Over the past few months I have been experimenting with different streamers and DACs just to decide whether or not I wanted to stick with the Naim streamers or look at alternatives like Chord or EMM labs etc. I didn’t do a whole lot of experimenting but I made up my mind to stick with Naim.
So today the first bit of progress toward an endgame ND555/555DR happens with the delivery of a 555DR to replace my XPS DR on my NDX2. I have read mixed results here in this forum about the impact of the 555DR vs XPS DR but ultimately the idea is next year to replace the NDX2 with the ND555. So this will be a good stop gap I think for the next 6 months or so until I can make the upgrade from the NDX2 to the ND555 streamer.
No real questions or observations here, just excited about a new piece of Naim gear arriving this afternoon!
As far as I know, Chord do not have a streamer, unless you are talking about the 2go/2yu ? What I am also curious about is your profile lists that you have an Innous Zenith Mk3. Does that not perform all the functions of the Naim streamers? The reason I ask this is I am considering getting one at some point. Did you try the Innous as a streamer with an external Dac?
The Innuos range are rippers, stores and servers as well as streamers, so in that respect they do quite a bit more than the Naim streamers. Apart from the Zen Mini, none of them have DACs, so they need a network or USB connection into a third party DAC.
Correct, I have owned the Zen MK III for a couple of years before I owned Naim gear, and have been through Hegel HD30, Luxman DA-06, Chord Qutest, Hugo TT2 + M Scaler. I then went up the Naim ladder from the Atom to the Nova to the Supernait 3 pretty quickly and that’s when I ended up with the NDX 2 & XPS DR.
So the Innuos is a streamer but as ChrisSU mentioned it does quite a bit more than that. I have done tests with the Innuos as a Roon Core and the NDX2 as an ethernet/Roon endpoint, as well as the Innuos as a streamer/player with their Sense app into a Chord Qutest via USB, and with the Innuos as a UPnP server with the NDX 2 as a streamer/DAC, and even with the NDX2 as the streamer into the Qutest via BNC.
Ultimately what made me decide to stick with Naim and eventually go up to the ND555/555PS was realizing nothing I had in my system over the past 5 years sounded as good as the NDX2 + XPS DR acting as a streamer/DAC with the Naim app as a player app. The Innuos will definitely continue to be a part of my system even if it’s just as a UPnP streamer because it all sounds so good together. If Innuos ever adopts an ethernet player option to their Sense app I’ll give that a try too, but for right now the magic combo seems to be the Innuos in UPnP mode connected to the EtherRegen connected to the NDX2/XPS.
Definitely can’t wait to hear how the 555PS DR affects the overall sound, but the end game for me right now will eventually be the ND555.
I don’t have an EE switch but I am happy with the EtherRegen. At some point I may explore the Anzus reclockers or the Innuos PhoenixNet but that won’t be until I get everything else finally sorted out.
Yes, I owned the TT2/HMS combo for about 8 months with the Innuos Zen MKIII acting as Roon in Experimental mode (a LMS emulator that improves sound but is not fully supported by Innuos). I did not have the TT2/HMS at the same time I owned Naim gear… I did sell off the Chord combo when I bought my first Uniti Nova… Even though the combined Chord gear cost nearly twice what the Nova cost all by itself, I preferred the Nova and its internal DAC (using the Innuos as the Roon Core) to the more detailed and edgy Chord stack.
The Qutest I did experiment with the NDX2/XPSDR and Innuos as I bought a Qutest from a friend just to have one around and I wanted to see how the Innuos Sense app sounded as a player when running to a USB DAC. But there was no comparison to the NDX2/XPSDR vs the Qutest, outclassed in every way and not a fair comparison really.
Finally got the 555PS connected and working with the NDX2 - these Naim cables and Fraims and Hi Lines are quite finicky to get working right, especially when you don’t want to tear down your entire Fraim just to replace the PS on the base shelf, haha.
I realize there are many days of burn in ahead of me, but out of the box I can tell a lift in quality from the XPS DR and it’s not subtle. More refined sound in every way… Now I think what the burn in will provide over the next 4 weeks will be the “meat” that I enjoyed from the XPSDR… adding muscle to that refinement is what separates Naim and their power supplies from the rest of the pack!
Very interesting thanks, I have owned a 272/XPSDR, an NDS/XPSDR, an ND5XS2 with Mscaler/TT2, but traded everything in to get my current speakers. I now use my Laptop with Musical Fidelity MX Dac until I can afford to upgrade the source again. Not sure really which way to go, I might consider a Bartok to keep things simple, or a Grim Mu1. I know what I get with Naim and Chord, but my ears are open to new things. I also was considering Innous/Antipodes as server/streamers.
For now, I might look to improve my Laptop source with an IFI Nano Galvanic, or possibly an Opto USB isolater from Audiowise.
Ask Innuos Service if they will do a remote session and set up the LMS workaround for Ethernet connections to Naim gear. It works OK and sounds great. Set up like this you can also continue using the Naim app and easily decide what you prefer. Full implementation looks likely to be at least two releases down the road.
BTW the PhoenixNet is a big improvement on the EtherRegen…
