I wish you a good dance practice so. Enjoy 
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d’agostino?
I have a few in mind for demo, if and when the time comes, but no pre amp this time round.
Will go directly into the amp with balanced connections.
Dont want anything in between the source and amp that will colour the sound and add its own tone, that pre amps do. That’s, of course i like the results of this
I would be interested to learn about what drove your decision and how you find the performance of your current set up vs your 500 series set up, if you feel like sharing. I can understand the Vivaldi since it often comes up as an ND555 alternative/competitor but I don’t think I’ve seen anyone move to 511 from a 500 and your pre is a very interesting choice.
I think once you open the door to other kit, then things soon start to change.
The rossini is more the nd555 competition.
The vivaldi would be more statement level competition if there was such a thing, but i am sure you get what i am trying to say. It’s far above that level
Curiously, the shop down the road from my Naim dealer has recently dropped DCS after many years and picked up Naim. I havent spoken to them yet so have no idea why.
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Let me start with my hobby horse - the room. I believe the room is the most important ‘component’ of your system and I have gone to some lengths to make it as good as it can be - the money spent on room treatment has been my best hifi investment. (I of course have not gone as far as our absent Swiss friend Tom who has taken things to a whole another level! Still, it’s made a huge difference within my domestic constraints.)
I know the room is ‘good’ as I am usually pleasantly surprised when I get a component that I have previously heard elsewhere - at a dealers, friend, exhibition etc - into my room. I mention this because I believe to have created a good environment (incl. dedicated mains etc) for a hifi system.
Anyway, my 500 series system sounded great. Sometimes it was fantastic. But I became more and more aware of certain characteristics that would bother me. Rather than trying to tune them out I would focus on them. Ultimately it started to spoil my enjoyment of whatever I was listening to. This was a bad place to be. In essence the system was extremely sensitive to recording quality … Was there something wrong with the system - despite the ‘good’ environment? Was a 500 series system just too revealing? Did it take decades and a 500 series system to finally work out that the Naim sound was not for me afterall?
Too many difficult questions but that set me on the path to listen to some alternatives to try and answer them. The first thing was to try out a dCS Rossini and clock. This addressed almost all my concerns. The strangest thing about that was that it didn’t do this by being less revealing, rather it presented more information but in a way that made much more sense to me. Lesser recordings were still, hmm, lesser recordings. But the midrange was more evident, there was a bigger/better soundstage, and the treble was largely tamed. Maybe I could/should have stopped there but you know how it is 
Various amp combinations were then thrown in the mix (Soulution, d’Agostini, Bryston). To cut that story short the best combination was the passive pre and Soulution power amp. I had listened to a 711 in the shop but that was a financial step too far (also physically too big to accommodate easily).
I was a little prejudiced against passive preamps from the little I had read about them but in reality they had never been on my radar. There are different designs and the best ones are transformer based. Like anything they have their theoretical pros and cons but the proof, as they say, is in the listening. As you may have gathered I am a convert - that little thing just gets out of the way and let’s the other components shine. And you save a power cable
The Vivaldi is a Rossini on steroids. It’s just amazing what this thing can dig out of a recording. But the other equally remarkable thing is the Soulution 511. I always considered the power amp the least important part of the chain - source first and all that. I have changed my opinion, it makes a big difference. There is clarity, grip, bass extension and fabulous dynamics which I hadn’t experienced before.
That’s the story … I know it’s drastic but I am very happy where I’ve landed, my enjoyment is back, which is what it’s all about at the end of the day. I still think Naim makes fantastic amplification but I think they could improve the digital side at the higher end (although not forgetting that a Vivaldi and clock is significantly more than a ND555).
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Thank you very much for sharing. If I’m honest with myself, I occasionally wonder exactly how satisfied I am with my 500 series and if I stuck a little too blindly/rigidly to the path, hence my interest in your transition. You seem to have clear goals and followed a logical process. It’s great that you that you were willing to go against convention in your search and seem to have found what you were looking for.
On the DCS theme… Whilst searching for speakers, I listened to Vivaldi One at a dealer some time ago and wasn’t overly impressed. That said, it could have been the setup - I don’t remember the amplification but the speakers were Graham LS5/9f and then something from Kharma. I understand the Apex has taken things to another level.
The 511 is often reported to have a different sonic signature to the 711. Did you find that to be the case?
The passive pre has really peaked my interest, with an incredible amount of customisation available. Did you find a dealer that carried Soulution and Bespoke, to try that combination? It’s not a combination that would ever have occurred to me.
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I’ve never listened to non-APEX dCS but I also understand that it was a big upgrade.
The story around the power amp is actually a bit more complicated. I only listened to 311 and 711 as the dealer didn’t have a 511. At the shop I didn’t think the 711 was massively better than the 311 and the 711 wasn’t a realistic proposition anyway. So I had the 311 on home demo and compared it to the other amps. I ordered the 311 but then somewhat rashly changed my mind and ordered the 511 without having heard it (it wasn’t that much of a risk as the dealer would have taken it back if I hadn’t liked it). I lived happily with the loan 311 for several months as Soulution delivery times are terrible but when the 511 finally arrived it was a huge difference. Definitely the right decision. Maybe if I had a 711 on home demo it would be another step up but I am not going to find out! One thing to note is that I believe Soulution were using a pair of 511s at Munich High end, so they must think it suitably impressive. (The 511 is flexible as you can turn it from stereo to mono mode).
The preamp is really good and punches above its weight in my opinion. Of course you could also bypass the preamp completely if you only have one source. Having said that my dealer thinks that preamps do make a positive difference and I don’t think he says that just to sell preamps. I haven’t made that particular comparison myself as I have two sources anyway.
My central London dealer carries Bespoke Audio, Soulution and all the other makes mentioned, including Naim. They are excellent and have been happy to cart literally truck loads of stuff to my house
I have it in my mind that you are based in Switzerland? I’d be delighted if you’re ever in London and wanted to come and have a listen.
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Very interesting, thanks @delta . Thanks also to @lazyscott for permitting a quick thread detour 
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No problem, it’s interesting to see how we end up with the equipment we have.
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I was alerted to ‘up to 20%’ from 15th Jan, by way of an increase.
Luckily I had no plans to partake!
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