mm2 into one MK unswitched socket, so in theory I’d just run 6mm2 on everything and back. In my situation I ran 6mm2 on a radial to three MK unswitched socket. This has been great for me for a few years. I’ve tried a couple of trailing plugs in the past but the wall sockets always seemed to sound better. That was until I bought an ND555 with two power supplies. Plugging tthe 500 into the MK socket and a trailing lead into the other side of the MK with everything plugged into it seems to have improved imaging and detail for some reason, so there seems to be some logic in what DB is saying.

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Agreed.

When I had my dedicated mains done, used Schneider double un-switched sockets. Each terminal could take 2x 6mm2 cables.

On their website, they provided the information on what was the cable capacity for the terminals of their products.

For the OP, have a look at the manufacturers website for your preferred socket, hopefully they will do a similar thing.

DG…

That all makes sense. Thank you.

I’ve decided (to leave options open) that whilst I have this one time access to the underfloor to run two double sockets as a ring with 6mm into one 32 amp RCB (hopefully looped together with 6mm as you guys state is possible) Then two double sockets as radials with 6mm cable each obviously into their own breakers. I could then initially concentrate on using the four sockets on the ring (as per DB with only my switches into the radial sockets ). On the ring the 3 x 500’s will go in their own sockets and Snaxo, S1, 555 p/s x 2, Core in my M6 block.

Wiring this way it would be a simple exercise to swap around plug topology (from ring to radials) and more importantly if desired convert rings to radials and visa versa if desired after the floor is down as the alterations would only be needed within the sockets and RCB’s.

I will post my findings in a new thread if there’s sufficient interest.

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If the new 500 series is nearly as good or better than Statement then you either have to improve Statement or stop selling it.

There may be a way to keep the Statement form factor in some way, but make it sound significantly better than the new 500 series.

Yeah, the same is in my wishlist too! But you @joeling don’t need such upgrade (or rather a downgrade in your system). :laughing:

Well, I am considering this for my place in Australia. I need XLR inputs.