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The DAVE deserves a better streamer in front of it.
Does it need it though? I haven’t heard the Wiim, but it seems that a number of people who have used it with Dave are impressed, while I know how well Dave does with a Mac Mini running Audirvana
It’s up to the DAVE owner to decide I guess. I owned a Wiim Pro for a short time and it’s good for the price. The app was decent as well. However, when I replaced it with an ND5XS2 as strictly a streamer the change was dramatic. It just seems foolish to buy a $14k DAC and feed a few hundred dollar budget streamer into it. To each their own.
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When I was a serial box swapper I always bought used and very, very rarely lost money on used Naim equipment in fact most of the time I actually came out to the good.
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Do you still have the NHS trolley?
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Yes best rack I’ve ever had solid as rock, can be pulled out easily to access the back and importantly my better half who is actually a nurse doesn’t find it offensive.
She hated all my others especially the Hutter but best of all it cost £25. If I remember I’ll take a new photo.
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Is your reference to your experience with Wiim and ND5XS2 both into Dave?
Even if Wiim is not as good, whilst still having scope to further improve there is no way using Wiim can be considered foolish with Dave if the combination sounds better than a more expensive transport into a lesser DAC at similar total cost.
My reference is to owning an extreme amount of streamers and DACs. The DAVE is not some magic wonder pill that turns poop into gold.
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Sounds like your recommendation went down well!
Perhaps you can share an outline of system and if Naim speakers were part of the mix?
It has, I use a zenith 3 with an Innuos pheonix USB for streaming and a Cyrus xr transport with power supply as a cd transport. The Wiim is for Spotify use only
I like this approach! 
I should adopt this.
Well it was 1997, what else could it be other than the classic Naim DBL’s in active mode with six 135’s a 52, NAT01, Linn LP12 and CDS2. However, he went a bit further than this and added a massive cinema projector and a further seven 135’s to power the surround sound system he had. Watching a live concert on the screen with this as the surround sound system was simply epic.
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Assuming bitperfect, a common and arguably most significant limitation with a variety of transports into a variety of DACs is electrical noise, notably RF, with DACs varying hugely in their susceptibility. The performance of any combination Is completely meaningless in respect of a different DAC. It is only possible to know how well any transport will perform with a DAC by using with that specific DAC. Nothing to do with magic, just the design and inflation of the specific DAC. I have no idea how the Wiim performs with Dave, but others have said it is good, and I would certainly not presume to dismiss it without either hearing, or having a weight of other people’s experiences of the same combination to go on. What does seem foolish is dismissing a product purely on the basis of it being low cost.
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As others who found the Wim Pro into Dave good, there’s only one.
But what means good ? If you don’t listen to something clearly better, then it remains good.
Your own experience is Mac Mini vs the entry level Melco , into Dave.
You found no real differences. But the Melco N1 is not the best working as transport into a dac. In that case it’s overpriced.
Used as a server / Nas with its dedicated lan player port, it’s better than a common Nas.
That may be so, FR, but my point remains the same: you cannot extrapolate performance of different transports from one DAC to another, or at least not without good experience of how the two DACs compare with several other transports. None of us know what differences there are (or aren’t) unless either we try ourselves (objectively) or at least until quite a number of people have tried the same combination and reported either with good consistency of conclusion or where their systems are similarly performing to our own and we know the different people’s tendency to hyperbole or understatement.
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While this might be true I have never looked for bargains from my dealer. Happy to pay full price, I just want superlative service in return. On the rare occasion that bargains were available he came to me…
I want my dealer to be around in years to come and want him to make a reasonable profit. So far this relationship has lasted 34 years which is great!
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You’re conveniently forgetting that I’ve owned a Wiim Pro. My opinion is based on owning it; not based solely on its cost.
My initial post simply stated that a $14k DAVE deserves a better source than a Wiim Pro. It does. It also deserves better than a NAS. If you want to remain blissfully ignorant to the fact that the streaming source matters, no matter the DAC, then that’s your choice. It seems as though you’re trying to find a reasoning to support your own bias in believing that any digital source can sound superior to another simply by changing the DAC.
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IB won’t give up. He tries to persuade himself since many years that a good transport doesn’t matter. With always the same argument that the Dave is completely immune to EMI/ RFI, specially as using a Custard usb to Spdif. But I don’t believe that a good transport is only based on that.
Some transports , streamers, have high quality clocks, expensive ones. And surely many other quality parts that matter.
It’s not foolish to state that a 120 GBP little Apple TV box like will not do justice to a 10 grand dac. It’s even foolish to say it can be well good enough.
Price is not all. Ok . But if the quality of the transport wouldn’t matter, we wouldn’t have 10/20 k ones in the market, 200 times more expensive than a Wim Pro.
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You and FR are putting words in my mouth. I have an open mind, and accept that it is possible that a low cost transport into some very good DAC or other could sound equally as good as a much more sophisticated transport, or so little different that the difference in cost is not worth paying. I have not said or suggested that I think it is the case. Until either I hear Wiim into Dave, or sufficient people have tried and comparatively reviewed (leaving any biases behind), it is simply a possibility, raised by one forum member (I thought there was another, but @frenchrooster has corrected me) who extolled its virtues.
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