I had an NDX into an nDAC then an NDX2 into an nDAC then the NDX2 into an nDAC + 555PS then the ND555 + 555PS.
The NDX2 into an nDAC + 555PS was a good story as it gave me the PS for the ND555 but having the nDAC really closed the gap quite a bit.
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We have NDX2/nDAC/555PSDR. We’re just mid burn in but loving what this chain does.
How would you describe the jump to ND555?
We’ve absolutely no upgrade plans currently, but well you never know.
ND555 would fit into current racking (replacing NDX2/nDAC with 555/555PS), as would a 552 (replacing 252/SCDR). 500 forever off the cards, it’s simply too big 
Is the 555 on the nDAC?
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Yes it was in my setup.
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I was not able to do an exact A/B with the NDX2 into the nDAC + 555PS (on nDAC) as I needed the 555PS.
However, I had the Fraim shelf for the ND555 clear so I could rack it and then burndy it up to the 555PS very quickly. The 555PS was probably powered off for at most 1 minute.
When I powered it back on I was still maybe a foot away from one of my speakers. What happened next was (wait for it) … …nothing!
Absolute and utter silence, the black of the abyss. I had learned the first thing about the ND555, it is not there when nothing is playing.
In fact I now learned the second thing about the ND555, it is so subtle and nimble that you can play it with the volume so low to challenge the 552 pot channel tracking and still get an amazing experience.
This is key if you believe Peter Walker’s notion that for any given recording there is only one correct loudness to play it at. On the whole I agree with this notion and why I value the Quad ESL 57 transparency so much.
Since getting the ND555 I have found that I have turned my volume down a bit on the 552 and got a much richer experience. The ND555 while it uses the nos BB 1704 like the nDAC it benefits in many ways from Naim’s 500 series improvements but also their digital filter and signal processing work.
I would love for Naim to do two things:
- Create a mod to the 552 POT so that we can move it past 9pm without going deaf.
- They port there SHARC work over the the nDAC as a ‘thank you’ to all those who still have them in service. It would certainly give folks a big reason to buy 555PS if they did. When get bored I may spring mount my nDAC PCBs. Then I can get another 555PS for the ND555 but play with the tweaked nDAC+555PS on my gizmo.
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I’ve noticed that with the NAC 552 DR as well. There were some moments when I wondered if a track had stopped midway through, as there was complete silence.
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Agree
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It is something unnerving until you realize what is going on. I think if Naim were to rebalance the gain on the 552 to be in-line with modern source devices they might take a bit away from their S1 preamp sales.
The volume control on the S1 preamp is a profound sound improvement over just about everything else in the market. I honestly think it is a big part of the S1 preamp’s magic.
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Yes NDX2 as transport only.
We also scratch our heads at the philosophy which results in the 252 having quite as much gain as it does.
Never ever get past 10 o’clock on the dial with any source (including Stageline) and that’s an ear bleeding volume level.
On our 272 equivalent volume was almost 50, so effectively half max.
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That must be one of the benefits with DR. My 552 is not inky black silent when not playing.
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We’re quite happy with the blackness level of our new 252/SCDR/300DR.
I do wish people would stop tempting us with 500 series lol
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As you should be, what’s not to love about such a system 
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Indeed we are feeling very lucky.
We think our new boxes are almost burnt in. We’ve lost the sibilants on female voice at volume.
Also thinking the extra bass is loosening up our speaker drivers too, they’re so fast and tight on lower registers it’s awesome!
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You don´t mean the normal Naim Preamp hiss, that goes away when muting the Preamp ?
No, I was going to have one put in when the ceiling was repaired following an overflowing bath, but the sparkie let me down on the day. We’ve since had solar installed and now have a spare feed in our fuse box after a good tidy up (including the Ra thing), but I haven’t progressed a dedicated feed. I’ve got the 3 power supplies piggy-backed on a single socket, which improved things quite a bit (that was with the 252/250 set up).
My 272/555 were a lot more inky black than my 552 in the system. Could almost not hear anything with my ear up close to the speaker.
I can easily detect background hiss when not muted with my 552 sitting 2-3m from my speakers. When muted it is indeed totally silent which it should be 
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We did the same ear to speaker test when we setup new system.
252/SCDR/300 a lot quieter than 272/XPSDR/250 - no audible hiss at all.
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That’s normal Naim Preamp hiss,with speakers with high sensitivity.
Many older Naim Preamps did not go silent(from hiss) ,when muted.
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Yes the WAF situation is very important…a big array of doomsday boxes is pretty intimidating…Thats what I like about the 272 concept…very neat and good performance.
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