I’ve made two hefty upgrades in the last month - swapped my 250 for a 300 in the summer promo, and upgraded my Dynaudio Contour 20s to Confidence 20s. I have a 252 and an nDac which I will add a 555ps to very soon. Would the ND555 be wasted in my system? I will make the jump to a 552 but not for some time.
Cheers
Luke
I would consider a pre loved NDS / 555PS and sell the Ndac and enjoy that for a while. I found it to be a big step up from Ndac /NDX/ 555. (Plenty about at really good prices and you could add a second 555 / super lumina inter connect if you want to fully optimise)
Source and source software will no doubt improve over time so 13k on a streamer doesn’t seem that sensible to me.
Not sure if digital is your only source but if you have a TT then a 552 would be a consideration before ND555
At this level I’m sure you would get fab support from your local dealer for home demo etc.
Gary
I use a ND555 in my 252 based system and it absolutely superb.
I’ve had the the ND555 for nearly twelve months and it still surprises me at the way it communicates the music in my system.
I was previously using a NDX/XPSdr and after having the ND555 and 555PSdr on demo it didn’t take long to realise that the ND555 is rather special.
As always a home demo is a must.
nDAC with 555 is very special. Your Confidence 20 speakers are really nice sounding. If you bought an Innuos Zenith and Audiophilleo + PurePower USB to Spdif you would have a top quality streamer with the same DAC as an NDS/ND555. I have a thread on the Innuos etc. I now have preloved 552/500 serviced but unDRed, and the streaming sounds superb.
My Zenith Mk 2 and Audiophilleo was about half price so I was lucky. Best to demo and decide for yourself.
Phil
@drlaj i good friend of mine has ND555/555/252/300 and loves it, also has very high spec LP12
I personally think the 252/300 combo is more than capable of exracting the most from all sources to be honest - love mine, I may look at 555 PSU for my NDX or other routes (melico) with seperate DAC
I have nd555 with 252/300 all dr…it sounds wonderful to my ears.
I belief the 252 is good enough to let the ND555 shine. And as you plan to get to a 552 anyhow it would make sense to already benefit from that upgrade now.
No, it will be delightful and will bring a long-lasting smile to your face.
Enjoy, BF
As a Dynaudio user/fan, I am very interested in your thoughts of your speaker upgrade. I used to own C1 Mk11’s, and the Confidence 20’s might be an end game speaker for me. Any chance you can post a photo of your new speakers? You are the first person I have heard of that has the C20’s at home, it seems that there was a very long delay in releasing them.
My dealer advised me to get the 552 first as he thought NDS/555dr into 552 would sound better than ND555/555dr into 52. If you are going to end up at 552/ND555 at some point anyway I think either order for getting them will be just fine
Definitely not “wasted.” Right now it’s probably hard to find a used ND555; easier to find a used 552. If you’d consider gently used, then that may influence your upgrade path. What is your source(s) for the Naim Dac? The ND555 will likely change your infrastructure a lot, unless you already do in-home streaming. I vastly prefer in-home streaming, especially as it opens you up to having a second system to share the same library.
Hard to find, except for the one that the Audiobarn has for sale in the UK.
Outside the UK, probably rare as hen’s teeth!
552’s here in the States come up used VERY rarely
I don’t yet have them home but will do in the next few weeks; I’ll post pictures when I do. I listened to many speakers at that price point - kudos, bw, neat - but preferred the dynaudio, especially when running with Super Lumina cable. They’re beautifully finished too, but I guess they should be for the price.
Only digital… so the ND555 is looking like a good next move for me.
Must say, I’m loving what the 300 has done over the 250, especially at low volume levels.
Looking forward to you getting them set up, thanks.
Faced with a similar dilemma, I went for a 552 first from a 252 and stuck with my NDS. I preferred NDS/555PS/552 over ND555/555PS/252, both all DR and both into a 300DR, at the dealers’. I therefore took the 552 home to demo in my own system. SOLD!
But the 552 was available pre loved from the dealer which is rare, so it was a no-brainer for me.
Naim were quite happy to run a comparison of NDS and ND555 using 252/300 into dynaudio contours, it certainly showed the benefit of the 555 over the NDS, but not the benefit of a second power supply, if there is one.
The 555 could satisfy as a sole source, I never thought that of the NDS.
I knew I made the right decision passing on a gently-used second 555ps. One box too many!
I have heard a very clear benefit from the introduction of a second 555dr to ND555 on a friend’s system. He has a 552 as well, so I don’t know if that enables a greater benefit from the second 555dr than the 252 referred to above
Nor do I and the room was evenly split over the second ps, I was firmly on the no side.