I wonder if Naim are aware of this
I’ve been using my NDX 2 almost daily for one month. There’s quite a difference already. The soundstage has become much wider, there’s more detail, both bass and middle are more clear and less muddy. Everything is generally more refined and controlled.
What did you experience? I’m curious to see if you’ve perceived something different.
I also had to change my speakers’ position to avoid some boomy sound. Now my Totem speakers are perfoming pretty well.
I think Naim have a good laugh at some of the stuff that’s posted on the Forum. I’ve probably bought more Naim products than most - 42, 32.5, 72, 102, 202, 82, 252, 552, 122x, 272, Flatcap, Hicap, Snaps, Supercap, XPS, XPSDR, 555, 555DR, 110, 250, 250DR, 180, 150x, 300, 300DR, CDi, CDS3, SL cables and other bits and bobs and I’ve never once heard a change at nine months. Things certainly go up and down over the first few weeks but nothing significant after that. I’m sure there are some who make detailed notes in journals and there may be some with golden ears who can detect microscopic changes in nuance but I think for most it’s in the mind.
Things change. Air pressure, our age, our awareness, anything. A few weeks ago I was genuinely pleased that my system was absolutely bang on. For now there’s a sense that it’s missing something. Luckily it’s just a stereo so not a cause for naval gazing and wondering how on earth it can be resolved, and in a few weeks something will happen by accident or design and it’ll all work fine again.
9 months for something to come on song though sounds ludicrous.
But is the ludicrous more spacious, more dynamic with more extended highs and lows audible in an inky blackness?
G
Couldn’t have put it better myself!
Perhaps Naim could sell these items as “already burnt in for at least 9 months”
And of course this could come with an uplift of 50% in cost. Not least as some would pay it!
I normally notice an improvement over a period of a few weeks and all is consistent from then on. My ND5 XS 2 took the longest of any piece of HiFi gear i have ever owned to fully blossom. Three months overall i would say. My Neat Motives took quite a while too.
Anyway all should still sound great straight out of the box and then improve over time. Which it normally does. Most of the improvements happen over the first two weeks i find.
…on any given day the system will sound so much better. The album, my mood, or the phase of the moon and perhaps when everything just lines up right.
Then there are those days when it just doesn’t sound as nice. The album, my mood, or the phase of the moon and perhaps when nothing is lining up right at all.
Then there is this aging… and I don’t mean the hi fi gear.
Yes i too have the same experience with my stereo. Some days it sounds stunning other days not quite so good as sometimes it can. It could be a lot of different things going on as you say. The quality of the mains electricity and of course one’s own mood can be the main two causes.
I wonder a bit about ambient temperature, my house is typically like a fridge from October thru to March/April and I really noticed the uplift in sound quality around April as that warm spell kicked in, my living room can drop as cold as 11c in the winter without any heat or woodburner going whereas it benefits hugely from solar gain once the weather warms up, from around April on it would sit typically around 18 or 20c up to 23 or so. I guess I’ll know the answer next winter!
Humidity effects things in my experience.
I’ll bet they do, and I expect that would apply to many manufacturers of HiFi.
I certainly know when my pre and power amps are not upto temperature. But that’s a 30 minute wait at most. The sound really quite brittle.
My ND5XS2 took a couple of months to settle down. Or that could be my ears took a couple of months to adapt to it.
When I bought my SN3 & NDX2, I was told to give it 200 hrs to settle in and expect optimal sound after 400 hours. My dealer was spot on. Any high end harshness disappeared, low end detail improved and overall soundstage got wider and deeper.
My 400 hours took 5-6 months (about 15-25 hours listening per week). 9 months seems reasonable depending on how much the system is in use.
The system sounded good out of the box and only got better with time.
Much the same experience as you, and there is just another refinement of that for several months later as noted above. Obviously whether it’s 3 months or 9 months depends on much listening time you have. 200hrs for good run in and 400 to be fully on song seems about right.
What Totem speakers do you use? I have Hawks on my Nova and Forest Signatures on my SN2.
I’m very curious to hear the improvements over the coming months even though it’s already a delight.
I think I’ve done around 150 hours so far. The NDX 2 had a deep effect on my speakers, I’ve never heard them sounding so great. This Naim streamer basically enhanced the Totem character, at least in my opinion.
I do like Totem speakers quite a lot, I’ve never heard of anything similar. I’ve tried many at my dealer (Arrows, Sttaf, Rainmakers, Sky, etc.) but in the end I decided to buy the Sky Towers.
Did you have the chance to compare them to your loudspeakers?
Sooner or later I would like to get the Forests (maybe the Signatures, who knows). I recenly tried the Forests, unluckily it was only a quick test and they were far from broken in.
Would you not just leave it turned on all the time? Rather than have 200hrs over the 3 months. If need be have it streaming from a radio source or Spotify when you’re not listening prioerly. After all the device doesn’t know if it’s actually driving a pre amp it not. My ND5XS2 hasn’t been turned off since march.
Hi @ajm, as a fellow user of an nDAC I’m curious as to what digital source(s) you’ve tried with yours and what your findings were.
How do you know that the nDAC is capable of much more than what the ND5XS2 digital output can Provide?
What is your system?