NAP 350 - Who’s Tempted?

You don’t have to spend S1 money to hear what the 552 does, in fact you don’t have to spend a penny if you have have the right gear

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Agree, I mean I was talking specifically on the comparison S1pre vs NAC552.

But absolutely agree that the search for sound excellence could go with so many permutations, incl. outside Naim realms.

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But what? You won’t have the Naim sound. So what’s the point.
DCS sound is not for everyone. And don’t forget that your DCS Vivaldi with its upsampler costs near the price of the S1.

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You dont need my dcs kit to experience it, but it obviously highlights it well.
The main point of it all is that the nd555 is capable off more than what you will get if it goes through a 552dr.
After that then your choice is whatever you feel or like best.
Nothing to do with the so called naim sound, its all about what a 552dr does or should i say hold backs as far as the original sound goes from the source.

But this all has not much about who’s tempted by the 350

As you said before, you can have always more. There will always be a bottleneck somewhere.
In your case , as the DCS Vivaldi is considered among the best digital source in the market ( with MSB and Wadax), it will surely show much more with a bigger system than with the Vitus integrated, Kudos 808 and 20 m2 room.

I wonder how different your Vivaldi would sound in a full Vitus Masterpieces system.

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As said there’s just about always something better or some other direction to go in.
But unfortunately for me and about 99.9% of us we will never ever even get close to it.
I know i am very lucky to have my dCS kit and it has given me much more insite into music than i have ever experienced beforehand.
I am 100% sure it could be even better as once again 99.9 % of everyone systems are all under preforming.
But the dcs kit does bring me one of the best sources you can get, so as i lose going through my system, room and finally my ears, hopefully i still have a bigger percentage left than i would do starting with a lower performance source.

But it does sound fantastic and even other members off here can also verify it, so it’s not just me that thinks it sounds nice.lol

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Come on. Not again please. We know the drill.

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Not again, lol
I am only answering questions that i got asked.
I guess reading the many same as before and before and before on cables, power supplies etc, etc, is far better, lol.
It’s a forum this is how they work

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As per the opinion on S1 pre can exploit more of ND555 than NAC552 could, I’d be really interested to see whether my NAC552 (with NAP 500DR) could do the same to the NSS333 (+NPX300) more than what NAC332 + NAP350 could do :thinking::thinking: .

In that case I would only need to upgrade from my NDX2 but still get better SQ and musicality than the whole full set of NC300, while waiting for “New 500” - that I hope Naim development team would be really super duper dedicated to improve so much so that will take at least 5 more years to launch :crazy_face:- so I can have enough time to save money for it :grin:

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Not tempted.

I already have a pair of powerful Naim monoblocks.

In a balanced all-Naim olive & black system with:

  • 2 dedicated radials
  • 2 GIK absorber/diffusors
  • SL2s planted onto the concrete floor through the carpet and underlay
  • racks completed with thick poles
  • three brains components re-mounted on Xanthe-designed glass slabs

A friend who owns a new very posh vinyl system with Accuphase and ProAcs came round for pizza, music and chat last night, and said that my system sounds the best it ever has.

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You’re becoming quite the evangelist, repent your ways, remove the 552, behold the glory of dCS :smile:

.sjb

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dCS = bland

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Only to fully hear the NSS333 plus NPX300 at its best, but no I will never go for the 332 and 350s
I am sort of disappointed that there are redundant components in the 333 that are never used if the PS is used. I could never really appreciate this wastage in the days of the CDX2

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Active 350’s have to be an interesting option vs. a single 500DR. I still have a good friend running active 135’s/52/NDS into DBL’s, so can pretty much compare this (as soon as I get home) against my 552DR/500DR into DBL’s. There is a noticeable difference in finesse, timing, imaging and timbral accuracy in favour of the 552DR/500DR, which his active system can’t seem to overcome. Everything just sounds more realistic on the 552DR/500DR. However, the active system (with its rawness and effortless dynamics) does give you a more ‘live’ appreciation of music. A sort of front row, in your face version. I love it for short listening sessions at medium volumes but it gets very tiring at very high volumes. Getting home and putting on the same tracks and turning up the volume, to get he fans working and it just transports you to the venue. Every track becomes an adventure. I’ve only ever heard this bettered and that was by a full Statement system.

Having run a run a 135 six pack active system in the 90’s I found it very fiddly and time consuming. Lots of fettling was constantly needed to keep it on top form. I do find the 552/500 almost plug and play in comparison. If the 350’s are good then it may be a close run thing against a 500 but I’m not sure it would be enough to tempt me away from what I get now.

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I seen this mentioned on here a few times, is it real though - can’t find a mention anywhere else. Is the timing known?

Later this year is all I know. Still in development. Not sure how public it is so I hope I haven’t let out anything I shouldn’t. Have two separate sources for this

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You wish
:laughing:

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We had a look at this before going from 250DR to 300DR as one thought was active 250. Our SF speakers are (in the manual) designed to be biamped.

Exposure certainly do a 2 box crossover/PSU, with settings to accommodate most setups. Although they may be a case of “close to” rather than the exact roll offs from a custom snaxo designed for one speaker model.

Doesn’t surprise me if Kudos are looking to fill the market gap created by naim backing away from active setups. Small volume one would suspect, but then Kudos speakers are hardly ubiquitous.

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I would never call a 552 a bottleneck. IMHO I think some people run away with these comments and they aren’t a true reflection of performance.

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I still Love my 52 very much and have no Impression that 52/135 is a bottleneck for my nd555
Will it be better with another pre amp … ?
552 / 500 will be different - But Not Olive. ;0)
And will s1 be better Than 552 - could be… But does it matter ? :slight_smile:

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