I’ve heard it said a few times now that the 350’s are the standouts of the NC range.
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Just as active 250’s or 300’s would…
Definitely Different. Better… or Worse…? Hmm…
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For sure. That’s a different conversation though isn’t it?
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I am friendly with the son of the guy who has just received your old 552. He’s happy that you prefer the 332. You are happy. Peter and Ross (who are good guys) are happy with another sale. No one is cheated or deceived as you made the decision to switch based on listening. All is good as far as I can see Gerry. Enjoy!
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Fair enough. I’ve wanted to go active for many years. The problem I have is all the speakers that are built for active that I’ve heard are not to my liking at all. I have NAP 135s sitting in a second system that I would love to use with a 242 SNAXO but until I find speakers that I like the sound of passively setup I can’t put this dream into practice. My holy grail speaker is the DBL but who has space for that in London. 
Btw I couldn’t live with the highly regarded KUDOS Titan series.i find the midrange very closed in but the sharp treble is the deal breaker for me. Exceptional bass mind you.
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Cool picture!
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Can’t find a tidy pair of IBLs. I have the Kans but I don’t want to modify any speaker.
I’m so jealous you have the high gloss DBLs. Talk about a unicorn amongst unicorns.
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Thanks for the update the 552 is still a good Pre that I enjoyed very much over the years,
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Agreed 
I am a bit surprised that you could not come up with the titans.
Have you heared them with Olive?
With 52/135 it is very true what you discribed - too neutral in the mids and in some songs a bit sibilant.
With 552dr and especially 500dr is is a complete new game! Upper mid dominance is back - treble peaks are gone.
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I agree, I find the 222/250NC punch way above their OC hierarchy equivalents which is not unreasonable given the advances in tech and change in sound signature. It doesn’t surprise me some prefer the 300 NC range to the 500 OC. Whether or not one is better than the other is not particularly important if you’re happy with the system you have.
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I heard the 808 titans with the 252/300 and NC300 series
I’ve heard 606 with 252/SC 300
I’ve home demoed SUPER20a and Titan 505 with 552/135.
It’s just not my sound. Beautiful speakers though.
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What is it you don’t like? Thanks!
He wrote above:
Btw I couldn’t live with the highly regarded KUDOS Titan series.i find the midrange very closed in but the sharp treble is the deal breaker for me. Exceptional bass mind you.
… in my system they are dull as you know 
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Closed midrange and sharp treble. That’s why you like naca5 then 
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The home demos were with chord epic xl. IIRC the demo 808 was once with Siltech. Can’t remember which cable was used the second time.
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They didn’t use a turntable but Naim Solstice is in the room and records next to the 500 system.
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A lot of very interesting comments on here, and as always things can end up getting quite heated over what every one perceives as better. Just a few comments from me on some of the subjects and opinions aired…
A few months after NC came out I asked my dealer if I should be looking at changing. His answer was a categoric no. In his opinion the pricing of the NC was perfectly representative of performance and 500 kit was still the place to be if you were into music!
Having done the factory visit a couple of times over the years I think owners of serviced kit will find that the small tweaks, improvements and discoveries (made over time to new kit) actually gets used on the older kit to bring it up to date.
Some will know that I’ve managed to secure a Shunyata Sigma from a mate. His system is simply in a different league to most and certainly a long way from the orbit of common Naim systems. It is however fronted by a three box DCS system, which I think he said was about £90k. He played me a few tracks. Yes, it was very detailed, spacious and sounded nice but was it better than my ND555? It was certainly different but for me it lacked that typical Naim ‘boogie’ factor that I love so much! If I had the chance would I swap my ND555 for something worth three times the cost? I’m afraid not. We all just like what we like despite what other people say!
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