Hi @AndyL68, thanks for sharing and welcome to the NDX / SN club
While I have not had the pleasure of listening to any Neat products I am going to say stick with the Motive SX2’s for a while. They are respected manufacturer and SX2’s have had great reviews. There must have been a reason why you got them in first place. It’s not like you are starting with something budget.
Don’t get pulled into this story of speakers not being worthily your system. They are also about to change again in what I expect is a significant way. The better the system the better they will sound.
You just made a massive change in your system. Neat’s are your constant. So use them to realise the difference and set a new reference point. Just did a same thing moving from Atom to same combo as you, my mid 90’s Image 302 speakers became completely different. In a long run, do I want a change? Yes, absolutely but I don’t want to rush. They have moment when I think why change?
Regarding recommendations from forum, this is always hard as we all have different preferences with speaker sound signature / presentation. I like bright, so in compact floorstanders I would consider Totem range, see above. Also PMC Twenty5.23, some KEF like R3 etc.
Get the NDX 2 and SN 2 settled in to their new home, there are other areas to spend money on…enjoy the system for a while!
Thanks for the good advice. You are correct I purchased the SX2’s to replace a pair of Kef Q500’s which I’d purchased at the start of my system build. The Kef’s sounded impressive for short periods of time, but very quickly became tiring to listen to. The SX2’s were a massive upgrade over the Kef’s and have probably had the largest impact on SQ and general listening pleasure of any component in my system. As I said in my previous post, I have been badly bitten by the upgrade bug and I was probably looking for an excuse to move on to the next big purchase. Again thanks for the sound advice!
Its my pleasure mate. I would love to hear how you find the SX2’s change with SN 2 if you feel like sharing.
One point is speaker cables. Assuming you got Naim speaker cable when you started with Naim this will not apply, but if not it might be a good idea to sort them out next.
After that if you still have the bug and cant resist spending $$ you could consider racks, power cable, interconnects, streaming memberships like Tidal if you don’t have one, CISCO switch, Ethernet cables, power supplies, dedicated power points…should I keep going?
Really nice thread. I currently run a NDX2/250 into PMC 20.26s using a non-Naim pre-amp.
When I had a 3-box system comprising a 272/XPS-DR/250, I borrowed an NDX-2 and Chord Hugo 2 DAC to see if there was any improvement, trying out various configurations.
It turned out my Classe AV processor worked really well feeding the NDX into the 250, as I have an integrated home cinema system running alongside. I recently swapped the Classe for an Arcam AV860 in order to run a Dolby Atmos system, at the slight detriment to music.
So I’m now considering whether a SN3 might be an improvement in place of the 250, but limited by rack space to a 2-(or maybe 2.5-)box system.
What made you change from 272 to NDX 2? I ask as many members say that 272 / 250 combo is very good. So I am interested to know if you think your current set up sounds better than 272 / 250?
Did you keep the XPS DR for your NDX 2 or is that gone? Is your 250 the DR type?
You are in interesting situation. I assume you pre amp also has home cinema duties?
There is few people running other pre-amps on Naim amps, tube example in this thread;
I even considered NDX 2, 250 DR with same tube pre amp my self until I considered tube warm up and wear among other things. At the moment NDX 2 and SN 2 make up my main system, with my end game being pre amp / power amp.
Twenty5.26 are serious speaker ($18k in NZ), yet to hear them my self. I had a listen of 23 and 24, dealer was closing on the day so I left 26 for next time (perhaps thats for the best ). While I have a feeling I will like them I think they are to big for my place at the moment. Are you using them as cinema/music or just music?
Timbre, that’s some drive, I’m fairly sure it will be worth it though.
I believe i have one on the same shipment, unfortunately, won’t be in the country for a couple of months when it arrives, so will check into the forum for your opinion, enjoy!!!
Sorry, misleading you slightly. I actually replaced the 272 with an original NDX, as this was a clear step up when used with an XPS-DR power supply and 250-DR amp, alongside the Classe processor. I also had a Hugo 2 on loan while testing the NDX, but that didn’t seem to move things on. Music was much more natural and involving with the NDX.
I have then focused on getting the home cinema system right as I was watching more film and TV material than listening to music, so added MK ceiling and surround speakers which blend really well with the PMCs up front (Twenty.26 and Twenty.C) with an Arcam AV860 doing the processing and acting as a pre-amp.
To shore up rack space, I found that a single NDX2 box was an adequate replacement for the pair of NDX/XPS-DR boxes.
So given all this, that’s why I was interested in the SN3 replacing the 250-DR to see if 1) It improved music enjoyment and 2) adequately coped with running the front 26’s on multichannel material.
I’m also considering the latest lyngdorf 3400 integrated amp as a lot of AV people seem to like the way it blends subs and main speakers using the roomperfect room correction software built into it. It’s a shame no RC was added to the SN3.
I really like the PMC sound but didn’t feel the Twenty5.26 were better vs the old Twenty.26. It seemed as though the improvement in the bass was at the expense of a much more prominent top-end, so ended up a much less well-balanced speaker.
I get up to Auckland very often. Drove up to listen and buy the SN 2. I am sure the wait will be awarding for both of us. SN 2 is a month in and starting to settle in nicely so it will be just right for his new buddy.
I used a bare NDX on 82/HC/135s for a year or two, then 52/SC/135s for a few months, it worked really well to my taste. Music flowed well, had drive, detail was pretty good I listened to a lot on it. I had a 555PSDR on it for a few weeks, and that sharpened up the bottom end and added clarity, but I let it worked well into olives without a PSU?
Call from dealer today, SN3 arriving tomorrow which is a surprise so I’ll be picking up on Saturday . No NDX2 yet though so will be using the Nova as a source until that arrives. Anyone know the best way to connect up the Nova to SN3? I’ve read something about using AV bypass input but don’t see that referred to on rear of SN, can anyone advise?
Edit - I see there’s an AV bypass switch so how does that work and what input should I use?
Hmm read that but still a little confused, so I won’t get a DIN to DIN with the SN3 presumably so will need a stereo RCA lead and connect pre out of Nova to AV input of SN3 and switch to AV bypass to disable Nova volume control?
Av bypass is on the supernait; it’s designed to be used with an av amp, supernait driving front stereo speakers and the av amp has the volume control. It’s basically direct to the supernait power amp. So your nova would work in the same way, acting as source and preamp. Ask your dealer if you can borrow a 4 to 5 pin din interconnect to hook up nova to supernait.
Atom has no DIN Preamp Output like Nova, so I currently have my Atom connected to SN 2 using RCA cable. RCA cable between Atom Preamp Output to SN 2 CD in.
Would I be better using AV In with RCA cable? Atom Preamp Output to SN 2 AV in? And then I assume Av Bypass from OFF to ON?
NDX 2 is on the way, but while I wait I want to make sure I am using best / safest approach.
Hi, I assume therefore you have the Atom on a low volume setting feeding the SN2, and you’re using the SN2 volume control. That’s ok but if you want to take the safest approach, you could connect to the AV input on the SN2 and flick bypass to on. Then the Atom volume control becomes the master. I’d turn the Atom volume all the way down so you dont get a loud surprise when you connect it up this way and turn it on. Hope that helps.
). While I have a feeling I will like them I think they are to big for my place at the moment. Are you using them as cinema/music or just music?
. No NDX2 yet though so will be using the Nova as a source until that arrives. Anyone know the best way to connect up the Nova to SN3? I’ve read something about using AV bypass input but don’t see that referred to on rear of SN, can anyone advise?