That sounds more like a system / speaker matching / balance thing to me… all these components can be extremely ‘musical’, but that feel of musicality is often defined by system tonal balance and system dynamics which more often or not is about system matching. It’s really quite interesting how delicate tonal balance can make a system sound musical, engaging and emotional as opposed to dry and analytical or lifeless and boring.
High resolution and definition will give you micro tonal details, micro dynamics, insight and detailed stereo spatial awareness… that is less about the musicality, more about how the music is being made, recorded, produced and insight… and that is where you often start to need more exotic equipment… but for many I suspect such cues are mostly irrelevant for the enjoyment of recorded music.
Yes, I get that from Naim dacs with Naim amps and speakers.
A Chord dac wrecks that for me.
Yeah I find it’s the speakers and speaker room coupling that is key here… there is a beautiful tonal synergy with more modern Naim amps and Chord DACs… ie the Naim amps that are less forward… it really is to die for… for us over here at least…
I do like Naim DACs, however they tend for me to be more about being ‘euphoric’ as opposed to ‘insightful’… and in discussing with my muso friends and acquaintances I think this does fall down to what you listen for in music… and I prefer the musical insight rather than overall musical feel generally.
Are you sticking with the Nait 50 as your main amp long-term?
Paid to do this?
I am enjoying it now… how long that is for I don’t know… but I see no reason to change… I have been up and down the Naim stack and this feels a good place right now to simply enjoy music in the way I like… I am back to spending a hour or so most days enjoying music again.
My little production studio however uses Yamaha actives… but that is more about being analytical as opposed to ‘musical’… or let’s be honest musically coloured…
I have the same feeling towards the N50 especially when you connect a great source, I’m back using the Dave / 500 setup but I could easily live with the Dave / N50.
N50 is now in the second setup using another great Dac inside the ND5XS2 enjoyed daily by my children.
Whether or not “synergistic”, the sound will depend on the rest of the system, especially the speakers. To me Dave sounds as near to perfection as I’ve ever heard, in my system and the systems on which I’ve heard it, with speakers all having similar character.
I appreciate your hypothesis Simon. The differences were consistent in 3 different Naim dealers’ demonstration rooms, using 552/500/Kudos 808, 552/500/Wilson Alexia and 252/300/Kudos 606. Three sets of well regarded and matched top end Naim with known top end speakers in known rooms. All the Naim was DR.
I’m not sure that adding a DCS clock to the Rossini changes tonal balance, system balance or speaker-room interaction very much though. YMMV
Enjoy your gem of a new amplifier!
Best regards, BF
A clock doesn’t change the tonal balance, system balance or speaker/room interaction.
What it does is help tie and nit the sound together better, and tie in different clocks in the system to the same clock single so that everything ties in better and the dac then also has an easier time.
But then in the 3 systems stated above not one off them will you have actually heard what a rossini can do with or without the clock.
Hi Dunc, a strange thing to say on the Naim forum…
Hi BF, yes a clock can change the tonal balance subtly.
A clock can provide tiny stability variations, which manifests as phase noise, as well as other indirect loading effects on the attached clocked device.
So if the clock difference can be heard, then almost certainly there will be tiny amounts of tonal difference in the reconstructed analogue signal which can give an impression of subtle balance depending on system.
It’s all in the DSP maths… the real engineering here is far more interesting than simplified markitecture sales explanations suggest… and you realise that real world is far more intricate and involved and fascinating 
Remember in the digital domain there are three values; true, false, and time…. Which shows the often cited audiophile adage bits are bits is a total fallacy.
Lets not forget even Naim use digital noise from the DSP processing logic in their higher end digital products to act as kind of crude tone balance control of the reconstructed audio.
Thanks regarding Nait50… really is enjoyable… though over a few weeks I have heard it subtly change up and down as it settles in…
I’m just stating the facts, that’s all.
There’s nothing else to say, so move on.
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That may well be the case, until you factor in prices. Unfortunately not everyone has the budget to reach the excellent endgame dCS system that you have. That’s not having a go at you, most people have budget consideration’s in play and I should hope that your dCS is substantially better than the DAVE, considering the price.
So presumably you bought two chord dacs without listening to them in advance, or despite having already owned one? Either you liked them at the time or you buy hifi based on something other than how it sounds?
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What ridiculous hyperbole… I can understand having a preference, and even something sounding non natural to your tastes, but if something sounds broken best get it repaired before comparing….sheesh 
Well, I have auditioned Naim, Chord, DCS and MSB dacs & streamers across the £5k to £30k+ price ranges with top end Naim amps and decent speakers.
Based on these real listening experiences, I could live very happily with some products from any of these four makers as they are all capable of replying music superbly.
These days, I suspect that my favourite would involve a DCS Rossini Apex + clock or a Vivaldi fronted by a server/streamer. Our Chord combo with OpticalRendu continues to be a musical delight at circa 1/3 of the cost though.
It’s the “this make is brilliant and that make is crap” type posts, or the “Naim 500 series amps really hide the potential of the streamer” type posts that I find to be a little unbalanced and less than tactful for publication on Naim’s excellent forum.
Each to our own.
Whatever system you decide to use, I hope you continue to enjoy the music!
Best regards, BF