There is noise floor, and when I tried the 350, there wasn’t!
But that low level hissing sound I could only hear if I stuck my ear a centimeter from the speaker driver, who would do such thing anyway?
My listening position is only a little over 2 meters from the speaker and I don’t hear any hissing at all.
Well the 350 is quieter in that respect, so probably they sound “cleaner”, I give them that. But to say it better than the 500s, I wouldn’t say that. I still like the sound of my 500s, despite having only a bare NDX2 as source (which I’ll replace or upgrade).
That’s what I feel missing when I listen to the NCs. The “weight”, the “brunt and grunt”, or whatever!! Just happened I’m a fan of country music, so I like my existing 500s better, but an avid serious classical music afficionados would love the NCs better, I guess.
Also if I may add, if I were into meditation listening to some (new age?) instrumentals like the one with the sounds natures, like beach waves, or forest, or waterfalls, etc, I’d grab these NC gears over my existing 500s. Well, but it’s just me
I think you have captured the “essence” between old and new 200 series that i heard. I am hoping the 300 brings both clarity and weight, but that may be forlorn. The interesting demo would be to try individual NC components with the old kit to see where the “weight” is lost. Without the “weight” of the presentation there are many other brands that spring to mind worth considering.
Perhaps an extended listen i could begin to enjoy the new kit……but then why bother?
Sorry haven’t read the rest of the thread as it’s grower since i was here, service every years from what understand is incorrect when dealing with the 500 series, last time i herd it was 15 years.
Could be wrong (hope not).
I find this weird discussion about the comparison new 300 and old 500. It’s indeed true that the new 300 is clean and less noisy, while you only would hear that with the sound off. The cleanses of the 300 is more modern and more close to other brands. And the grip of the 4 mono blocks I heard during the show was impressive. But……
I didn’t have the impression that the 300 was better, it lacked the detail, it lacked the tonal correctness of the 500 and some other aspects. Now would it get close with using the ND555 as source, yes I belief so as I belief the source is the weaker point in the chain together with the pre-amp. But it’s all just my impression at a show without having a clear A/B …… it’s at the end also a question of do you like sound signature etc. It was clear however that the 4 monoblocks where special and might punch above their weight….
It just occurred to me that I had never heard so much negativity about the 500 series until the last week or so in one or two threads regarding the new 300 series. Have I missed some older threads on this or is this a new thing?
I LOVE mine even though it’s +20 years old (service made 2018). Look at it! Such a beauty. The new boxes doesn’t even come close IMO. And the green lights. I never get tired of it. It’s a Classic. For ever and ever amen.
In order to create this complex structure from solid aluminium we collaborated with a specialist foundry in North Wales more used to casting high-performance parts for aerospace and defence applications than for high-end hi-fi. They offered the kind of quality and fine tolerances our flagship amplifier demanded
The manufacturing process involves multiple steps — first a pattern is created from which the injection tool is cast. The tool is then heated to incredibly high temperatures (the exact number is a closely-guarded trade secret) by virtue of a massive kiln (pictured) before molten aluminium is injected. once the part has cooled and solidified the outer mould is broken away with high-pressure water jets to extract the finished aluminium piece.
A risky marketing strategy to promote monoblocks and active systems again at this age when many folk are more wanting to reduce the box count.
However, it will be good for extra fraim shelve sales, and extra speaker cables, and… SNAXO sales?
The non DR 500 also means bit more to me than other boxes on a different level. As I understand it was the last product Julian Vereker laid his blessings on and it was as far as he could get before leaving for another galaxy
I agree Dunc the 552dr is not that quiet… its was I think born of the vinyl era…where that noise would be lost the digital domain exposes it somewhat…but in reality this matters little. We will see the new 300 series will probably have a totally different sonic character resolving yes - better technically probably - enjoyable yes - different yes…exciting times. Don’t rule out the 552 on musicality though - its a tough act to follow…
I have no beef in any off it, it doesn’t bother me one bit if the 300 kit is worse, same or better.
I don’t own any classic naim gear these days, so once again it doesn’t matter to me what outcome really.
But as i have said many times now lowering the noise floor is what it’s all about, it’s not just the hiss you get from the speakers, it’s the complete noise the gear makes when being used to play music, this hampers the complete sound as even naim themselves say on the 300 series video. Plus it’s what you are buying when you add power supplies.
It’s obvious the new gear is going to sound different, much cleaner, and clearer, and might come as a big shock to some. But with better noise floor come better music.
But it’s interesting to see some early reports on the new 300 series kit, and very similar views to what i have been saying, plus all this kit is straight out the box still, so will certainly only get better as the month goes by.
Very interesting times for a lot off naim guy’s going forward, as to which way to go.
Hi, even if noise floor is very important, you can’t focus only on that. As some here, I have heard very expensive systems which are dead silent but not enjoyable to my ears. Soulution, CH Precision, Esoteric…come to my mind.
Yes, you hear a lot of details. Instruments are better separated, better layered….But it’s not all.
If you focus so much on the noise floor, why have you bought a tubes phono? You see yourself that the musicality was the reason of your choice. If not top transistor phono amps would have given a lower noise floor.
Obviously but naim kit is always going to have some off the naim sound left i should think.
But i totally agree some kit can sound cold especially when you pair it with kit all with the same sound.
That’s why carful matching makes all the difference, and you must always try for yourself.
But a lower noise floor is 100% what you want to achieve, after that you are free to add in whatever you like to achieve the sound you like. But having that low noise floor will certainly bring you more off everything and show up much more your weaknesses in your system.
It really never ends as i am sure some that get the full 6 boxes will then only find the speakers are really letting the side down.
Exactly how I feel! As said that non DR 500 sound a lot like the 135 but a lot more 135. DR has changed the signature, while not in a bad way just different. Each to his/her own.
Just touching on the topic off servicing. What if a unit had sat in a storage location unopened from the factory for eight years. Would that need servicing at about the same time as a unit of the same kind that had be working for eight years? Caps dry out and lose capacity over time I read somewhere.
It would be interesting to see how long Naim let caps sit before used by date comes up
One difference would be that the capacitors in the used item would have been at a higher temperature, so would have degraded more quickly because of that.
Also, because of not being in a box, and because of being switched on and off, the used item would have experienced much more variation in temperature, which would’ve also aged and degraded the capacitors more quickly.
Steve Sells gave an estimate of the different rate of decay of capacitors performance according to temperature changes in one of his recent posts iirc.
I totally agree with noise floor…I have gone to long lengths to reduce the noise entering via the NUC and Roon, ended up building my own linear psu supplying the Nuc and my switch. This made a phenominal difference, next I tried woven supply cables to help reject noise - this worked and helped even further. The final result is quiet exceptional through the whole frequency band. So yes noise has a dramatic effect, I have even used linear power supplies on incoming router - this helped Qobuz allot. My next stop is to put in a dedicated mains circuit and use a huge airlink BMU.
