I tried this combination at home recently and it worked really well. Although I said in another reply that I felt that if I were going to use larger, more revealing speakers, I would want to improve the source and preamp, for the AE1 actives, the NSC 222 was certainly good enough. I should probably let you enjoy your your new NSC 222 before telling you about the effect of adding an NPX 300 to the NSC 222 
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Hi Roger/Oxfordian, I spoke to my dealer (AudioT) today, and made my deposit for the NSC 222, that I hope to get by at least Saturday.
I would like to let you both know how I’m getting on with the setup, after getting the pre burnt in, as this can be especially important to most Naim products. This will take me a little while to conclude, due to working away etc, but one that I’m relishing to get stuck into!
Will keep you posted.
Richard
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Thanks for the advice Paul on this combination with the NSC 222 and the Acoustic Energy AE1’s. I find it interesting that some people have tried the power supply (NPX 300), and found it made a worthwhile difference to sound of the pre. While some other people have said they wouldn’t necessarily rush out to add the power supply straight away, especially with the extra cost involved. It’s something I’ll be keeping in mind, but I feel for the size of my listening room, going for something larger than the AE1’s could prove counterintuitive given these constraints, but the power supply could be worthwhile. Having the uniti atom HE edition headphone amplifier in NSC 222, did also persuade my decision to get this pre amp streamer.
Richard.
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If you can afford the NPX 300, either now or later, the difference is significant. I’m saving up for one having heard the improvement it delivers several times now 
. But trust your own ears and home demo if you can.
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You’re welcome!
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I’m running an Atom HE into AE1s in my fairly large listening room while I decide whether to fix or move on my Naim olive system, which is long overdue a service. That combination works really well too and will be moved to the spare bedroom I use as an office when the living room system is sorted. I’m extremely impressed by the AE1s, especially given their small size and reasonable price.
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Idk guys, but… 12k combo of 222+300 seems a huge overkill for 1k+ speakers. Though I’ve heard a lot of positives about those AE, you can get ATC 20A for less than power supply alone, it would be a no-brainer for me probably…
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Maybe, maybe not. I run my recently purchased 222/250 with speakers I bought in 2016 for ~£1,600. Although I am planning to upgrade them at some point (probably this year) they sound pretty good to me and far better than with my previous XS 2/ND 5 XS system. They also allowed the significant uplift provided by an NPX 300 to shine through - which is also on my wish list.
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That is my understanding, lots of complicated ways but at it ‘s simplest , it’s a preamp, speakers containing an amplifier
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And, more significantly than resistors, passive crossovers also use inductors. But other being than design fact, I’m not sure that observation conveys anything meaningful to many people? I would have said that a nutshell the difference, is that active is a modified response amplification stage before the power amp, whereas passive consists of blocking and bypassing components between the amp and speakers preventing direct control of the drivers by the amp, and it is that latter point that is the more significant.
Well, I’ve managed to spend a little bit of time with my NSC 222, mostly listening through headphones. I’m impressed with the general presentation, even though it does sound ever so slightly forward , just a smidge on the bright side. This has improved with spending more time with 222, and hopefully when fully burnt in, the general presentation will sound a tad more neutral. Through the Acoustic energy AE1’s I’ve been happy on what I’ve heard so far, with a very well balanced sound overall, the top end does sound more rounded off, with that being a characteristic of the speakers, but I’m certainly enjoying the smooth and punchy bottom end. It kind of got me wondering what difference the NPX 300 would do to the sound as an upgrade. I also understand this would make a big improvement to the headphone amplifier of the 222?
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I can’t help thinking that the £6k cost of the power supply could be spent on a big active speaker upgrade that might have a bigger impact on overall sound quality. Alternatively spend it on a 250, which would open up a far greater choice of loudspeakers to suit your room and personal tastes, as there are not that many small active models to choose from by comparison.
Of course the NPX300 might still be a valid choice, in particular as headphone listening is a priority for you, but other than that I suspect you could get bigger gains from investing that cash in a power amp and speakers, active or passive.
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I agree with Chris. If listening through speakers is important, I’d be looking at a speaker upgrade and I tend to be a source-first person. I do use AE1 actives with my Auralic streamer and they sound really good and are a great bargain IMO, but the ATCs in my main system are in a different league, as they ought to be at 7 or 8 times the price.
Roger
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I can tell you what I heard when I did the comparison with my AE1s: The NPX added a degree of control and refinement to the sound compared to the NSC 222 on its own.
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