Thanks @Damien0 Do you stream with your computer connected to the NDS then?
I have an NDS and use with Tidal and Qobuz as part of a Roon system.
The NDS is fed with a UPnP stream from the Roon Server through a SonoreUPnP bridge.
With dual power supplies on the NDS, a 555DR on Socket 1 for Digital circuits and a different supply for the Analogue circuits. This made a big difference. Also use with an Uptone EtherREGEN switch with the NDS on the isolated dedicated stream port.
Mostly due to local network/switch issues afaiaa.
Yea thats it mate, i can use my phone to control it aswel. im using my macbook at the moment which normally sits on charge in my kitchen but at some point i will get a mac mini
to play with new streaming sources and Qobuz I connected a bluesound node to NDS: 500 euro and reads everything, updates itself automatically. node is a terrific streamer with issues on power supply, so keeping it only as pure streamer and let NDS work as a DAC is a solution. anyhow to read files from server and play radio I still prefer NDS bare.
also I find no difference or very little difference playing tidal from NDS (16-44) or Tidal from node (24-192) and NDS as dac.
NDS as a whole is still very good music machine
There’s now an Sbooster kit for Node specifically if you want to up the performance a bit.
I upgraded to an NDS from a nDac. The NDS is more airy, spacious, more resolution. To listen to Qobuz on the NDS I went on the usual journey, tried out MConnect on IOS (simple solution, music cut outs, no support from MConnect about this), Audirvana (don’t want a laptop open all the time and costs money), and then a RPi4 running Bubbleupnp to present an OpenHome Renderer from the NDS, controlled from the Linn App on IOS. Bubbleupnp on a RPi and the Linn app on IOS is the best solution I found to drag the NDS into the 2020s. If you’re not into building RPis and tinkering, then Audirvana or Roon might be the commercial off the shelf solution you’re looking for. My motivation for going on this journey to listen to Qobuz instead of Tidal is that in my listening tests, Qobuz is way better, more dynamic, gets the feet tapping along to the music. Sorry Tidal, maybe one day it will get better and we’ll switch back.
How good is SQ when the NDS is used in multiroom mode with a Muso as the Qobuz source?
This is all great stuff, thanks! The NDS won’t be here for at least a week as it’s coming from Canada to US. I never thought of a Bluesound but have heard it before with a Chord Dave and it sounded great!
So your Mac is just connected in the network then, it isn’t wired somehow into the NDS is it? This seems like an interesting play.
Native streaming (Tidal) on the NDS typically sounds a bit flat to my ears.
Audirvana into the NDS via UPnP offered a step up in sound quality, albeit with an extra monthly subscription. Alas, Audirvana was consistently inconsistent for me. Glitches, freezes, crashes etc. With each version release I’d hope for a cure, but it wasn’t to be.
Recent switch to an Innuos Zen 3 (connected in UPnP mode) has provided the stability fix and a further boost to sound quality. No complaints and, finally, no plans to upgrade anytime soon.
(No box upgrades, I mean. Some nice posh interconnect s/h deals around as people switch over to the NC stuff )
my mac is just on the wifi, nds is hard wired. if you need a hand setting anything up software wise i will of course help. one of the members on here showed me what to do and in all honesty its changed the game for me
Agree on this. NDS is capable of much better performance than the native solutions provide.
Thank you! I may take you up on that. Look forward to it.
@Blackbird Did you feel the DR 555PS was an improvement over the non-dr version? I’m not sure but it doesn’t look like the 555 PS was DR’d when the NDS came out. At least when I look at the old instruction manual, the 555PS doesn’t have the DR sticker on it. Is it like the nDAC that sounded a bit warmer without the DR upgrade?
DR power supplies were introduced around the time the NDS was released, and my guess is that it was developed to work with a 555DR. The NDAC pre-dated DR, and to my ears sounds a little better with a 555DR, but I haven’t compared the NDS with and without DR.
I only had DR on mine.
I use none dr555 on the analogue stage and dr on the digital side of my NDS, i did try it both ways and after the advice of some members i agree this was the best way to do it
If you have tried only dr and only non-dr. Hence only using one power supply. Which did you prefer?