I went for a demo of Kudos Titan 808’s last week as an upgrade to my current 707’s. The dealer didn’t have 500 series for the demo so used a full NC 300 system including the 350 power amps but without power supplies. I was really looking forward to it as I’d not heard any of the NC gear before. I came away really disappointed. We used both 707 and 808 speakers. I thought it all sounded very hifi, weak, clinical and without emotion. It was a long way off my own system. Instead I’m going to have a home demo of the 808’s. I didn’t feel either speaker sounded great with that system and so I couldn’t make a reasonable comparison.
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I believe a lot has happened in the digital domain in 10 years, both in technology and in Naim R&D learning how to design digital 
I think floating PCBs is no more in Naims future being such a messy user experience but we’ll see.
Have you had chance to listen to NSS 333 + PS yet?
It seems like your dealer arranged a strange comparison. The price difference between the 500 series and the 300 series is roughly 2x and that’s with the power supplies that apparently your dealer didn’t use in the demo.
I love the 300 series but i would not expect it to come close to the 500 series at its price point and configured in such a way without the power supplies.
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That was not my experience.
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Might be so,but the NDX2 didn’t outperform the NDS back in the days,I’m thinking.
Listened briefly to the NCS 333 without external PSU,I didn’t have the feeling that it sounded like an NDS,but very good,clear and tight.
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@Buryfc After I added the power supplies, to both the 332 and 333, I heard a significant improvement in SQ. I was running the 332 and 333 without power supplies for about 4 months. I also found the 332 and 333 to be interconnect sensitive. I am using SarumT. I felt the supplied Naim cables to be average.
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The idea was to try and demonstrate the difference between the two speakers using the same system so I was happy to go ahead with it.
Check out this forum and you’ll see that there are quite a few who would have you believe the difference between 300 and 500 series is not that great. I don’t want to restart that debate. We all have different taste, rooms etc as well as hearing things differently. From my experience, with speakers I know well albeit not in my room, 300 series wasn’t for me.
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Interesting. Was that in the context of an NC system? For me the biggest change in character, a shift to a clearer, brighter sound, was when I changed the N50 for the 322/250. Of the 3 changes I made in the recent past NDS/555/52/300DR → NDS/555/N50 → 333/N50 → 333/322/250, it was the last move for which I needed the most convincing..
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Naim use the same DAC (SHARC 21489 & PCM1791A) in the NSS333 as they have done in numerous previous models in their range.
Best sounding? In the Naim stack the best DAC is undisputedly the ND555 (especially with 3.8 series firmware) and NDS, likely closely followed by nDAC. Individual sound preference aside.
Historically the SHARC 21489 (Gen4) was used together with PCM1791A in the following:
2016 Nova SHARC 21489 (Gen4) Sells-Nilsson filter (brickwall IIR) PCM1791A
2016 Star SHARC 21489 (Gen4) PCM1791A
2016 Atom SHARC 21489 (Gen4) PCM1791A
2018 ND5 XS-2 SHARC 21489 (Gen4) PCM1791A
also earlier in the:
2010 NDX SHARC 21369 (Gen3) PCM1791A
2011 ND5 XS SHARC 21369 (Gen3) PCM1791A
2018 NDX2 SHARC ADSP-21489 (Gen4) PCM1792A
2018 ND555 SHARC ADSP-21489 (Gen4) 6th order Sallen-Key filtration 2x PCM1704U-K, suspended brass sub-chassis, Faraday cage & fence
2012(?) NDS SHARC 2x PCM1704U-K, suspended brass sub-chassis, Faraday cage & fence
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It was into an N50.
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Sorry could you explain bit more? Do you mean the last move was the one that made least changes to the overall presentation?
For the first few weeks the 332/250 lacked weight, I mean seriously lacked bass or any bass extension. But very tight clear highs, as previously mentioned, and wonderful mids. I switched back and forth between the N50 and 332/250 a few times, on each switch leaving which ever amp in for a week or so (I find quick back and forth comparisons confusing). I bought the units used from a dealer, so I ruled out that either units needed running in. So convinced was I that was something was wrong, I took them back to the dealer to compare with their same model units. They sounded fine in comparison.
I was listening to the N50 at the time and was ready to let the 332/250 go with clear conscience that they working properly, if not to my liking. I gave them a final try before wrapping them up and listing them.. and guess what.. they just seemed to click in, including solid, punchy deep bass, not unlike the N50. They did drift in and out a bit over the proceeding days and weeks and finally levelled out. N50 has not been back in since. I can only think that one or both of the units were not fully run in, they were certainly behaving like unused or newly service units. I’m loving them now, though I will switch back to the N50 at some point in the future, just to be sure 
.
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Nope - I’d rather have 2 boxes to worry about than 6. Servicing = recapping etc.
Whenever I’ve heard Kudos speakers I’ve always thought they sounded ‘very hi-fi.’ Not my taste but I know they’re very popular with many.
Over time I clearly understood that it’s far from easy judging how gear performs. For the first time I recently tested an almost full NC 300 system (without PSUs) but I was not impressed to my surprise. I could feel it was better than a full NC 200 but not enough to justify the costs. So I started questioning the dealer about how new speakers, boxes and cables were. It turned out speakers only had 24-48 hours, boxes were 1 month old (but how often have they been used?) and cables were kind of brand new. Surely this was not an ideal situation to understand such a system, especially for audiophiles that have been for long into the business.
All in all I do get what you say @Bokermonz, I’ll gladly try such a system again if the opportunity comes. It would not be fair to come to a conclusion based on this experience only.
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This is definitely something to look out for. This forum must be littered with opinions on gear that are flawed due to this.
This has caught me out. I borrowed a demo pair of speakers for 4 days and bought them based on a positive experience. However, a couple of weeks later the sound changed and not necessarily for the best. Demo gear doesn’t always mean fully run in. Often not even close.
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People opinions are flawed by essence, because each one has a different system, different room, sometimes completely different musical tastes…..then some are 30 years old and other past 80. Some hear only from one ear but seem to be certain of how that or this sound really. And I have probably omitted other cases.
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My Shahinians are ex-demo, and had certain had plenty of use in the dealers listening room over an extended period. When I first installed them, they had virtually no bass at all (and they are speakers renowned for having good bass extension). Over a period of about 10 days of regular use they steadily opened up, and the missing bass frequencies began to appear. I bought them at the end of Covid lockdown, so they had likely been unused for a while despite being well run in before that.
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I can say one thing for certain. I am never certain.
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The problem is that there are way too many variables in the mix. So even a wise and sort of objective opinion (because it’s never objective in the first place) can be questioned due to all these factors. If you could standardize the experience, it would be easier to evalute an opinion knowing the person and his taste. In this hobby it’s never wise to be dogmatic, everything is relative.
I always take my time, lots of it, in order to get to a conclusion. One example could be your very system with the 222/250: I’ve heard it many times with different speakers/rooms/cables/etc. so now I think I got a decent idea of its presentation and I understood why I’m not fully convinced by the combo (even though it’s a great one). It started to make sense, for me, only with the 300 in the mix. But at the same I also realized that what doesn’t work for me might very well be the standard XLR cable, no surprise you changed it and the end result is probably much much better. I’ve always taken every statement about this combo (here and not only) with a pinch of salt and I respect every preference.
Also it’s the same story with the NSS333. I’ve tested it a few times and, luckily, it has always given me the same impression compared to the NDX2 so now I might have a better opinion about it.
Sorry for the experience, I think most demo gear is not or not fully run in without a doubt, at least this has been my own experience.
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