If you drop Linn a line they’ll be able to confirm which upgrades are possible. I’m afraid to post you can definitely do a specific upgrade because things change.
I have found them very helpful. The upgrade they suggested to me cost less than one I was thinking of and sounded better. So they will not try to persuade you the most expensive route is best.
The item I saw was a KDS with Katalyst upgrade for £8k in mint condition with full dealer support. It is on offer from one of the most highly regarded dealers in the UK. He and his colleague installed and tuned every piece of Linn kit I use. So I’m confident it would work.
Linn KDS is RCA (or XLR out) so you would need a custom cable to connect to NAC’s DIN input. Naim supplied the one I used to use.
thanks Tiberio for all these informations. I see one at 7,999 GBP , silver, ds3 katalyst. krescendo . I don’t know if it is upgradable in the future. The possibility of upgrade without selling is an important part of my interest.
Another one is 12,750, used kdsm katalyst… Black. Some scratches. These 2 appear on bay site.
I sent a mail to linn on this upgrade possibility question.
Hello Jan
Its not about bats and hearing high frequencies that seems to be evolving as the most important. Research shows that we don’t hear tone/frequencies, but recognize transient patterns. The best sounding music is that which reproduces these time domain transients most perfectly. Saw a video on line from Rob Watts, the inventor of the DAVE dac. He talks a lot about it. Reproducing Redbook with most reconstruction filters does not maintain the 4-10 microsecond accuracy threshold that the ear seems to need to feel most relaxed about reproduced music. He makes the statement that identical notess on the piano and a horn can nearly not be distinguished if the transient information is removed. Hard to believe, but apparently the case. The Chord DAVE and MQA both work to solve this problem. We don’t need more bits, we need better bits.
Tiberio, i received a response from the dealer, for the kds0 upgraded to kdsm katalyst. All parts are changed, but not the dynamik power supply which is the same from 2008. I feel it can be a problem to have a 10 years old power supply. What do you think of it?
There is an elderly Linn Classik in the family that still works well with its PS after nearly 25 years, so I’m not saying it wouldn’t work well for many years, but I would want a recent Dynamik PS . A bit like buying Naim with an entry level PS and being told 555PS upgrade is no longer an option, which of course is not the case with Naim.
i don’t understand why the upgrade doesn’t take also the power supply. It’s a bit disappointing.
A power supply is an important part.
Better find a second hand 2017 kdsm katalyst i think.
If you refer to the (as yet unproven) research I think you do - then it is not intended to be interpreted in terms of DAC chips. Or MQA - but i am not going to use Naims forum to go inside that can of worms.
In fact I would say the research you refer to more or less validate the thinking behind Linns tunedem. And very likely Naim, but they dont publish their method.
Thank you Jan for pointing to the TuneDem method by Linn. There are a lot of things I agree with there. I have never been able to a/b equipment carefully. Balancing volume exactly is one. For my ears/brain it tends to focus on just a few seconds around the switchover. Since the music is always changing, its not a matter of just using a volt meter to balance. You really have to pick a passage of music and integrate for some period of time (seconds to minutes) to do it right, and then there is the differing spectra of the two sources. Its a mess. I totally agree with Linn/ToneDem on that.
My best result to to listen and see how often I am moved–tap my foot–or think “Wow now that sounds like the music is in my room”. The more often that happens with various source material, the better the result for me.
As for unproven research, the publishing process includes peer review as I am sure you are aware, and so things that are not consistent with proven science are challenged. While paper studies are not the be all end all, its good to hear that the results of time domain digital reconstruction via Rob Watts 1M tap equipment, and Bob Stuart’s MQA are producing results that “sound better and are based on some science and engineering to many ears”. For my ears, my room, my system, its been a major break through. I am hearing the music reproduced for the first time, and I have been at it for over 50 years. Cut my teeth on a Marantz 7C, 8B, and Shure V15. That was audiophile in the 60’s. Its so much better today.
Hi @Bigboy, and others
You said above: “I had the 272 and upgraded to 282/HC/nDac and the improvement compared to 272 was huge”.
Why did you choose to put a PSU on the preamp rather than the DAC?
Did you ever get a PSU for the Naim DAC in that setup?
Would I be better off with Naim DAC/XPSDR/282 or Naim DAC/282/SuperCap?
thanks
Jim
If you don’t put a PSU on a Naim preamp you wont get any sound as it won’t have any power to run it. The only exceptions are the two streaming preamps. You can power a preamp with a power amp up to NAP 200 level.
Hi JD, I initially run the nDac into the 282 powered by my 200 without any PSU on the dac or the 282. The improvement was indeed huge compared to the 272/200. I then added a hicap dr on the 282 and that was another big improvement. I buy most of my naim kit pre-loved and didn’t have an nDac PSU available at the time.
Difficult to say re the PSU, the nDac can be found at a good price sub 1k£ but the PSU (supercap, 555, xpsdr) are more expensive. Personally I would go for 282/PSU and keep the dac bare and see how you feel. Then you might even want to explore with a chord or DCS dac (no offboard PSU to tempt you).
I have a suspicion that the results might be a little disappointing, but it would work. I haven’t tried it, but I was pretty happy with my 282 powered from a 200DR. Also remember that the 282 always requires a NAPSC, and is normally supplied with one.
From your profile kit list, it seems that you swopped the nDAC for an NDS?
How were you feeding the nDAC?
How does the NDS compare with the nDAC?
What PSUs have you used with your nDAC and your NDS?
Seriously!!! After all that fuzz about the dCS Network Bridge… At times one had the impression the dCS was presented as the best thing since sliced bread… Anyway, the Prodigal Son has returned…
