I have a Rega 1, ND5 XS2 and a Naim integrated amp. And Motif speakers. I like the sound just need to find more listening time! It’s all fired by a bog standard mains extension cable so thinking I might get a little more from the system with a decent power block. All for under £500 by the way! So if anyone has suggestions and recommendations I’d be happy to receive them. An Atlas EOS 2.5 has been mooted. Thanks in advance folks.
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There are lots of threads here on this that are worth reading.
I’d argue that:-
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In most rooms, you need to go quite a way on the upgrade path in almost any direction before it becomes good value in time and money to pursue better power supply to the hifi. The cables in the box are usually fine.
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Naim boxes like star-earthing - the more you have, the more benefit it brings. Using a Hydra from Grahams is an easy and affordable option here, and many with £50k+ mega-systems swear by them.
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Many others report good results using Naim Powerline cables. However, they are a lot of money, esp if the box count ever grows.
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Instead or as well, many use an expensive dedicated power block, often with excellent results.
There seems to be hot debate about whether a £2000 block can really be audibly bette than a £200 block, often among people with systems that cost more than a small car.
However, avoiding a tatty extension cable (from Tesco in 2010) is as sensible as avoiding a wall socket that needs a good waggle to make it work.
- For the more hardcore among us, whichever of the above they have done (or after deciding to stick with the cables that came in the box), the final step is often spending £500+ to get an electrician to fit a dedicated supply from the meter to dedicated sockets near the hifi.
If sound quality is worse when lots of people are using electricity or you get clicks when the light is turned on or the fridge door opens or whatever, then a dedicated supply may well be very important. If not, it may well not be top of your To Do list.
- If you have a Supernait, you already have a very good amp. Assuming that you haven’t good bad choices of interconnect or speaker cable, and you haven’t got the 2 boxes literally one on top of the other, and your speakers are vaguely correctly positioned, I suspect that the best way to use £500 is not to spend it on anything at all, but to save towards upgrading your favourite source.
The ND5XS2 is very good - I use one with 82/Hicap/250 and Neat Xplorers in a second system. It can be made even better - to many ears a second-hand outboard Naim nDAC makes it about as good as an NDX2.
Your turntable is also great VFM. However, if you use it quite a lot, then upgrading to a materially better turntable would make sense. The rest of your system is plenty good enough for you to hear the benefit of a much better turntable if you want to go down that road.
Even today, you can buy quite a lot of good vinyl for £500.
That is all imho and other people will have other opinions of course.
Good luck!
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Make your own I do.
No bodge just the right equipment for the job.
No kidology or oneupmanship. 
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Ditto, make your own, you get to choose your brand(s) of plug, sockets, cable and how you wire it.
With the caveat: only make your own, if you have required knowledge, skill and ability
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If you don’t know what you are doing, don’t build your own mains block. There’s more to it than just grabbing some components and put it together. If you care about your products and your house and life that is.
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Do not use money on a mains block or cables. Not now. Save you money for more music or better components.
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Yes I should add the caveat, make your own, providing you have knowledge, skill and ability.
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Wireworld Matrix 2. Is the common choice without paying excessive amounts. I prefer the Matrix 2 in my set up to the well regarded Musicworks G3.
@Darkebear has one with the S1 Statement in his active system. Good enough for his system then good enough for yours.
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Thanks everyone for the input- I dont have the skills or inclination for the diy approach but appreciate it must be satisfying for those who do.
Years ago at a different house I put in a dedicated spur and will do again if the opportunity arises.
But consensus so far is spend the money elsewhere although I do feel, perhaps irrationally, that I should connect via something a little better than the Tesco special I use now.
I don’t have a £50k system… but I do have a Grahams Hydra…!!
Simply & Effective.
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Good point. I should have said “even with” or “including”. Similarly, you don’t need a Statements system to benefit from a dedicated supply.
Graham’s Hydra.
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I would take your Tesco block and place it in the trash. That’s where it belongs, not powering a nice system like yours. It will be severely degrading it.
If you are not confident or competent to make your own block, which for your budget would be your best option IMO, then I would buy a Russ Andrews Powerbar. £135 for a 4 way. Excellent for the money and very well-made. No point in spending any more than this IMO unless you are going to spend upwards of £1K. Don’t go for the Superclamp upgrade option. It will sound worse.
If you really don’t want to spend that much then MCRU do a very basic block for £35. I know the block they use and although it’s a basic plastic mass-market block the casework is much heavier guage plastic then normal and the internal bus-bars are much heavier guage than the usual cheap mass-market blocks. Also MCRU have removed the neon. It won’t be as good as the RA one but it will be significantly better then the Tesco block and it’s very cheap,
I own the Atlas block you mention but I don’t use it as I don’t like the way it sounds. I wouldn’t buy a Graham’s Hydra as you will lose the Powerline Lite advantage. Also I don’t think they do a 2 way one so you will have a spare tail which is not recommended.
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I got a PowerBlock from RA nearly 20 years ago and run my 2.0 and 5.1 systems off it. Excellent quality and a noticeable improvement right from the off. Assuming the PowerBars are equivalently good, that would strike me as a good bet.
(mind you, I’ve just seen how much a Powerblock costs today, and I certainly couldn’t justify the current price!)
Mark
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I haven’t heard it but it would need to be exceptionally good to justify a nearly £2K price tag.
The Chord M6 at £2K which I use easily justifies its cost for me. As do the two S6’s £1K each) which I use to power the router/switch and my TV/Apple Box/Blu ray player which has optical out routed through my Qutest DAC. I’ve invested very heavily in mains block simply because to my ears they make a huge improvement to my musical enjoyment which I genuinely don’t believe could have been obtained any other way.
I’ve tried several cheaper blocks around the £200 - £500 price mark and they were all very so-so to my ears. That’s why I would opt for home-made if I couldn’t afford the Chords.
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True. From memory, I paid about £2-300 for mine in about 2004. They’ve gussied it up a bit since then, which explains the higher price - some filtering, I think, and better sockets than they used before - but I’m happy both with the price I paid for mine and the effect it had (has).
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I’m with Formelyknowasmoog and DB on this one. I’m using a Matrix2 on my system and find it works great. I’ve borrowed my dealers Musicworks G3 with the sparkly bottom and for sure it’s better but it’s seven time the cost!
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With OPs system Wireworld Matrix 2. I use mine for router, first network switch and NAS drive. Previously I used it on main system.
On main system I use Musicworks G3 with acouplex base. That was stage 2 in my blocks upgrade when I went to 500DR.
The Wireworld Matrix 2 or Graham’s hydra is a great starting place. At your level of kit powerline lites are very good.
Same experience here. I have now the Furutech 609, near 3k euros with taxes.
However, with the OP system, I would more begin with something like the matrix or Graham
A Naim dac on the Nd5xs2 would be the biggest upgrade.
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Musicline Netzleiste
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