The position of the ground switch on the NDX2 is a factor when you have multiple sources connected.
Try listening to the NDX2 with just that connected to the pre-amp and see if it’s better, or try changing the position of the ground switch.
As others have said the NDX2 may not be for you and the answer is to stay with the CD player which can be improved with a power supply upgrade.
Yes 4.7 and most of the inputs off. Only iradio, fm, tidal and upnp.
I will recheck the ground switch should be equal to the qute2.
When I did replace my CDX2 it was with an ND555 but by then I had 552/500 to ho with it. Trying to use it with the grounding switch set to floating and the CDX2 still in the system really didn’t get the best out of the streamer, it was much better if it was supplying the signal earth, which as my CDX2 was an early one meant I had to remove it entirely. If you have a later one that had digital output try using that via SPdif into the NDX2. I pressed a DVD5 into service as via its digital output in case I did wanted to play an actual disc without ripping it on the Core. I can recommend a Belden 4794R SDI cable from Bluejeans for SPdif use but it only comes with BNCs so I needed an adaptor on one end. Even so it beat Chord shawline and clearway digital cables quite handsomely for engagement and also the digital cable Bluejeans supply as such, ~£40 once it gets through UK customs do probably similar in the EU.
The CDX2 is a cracking CD player… and I hear used prices for them are on the increase… so if you don’t want it… you can probably sell for a respectable sum.
I am getting my CDX2 (original) modded by Naim to work with my NDX2 into non Naim DAC.
My only gripe is the NDX2 automation for CDX2 is not as good as on the NDX
Try as I might I could not hear the NDX2 as superior to my CDX2 and that’s at the point the latter had clearly gone right off. I really wanted to love the NDX2 as much as I did the CDP but multiple auditions took me a different route.
And what was your route, if I may ask ?
I heard various Innuos into the NDX2; became intrigued by that and then auditioned a Zenith as a streamer with various DACs until settling on a Chord Hugo TT2. Compared to the NDX2, the Zenith does timbre and tone way better and PRaT just as well whether streaming locally or over Ethernet. Comes in cheaper too. I’m still waiting for that moment when I miss having a screen as it ain’t happened yet.
Without testing you will never know.
2960 8tc or 8tt.
@Louis_lx I bought CDX2.2 back in 2009. Added nDac to it 2010. Great sound. Enjoyed for a while
Sold both of them around 2015 for P S Audio’s Direct Stream Dac - which was much more musical than nDacand CDx2.2 combo. Added to that P S Audio’s DMP (Direcstream Memory Player - CD/SACD transport) in 2016. It feeds the P S Audio dac over i2s interface. The sound quality is surely more musical to my ear.
Added NDX 2 to this mix 3 months back after 1 months of home auditioning. Just for sheer flexibility of streamer. Quboz, Spotify, USB Stick, UnitiCore. I also added the COAX output of DMP to NDX2. I enjoy all 3 combinations based on my mood, type of music, quality of media.
Long story short - if u like CDX2 for sound quality stick to it. NDX2 can give u the flexibility of sources which u wont get otherwise.
Also QoBuz sound quality with NDX2 is way better than Tidal (in my ears). Try that out. It may become reason for u to keep NDX2. These days I most of the time listen to that. Use CD Transport for the critical listening.
Regards,
Sourav
I tend to agree… the converter stage in the NDX2 is good, although I don’t use it, but I think the CDX2 to my ears was more enjoyable … after all the CDX2 does use the same Texas Instruments PCM1794K converter as does the ND555, NDS and CD555 albeit a less refined implementation.
That is interesting, because down on the line it is the same (for the same media) , albeit I believe a different CDN cloud infrastructure.
You might be hearing differences in network transport characteristics influenced by your ISP… although I feel that is unlikely.
Possible @Simon-in-Suffolk. What I have found both CD Quality and HIRes are much better in QoBuz. CDN may be reason surely as the caching at the edge can make a lot of difference. But then that could also mean for my P S Audio dac where I have not found Qubuz that different. Even with Bartok and Rossini in home demo I have not found it that engaging. But with NDX 2 it is.
May be just my subjective experience and bias.
Yes, however Tidal does not do unlossy hires, they only provide PCM at 44.1/16 (standard res)… any higher sample rates are processed and encoded using MQA.
Qobuz offers native hires lossless PCM up to 192/24.
With Roon you can merge Qobuz and Tidal together and indeed for the same master you can determine no discernible difference as many have found out although some of the distribution masters do differ between Tidal and Qobuz … and I use BT as my ISP in the UK.
Although with the first gen Naim streamers there was a noticeable difference between Tidal FLAC cloud streaming and local FLAC streaming, but Naim largely addressed the reasons why with their next generation streamers.
Oh I was not aware of that. I’m not sure why Tidal is doing MQA for HiRes. May be with the recent acquisition it may change.
You are not alone, there were so many threads on that already. So many people prefer Tidal for sound quality.
Naim dac can’t decode Mqa. But even if comparing 16/44 steaming from Qobuz and Tidal, quite a majority prefer the former.
What are the details of that… I wasn’t aware?
I suspect the lack of lossless hires on Tidal is a condition of their MQA commercial agreement with MQA.
I’m interested as well. I did just hear Square now has a vested in interest in Tidal. I don’t quite understand the business model however.