Just a minor update after the system has been burning in for months.
Initially I postulated that the NDX/XPSdr fronted Naim system was more detailed. That’s no longer true now that things are flowing so nicely. This is really in praise of the D-N150 DAC. Listening to Montrose Paper Money last night, and the Luxman DAC was just extracting so much effortles detail and bringing the performance to life. It does it by stealth so it isn’t immediately apparent like some clinical sounding sources. But the ease with which it untangles simultaneous cymbol strikes without any of the smearing into one sound is incredible. You can hear the minute changing of pitch as the metal disc of the cymbol tilts up and down on the decay despite other stuff happening over the top.
You can sense how dry the singer’s throat is midway through a track compared to the start. It is a marvel as a DAC and shows there is miles more to be had from Ti PCM chips if implemented well. I’ve yet to use the CD player function.
It’s not massively expensive as far as DACs go but with no DSD or more than one of each input type, and no adjustable gain. The philosophy appears to be on making a limited set of features perform really well rather dilute the performance for something more versatile.
The SQ-N150 might be getting all the review limelight but if source comes first, the D-N150 has been massively overlooked in my opinion. And for those with a large CD collection unsure of how to transition to streaming, Luxman’s approach of CD players with digital input makes huge sense. CD is static technology but streaming transports evolve. I’m totally sold on bundling a DAC with a CD transport over a streaming transport.
Two thumbs up D-N150. You elegant understated beauty.
It is interesting to note that the D-N150 with a small A4 footprint can achieve so much when compared to the 2 box NDX/XPR. I’ve looked at the brochure of the D-N150 on the Luxman page and there isn’t any cutting-edge technology or exotic parts used in the unit. Perhaps just simple but solid engineering and implementation.
I am sorely tempted by the Luxman sq n150 for a second system. Choosing speakers will be interesting as I doubt they will pair well with my PMC FB1s. Might try anyway …
In the D-N150 manual is says when using the USB input from a Windows OS you need to download the Driver Software from Luxman or it may “cause malfunction”. I assume the Lenovo ThinkCentre uses Windows OS, did you use the Luxman driver? It’s not needed for a Mac.
Almost no chance that’ll work. You need a speaker that presents both friendly phase angles and a nearly flat impedance. Tube amps like to see the impedance they are rated for without dips.
That doesn’t always mean high sensitivity thought it’s a place to start. At the lower end of the sensitivity scale but easy to drive are larger JBL monitors (dealers seem to like pairing the SQ-N150 with these). If you need to crank it, you’re going to need both easy to drive and high sensitivity together. Omega, Zu, Decware, Voxative etc.
If the room isn’t huge and you don’t go crazy on volume, it might be okay. The SQ-N150 will handle 4Ohms. But tubes aren’t very flexible about dips below their operating thresholds.
OTOH, they don’t clip like transistors or burn out when overloaded so experimenting is pretty safe.
I’d be interested to hear if anyone’s tried it but I’m not planning to.
I’m more likely to give single driver speakers a go on the end of my 500, should the next house disagree with the NBLs.
