Gary that is the key point I think, there are other companies forging an enviable reputation specialising in this area, whereas Naim do not currently have a dedicated Dac in the new product portfolio.
When getting into Naim in the first place one of the advantages they offered over many was longevity. In the world of the dedicated Dac that isn’t the case. Obviously I’m referring to the life span of a new product and realise they still support the previous ones.
I’m not in any hurry, only recently invested in the new as Cdx2.2 and love the sound, just that peak around the corner as to the next progression and ideally would have stayed in house.
However, I’m not overly interested in a streamer (I have a cheap as chips Yamaha one that does its job to a ridiculous level of price / performance) in both my systems, so looking to add a Naim one with Dac as an option isn’t really a burning desire.
Most seem to indicate that the original Dac has a higher performance ceiling than the dac-v1 when used in a main system, so that was my original curiosity, as other information sources seemed to indicate the v1 was built on its predecessor to a large degree.
With the v1 available new but heavily discounted I thought this could be a bargain opportunity, however most have pointed to original being better bet.
I’ll keep my options open and probably give a pre owned one a go on home demo from TomTom and see what I think, but for now this has closed off the v1 question.
My personal opinion is a USB DAC is the way to go, and absolutely do not rely on hifi manufacturers to produce servers or streamers. The eye watering costs versus the software quality/ longevity just do not stack up for me.
Cheers Richard, yup get that and something to consider, guess the opp of a bargain was driving the interest and for now will watch and wait.
Its been an active period of upgrades and changes recently, all mainly in the second system with the opportunity of a black friday deal from Densen adding a phono stage to my B100, which led to a P3 in the second system, which led to an exact for the elys…, so the £150 steal caused a bit of a run.
Having said all that it meant the Aria took up residence in second system whilst I waited for DP-05 phono and meant I gave the SN3 phono stage its first real solo listen minus the aria, and have to say its excellent, could have easily lived with it minus the Aria if I’d never heard that combo.
So I’ll bide my time on this occasion, but thanks for all the input, very much appreciated.
I ran a converted CDX2 with the DAC for about 15 months. Because the CDX2 already had an XPS2 pre conversion, I put the PS on the DAC. An extremely entertaining combination which took the musical fireworks of the original CDX2/XPS2 bombast to a new level of “wow”.
Then came a 555PS. Totally different. Less of everything yet more of what mattered. I wasn’t entirely sure if I liked it at first, but when I took the demo 555 back and hooked up the XPS2 I did not like what I was hearing any more.
That’s the one take away that sticks out furthest in my memory about the DAC. You can have a Classic level DAC, an X level DAC and a 500 level DAC in the same box, depending on how you power it. But it’s not the best DAC you can pick up (relatively) cheaply. That is the NDS. A big box for what is, at heart, the Naim DAC, and with a streamer thrown in that you may not want. But at its second hand price point it’s one of the best DACs you can buy.