I have an opportunity for an amazing deal (almost too good to be true) for an NDS+XPS for around 1500$.
I was originally looking at an nDac to use as a source, fed by my Bluesound Node, but am now considering the NDS and PS, mainly as a Dac but maybe also as a streamer.
I only stream via Tidal and from what I understand the NDS is supposed to support Tidal but not Qobuz? (Important detail, I can only use a Wifi connection as the router is on a the floor above and I can’t connect it via ethernet)
Just wondering if I can justify the circa 500$ difference from the nDac if I could maybe also use the NDS as a streamer and not only a DAC, or if I should spare myself the difference and go for a pure nDac and upgrade the Node in the future.
I don’t use Tidal but from memory I think the Tidal support in the NDS is not great, certainly it doesn’t support the latest Tidal implementations. So do some more digging on that area before making a decision.
Someone here on the forum will have more detail than I do and hopefully will chip in shortly.
So I would only be using the NDS as a DAC in that case, so maybe Ndac would be the better option for cheaper or would the XPS improve the dac section fo the Nds enough to surpass the bare nDac?
NDS use the same floating design of the electronics as ND555 and 552. It’s a different beast even if you use it as DAC only. You will benefit greatly adding a streamer to it like Lindemann Bridge II or something else. The streaming board in NDS has hit the end of the road.
That will be super I love my NDS 555PSDR with Lindemann on it. It’s much better than NDX2 + 555PSDR. It’s emotional in a way my NDX2 never could come close to.
The NDS is ridiculously good! For that price it’s a no-brainer even without a power supply if you go by sq alone. Value if you need to sell. Not the same but you should easily get that kind of money back and then some, with the power supply.
One caveat, I haven’t heard it with the xps, only with 555DR so it might be a big difference. Someone else might be able to tell.
I am sure the 555PS would make a considerable difference but as you said I could always resell the XPS if I win the lottery some day and decide I need that 555 goodness, but next step if the itch returns would certainly be a decent transport/streamer.
And hopefully the NDS and XPS will already be a significant upgrade to my little node’s dac.
Interesting predicament you have. How old is the XPS? Will it need to be recapped soon(my guess is yes). I’m with Fatcat while the price is right I’d lean toward getting more functionality with a different streaming board. Tough call regardless.
I thought about a NDS as well but the nDAC is on par(slightly different sound) if you are using just the DAC. The nDAC is much easier to move on if that’s your plan.
Very good question, I will go and see it tomorrow if possible and will be able to ask more questions about it, the concern about recapping is indeed a very good one, even if I ignore how much that would possibly cost.
Regarding the streaming itself, I abandonned the idea of using the NDS as a streamer and will use the Node for the time being, untill I manage to find a bridge/streamer at a reasonably good price and quality.
I’d be curious what kind of differences, even if subtle, you heard between the NDS and nDAC?
I’m a bit tired so I am not sure if I am getting this right, but am I correct in assuming that for the same good transport you would still pick the NDS/XPS combo?
As I am planning in upgrading the transport at some point anyway, it would not bother me to have a slightly worst SQ with my current node untill I upgrade the streamer, as the end result is what matters the most to me.
I might be thinking about this too hard, I was planning on finding a good nDAC deal and call it a day but this offer made me rethink everything
I’ll update you guys once I visited the dealer and have a bit more info, and hopefully a listen to one or both options at home in my setup.
It’s been awhile but from what I remember the NDS had more resolution than the nDAC. More bass if IIRC for the nDAC but the NDS was better. The NDS should be better. Floating brass board no onboard power supply etc. At the time I couldn’t afford the NDS when factoring in a Power Supply. For my situation the nDAC made more sense but naturally I did upgrade to a XPSDr PS about 1 year later.
HI julien, I bought an ndac when they first came out, a truly super piece of kit that made music from any digital source truly hi fi- I used to listen to Spotify from a Mac lap top marvelling at the sounds they made. I added an xps-dr to power the ndac which gave a further lift in sq… however I saw prices of the used nds tumble, I sold the ndac and now have an nds powered by the same xps …I seldom use my tt or cdx2, the sq of streaming with the nds is incredible. I only stream tidal - quite unstable until I updated the nds firmware and downloaded the latest naim app, now the nds is a perfect streaming device for tidal with no need for a third party streamer… there are those who say that the memory of the nds buffer is too small for later high res streaming but I have never experienced pauses or interruptions in music. Others say one should use a 555ps or even two 555ps’ but I don’t miss the extra sq these may offer and spending more than I did on the nds to see if there is a significant lift is best left to those with bigger pension pots. The n-dac uses same dac chips as the nds and has similar architecture but please got to naim website and download the two white papers on the ndac and the nds, you will understand why the nds is so much more special. At the price u are offered for nds and xpr buying makes sense, im pretty confident you will have all you need to stream tidal, the nds will blow your socks off
