This is a move on from my Nova which died. The Moon is 2nd hand and got at a good price. It’s an attempt to reduce the box count, and have a purely analogue component that will be long lasting. First impressions are very favourable I have to say.
The next consideration is a streamer. I exclusively stream Tidal or Qobuz music.
The one thing to consider is I already own (kept after downsizing from HDX/282/200 system) an nDAC which was used as an upgrade to the HDX.
So options I’m considering are
ND5SX2 with nDAC. Add XPS later.
Sell the nDAC and buy NDX2
Moon 390. Then I pay for 2 preamps though… This may be the Moon version of the mythical Naim 372…
Moon 280D. Not really in the same league as the 600i. Doesn’t have digital out.
Moon 680D. New price is probably too much of a stretch.
Moon MIND2 in to nDAC. Cheapest option of all but not sure our this would work out.
LINN.
I’ve pretty much ruled out Auralic on audition, Lumin Innuos and Aurender - no wifi, Esoteric, Antipodes - too many boxes. Speakers are Neat XL6.
So yeah, a little bit all over the map. Favoured options are NDSX2 or MIND2. I don’t have the option of auditioning these where I live so have to go with already trusted brands. Grateful for any/all wisdom from the forum
I am a long-term Naim user now switched to Moon. I have the Moon 340ix integrated amp which I absolutely love. I use this with a Melco N100 straight into the USB input of the 340ix. Your Moon amp of course being higher in the range doesn’t have an on-board DAC. If I were you I would ditch the nDAC and go with one of the Moon streamers, no question. They are really excellent and I believe there is a synergy there with the Moon amps. For me if I was in your position this would be a no-brainer.
The MIND2 or Naim ND5 SX2 plus a dac of your choice would be a great way to go.
We auditioned a Moon 780D V2 a couple of years ago and while it was built like a battleship, the sound was good but not inspiring, so we looked elsewhere. The 680D is unlikely to outperform it.
The MIND2 though is a compact, affordable, superb little streamer, leaving flexibility to select the dac you like, of which there are many good ones now. You already have the nDAC, so start here. Lots of others to audition at your leisure, whether from Holo Audio, Chord, Denafrips or other.
The Naim ND5 SX2 is also superb and deserves to be on the shortlist.
Sim Audio Moon amplifiers do perform well, as after some 20+ years ownership of a I5 integrated, which hasn’t missed a beat, my recommendation is there.
I have separate phono stage (a Bakoon Reference) to handle those duties, rather than Pre/Power separates.
Another solution, to consider, is a NDS with 555PS, with SonoreUPnP Bridge to provide Roon integration, which isolates the NDS streamer from the internet streaming, other format types - DSD128+, MQA, DXD, etc. This gives you reference level streaming and DAC technologies (same as ND555)
Or add a 555PS to the nDAC, and a streamer as digitial input into the nDAC - this would have Tidal/Qobuz support, UPnP support, which the MIND2 does.
Not talking about Roon or Qobuz……
Did you found that Sonore bridge into Nds digital out performs better than Nds using its internal streaming platform? ( for local streaming)
The SonoreUPnP Bridge takes a Squeezebox protocol feed from Roon and bridges to a presented UPnP feed directly into the NDS
Not sure of your question @frenchrooster
Is this better for local streaming than a UPnP Server and the Naim App - if PCM up to 24/192 and the UPnP transcodes to WAV - it is very closely the same. If the local files are MQA, then the 1st unfold in Roon Core to NDS is better. If the local files are DSD64, I prefer to send these as DoP and process on-board, but I must re-try the Roon Delta-Sigmar DSD conversion to PCM with my revised ROCK server (NUC7i7DNKE - quad-core/8 threads same board as used in the Nucleus+, as I was getting close to the 100k track mark and the NUC5i3MYHE can only use an M.SATA SSD, no NVMe PCI Gen3 SSD)
Or are you talking about taking a Digital output from the UltraRendu via a USB → S/PDIF convertor and then using a Digital input on the NDS - this isn’t as good as taking the UPnP as input. But then S/PDIF was flawed and a problem for Redbook CD re. jitter, clock regenerated etc. as a digital stream protocol and not a packet based protocol.
There is nothing wrong with the UPnP input on an NDS, just wasn’t built for an Internet based feed, so put a dedicated internet stream processing platform infront and let the Network player do what it was created to, work with a local network stream. Some have now found that the newer streamers work better this way too with Internet streaming services.
I thought you were using the Sonore as a transport, fed by Spdif into Nds. So I misunderstood the use of the Sonore. Now it’s clearer, it’s a sort of Roon bridge.
I asked because I am not interested to have Roon or Qobuz with my Nds, just upgrade the streaming platform to have a better sound.
If you want to get the best out of Tidal you will need an MQA compatable streamer/dac to get hi-res tidal tracks.
Depending on budget these I have demoed and are good:
Lumin P1
Hifi Rose 150B
Nad C658
I have the C658 and looking to upgrade to a high quality MQA streamer/dac now that i am streaming tidal alot.
I’ve had excellent results simply using an Apple Airport Express hub, streaming Tidal via Airplay2. Optical output from the Airport to a Rega or CAL Sigma 2 DAC, then RCA/DIN into the 5italic.
I can use the iPhone 8 or iPad Pro to stream Tidal or my CD collection.