Hi, I’m after a little advice on which is the best way to connect the NDX2 to an Arcam AVR31. My dealer is recommending a Chord Shawline digital cable, this is what is planned for setup. However would the analogue 5pin to 2RCA shawline be a better choice. As both are £200-250, I’d rather not have to buy both in order to experiment.
Many thanks.
What will you be streaming, and will there be another amp or solely the arcam?
If you use a digital connection, then the ndx2 becomes merely a digital transport into the dac inside the arcam.
The arcam has tidal connect so if you use a digital connection and intend to stream tidal, the ndx2 becomes redundant. It’s also roon ready.
Thanks for quick response, I’m mainly streaming Tidal on the NDX2. At the moment this is just RCA to RCA to the Arcam. You have confirmed my thoughts re digital, NDX becomes an expensive transport. My own preference would be shawline 5pin to RCA and use analogue direct setting on amp. Does this sound most sensible.
It depends if the arcam digitises the line inputs, in which case you might as well stream direct to the arcam. Does the ndx2 improve upon what the arcam can do by itself?
Personal preference sound from the NDX does sound considerably better than streaming direct to the Arcam. However I’ve not fully tested this. Using direct I think this disengages Arcam digital processing, however we’ve not set up the Dirac yet, which does make a difference to speaker timing etc.
Most dealers allow you to try cables before you buy them. My own Naim dealer certainly wouldn’t hesitate to lend me both so that I could make an informed choice.
To be fair I’ve dealt with my naim dealers for the last 25 years, so I hope that’ll be ok. Thanks for spending your time answering my query. You’ve put my mind at rest, cheers.
I use coax output on ndx2 to older sony es amp for a second zone. It sounds alarmingly good.
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