Would it make sense to purchase the NPX 300 to power my NSC 222 or wait for the 300 series streamer / preamp separates?
Given these possible combinations:
A. NPX 300 + Upcoming Streamer + Upcoming Preamp
B. Upcoming Streamer + Upcoming Preamp
C. NPX 300 + NSC 222
Presumably, A would be the best sounding combination of the 3, but what about B vs C? Based on your experience with the “old” Classic series, what would your guess be?
There’s no doubt that the 300 series separates will sound better than the 222, but the new streamer is going to be more expensive than the NDX2 so you might want to think about how many boxes you want, and how far your budget will stretch.
We also don’t know what the full product range will be. There is a big gap in the price range between Nova and 222/250, and with a 300 series streamer costing over £6k a separates system at that level will be a lot of money. There may or may not be other separates such as a replacement ND5XS2 planned for the future.
I would wait and see what emerges before spending this sort of money.
Do we even know there will be a new seperat streamer. I doubt it since the streaming part of the 222 when you look at specifications looks like the streaming board in the other streamers in the current line up. The big question is what happens after the 252 replacement or rather how good will it be, and is there a 552 replacement planned in 2024.
It doesn’t bother me, but you’ve bought a combined streamer/pre, which can’t be used with seperates. You’ve limited your options, or will take a loss changing again, that’s all. But the PS will give a further improvement and can be used on the future separates.
I would be amazed if the dedicated pre has a built in power supply so you will probably need to add a PS for that as well as a streamer. It is going to get expensive. Not sure if we can assume the 300PS will power a dedicated pre or if there will be a dedicated PS for the pre amps going forward.
222 is not a total dead end as adding a dedicated streamer to it via the RCA in will improve it and allow you to then upgrade to a dedicated pre at a later date.
Hi @andrewngu 6 days ago you wrote in The Naim New Classic range thread
Very happy to know you are already enjoying your new classics, but it’s still very early days and I would expect the sound to blossom further with more listening. Certainly no need to replan your naim ownership future so quickly, so enjoy what you currently have.
Did you not get the opportunity to audition the new power supply at your dealers at purchase time to see the improvement it can make?