As mentioned a couple of times in this topic already, people have a firm belief in the fact that Naim is currently working on a successor … I’m very curious to see what 2020 will bring.
For the time being, I’m more than happy with my 272 and will upgrade the NAP 200 to a NAP 250 DR within a couple of weeks.
To me the 272 is a fine Pre amp and as I don’t use streaming services and only play local files I wouldn’t upgrade to one of the new streamers and a separate pre. I’d simply buy a new DAC, the real pity for me is as Naim no longer makes one it probably be some one else’s.
Does anyone play hi res/24 bit files on a 272 from a NAS or server?
Do 24 bit files played locally sound signficantly better than 16 bit files on a 272?
I can’t test this as I don’t have a NAS or server, but am considering whether to get one.
I have quite a few 24 bit files that I play from my Unitiserve (direct) to my 272, they definitely sound better than 16 bit (well mostly it still does depend on the recording).
Jim, I think this depends indeed largely on the quality of the recordings. I have a couple of 24 bit files and they definitely sound great, but in all fairness: I did not have the 16 bit files at hand to make a real comparison.
Don’t forget that the rest of your system needs to be capable to make these differences audible.
I tried several HiRes albums when I had my 272. I thought they sounded better than CD quality, but the differences were subtle. I did one comparison of a choral album in Hi Res vs the same album in CD quality and found the former slightly preferable: a little smoother, a little more realistic and a little more dynamic. Recently I downloaded 5 ECM albums from Qobuz, two in HiRes, and it was a couple of days before I got round to editing the metadata and transferred them to the NAS, by which time I had forgotten which of them were HiRes. So when I listened to them, I set myself the task of picking out which were the HiRes albums. Although I managed to do this successfully (though not using 272, now) I could not rule out the possibility that what I was hearing was better recording quality. My current rule is to go for HiRes where the extra cost is no more than a few pounds but CD quality can still be excellent.
Are you truly expecting Naim to continue to thrive and produce the products we all appreciate - and continue to service all their older models which few other manufacturers offer - if they don’t operate in a financially sustainable way?