Yup.
Sorry.
I finally woke up and realised Sliced bread is better.
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Lol!!!
Oh well at least the ps555 is making a big upgrade
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This demonstrates very clearly that with āupgradesā itās best not to jump to conclusions too quickly. What is initially wonderful, life changing, amazing, jaw dropping, night and day better or whatever so often turns out to be simply different. It baffles me totally how someone so delighted with something can swap it for something else so quickly.
It also highlights how people reading others waxing lyrical should be extra cautious. It would be very easy to be influenced by others, especially if you live somewhere where trying things is difficult, but something and then discover that it was just a flash in the pan for the original buyer. People have rather surprisingly bought expensive things based on my recommendations, (they have said so on the Forum), so itās a responsibility on us to be very considered before recommending something, especially when that recommendation verges on the evangelical.
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Iād still get that dedicated mains supply inā¦
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It had crosssed my mind too that a load of people on this forum had rushed out to buy a dCS Network Bridge 
I have taken advice on here e.g. replace my 102 with an 82 before buying a 250; so I think forum advice is still valid but in my case loads of people were in agreement and it followed Naims hierachy too.
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Indeed. Some appear to prefer making buying decisions based on internet comments and have a strange aversion to consulting with a trained, helpful professional, i.e. a Naim dealer.
It can certainly make for a more circuitous and interesting journey. Personally, I prefer the calibre of advice from a good Naim dealer, with an audition as part of the process.
Each to our own! BF
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Weāre not necessarily comparing apples with apples here. The PS555 will have improved the DAC of the 272 I am sure.
I completely agree that having a good dealer and doing the demos, if possible, is the way to go.
M
Hi Jim,
Did you do the dCS > 272 + PS555dr as well as the 272 + PS555dr?
What were your thoughts?
Cheers,
M
blimeyā¦ there is a cost issue here to keeping a 3000 GBP streamer just to feed the 272 which is already capable of UPNP and Tidal
The separate power supply lines in the PS555 probably go a long way towards solving the network card noise in the 272
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Iām not aware of any ānetwork card noiseā in my 272.
Yes, I tried the NB using Qobuz hi res and 16/44 and Tidal MQA and 16/44 and internet radio and hi res downloads plugged into it via USB HDD into the 272/555dr.
All of them sound great but no more great than the 272/555dr on its own.
Yes, mea culpa.
For some reason I did become weirdly evangelical about this bit of kit.
And I am aware that I may have pushed some people towards buying an item which - in the cold hard light of the direct comparisons I made recently - just didnāt make anywhere near as much difference to SQ as I had thought.
Thatās why Iāve taken the step of adding this addendum to this thread.
The core of the problem goes back to the fact that an authoritative person advised me to remove the Cisco from my system four days before I got the NB. I agonized over whether to do it and stupidly did it in the end.
That dropped the SQ of the 272 down a significant amount. then when I plugged in the NB the system was pushed back up to where it had been, and perhaps a little above it, and so that felt like a huge relief and a massive gain.
Also that real gain/recovery in SQ happened on the day when I had driven to Manchester and got the NB. I had stupidly paid for the NB in full in advance from a private individual. I had checked him out throughly and made the decision that he could be trusted, and he did indeed behave very well throughout the transaction. But anyway I felt great joy and relief that day that I had not been ripped off and that the items were indeed mint as described and in full working order.
Primed by ecstatic reviews mainly from reviewers who own very expensive dCS systems, all of this relief and enthusiasm somehow spread to my family, who also interpreted the real SQ uplift and the impressive app and black box as a big uplift in sound.
I had also been told by more than one member of staff at a leading Naim dealer that they had just ordered a NB for a client with a 272 and they and the client had agreed that the 272 gave the system a bigger soundstage and better SQ.
So it was not until I put the Cisco back and carefully compared the streamers in the 272 and the NB on SQ that I realized what had happened.
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hifi critic reviewed the dcs bridge and found it improved the streaming capabilities of the nds/555dr. 2 different reviewers observed that.
I am quite sure that 272/555dr/dcs bridge is better vs 272/555dr.
Just a strong feeling.
That is really extremely open and honest of you. It sounds like you have gained from the experience. Itās really easy to get taken in by hype, reviews and internet chatter.
Iām so pleased you are liking the 272/555. If I were you Iād forget about the 282 and the like, enjoy what you have for a while and save for a 250DR.
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Not in the tests I briefly did in my system in the 4 days when I had all that kit.
But then the reviews you refer to were probably on systems that cost 3 or 4 or 5 times what my system does, and so are probably much better at revealing relatively small differences in SQ.
That wasnāt what Jim, who isnāt trying to sell magazines, found though.
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itās perhaps that Jim. More revealing system so more transparent to minor changes.
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hificritic is perhaps the most independent magazine existing. However the system reviewed was not the same.
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Yes but they still need to sell copy. Itās only by waxing lyrical that this happens. If every review concluded that X Y and Z were largely pointless then nobody would buy it.
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the most important is that Jim is happy with his system now and doesnāt need to invest more in the dcs or other.
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