ND555 Impressions


Hope they don’t know our pseudonyms!

:scream:

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Oops…

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Dooomed!

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But my wife has better ears…but no interest, but a few evenings where she pulls out some great music and memories.

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UE BOOM is enough for my wife:)

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If you’re happy and not curious . . . stay where you are. My strong guess is that you’d love an ND555 demo and NOT send it back.

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Im enjoying my 300DR in a smallish room, with lack of sound absorbing materials.

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I see posts here from notable members talking about…active systems…I am a little confused…so individual stereo amps are used to bass/mid and treble…surely a crossover is used…is there a low level circuit that goes between the pre and power amp…is this a snaxo…in this case is this not just a bi-amped system…can this be clarified I am confused…

Hi Nigel,

Not wishing to repeat anything already said and not disagreeing with the general view that ultimately you’ll want a 500DR (I resisted as long as I could but, hey…), wouldn’t it be time to consider adding another 250DR and hearing active 505s?

From a cost perspective it would be a lot more palatable and you never know, it could deliver everything you’re looking for.

That is not a bad idea, BUT….

Any upgrade from here on will be my ‘end-game’, it just has to be. Although the 505s are superb, I do not see them as my final speaker, nor active 250s my final power amp arrangement.

If I were still upgrading in stages, your suggestion is a great idea, but I want to get off the merry-go-round and just listen to music. So skip the 300DR and go for 500DR, and add what ever speaker goes best and does the 500 system justice, shut up shop and keep away from the forum. Try also to avoid active….a whole new world of optimisation, cables, crossovers and pain.

Job done. Yeah….right! Well that’s the plan.

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Now come on, you know that’s not what the script says… :grin:

No…I mean it this time….yes….end-game……almost certainly.

“Almost” - yup, you’re doomed!

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I know, I am beyond help!

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Three ways of achieving drive unit signal for speakers that use separate frequency bands:

1. Passive: using a ‘passive crossover’ after the single power amp that drives the speaker.
2. Bi-Amp or Tri-Amp: which uses the same Passive crossover but feeds each passive filter segment on it seperately from a dedicated Amp.
3. Active: which implements the above properly and throws out the passive crossover and instead replaces it with an Active crossover (Snaxo for Naim) between Pre and Power.

Active is better because it allows the Amps to drive the speaker directly and achieves better control and damping factors with them.

It also replaces the large high voltage high current components used in the Passive crossover with far superior quality small signal components that allows better filtering to be achieved as desired, wheres passive crossovers are always a juggling of where to optimize for response or loss - there is no real need to make any compromises with the Active filter - it is just the better engineering solution.

And the Power Amps just have to carry the signal they need for the speaker drive unit - this runs the Amp with lower demands on power and at a higher linearity - bass is not mixing with HF, etc…

The latter advantage is also with Bi-Amping to a large extent, but to get the best result once you have spent all the money on the extra Amps is to use Active crossover.

…the extra money and space used in room is why Passive rules and Active has a smaller user base.

DB.

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Thanks cheers Darke…

Good advice Bart!! :slight_smile:

Hi DB, also an expect to mention why people don’t have active, besides the aspect you mentioned. It requires a lot of skill to have it sounding right and some active systems sound a bit edgy, which not all hifi fans like…

Remote is made in Korea though…