I have a CDX2 and am very happy with it, so fully understand
Ian
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I think I’m finally about to crack…Apologies for the rant but the past 8 years have been a constant battle against the system rather than enjoyment of the system. I know it can sing. I’ve heard it sing. Then it doesn’t. Enough already.
This is a long tether…
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Almost getting excited. Been a good month financially so I’ve enough for an NDX2 and I’m more than a third if the way to a Zenith. Early 2021 I reckon.
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And so it comes to this. The money is there for changes/upgrades. I think the choice is one of two.
1 - NDX2 plus Innuos Zenith Mk 3.
2 - Innuos Zenith Mk 3 plus Phoenix Reclocker plus DAC.
Latter route allows streaming from Tidal and the Innuos for local rips of my CDs. As far as I can see the only other objective difference is that the Naim offers wi-fi whereas Innuos is Ethernet only.
The Innuos would also mean that the 15 year olds first gen Muso upstairs couldn’t access the CDs unless we used something over the mains. For me that’s an “over my cold dead body scenario” but I’d entertain it if convinced of minimum detriment.
On the DAC front I am thinking a Chord Hugo 2 would be a good place to start.
Opportunities to demo are obviously limited at present but before I do thoughts would be welcome on:
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is the Chord objectively superior to the NDX2 DAC in any defined way?
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are there any considerations I’ve missed?
Omg … you need a very patient dealer…
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This might not be the case. The Innuos uses Logitech Media Server and it’s possible to stream WiFi to the Muso using the Logitech Media Server App.
I’m in the process of setting this up at the moment, everything is going swimmingly, apart from fact no music is coming out of the QbMk1. Although I’m sure it’s just a matter of tweeking the settings.
You will have check if it’s possible to enable the UPnP/DLNA bridge plug-in, if this is required.
DonTomLondon is the man to ask.
That’s useful to know. Thank you very much for that. The other poster has just been added to the “ignore forever” list.
Yes, I think this remains on the table. TT2 or Hugo 2 plus the two Innuos boxes rather than an NDX2.
Hi Mike, I think you have a few good options there, I’ve recently bought Chord Dave and Chord Etude, I have the Innuos Zen Mk3 and have considered the Phoenix reclocker but may go for the Chord M Scaler, need a demo of both.
The NDX2 comes with a good dac, the Zenith is a good streaming platform, I guess best outcome is spending your hard earned without too much overlap, which would make me favour option 2.
Thanks. I also had in mind the ongoing thread on obsolescence. The NDX2 has the new streaming platform but I’m not fussed about multiple services. Just Tidal and internet radio would suffice. On the other hand you can only improve things by adding an external DAC and rendering some of the NDX2 redundant.
The other route appeals, amongst the reasons already specific because nothing seems likely to have that redundancy issue.
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I’d think the preferred sound presentation would be the decider. I don’t think redundancy in the NDX2 is an issue for internet services - it has enough buffering and changes in internet streaming are managed through the app.
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I think you’re right Mike. It will come down to presentation. I’m very open to different presentations but my post was more to make sure there was nothing else obvious I was missing having potentially narrowed myself down to these two routes.
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I guess one factor is the future option of adding a power supply to the NDX2.
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Holy moly this thread is about to have its 1st Birthday 
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And I still never found out if the original poster’s problems were ever solved.
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I don’t think so.
If you use the Ndx2 as a streaming dac and the Innuos as a Nas, there’s no redundancy. Both are connected by Ethernet cable.
The Innuos can be used as the Melco or Uniticore. It rips and store your files.
All depends if you prefer the Naim presentation or the Chord dac presentation.
Well lots of people had lots of opinions and were, in some cases, extremely vociferous and even belligerent about them. At this stage it can only be the CDP itself.
Already got an XPS2. That and the Burndy have been with my dealer for most of 2020 thanks to the pandemic. My dealer cannot say for certain there’s anything wrong there as no other XPS2s have come in. A comparison to the DR version isn’t really helpful.
That points to the CDP being the issue. At 18 years of age I think it needs to be driven for a repair rather than posted. I don’t drive and the nearest option is class A in Sheffield. Lockdown rules that out for some time.
Whichever streaming option I go for I’m happy to keep the CDX2/XPS2 alongside it until I can at least attempt to get the CDP repaired. It does occur to me that selling/trading the CDP and power supply doesn’t really add sufficient funds to improve the DAC beyond something like a Hugo 2. The CDP is worth little at this point. The XPS2 could of course further improve the NDX2.
In terms of redundancy it occurs to me that the Qutest is likely the better match here than a Hugo or Hugo 2 as I’ve no need for headphone options etc. So, that’s a saving of £1,900 with arguably/presumably no loss of sound quality.
@frenchrooster I think we’re clear that the decision will mostly be driven by presentation but there absolutely is redundancy in a bare NDX2 and Innuos as the streaming capability of the latter is not in use and the argument is that the 2 Innuos boxes used as a streamer as well as local storage (plus a good DAC) may well outperform the Naim option.
Also worth adding that the Innuos plus DAC route takes all the screen issues etc. out of the equation.
There are two other posters I noted who have added their usual pointless contributions. I have blocked both but am always sufficiently interested to at least glance. What a waste of time; “if you can’t say something nice don’t say nothing at all”.
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@mikehughescq my 13 year old CDS3 went back to Salisbury by courier. Provided you’ve got the bolts it’ll be fine. Is using the mains such bad practice I do it without a problem I think?!