A pleasure Kevin. Glad it was helpful.
Let me know on the demo. My dealer is Paul Cruttenden at BillyVee sound Systems (great dealer!) in Lewisham, and I know they’ll also be happy to do a dem as well.
George.
A pleasure Kevin. Glad it was helpful.
Let me know on the demo. My dealer is Paul Cruttenden at BillyVee sound Systems (great dealer!) in Lewisham, and I know they’ll also be happy to do a dem as well.
George.
I noticed that the speaker cable used in Jason’s demo video was NACA5 and not SL. Thought that was interesting.
Not quite. It’s fully independent of a computer, so isolates all the potential for noise pollution. In my system, it is noticeably better than ripping and streaming from an iMac. And obviously Naim have designed the new streamers and the Core to compliment each other.
Whereas, other isolation and decoupling systems will achieve what the Fraim does.
Oh, I just meant that I was losing track of your upgrade plans… But I might have confused you with someone else.
I also found it interesting that the 272 didn’t feature. Jason spoke about maximising the source into the SN3 using the NDX2 with the benefit of the streamer being separate from the pre-amp. He then added the the HiCap to isolate the power supply from the pre-amp and lastly added the XPS DR to the NDX2 to isolate the power supply from the streamer. He described this as going as far as you could with the SN3 (though I have added powerlines and Superlumina to my same albeit SN2 system).
This left me wondering whether the 272 has gone as far as it go sonically and that the new streamer platform can’t be use to full benefit in terms of sound quality in the N272 due to the inclusion of the pre-amp stage. In other words the SN3 has the advantage as the separation of the streamer from the pre-amp brings the best sonic benefits?
I remember now, we have similar systems and you are going to let me know what a full set of Powerlines brings to the party. I need a holiday…
Has any one watched this 1 hr video? Incredible! It clearly demonstrates the sonic improvements heard as one upgrades the power supplies, pre-amps and amps. I could hear the differences even with $30 earbuds. About the only downer was how lackluster the SN3 sounded w/o the H-Cap.
Since I’m in the market for a new integrated and the SN3 was on the short list, I’m going to have to up the budget to add the Hi-Cap.
Mike & Richard, I’ve moved your posts over to the relevant thread.
Hi George. Thank you for taking the time to reply, I really appreciate it. Maybe I’ll get to try a Core against my Qnap one of these days.
I noticed that - or rather didn’t notice it - as well. His mention of separately in respect of the SN3 was interesting. While he emphasised the separation of the streamer from the preamp he glossed over the small fact that the preamp - arguably the most sensitive part of the system - is in the same box as a hulking great toroidal transformer. Even when the preamp is powered by a Hicap the transformer is still working just as hard, powering the power amp. What’s worse for the preamp - living with a streamer or living with a power amp? I certainly don’t know. With the 272, once an XPS is in use the inbuilt transformer and power supply bits is totally turned off - maybe that’s why it makes such a significant difference. Certainly when I auditioned the NDX2/SN2 against the bare 272/250DR I thought the latter was significantly better. But how much if that was subconscious bias I don’t know. Ultimately these discussions of which I best are largely pointless. At this level they are all good. For what it’s worth I predict a new platform 272 will be launched at Munich High End. Let’s see.
Yes, that’s what I had.
Yes that was one of my main takeaways from the “interview” which the interviewer appeared oblivious to. Jason was clear that Julian was always keen to emphasise the importance of keeping noisy power supplies as far away from sensitive preamp circuits. Then, in the next answer, he’s advocating the benefits of the SN3 which has a massive transformer sitting in the same box right next to the preamp.
Of course, everyone knows that this is an accepted compromise with integrated amps but the fact that the interviewer just nodded made me smile!
Yes, it certainly wasn’t what you can probing, but that wasn’t its purpose.
Quite
I agree that 8 people seem quite a lot.
Don’t get why “forget using FLAC as storage is so cheap & use WAV instead”. I thought that both WAV and FLAC were equally uncompressed but that FLAC stored album covers (so must be slightly bigger in size). So why isn’t it “forget using WAV and use FLAC as storage is so cheap”? What am I missing here?
FLAC is a compressed file I think, perhaps you’re referring to AIFF? Which is why I use AIFF.
Not according to DB Poweramp “FLAC lossless uncompressed”…
FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec, an audio format similar to MP3, but lossless, meaning that audio is compressed in FLAC without any loss in quality.
So which is the best sounding WAV or FLAC (before I rip my music collection), and why (in theory)? I cant tell any difference…