I assure you I’m not forgetting it one bit - remember I was there for twelve years nearly.
There’s a lot more I could have added to that previous reply but didn’t… 
There’s also quite a bit of core (if you’ll forgive the pun) backup and restore functionality that I believe I can still break even after last years firmware update … I really should power mine up again and see. 
maybe the core was not given enough processing power to keep it as a low noise source through ethernet.
and also it could be a high quality SPDIF source through it’s BNC output.
There are not a lot of high quality sources with BNC outputs, the majority tend to use coax outputs, but BNC is superior !
Absolutely … that was one of the considerations when the platform was chosen.
Hi Phil, completely off topic, but can I ask your opinion of the Focus 30XDs? The have been on my radar as a possible replacement for my little Kudos X2s. I could then lose my 250 and run them from the balanced output of my Chord Dave, or even direct from NDX2.
OK - lets start with “Opinions are like assholes - everyone has one and only your own doesn’t stink…” so your mileage may vary on this…
Firstly, why did I get them…? I HAD been running Kudos Titan T88’s on a pair of NAP300’s with 252 SuperCap but the combination of the T88’s and an almost 2m high stack of assorted black boxes and other AV kit (plus all the cables, in fact I think all the cables may have been the biggest issue) didn’t go down very well with the other half in our (Ok, her) roughly 5m x 4m living room. I needed to downsize to a one box system but ideally I didn’t want the one box to have amps in it as the “box” was to be hidden in a cupboard along with the SkyQ box etc. and I didn’t want it heating up the cupboard. more than it had to.
I considered a dCS Bartok and ATC SCM40a’s but the Bartok was too deep to fit in the cupboard and would take up more vertical height than I wanted to give up.
Bill (Dynaudio) suggested the Focus 20XDs as a “small” alternative as I had said that the Mrs wasn’t happy with the Titans and as I had an NDX already the Focus would take S/PDIF straight from the NDX and the NDX could do S/PDIF audio source selection through its external digital inputs for stuff like Sky and my media player. Of course the 30’s are bigger and therefore better so I mentally went for the 30’s which of course was still making a compromise as I hadn’t gone for the 60’s…
So - simple stuff…
Do they go as loud as my 300’s and Titan T88’s … nope.
Are they as dynamic and exciting as my 300’s and T88’s … nope.
Are they as enjoyable as my 300’s and Titan T88’s … nope.
Do I ever nowadays get the opportunity to drive either the NAP300’s and Titans or the Focus 30XDs loud enough for any of the above to be relevant … nope!
Am I happy with them … yes.
What do I like about them least … the hellishly shiny finish which seems to be permanently covered in an ever changing swirling wet nose art installation from my year old Lab.
So what’s the one thing that I’m thinking that you might have missed given what you’re saying in your original question? - The Focus XD’s don’t have a balanced analogue audio input on them - just unbalanced - and, from what Bill’s told me, if you are going in analogue rather than digital then the analogue input gets A-to-D’d before then going through the same signal path as the S/PDIF input so if you’re wanting to go analogue output from a DAVE then you might be better off with a more “standard” active speaker that just has analogue inputs / analogue crossover?
Having owned the XD 600’s for 5 years (white), I will add a couple of points. As Phil said, you would not benefit from using the Dave into the XD’s, they convert analog inputs to digital right away, then to analog at the drivers. NDX2 directly into the speaker would be the best option. My main reason for selling mine was that I like to tinker with gear, try new DAC’s, streamers, cables etc., and you can not really change much with the XD’s. I did find that an NDS sounded better than a UQ2 as a digital source, but seemed like a waste if you add the cost of a power supply.
In your case Chris, I would go with an active speaker that could benefit from the Dave’s analog output, such as ATC or PMC. But, be careful with active, you are closing the door to upgrades and they tend to lose value faster than passive speakers on the used market. One more reason I moved on was that I decided to get back into Vinyl, so a digital speaker was not the best option for that. Other than all those reasons, I thought the XD’s sounded great.
Thanks for the feedback, Phil. I was getting my facts muddled up, as you rightly point out, the Focus XDs have only unbalanced analogue inputs. It’s the ATCs that have balanced. I guess I could use the unbalanced inputs into the XDs, but I wasn’t aware of the ADC/DAC process, and as you say, maybe that makes Dave redundant, or at least negates any benefit it may bring. Do you use the NDX2 volume control, or do the Focus XDs handle it?
I guess the ATC actives are the obvious choice. Trouble is, they are somewhat ugly in my eyes. Also, I really need toddler proof grilles. Those metal grilles on the ATCs look ludicrously ugly to me, and when I barely touched them on my dealers demo pair they just fell off, so it seems that the weak magnets that hold them in place are not remotely toddler proof.
Oh well, my search continues…
Yes, that’s my gut feeling, but you also said…
…so maybe it’s not quite as simple as that?
As for closing the door to future upgrades, I’m not really concerned about that. I’m looking for something that impresses me enough to want to keep them long term. Still, not quite so sure about the XDs now. I mentioned them as a possibility to my (Naim and Dynaudio) dealer a few months ago, and he said that although he didn’t stock them, he had heard a pair at a customers house and really liked them a lot. Still, thanks for the input.
A better digital source did matter Chris, I actually found the NDS sounded better than directly feeding the XD’s off my Naim Core, but in the end you are using the Dac’s in the speaker, so the Dave is not used like it deserves to be.
Only one way to find out, I suppose.
I let the Focus XDs handle the volume control … don’t get me wrong, they are a really good speaker and yes they’re ultimately not as capable as my Naim DAC / 252 / SuperCap / 2 x NAP300 / T88’s combo but that’s then a £6k (ish) speaker against £40k (ish) of speaker / amp / preamp / DAC so it’s a bad comparison to make.
The grilles on the Focus XDs do come off quite easily … when the dog and cat start beating each other up one of them will often knock one of the grilles off, they’re only held on with magnets.
I like them … I’m glad I got them … maybe I should have got the smaller 20’s or the bigger 60’s but I’m sure that they would all have been fine for what I need.
Just one thing - if you have carpets and you get a set of the Focus then get some decent spikes … the Dynaudio ones have a very ‘blunt’ point on them which doesn’t pierce carpets at all - they’re intended for hard floors - so I ended up using the Track Audio spikes that were on my T88’s.
Thanks again Phil. I guess we have a different perspective on this, coming from opposite ends of the (Kudos) spectrum. I might see if my dealer can get a demo pair in at some point.
Apologies to the OP for the thread hijack!
I’d like to speak up in favour and support of the core
It does what it was designed for really well
The interface (via iPad) is good
The meta data works well 98% of the time ( I don’t do classical) and when it’s not right it’s SO easy to edit
It is a great one box solution for ripping /serving and sounds good (to my ears)
Only two possible negatives
The looks are a bit marmite
It’s not cheap for what it does ( but what Naim is?)
I sometimes find myself speaking up in favour of the Unitiserve for similar reasons. There are, though, just enough things that the Core can’t do, that the US could, that I wouldn’t buy one if I ever had to replace my US. To my mind, both of them fall short of Naim’s original stated intent as ripper/servers, and it surprises me that they have chosen to give a new product less functionality rather than more, in key areas that people often seem to highlight here.
I bought the Unitserve in 2016, at full price : 4,5 k euros.
To upgrade its stock ps, I added an 1,2 k euros Uptone js2.
One year later I tried the Uniticore against my more than twice expensive Unitserve / Js2:
The sound was a little bit better vs the Core.
The Unitserve had a lot of functionalities that I have never needed to use. It was making some strange and not enjoyable noises ( hdd), and the downloads were not always recognized, and often were shown on the app many hours after.
So I feel the Uniticore is a nice uplift, friendlier to use, better sounding than stock Unitserve, and half less expensive.
Today I have a Melco n1z2, a bit more expensive than my 2016 Unitserve. But it’s night and day better on all areas.
To me that’s a rather unbalanced view. When the Core was released it was cheaper than the Unitiserve, and distorting the comparison by including an unauthorised PSU upgrade on one device and not the other does seem somewhat unequal.
I tried to say that if the Uniticore, at half the price of the Unitserve, is very near a Unitserve / big ps combo as for sound quality, it means that the Uniticore is clearly better than the Unitserve alone, which costed already twice the price of the Core.
4,500 euro is a hefty price for a UnitiServe @frenchrooster, I bought mine new from a Naim dealer also in 2016 for £1380, can’t remember what the exchange rate was back then. So for me at least the UnitiCore would have been a more expensive purchase.
I am slightly confused because you and @ChrisSU seem to agree in both your comments ? You both favoured the UnitiServe.
I bought it new from Naim, from my dealer. It was its price before the Uniticore arrival. Maybe it was 3500 euros, I doubt now. But much more expensive than the Core, which price is 2200 euros.
I don’t think I completely agree with Chrissu, because I bought something which is overpriced, has a prehistoric software, makes noise, is unreliable for downloads, and sounds inferior to the Core .
You got a good deal then because when I bought my Unitiserve from a Naim dealer in 2015 it was about £2200. My UnitiCore I bought when it was first announced, about six months before it was delivered, and it was about £1800. I wouldn’t go back now although from a sound quality point of view I thought the Unitiserve might have had an edge on the Core, or rather to be more precise, it had less edge than the Core.
But the high risk of a very expensive hard disc failure in the Unitiserve was too much for me to cope with and I was always worried about any unexpected power disturbance. So I was very pleased when I finally sold it out of my life.
For all it’s several shortcomings, which Naim choose to ignore, I would still replace my Core with another if this one was stolen in the night. And if Naim came up with a Core 2, I would be in the front of the line to buy it, more or less regardless.
Best
David