Hey Mike, youāre way ahead of me with cabling lolā¦ Did you find a big difference with the Chord Shawlineās over the supplied Naim dims? I understand Naim does ship with good dins but I can definitely see that being high on my list of upgradesā¦ As for speaker cable I biwire my 805D3ās and the right speaker run is around 18-20 feet so itās a expense Iāve geared more towards components BUT with the ND5 XS2 being the final piece of my components I will most definitely look into upgrading them, then thereās always power cabling lolā¦ Damn will it ever endš¤£
All my streaming is thru Tidalā¦
Really?
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I doā¦ I know many donāt buy into biwiring but at the time of the purchase of my previous speakers(Paradigm studio 20v3) Paradigm recommended bi-wiring stating āBi-wiring can improve clarity and openness with less grain and more solidity to the bassāā¦ if there was a chance of improvement I was all in so when I bought my B&Wās they said āBi-wiringās advantages are generally considered to be more subtle than bi-ampingā so again if thereās a advantage to it I decided as long as I already had my system set up that way I just stuck with itā¦
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Understood.
I think its Naim that do not recommend biwiring, but if it works for youā¦
Really Neil? I never saw that from Naim but will definitely look into it. Iām very open minded and if itās not recommended by Naim I would definitely look into why and change it up appropriately. Iām all about the sound and want to get the most out of what I haveā¦
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Hi Capt, itās not quite that black and white. Naimās view is in this FAQ. Note this was written some years back when Naim still made speakers. It does include the text ā Obviously, if the speaker crossover has been deliberately designed to sound better when bi- or tri-wired, then it quite possibly will; but thatās not to say that it wouldnāt sound better overall if it were designed for single wiring in the first place, as our speakers are."
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Donāt get bi wiring and bi amping confused. That FAQ is about the latter, Capts post is about the former. They are very different things.
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Eoink and Neil are of course correct, but more importantly the FAQ is about ACTIVE biamping which is something else again.
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Which is why I quoted the paragraph on bi-wiring from the FAQ, itās quite a long way down and I thought people might miss it.
Yes, apologies Eoink.I was unaware that the faq topic went on later to explain bi wiring.
My error.
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If you use your supernait remote to control the volume on your existing set up and want to use it for the new nd5xs2 streamer you may have a dilemma. Do you intend to retain a CD player? I have my ND5XS2 wired into the CD input on the amp using the supplied cable because a respected hi-fi dealer recommended this so that the preamplifier in the supernait adjusts the volume, and you can see the dial move around and know what the volume is.
The alternative of connecting to the streamer input and using the amplifier remote volume control (or the shiny one with the streamer), simply throttles back the output from the streamer, which said, hi-fi dealer assured me was inferior, which sounds reasonable.
However, the dealer that supplied the gear, wired it into the streamer input so I would be interested if Richard had a comment on this: I guess itās because the amp has been adapted to have an additional input rather than fundamentally reworked.
Iām not convinced it needs burning in but you will find that with repeated listening things may sound different over the weeks, but I believe thatās more to do with learning how to listen and changes to oneās memory banks.
Would be well worth going back to basics and optimising your seating and speaker positions.
You will be getting a lot more sound, particularly from modern recordings IE, those in the last 10 or 15 years, and to a lesser extent this century, so the question of room treatments will become more significant.
I donāt use the shiny remote that comes with it.
Not sure of its purpose really. The batteries went on it well before those on the amplifier one, even not using it!, Since every time you move it, it lights up. Maybe the marketeers think we streamers are a different demographic.
At some stage, you might consider upgrading your amp, but you can always upgrade car, house, even spouse, sometimes best just to sit back and enjoy the music
Hi John C2,
thank you for all info!!! Iām sadly still waiting on my ND5X2, I āmightā receive it late this week but most likely looking like next weekšā¦
I honestly didnāt give the remote aspect any thought, my thought was Iād go din to din connection and run volume from either the SN3 remote or volume control within the Naim app? Itās how Iām running my present SN3 and BlueSound Node setup. I just took it for granted thatās how it would work??
I was thinking Iād keep my CD player in play, I even asked in a earlier post above if it would be better to connect my Music Hall CD player into the nd5xs2 seeing it has to have a better DAC then the older CD player? As for upgrading my amp I have absolutely no thoughts of upgrading my SN3, I just love it!! It has more then enough power to drive my present speakers and seeing with my living room size and setup Iāll always have bookshelf speakers, if by chance down the road I replace them with more power hungry speakers Iād just grab a HiCap DRā¦
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I have mine set up with system automation you connect using a 3.5mm cable from your nd5xs2 to your sn3. Then enable it in the app, which allows you to control volume via the app and if it affects sound quality itās not enough that I can hear the difference personally.
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Thereās no problem with using the same volume control via the SN3 remote if you are happy with it. System automation allows you to use the Naim app instead if you have a Naim stream.
Regarding the Hicap, remember that it powers the preamp, not the power amp, so although you may find it to be a worthwhile upgrade, it wonāt help to drive more demanding speakers.
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The analogue output on the ND5 XS2 is a fixed level over RCA or DIN.
Which analogue input you use on the Supernait will make no difference, theyāre all wired the same and will be treated by the preamp equally.
The DIN connectors on the Supernait for av and stream are also wired to provide an output for recording purposes.
The ND5 lacking a physical remote does allow you to control your Supernait via the Naim app as an alternative to using the NARCOM IR remote that came with the Supernait.
This allows you to connect the two together using a 3.5mm cable (mono or stereo) and pass RC5 IR commands from the Naim app, to the ND5 over IP and on to the Supernait over the 3.5mm minijack cable.
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Hi capt57. I didnāt express myself very clearly on the volume control issue. The supernait remote works fine, but when using the naim app it throttles back the NDX2 if the din is connected to the streamer input, but if connected to the CD input, then the app controls the amplifier, which should give a better result.
Iām not sure your dealer understands this volume control thing.
System Automation is a way to use the analogue preamp volume control, but access it through the Naim app (or the streamer remote if you use one.) It doesnāt matter which input you use for the streamer. You just need an additional cable that relays the control signal from streamer to preamp.
The alternative is to enable a basic digital volume control in the streamer, but with a loss of sound quality due to its implementation. Again, it doesnāt metter which preamp input the streamer is connected to.
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Wow, you guys are awesome!
I didnāt realize Iām going to need a 3.5mm cable to control the SN3 thru the ND5XS2 but Iāll pick one up, seems my nd5xs2 is on its way and if all goes well Iāll have it Saturday woohoo!!
I do get what you and JohnC are saying and to me sound quality is #1, if any SQ is lost by throttling volume control thru the ND5XS2 then Iād avoid that and same goes for cabling, not sure why but I presumed din/din was better even if itās miniscule over the RCAs then din/din is the way I would goā¦
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There is no āthrottlingā of the volume control, just do as Chris says and everything will sound fine 
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Use the supplied DIN cable to connect the streamer. The extra cable for System Automation volume control is a cheap thin cable with a mono 3.5mm jack plug on each end. When I first bought a Naim streamer my dealer gave me one, but you can but them online for virtually nothing.
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