He also mentioned something very interesting about the Ndx2, but I’m sworn to secrecy.
The obsolete dac still sounds better than the ndx2 
Nothing ever wrong with being content. Admirable.
Well, that is certainly debatable. The NDX 2 has an (apparently) noisy screen and more jitter, i wonder how that would compare with a separate DAC such as the n-DAC. Bearing in mind that once the NDX 2 is connected to a separate PSU then that eliminates all noise from it’s internal transformer. With both the ND5 XS 2 and n-DAC you have both units polluting their internal environments with transformer noise, regardless of how much you tart the pair of them up.
Why can’t people with an ndx2 just be happy with an ndx2 , why would you want to put an obsolete dac on it ??
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« just buy a ND5 XS 2, and an obsolete or third party DAC, … »
The Ndac , and the dacs inside the Ndx2 and Nd5xs2 are all obsolete, made in the 90’s.
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Probably because it sounds good. And why wouldn’t it?
This is exactly my point
I think the PCM1792A is still in production, or at least it was the last time i looked.
PCM1792A
[ACTIVE]
[132dB SNR Highest Performance Stereo DAC (S/W Control)]
To get back on track and maybe answer the OP question: i think i would get neither of these two options. The obvious upgrade i would try to see if it is worth the money is to add an XPS DR. I am sure therer are enough threads discussing every possible “alternative” upgrade.
As usual i would also take into account what an so called upgrade brings with it: more rack space, more cables etc.
I thought the 272 was the best streamer?
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…no Mike that is the 272 replacement.
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I looked up that Lab Report - those jitter measurements appear to be the digital inputs not the BNC output / transport. Can anyone else confirm? Thinking conclusions are being made on the wrong data.
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Having had all 4, it comes down to personal preference. The ND5XS2 with NDAC is very good. The XPSDR makes it even better. However, I found the NDX2/XPSDR was much more engaging than the ND5XS2/nDAC/XPSDR even though the latter did some of the “hifi” things better.
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Just a second until I replace my avatar with a picture of a fool. It does say “input” in the text under the jitter diagram, e.g. of the NDX2 lab report. I overlooked this one, too, though they could have labeled the diagram and mentioned it in the table.
It’s still odd that this is so much worse for the NDX2, though, but obviously affects a different use case. Now I want to know the output jitter but as far as I can tell - which obviously means very little - they don’t say
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I am offering you to exchange my ND5XS2 with your NDX2 at no cost 
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Can I throw in the 555 as well, it’s so inconvenient!
Luckily I use digital input only for the TV and the digital output not at all, so I guess I can slum it for a while with this terrible player 
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Crap - my apologies for missing this.
Thanks for catching this.
I’ll edit my post and clarify -
Apologies and thanks.
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None sense, your comments about the ndac- bare it whups the ndx2 as a dac and even if your old ears could tell an xps will silence the fragile digital circuits. Most contributors blindly justify their own choice of kit- the ndx2 is well over rated by folk that bought one without listening to a dac or nds, do yourself a favour and read the Naim’s white paper on the dac before guessing that it isn’t up to scratch.
Calm down JonnySidemouth. It’s only a stereo…and i’m entitled to my opinion.
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