Hi @marcusman ! It’s about the best description I can come up with. I did a lot of auditioning in my room with and without the nDAC and XPS-DR combo with the NDX2, and I found it just offers a true upgrade than the standalone streamer, though the DAC in the NDX2 is no slouch. This goes to show that the NDX2 is a fabulous source, period. I agree with you about loving a 3 box source to death. I thought when I had the ND5XS2 and Qutest combo it would be enough for me, but, of course, curiosity got the best of me and I was able to get what I have now at a can’t refuse deal. The nDAC was in prime condition and came up at a great price, so I thought I would give it a try, since nobody seemed to have it paired with the NDX2 (at least not that I could find through searching). If I didn’t think it worth it, I’d sell it on with no loss. Glad I gave it a try because I feel it does add this amazing combination of holography/separation with analogue qualities, even on Internet radio, especially 44.1kHz 16-bit like Radio Sputnik out of The Netherlands and others streaming at that rate. Perhaps someday I’ll go back to Powerlines again, but I really dig the Synergistic Research PCs I have with the Naim boxes. Wonderful combination they are.
People (perhaps rightly) think we’re mad using an NDX2 as a transport when the same streaming board is available in the ND5XS2 for much less cost.
However NDX2 has a remote (useful for system automation), a screen, and offers addition system configuration options such as removal of external DAC by adding 555. We thought the ND5XS2 just didn’t offer as many options going forward and we’d probably always have hankered after the NDX2.
@IainO , @jsawyer09 You guys aren’t alone using the NDX2 as a transport. I know SiS also uses it but he pairs it with a Chord Dac. His reasons were very similar as yours. He digs the remote.
I do the same, but I hate the remote!
Right! Sorry @ChrisSU I knew you were the other person who runs a NDX2 as a transport, however I didn’t know you dislike the remote lol.
Fortunately I don’t have to touch it as I use the app for streaming, and Dave for volume control.
(Just to be clear, Dave is my DAC, not my butler.)
Surely you could only refer to your butler as David?
I honestly don’t use the remote, either. I use the 252 remote for volume and the Naim app for the rest. So, yes, one (or many) could say I’m mad for using the NDX2 as a transport, but as I say, the ND5XS2 has no option for a power supply, and the nDAC/XPS offers enough of an advantage sound-wise to me that I have no regrets. The Chord DAVE is what I would really like someday, but it is going to have to be a long time out. I love the Chord presentation…a lot.
Dave turned out to be a bit of a bargain for me once I discovered that I could use it as a preamp as well. I added the matching Étude power amp and that allowed me to sell my 282/250.
Evening @jsawyer09 - gotcha. Your XPS DR feeds the nDac. Nice.
Blimey. Now things are getting serious 
. I suspect that ‘favourable’ = very good indeed. How does all this affect Naim’s Star earthing topology? Or have I miss understood things here. Power regenerators et-al are something I’m not very cried up on - I do know that PS Audio are good at that sort of thing…
That’s good to hear. I all in for ‘best of both world’ and ‘analog’ as you put it. As you can tell, I’m unsure where to go with my nDAC and how to stream to it right now. I’m taking my time and saving up…I suspect an ex-demo NDX2 will be the way forward for me. Having said that, now Naim’s new French Director has taken over, who knows what we’ve got coming. Interesting times as they say…
I suspect that I will join the mad brigade… 
I do worry about the screen though…it’s definitely something that will need replacing at some point. I wonder if you can buy a screen as a spare part as back up? PS Audio have given up using screens now I think. I recon a screen is something that I would omit if I was designing a product. But hey, I’m the ultimate armchair pundit. What doI know
As far as I can tell, it doesn’t affect the star earthing in the least. I have had it/them in my system for years now (by ‘them’, I mean the balanced transformer and the PS Audio unit), and a star earthed NANA Cablepro unit before the regenerator. I have gone times without one or the other, but never both. I am not even certain I really need the regenerator if I’m being honest at this point. It is something that has been a ‘set and forget’ kind of thing in my system. Having dedicated outlets in a dedicated room mitigates any real worry of noise on the lines.
Perhaps even more overkill for my the rest of my networking I have an EE8 switch, a double-conversion UPS and a Topaz 1kVA Ultra-Isolation transformer in the basement, all fed one way or another with linear PSUs. I have a madness of a different kind, not necessarily with cable dressings (or cables for that matter) or stands. 
It has worked well for me.
Your system must sound just amazing.
I have yet to hear a Chord dac but very interested, how would you characterize the difference between the Qutest and nDAC?
Hi @Aren . In the most general sense, the Chord DACs I’ve heard (and they only improve in presentation the higher one goes—drastically, I’d say) are hyper-revealing, but not fatiguing in the least, IMO. VERY holographic with an incredible sense of instrument separation. Great soundstage. Very ‘colorful’ and engaging sound.
The nDAC sounds more ‘natural’ or ‘analogue-like’. It doesn’t ‘wow’ me like the Chord DACs I’ve heard, but in a way that’s a good thing. There’s a sense that it isn’t trying to produce fireworks. Music flows very effortlessly from it. Great soundstage as well. At times it can have a sense of holography as well, especially on really good recordings and techno/EDM-type music. There isn’t a night I don’t find myself looking behind me or wondering if a sound that turns out to be on the recording isn’t coming from outside or beyond my listening room door. It’s pretty amazing when it happens.
Both DACs offer a lot; it is just going to depend on what you prefer like everything else in this hobby. They both put a smile on your face for completely different reasons, if that makes sense.
Thanks for your insightful feedback Jason.
I hope it helps.
Ha ha…no I totally get it. We’re all chasing minutia aren’t we. It all adds up and makes a difference. My wife thinks that it’s a crazy hobby though. That’s one hell of a set up you have there @jsawyer09 - If I could, I would too