Dealer just messaged me that the NAP 300 DR has landed. Should make its way to me within a week. Preparing myself for a big jump but at the same time trying to reserve my expectations.
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What power supply are you using with your 282 ?
hicap dr
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Just noticed that my profile was missing the Hicap and hence your very apropriate question @james_n 
Fixed that. Thanks
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Just checking - enjoy your 300DR 
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Great move. Enjoy.
Having myself made the move from 282/200 to 282/250 in the past I think the jump will be even larger than you ever imagined.
I went from a 150x to a 300 (non DR). I initially missed the excitement of the 150x, but quickly learnt to love the elegance, power and poise of the 300. Enjoy!
So the NAP 300 DR arrived. Connected and straight out of the box, this is an impressive beast.
I went through a few favorite tracks quickly, Queen, Whitney Houston, Andre Rieu and a couple of EDM tracks. The difference is night and day. Was wondering if this was going to be a “wow” moment just like the jump from 122x to nac282 and I can assure you it is just as impressive.
First off, the speakers seem to double in size. They don’t play twice as loud but the tonal signature and soundstage is that of a much larger speaker. The soundstage now extends far out beyond the speakers and above them. The sound overall - and the bass in particular - becomes more 3 dimensional. It may seem like an oxymoron because as the bass has become deeper and taughter, I am also preceiving the decay, follow through and reverberation of the drums much more than before.
Excess sibilance which became a bit of an issue when I added the Superlumina DIN-DIN cable a month back has been remedied completely with the introduction of the NAP 300 DR. The upper mids and trebble are silky smooth with a nice dark background.
Lastly, and forgive me for extending this post, the biggest enlightenment came with “And The Waltz Goes On” from Andre Riue. The track is an orchestral piece that starts with the strings section playing a melody and the melody is repeated 4 or 5 times with each time a new section (flutes, then trombones and so on) joining one at a time with each repetition of the melody.
With the nap 150x I could hear that more instruments are being added to the music but with the NAP300 the scale and loudness increases with each section coming in as it builds up to full blown enveloping orchestra.Couldn’t hear that before. Just magical!
Lastly, with the nap150x the sound kept on improving as the volume dial went up to 9 or 9:30 and then the musical presentation started to fall apart and the soundstage crumbled and the tonal balance became bass light. No such issues with the NAP 300 DR as I have gone up to 10 without any concerns. The lower noise floor and distortion of the amp allows to play louder easily.
Summary? This is bloody good. with the NAC282 and the Hi-cap it all sounds right. The XPS DR is due to arrive next month and I wonder what that will bring to the party. There was a plan to upgrade speakers but with the way things are sounding I am in no rush to do so.
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Nice write up, your findings mirror my own when I upgraded from a 250DR to the 300DR when I was using a 282/HiCap DR as you are.
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