I’m not familiar with either the ND5XS2 or Naim DAC. They were after my time with Naim. However I do know that the sort of improvements brought about by my Chord mains blocks were absolutely fundamental, both musically and sonically.
That’s around £7K’s worth of mains blocks and associated mains cables and Chord Power Arrays. That’s around half the cost of the source/amp/speakers! Absolutely crazy some would say. I could have used home-made blocks and spent £7K on a better DAC or something.
I disagree with that. The mains blocks and cables I’ve bought are every bit as significant to system performance as the black boxes themselves. Even more so.
Because I firmly believe that the sort of sonic and musical improvements they bring are not available with better black boxes at any price. And to me those improvements matter more.
It’s analogous to racks. There’s little point in purchasing a top class costly system and plonking it down on a sideboard. I would rather have a much cheaper system on Fraim because that will sound fundamentally musically superior.
The caveat here is that one only gets those sort of fundamental improvements with very costly mains blocks. You just won’t get them with more reasonably priced blocks or home-made ones. Which is why I believe many people are very sceptical and dismissive of expensive mains blocks. They have never actually experienced one in their system, so they remain totally unaware of what’s possible from a really excellent one.
As always this is all just my own experience and opinion. I’m happy for others not to share my views. We must all find our own path to audio bliss.
I’d recommend the PowerBlack Distribution Black from Custom Hi-Fi Cables, run by Sean Jacobs who designs the Innuous Statement power supplies amongst other things. It’s an excellent star-earthed distribution block that sounds better than anything I’ve heard, including the Powerigel with Powerline cables. And it fits your budget.
Thanks again for all the contributions - all good food for thought. The Custom HiFi Cables gear certainly looks excellent and trust it sounds the same so maybe one for the future.
It may sound unreasonable; but I do have reservations about buying from a company that does not have an online store or seemingly any other way to purchase from them. eBay? I’m sure they are actually very good, but I would rather invest my hard earned cash elsewhere.
I suppose I’m crazier than you. I use a mains power cable that’s costlier than the DAC that’s connected to it. Fortunately the amp and streamer are costlier than their respective mains power cables. The total cost of cables in my main system is around £11k which is approximately half the cost of the source/amp/speakers.
I agree with others, for your budget I feel that MCRU and CHC offer great value and are well made.
I was similar to yourself and didn’t want to spend too much and now have a MCRU block and I am very happy with it. They have a good selection and you can always contact David for advice. The same goes for Sean at CHC.
Or as others have said, if you have the skill to make your own. @Skeptikal has posted good info on this which is worth searching out.
Yes 100% DIY - but only if you have knowledge/skill.
Mine has evolved over the years & the last upgrade was to 4mm/2 cable (the same size as a ‘full fat’ Naim PowerLine)
Titanex H07RN-F 4mm/2
Furutech FI-1363 13A plug (with Bussman of course).
3x MK Unswitched Double Sockets
x1 MK Swiched Socket (for aux stuff)
L N & E wired in Radial (Star)
Bearing this in mind from the OP as much as the DIY approach has significant merits, especially if one doesn’t want to spend a fortune, it doesn’t really seem either appropriate or helpful in any way.
For some of us this stuff is second nature. For others it’s a closed book that should remain closed for the sake of safety.
The new-ish AudioQuest PowerQuest 707 is a great unit at a real world price, and it comes with a nice power cord. I’m using one to power TV, cable box, modem, router, EE8 switch, Nas, and a pair of Rel subs.
Imho nothing wrong, I’ve tested variety of situations when cable set connected to the dac (digital, interconnect, power) was several times of the cost and only power could be 3x. And vice-versa when relatively expensive units were used with basic cables. Good power and cable investments always work. Problem is that they might be not transferable between the systems, what was fabulous can appear average in the new setup. And it’s costly to start from the beginning.
I believe we shouldn’t post URL’s here so I won’t, but unless I’ve misunderstood… Custom Hi Fi Cables DO have a website and it can easily be found by searching with one of those search engine things.
