A lot of your decision is going to rely upon which house sound you like better; Naim or Chord. I compared an NDX2 directly to an ND5XS2/Qutest a few years back in my home and preferred the NDX2. The Qutest isn’t the most exciting/involving DAC out there while being good at other things. Even those who love the Chord sound agree that the Qutest is quite relaxed and lacks excitement. I found the NDX2 to sound more natural and have way more PRAT.
The NDX2 can also be improved with power supply upgrades in the future, if you so choose. You could always consider swapping the Qutest for an nDAC instead to get more of the Naim presentation.
If you already went down this road of having a Qutest I would suggest you try adding the Mutec MC3+ USB reclocker. This lifted my nd5xs2 + Qutest to a new level. Definitely better than bare NDX2.
I had a SN3/Hicap DR/ND5XS2/Qutest + SBooster and WH Phantom speaker cables so a very similar set up as you have.
It’s a relatively cheap upgrade and will show you new levels of what your Qutest is truly capable of.
Try before you buy is easy to arrange.
I’d want to compare with moving up the Chord DAC line, though that said, if the reclocker improves Qutest that makes a lot of sense to try.
Personally I think keeping DAC and the “transport” separate is beneficial, as it means you only have to upgrade one part at a time. Second to speakers, DACs are most significant in providing the character of replay, so once you find the best for you, you may never want to change. With online streaming the time may come when whatever front end you have can’t be modified to keep up with developments, so might have a need to change where the DAC won’t.
Have a similar setup (Innuos Zen into Qutest) which I got when moved away from ND5XS. What improvements did you notice with the addition of the Mutec pls?
I’m up for the usage of Naim as a full streamer currently (even nd5xs2) as a) you can benefit from the native super lumina din interconnect b) proper digital cable is 1k+ and power supply cable for the dac another 1k+
Not sure what “proper” digital cable is? But regardless, if these tweaks make a significant difference - and not everyone agrees they do - then those are potential future upgrades at moderate(?) cost, bringing further benefit IF theIP prefers the Chord sound, or otherwise decides that a separate DAC (there ard others, including nDAC) is beneficial.
there will be always a topic whether to go separate dac+source or the full streamer. In the upper price segments there’re obviously nss 333, then dcs, playback design offers both options, AN and Lampizator - only dacs etc. Qutest imho is not yet there in the purely dac performance ladder to be really bothered. I would personally go for TT/TT2 upgrade in case one prefers Chord sound.
I changed from an ND5XS2 to an NDX2 plus XPSDr. Very significant improvement so far at 10 days. I am not a fan of external Dacs and reclocking. For me, it’s just more to get compulsive about. For me, the less I can tweak, the less stress I have and the more I am into the music.
Why? To use a separate DAC with a (Naim) streamer you just plug it in and use it. No more setup is required than that, and it’s probably simpler, and in some cases cheaper, than a PSU upgrade.
You just connect it blonde and don’t look at it anymore. It just works after you connect it. No fiddling needed.
Just from streamer digital out to Mutect to Qutest and that’s it.
It has usb/toslink/bnc in and bnc out so you could also connect your computer or tv, etc. to it
