Connecting NDX to nDAC

I use 10mm toughened glass from a normal local glazier.

This rests on three silicon nitride (ie hard) spheres, that sit in three brass cups made from plumber’s stop ends - all bought for very little money on eBay.

This is a thread about it:

Yes, probably. (You’ll only know for sure by trying.)

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The streaming sections of the gen1 devices are much improved upon in later streamers.

When we had 272 the NDX2 into 272 as preamp sounded much better than 272 streaming.

However, now you’ve got the nDAC it probably makes sense to go for PSU first, although I bet you’d find ND5XS2 into a bare nDAC very good.

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Yes I was thinking PSU first.
I’d really like to hear the difference between a DR and non DR 555 first though.

If you have a chrome bumper or olive system, you don’t need DR kit in it.

If you buy a classic black boxes system and you can afford the DR versions, you should get them all.

One main reason that a non-DR 555 is much cheaper is that it can no longer be DRed by Naim, so it doesn’t have the potential to be part of an all-DR system.

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We were buying new, so a non DR option was off the table.

Remember that for the last 6 years the nDAC was on sale the DR spec PSUs were standard (2012 onwards).

So whilst some say the non DR on nDAC sounds slightly better we took the view a new DR PSU with warranty would be fine given naim were happy with the combo.

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things are moving fast!! I was Googling around and found Peter Tyson had an ND5 XS 2 which had been returned to them unopened, going for the bargain price of £1,799.00… It’s being delivered tomorrow!! :rofl:

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And you only asked for advice on what type of cable to use. :blush:

Yeah I know… :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

That is indeed a very strong price discount, great spot.

I think you’re going to love the combo, the gen2 streaming board is a step up from your NDX (and our old 272) with an airier, more detailed presentation. Plus you’ll be able to use Tidal CONNECT and hires internet radio etc. Winning all round.

Combined with the nDAC, should be fab.

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thanks Ian… exciting times…

I think I was just extremely lucky, I thought about it for all of 5 mins. :sweat_smile:

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I think you’ll love it. Biased opinion of course lol

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So, while I have you all here… I don’t have a Ethernet Filter on my router, do you and if so which one and are you happy with it?

Thanks!

I’ve had a read around and they seem to be highly rated but wondered whether one particular type was any better than another with an nDac.

We previously used a Cisco 3650 with 272 and there was an uplift in SQ.

Once you decouple streamer from DAC (into two physical boxes with SPDIF link) we couldn’t hear any difference with and without switch.

So now we run good quality cable from ISP hub to NDX2. Job done.

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interesting, thank you … These things seem to cost £600+ so not something I want to take a punt on.

So the ND5 has arrived and it was as I was told unopened!

Are there any specific settings I need to adhere to in order to get the best SQ


Those settings look identical to my Roon settings. :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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Thank you!!

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If you’re referring to the Cisco Catalyst switches, yes, they are expensive, but the reason so many people use them is that there are huge numbers of second hand ones available, often for £50 or less.

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Ahh thats interesting. Thanks for the tip… I’ll take a look on the bay…