After one year, it seems time to upgrade

Hi-Fi Corner
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About a year ago, my new Naim system arrived after traveling 8000 kms from the European Netherlands to the Caribbean Netherlands. I was finally back in Naim’s home with what I think is a wonderful setup:

NSS 333, NSC 332, 2 x NAP350, NVC TT, a Technics SL-1200Mk5 turntable with a Benz-Micor Ace-S M, and Dynaudio Confidence 30s loudspeakers.

The cable loom is from Chord:

Sarum T DIN (333→332), Sarum T XLR (332→350s), Sarum T power cords (333, 332), and Signature power cords on the 350s and my Moon 750D. The Moon is connected using a Signature power cord, and the Dynaudios connect to the 350s with Signature XL speaker cable. Currently, I have two Audioquest Niagara 1200s for power; they connect to the mains using Signature power cords. A battery-backed solar system powers the entire house; we effectively run off the batteries at all times, and the inverter provides a perfect 230 V 50 Hz sine wave.

So why upgrade, you may think? True, but it’s what Naim is, and I know what to expect from past experience.

So, my idea is to do the following:

Add an NPX 300 to the 333 and an NPX 300 to the 332. The NVC TT gets an NPX TT. One AQ Niagara 1200 will be replaced by a Chord PowerHAUS M6 with a Sarum T power cord to connect it to the mains. I will move the Sarum T power cords to the NAP 350s, and the power supplies will get the Signature power cords. The NPX TT will get a Signature power cord. The analog frontend will be a Rega P10 with the Apheta 3 cartridge, and the NVC TT will connect to the 332 with a Signature DIN.

Any suggestions to alter this? Within reason and budget, of course! Since I live on Bonaire (no hi-fi shops!), I can’t audition it, and it’s pretty expensive to transport, but given my Naim experience, I think the above would be a good move.

Cheers ! Arthur

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My suggestion is to enjoy the heck out of your fantastic system and if and only if you have the money burning a hole in your pocket go ahead and spend it and enjoy it even more!

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@ArthurV I have the NC 250. Otherwise my system is similar. I have found that an NPX300 on both the 333 and 332, has made a very significant improvement and I have no regrets about adding them. I have no rack space for a power supply for my NVCTT.

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I have the 332, 333 both with NPX300s and the NVC TT with an NPX TT. All are excellent upgrades if you can afford them. I still use the standard Naim cables.

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After such a long time, I would throw it all away and buy something more modern…

:rofl:

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It’s not that I don’t enjoy the system; I do, very much so! But I know it can do more than it does today, and I have learned over time that you only live once and that unexpected things outside your control can happen. So it’s also about bringing the joy to the max :sweat_smile:

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I have listened to many Naim systems over time, but the NC series was new to me. That was one of the reasons I wanted to do the trajectory in steps.

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Hahaha, you know how much time it takes for the Naim system to burn in, right? And yes, by the time you’re there, you are up for the upgraditis :grin:

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After this, I will stop too. I know that you can also use 4 NPX 300s, but luckily I don’t have the space for that :sweat_smile:

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Hi Arthur,

My biggest leaps forward in enjoyimg music were switching all Chord (audio) cables to Ansuz.
Apart from the power cables all audio (source and Ethernet) is now Ansuz cables.
This made such a big improvement every single switch I did from Chord to Ansuz, I am a huge fan.
Highly recommended.

Greetings from the mainland

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Welcome, I can’t comment on the viability or otherwise of the 300 PSUs on the NC, but I’d be interested to know if you’d compared, before your move, Naïm wires with all that Chord cabling, because I conducted home auditions on a selection of Chord Signature and Sarum across my system and at all times, at least upstream of the power amp, I found the music more organic and rich with the Naïm wires which include Superlumia and powerlines. With the caveat that I haven’t tried a Powerhaus as I have a dedicated radial, but I do understand the Musicworks boxes work very well with powerlines.

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If you can’t audition, then I would be precautious about the M6. Some didn’t liked it as it made the sound duller.

300 ps, no risk to buy blind.

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You won’t like this and will probably disregard it out of hand but I’ll share my thoughts anyway. Personally I would ditch all the Chord stuff and use Naim cables. I’ve used Chord cables, mains blocks, Power and Ground Arays in a previous system and they are excellent. But IMO they are taking things in a slightly different direction to what Naim is all about. Naim cables maintain a synergy with Naim kit and everything is pulling in the same direction to achieve the same thing. If you need a mains block then use a home made one or something relatively innocuous like a commercial high quality block that doesn’t include any filtering or fancy noise removal devices. I’m not sure I would even use an M6 block in any system now, let alone a Naim system. It brings clear and obvious improvements in many ways but also impacts in a subtle but significant way on timing IMO. There’s something not quite right about the sound.

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I respectfully disagree with the comments about the Chord M6. I heard it and the S6 at a hifi show being demonstrated using Naim NC components and for me I could hear a clear difference and much preferred the M6.

I have one in my system and all my components including the Core and switch are plugged into it. I’m a fan.

In your case you already use battery power which must be clean and so your system is already getting the best type of power. So I’m not convinced you need it. But need and want are not the same :slight_smile:.

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But you haven’t heard my system in my room. I did, and I do, with great pleasure, every day. I know what I am listening for, and I also know what Chord does in my system, which I actually like. I have tuned the system setup for the way I like the presentation, by setting up the speakers such that they couple to the room acoustically in the most favorable way, again, in my (dedicated) listening room. The rest is details.

I have been with (high-end) hifi gear professionally for over twenty years, and have had and listened to lots and lots of systems. Some I like, some I love, and some I don’t. Why? Because it’s personal. I know when I hear a music system playing, it’s doing the right things. You hear it.

And yes, you might ask, why ask in the first place? Out of interest, to see if there are new points of view that may be valuable. I made those choices consciously.

It’s funny that many focus on the cables and not the analog front-end, because that, together with the PSs, will be the biggest improvement in the chain.

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Is it? Unless you are off-grid you will still be affected by any noise on the incoming mains, and a home inverter is not guaranteed to produce better quality AC power than the grid, so I’m not sure that it would improve the HiFi power quality.

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Well, first of all, the grid is disconnected and can onlly connect through what’s called a Chargeverter, which feeds the batteries directly. In case we’re completely out of solar and battery power, the inverter connects the grid to the house again, bypassing the batteries.

But the setup is such that the Chargeverter will always make sure we have at least 4 batteries filled. And besides, the mains we have now is vastly better than what you get from the electricy company - it’s stable, it has one phase and a zero line, instead of two phases, etc. So yes, it depends on the quality of the inverter; we’re using a 15kW Victron.

So in essence, we’re off-grid. And it is what it is, we did what we could to improve on the mains supply.

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Well then there are points of view that have been offered and one of which, offered by 2 respondents, is that Naim wiring might offer a more organic and dare I say musical presentation, and I merely asked had you done the comparison? Incidentally I still use Chord Odyssey speaker cable so I have no pathological opposition to the products per se,

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Of the Naim cables, the only Super Lumina I like are the speaker cables. I haven’t tried the NC series as much as I did the older Naim system, including 500 systems. It depends on what you want and what you like. Older Naim systems could be pretty forward, which is nice for some music, but not for all. I always had a hard time listening to classical music on a Naim system, simply because of that. Maybe it’s personal, I don’t know, but with Chord cables we were always able to get it a bit “under control”, if you wish.

On my early CD555/NAC552/NAP300 & Wilson Benesch C60 (and Chimera) system, I used Audioquest Everest for the speaker cables, and although these were silver-heavy, it sounded gorgeous—no hint of edges. With the CD555 as the source, it was a truly wonderful chain. Later I added a Linn Klimax DS for streaming; although I don’t particularly like Linn amps, I love their sources. The Klimax DS was connected with an AudioQuest WEL Signature to the 552. Wonderful combination. The CD555 was connected with whatever Naim had at the time, the Hi-Line. So little experimenting there.

The NC series sound different from the earlier Naim electronics. The forwardness is less, and it makes more accessible, I would say, to all kinds of music. And from what I heard and learned over the past year living with it, makes me enjoy it very much. And I know what PSs do in a Naim system, so the upgrade was to be expected. Apart from the PSs, I expect the most from the upgrade of the analog path to the Rega P10. But the move from the Niagara’s to the PowerHAUS will remove the filtering I initially needed before we installed the solar system. I suspect the NAP350s can breathe a little bit better, even though they’re currently connected to the high-power outlets.

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Well okay we all hear things differently, but strangely when I tried a selection of Chord wiring across my system it did exactly what you suggested, made it more forward sounding and with the Naim wiring the organic feel and richness was restored. And I listen to Radio 3 and classical music for hours and hours, and it’s truly compelling. Vive la difference!

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