I used to be irritated of the separate power supply boxes but they really makes a differene. But I wish Naim could modernize the idea - make them lighter and smaller (and lower cost :-)).
Instead manufacturers are making ever more blingy big streaming boxes - I got so frustrated that I cancelled the all-in-one streamer I ordered. I want a minimalist HDX-type box that replace the preamp. Just a volume control the rest on the iPad (like Audirvana Linux). Separate power supply is o.k.
Like those made by Grimm perhaps, the MU-1 (server & streamer but no dac) and MU-2 (as MU-1 but with dac and pre-amp)?
I am tempted by this simplicity…
Best regards, BF
I don’t believe for one minute that is the case.
If you take the nDAC as an example. When it is powered from an external PSU, the clock circuit voltage regulator is powered from a dedicated power rail.
Without an external PSU, the clock voltage regulator shares a power rail with the DAC regulators.
So, without the PSU, it isn’t as good as it gets. Adding a power rail to the internal power supply would improve sound quality, at very little cost.
If I was cynical, I’d probably suggest that the bare NDac was hamstrung on purpose. 
You’ve totally misunderstood what I’m saying.
If you remove the option to upgrade the power supply, then the unit automatically becomes as good as it can get. Take away the Burndy input on an nDAC and it’s no longer upgradeable and now not going to perform any better because no such option exists.
What I’m saying is that other manufacturers haven’t necessarily solved the problem of making gear that can’t be improved by adding a power supply. They just don’t provide one. We’ll never know if that Chord preamp, or Luxman CD player sounds better with an external high performance power supply. It’s not on the table.
My point is, what would be the point in Naim taking PSU upgrades off the table entirely? None. They haven’t made them sound worse and only start to work when adding a PSU. They sound great as-is and sound even better with a power supply.
Not strictly true though. There are multiple pieces of kit which sound(ed) decidedly ordinary minus an external power supply.
Did anyone ever run a 202/200 minus both power supplies? Really? End game kit? Far better bang for your buck elsewhere at that time.
Ditto the CDX2. The bare CD player was okay. I lived with it for a year at home until I could afford the XPS2. Add a power supply and you have reviewers saying it was world class.
All the original streamers arguably fell below their CD equivalent until you added a power supply and weren’t really competing with comparable products by others until you did so.
Three auditions of an NDX2 led me to similar conclusions. The bare box, for me, did lots of nice hifi things, but didn’t even begin to engage me until a power supply was added.
Going back to the video I have little reason to go to the Naim home page but thought it would be good to catch up. Found it absolutely extraordinary that the video is the first thing you see. No idea what on earth the thought process is behind that.
There is another option, which is build in the best power supply (best-on-balance, picking a point on the cost/performance curve where most people would struggle to be sure there was an improvement, or where performance steps up to another product level). That should be significantly cheaper than unit+external PS because no reuundancy, as up till now has been the case with many products, and no additional case, burndy etc.
Of course it would cost more than the basic unit, and maybe that is the point - but what I dislike is the redundancy, and plethora o PS choices for some products: If cost between basic PS and best-on-balance is large, then there could be an argument for PS in a separate box, none internally, with only 2 PSs to choose from, basic and the best-on-balance (and maybe that is the case with a few products already).
I think that’s a difficult quandry.
For example, is the 332 today, sans PSU upgrade, on par or superior to other brands’ offerings in the same price class? If the answer is yes, then making it a bit less expensive but with no internal PSU means it can’t even play in the price class it is actually priced in because it would need a PSU and could only be compared to options that cost twice as much. Effectively creating a product gap.
In some ways, the old days of pre amps powered by any of several sub 250 level power amps was simpler. But people whined about that and all the options. Now we have very few options at all but different people will be unhappy about that. For the reasons you mentioned.
Ultimately though, the solution for the consumer is as simple as it is obvious. If someone thinks Naim have got the product mix wrong, then presumably they think some other brand has it right and can just buy that instead. And if they don’t think anyone else has got it right either, then they should probably stop whining.
What’s this discussion highlight is the reality of how difficult it is for a manufacturer to get things “right”. And of course they can’t! What is right for one purchaser is not right for another, and the manufacturer has to choose their target market, or make something they really believe in and hope it has a target market that finds it, which of course is a business risk. And the difficulty then, as the myriad of discussions about integrated amps versus stacks of separates versus all in one’s etc aptly demonstrates is that overtime people change, and or markets change, and the challenge then for the manufacturer is do they change with [some of] their customers changing desires, or do they hope or expect new purchases to come to want what’s the offer. I’m actually glad I’m not a manufacturer!
FWIW, I am absolutely sold on the benefits of a separate power supply as a generalisation*, though I am sure that with the best design and use of appropriate shielding materials et c it should be quite possible to integrate the very best of PS and other electronics, though possibly at a cost that may exceed that the physical separation enabled by a separate box.
I think I agree with all of that.
One thing I do notice though, and this is non technical but a human observation, is that when people whine about the need for extra power supplies and the cost, they are failing to recognise that a 332/300 is in fact a GBP1400 preamp. They want that performance at GBP7000 in a single box. But that’s fundamentally a different product.
And when you compare Naim product with it’s power supply upgrade and compare it with other single box offerings at the same cost as the 2 box Naim offering, you can start to appreciate that. You may of course prefer the sound of another brand but it is clear (or it should be) that a 332/300 is fighting in the GBP15K weight class performance-wise.
Ultimately some people don’t feel like they are getting value for money out of a power supply. The good news is that for the first time ever, they aren’t forced to buy one.
Fourth and final video has dropped. Doesn’t really add clarity to the purpose of these. Roger talks again about clarity and hearing more than in his own studio. Waffles vaguely about this making for more creativity. It’s never clear what is meant by that.
All rather undermined by the dropping of a fairly sensible Audiophiliac video pointing out that chasing perfection is a mugs game. Define your own version of what stuff ought to sound like and go from there. Makes the point that the idea a speaker can accurately reproduce studio or live sound as it was is simply untrue. All feels rather more real than whatever it was Roger and Jason thought they were doing.
This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.