When my 250-2 came back from DR upgrade the first thing I heard was how much better the bass is, and how much the mids became more luscious and warmer, without losing detail. It essentially solved a problem I had with the sound sounding too thin and clinical for me. I also had a HC upgraded to DR at the same time. However, the 250DR just added so much more grip. It’s a bigger sound and most definitely did not go towards a more clinical sound in any regard.
Now I’m getting a 252/300DR so I’ll say a bittersweet goodbye to the 250DR, my longest owned Naim piece.
i take you at your word, sir. as i mentioned upthread, i haven’t done a direct A/B comparison here at home. out of curiosity, was your 250.2 due for a service?
to the claim raised by @anon4489532 – i rather doubt that any Naim amp can, in the grand scheme of things, be accurately described as “lardy”.
Naim did a roadshow of demonstrations with a 250-2, a 250DR and a 300DR, all with 272/XPS-DR as the pre-amp and Focal Sopra 1 or Sopra 2 as the speakers. None of those power amplifiers were remotely close to needing a service.
Lardy is an adjective that I would have associated at the time with the sound of the 250-2 but not at all with either of the other 2 power amplifiers.