@frenchrooster I’m another person on this forum who is dCS into Naim. I also try to be helpful to people…
All music listening is a matter of taste. My kids prefer the Amazon Echo or tinny sounds from their phones because they favour convenience over quality - and whilst they appreciate the differences, they priorities are different, and who am I to argue?
On the dCS question, and relating to this thread, when I bought my replacement Naim system 2-3 years ago (moving on from Chrome bumper gear) I listened to a few other things and decided Naim was still for me - and got a 272, XPS DR, 250 DR, into my old Ruark Prelude II’s - and great it was.
Then I looked to upgrade, and considered the Bartok as a single box solution, especially into active ATC’s. Tried Bartok -> ATC SMC40a’s, Bartok + clock ->40a’s, Bartok + clock -> 50a’s, Rossini -> 50a’s, Rossini + clock into 50a’s, then decided that the end game in source hadn’t been quite matched by the end game in speakers so did lots more listening and ended up with 500DR/552/552PS into Dynaudio Confidence 50’s (there’s much more detail on tother threads here if you search for me). Yes, the budget kept increasing…
I found the dCS revealing, musical, relaxing, pacy, clear, balanced, detailed, neither warm nor cold - just great. The different levels were clear improvements (i.e, Bartok, + clock, Rossini, + clock). Am sure others love their ND555. I didn’t do too much direct comparison as I like the dCS so much, but the one the I did I found the ND555 quite similar but without quite the clarity. No different in PRAT that I could notice. Demo was enough to allow me to feel happy with the dCS.
So am I a Naim-ite? yes, for sure. Recommend Naim kit to loads of people. Am I a dCS fan - sure, it’s great whether you want Bartok -> actives, or Rossini -> amplification. As Dunc says there there quite a few people using dCS into top end Naim kit - they compliment each other well.
One other factor to mention is that the technology used by dCS is designed to be upgradeable over the air, and so the longevity of the device is likely to be longer (and hence the intrinsic value later on higher) - this was one thing that swung it for me too.