I have had a Moon 240i for a while and compared it with a SN3 at home recently. Source was an NDX2, speakers Spendor D7.2.
I preferred the SN3 though it was only a small difference. The Moon is very polite and smooth, I thought the SN3 had more liveliness and conveyed more emotion.
Caveat: my room isn’t great and doesn’t do either amp justice.
I can’t speak for 240i but 330A has a natural unhyped sound, it lacks nothing when it comes to portraying emotional expression in music.
No I don’t have more than one USB source. I use two DACs.
Also, I think the TT2 DAC mode setting is at 2.5V. This should be OK, since more amplifiers in mid budget are good with that voltage. Only lower budget amplifiers seem to be at 2V.
E.g. I think the Marantz PM6006 is 2.5V. The Rega Brio has a specification stating 10V input. It says, “Maximum input 2-5 (line) input level = 10.25V”. … I am not actually sure what that means.
However power amplifiers usually are about 3V input. Some other integrateds I have seen are about 5V input.
Chord DACs used to use 3V at line-level out. However myself included spoke with Rob Watts in the Head-Fi forums, told him we were using amps with less input. His reasoning for 3V output on his DACs was that most users were using power amplifiers with that much input tolerance.
At the time I was using some Q Acoustics BT3 with an input voltage of 2V, with the Chord Mojo. I would get clipping with its 3V out. Rob advised four clicks down on the volume was set to about 1.9V. Everyone did that and it was all good from then on. That reasoning is actually why the Qutest has a 3V, 2V, and 1V output setting. Rob watts said that if he were to redesign the 2Qute he would set another output voltage, and that appeared in the Qutest.
Yes, a quality integrated just seems the easiest solution. Either that or bite the bullet and use my TT2 driving speakers and only that.
I have been so close to hitting ‘buy it now’ with the 240i many times. Chord DACs are lively in themselves so it might pair well with the 240i. That’s not to say Chord are bright; I find Chord full, rich, warm, and fanatically detailed. Such a neutral to source, and powerfully detailed source, would play well through most systems.
I have also not seen one review of the 240i that says it loses detail, from being smooth. That suggests a very accurate reproduction of the source. Or at least that is what I think. The reason I think that way is related to how I find Chord DACs.
When I went from a budget DAC to a Chord DAC, initially the sound was slightly all of the following. Metallic, bright, cold, and (well) hollow sounding. After a week I realised the music was more detailed than my original DAC so stuck with Chord. After ten days I remember thinking a shift in perspective. I was thinking how much smoother the Chord sounded, because it was more accurate. After two weeks I was beginning to fall in love. It was all uphill from there on. That hollow effect I heard at first was soon understood. It was only me not being used to how it placed instruments much more clearly in the soundstage.
One of the reasons I made this thread was because I heard about Naim raising prices on 1st Feb 2020. I suppose I was looking for ideas and enthusiasm, or a decision, to make my move prior to that date.
A heard the price rise would be 5%, which is quite a lot. Especially when you might be hard pushed to get a 10% discount.
Anyway I just googled to find Naim’s prices after 1st Feb, and found this. However it shows the SN3 and Nait XS3 at the same price as now. This price list says, Recommended Retail Price List - effective 1st Feb 2020 All prices include 20% VAT
Not sure if this is right, but I hope so. I found myself under pressure to decide about buying an amplifier, when I read about the price rise. If the two amplifiers I am considering will not change price, then all is good.
Anyway good luck with your Naims and upcoming Naim purchases. It’s been a great thread.
The new pricing from 1 February doesn’t affect the new XS3 and SN3, because their prices were updated last year when they were released.
Thank you. Sorry I can’t include your post in a copy and reply, because I can’t figure out how to do it.
You highlight the text and select “quote”, this then opens the text box with the quote and you add you own text from there:
Aha, did it.
By the way, a message to everyone.
Someone above mentioned feeling an amplifier had better grip on speakers than driving the TT2 directly.
I presume this was done by someone who took a good while with each scenario. However it still surprises me when I see it. I find the TT2 driving speakers to be like an almighty experience. It’s virtually impossible to out it into words. Detail, position, and imaging is really good. Sounds are at least twice as deep, since the amplifier I have does that due to less micro-detail. Or in other words less spatial cues.
However going over to driving speakers directly takes time to adjust. I think it took about a week for the that, ‘is it bright?’ thought to go. (I get that with every Chord DAC upgrade.) Then after a week and onwards, it becomes clearer and clearer that the TT2 driving speakers in solid. In a word solid. Solid in a way I have not heard before, because I never heard that level of detail with it.
My speakers are fractionally on the warm side anyway, with a bit of a boost way low down. Then again at the moment I am using a cheaply home-made adapter for the speaker cable from TT2. I intend to buy a metre of something like Atlas Mavros and make two pairs of adapters. One for RCA and one for balanced. (Bit of a long story.)
A few weeks after I started driving speakers with the TT2 I noticed just how solid it sounds. Having said this though, I won’t disagree with anyone who says an amplifier handles speakers better. What I will say though is this, but I doubt it’s this. When I put my amplifier back in the chain, it sounds like it might be handling the speakers better. The reason is that the amplifier sounds thicker, but it’s an illusion. The thicker sound of the amplifier is not thicker, it’s just less detailed. It actually changes the entire tone of some sounds, and rounds them off.
I can say that categorically, and this is why. I have one particular album which I have listened at least 500 times. Then I noticed a good while after removing my amplifier and had gone to TT2 driving speakers, something wow. There was considerable change in some notes, to the point where I was thinking, ‘I don’t recognise those notes’. … Now this is not down to TT2 being thin or bright. TT2 is nothing but solid, warm, and musical dynamite.
Anyway I listened on to these notes. Over times I listened to the album more, just as normal. I noticed the differences more. These notes however did not lack body. All the body was there, but there is just more and something different happening with TT2 > speakers.
Going back to putting an amplifier in the chain. I hear those notes quite a bit duller, but most importantly with different tone. There was just so much lost, by having the amplifier. I mean it still sounded amazing. Had I never run my TT2 this way, it would have still been bliss.
At the volumes I listen anyway, I am not going to run out of power for the bass notes. This aesthetic however, is why I am interested in a better amplifier than my trusty Rega Brio. I think the enthusiasm and liveliness of the Naims would be great. Livelier is one way to describe no amplifier with the TT2. There is just some much detail coming from all over.
Anyway just something to think about. Anyone with a TT2 or thinking about one, maybe should try no amplifier for a while. Give it time though, because as I say it takes at least a week to get used to, after having used an amplifier. Before then it sounds bright and hollow. After, it’s musical magic.
As I have told you on the headfi forum, you really should try driving your S40’s with the XLR outputs, like I do with mine. This gives you more than twice the power output over RCA. I am still driving my Excite 12’s this way, but eventually I am adding a Belles Reference 150A v2 to the TT2…when I upgrade to Harbeth’s. You seem to be speculating on what you should do, over and over. Just go have a demo, put your thoughts to rest, because nobody here will convince you one way or the other, only you will when you hear for yourself.
By the way yeah, my last post was bit long and chatty. Sorry, will try be more on topic and on point.
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