NDX2 Burn-in period

I have my NDX2 a few days now and finding it a little glarey and brash feeding my also new SN3. Is this typical at this early stage? My 1 year old Nova was considerably easier to listen to. I’m running it bare with standard interconnects.

Fairly likely. Try leaving it running iRadio when you are not using it.
And don’t power it off, leave it on all the time.
:blush:

Yep that’s what I’m doing, it’s a little worrying when the Nova in to the SN3 sounded better!

My suggestion that worked perfectly for my Nova and My new Neat Momentum Sx5i.
After 1 week on volume 4 out of 10
Try and enjoy
Greeting
Vladimir

It’s the streamer that needs to burn in not the speakers.

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Yes, just leave it doing something like I radio…even overnight at low volume, it will burn in, but may take many weeks.

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What technically burns in in a NDX you mean? I’d say it’s your ears getting adjusted to the new signature. Climbing up the DAC latter doesn’t always means better IMHO. Sometimes it gets to much of everything to enjoy it +1 hour of listening.

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Give them time.

G

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I purchased an NDX 2 back in June 2019.

I use it about 10-12 hours every day. When not in use, I leave it in stand-by.

My unit didn’t settle down until September 2019, so there was a 3 month burn-in period.

Be patient. It will take a while for the NDX 2 to settle into your system.

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I have mine 5 months and it’s still improving, but around 3 months to really settle in for me. Then I added PS’s!

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My Nova is nearly 2 years old.

I demoed an NDX 2 just over a year ago with different pre/power combos and it seemed well ahead of the Nova.

I’m currently trying an NDX 2 again, and in all honesty I’m not sure it’s much better than the Nova - softer presentation, more rhythmical but worth 5k, I’m not certain.

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Sounds like the OP is taking a little time to adjust to the more revealing nature of his new system…

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I’ve found this a factor, in some cases, poor recordings, sound, well more like poor recordings!

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Yep totally typical. Keep listening and enjoy the fact that it will improve very gradually

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This is more often a problem with greater hw but it doesn’t make a great record worse. So how do you manage this to avoid loosing interest in great songs that sound crap in a high end system? Listen only in the car? :smile:

We’ll just have the suffer from the fact that it’s more raw and real.

yes that’s a fair observation but time will tell with me, even since posting this thread yesterday it has improved and I also changed the ethernet cable which seemed to help too. I’m leaving it run 24/7. I would say though that the Nova in to the SN3 was great and a big step up which confirms what others have thought too that the amp is the weak bit of the Nova - there might be something in keeping a Nova and adding a beefy power amp as the streamer / pre seems ok, ditto Atom & Star. Going by the improvements over the last 24 hrs though compared to what it sounded like out of the box on friday it should be pretty good when run in fully. I also have to bear in mind that the SN3 is new too along with new NACA5 so it’s all very fresh.

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My ND5 XS 2 took 3 to 4 months to fully come on song. It started a bit rough around the edges to begin with and then slowly but surely started to really transform into a different beast altogether. Mine opened out like a flower in bloom and then kept on incrementally improving as the weeks ticked by. As yours is all new it may take even longer, you should still be fairly pleased with things straight out of the box however. Are you sure your NAC A5 is spot on? Anyway, stick with it, all will come good in the end…

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I have experienced this, but the problem resolved itself by sorting out my classic box setup. I now have no recordings I would not want to listen to but it took an upgrade as well. What seems to be significant about a good setup is that the characteristics of the recording environment become very evident in a nice kind of way. For me the early Genesis albums were a problem until the problem was sorted. Of course there are poor recordings but don’t label all crappy albums as poor recordings.

Phil

Hi @Hollow, I too bought a new NDX2 and SN3 together, upgrading from ND5 XS2 with SN2. Right from the start I thought it sounded very good. I have had them both for about 2 months (actually just on my 2nd SN3, will need a 3rd!) and there have been subtle improvements in that time - or I have got used to it or a bit of both. There are no step changes or night and day but it does improve.
Do you still have the Nova for comparison? If so, listen to a favourite track on the Nova then repeat on the NDX2 - you should hear a little more detail. This probably contributes to what you refer to as glare. Be patient and keep running it 24 hours a day!
I enjoyed the extra detail on mine when new and the sound now with the SN3 is very enjoyable.
I have never heard a Nova so can’t comment on the differences compared to NDX2.
If you do still have the Nova and you are not convinced after a month, send the NDX2 back - I don’t think you will be sending it back :wink:
Good luck!

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