Hi all. I am new to the world of hi-fi, and am very eager to start down a path of quality audio playback. For some reason, I am very drawn to Naim products as a first choice.
With that in mind, my current playback quality is quite poor. I am considering starting to build my system with a quality streamer, because I am a Roon user and love the platform. The potential integration between Naim products is very intriguing. I have the opportunity to purchase a well-kept Naim NDS for far less than market value or a lightly used NDX 2. I’m sure both offer supreme quality. I know that Roon is not compatible right out of the box with the NDS and would require some tweaking.
Right now all of my music is stored via external hard drives attached to my iMac Pro running my Roon Core, about 3500 albums of so. If you were in my position, which of the two would you go for?
Are you aware that you need a power supply for the NDS, this adds considerably to the cost?
Ultimately if sound quality is your priority then the NDS will outperform the NDX2 by a reasonable margin. However you will need to work around the lack of Roon compatibility with a bridge product or something like lms-to-upnp.
These are the considerations really.
For what it’s worth I chose NDS and have no regrets.
Thanks and yes I am aware of the need for a separate power supply. I did forget to mention in the original post. I know I would also likely want a power supply if I went with the NDX 2 although it does not appear to be mandatory for that unit.
If you are going to utilise the USB output from your Roon Core (mac) into a Naim unit then I suggest you consider a Mutec 3+ USB or an Audiophillio USB/SPDIF interface. @Filipe is on a similar path.
FWIW - I would choose the NDX 2 and add the PS as soon as you can. My personal bias is selecting the latest technology…
I think it may be helpful if you mentioned where you are headed with your hi-fi system. Are you planning on going with separates or with an integrated amp, TT, CD player, speakers, etc.
These are all good suggestions, thank you. The NDX 2 does sound very appealing in that regard. Ideally I would like to go down a path of separates, as that sounds the most fun/interesting to me. It would be a combination of turntable playback, as well as digital. I don’t really care about CD playback.
I am also potentially interested in going down a NAS route instead for my digital playback, however I need to do more research before committing to anything. Either way, I’m excited to get started.
I appreciate everyone’s advice. I’ve learned a lot from following this forum for the last month or so.
FWIW - my set up is “NAS > XPS DR > NDX 2 > SuperNait 2 > NAC A5 > NAIM Ovator S-400.”
My NAS is a Synology with two 4TB drives and has about 2000+ CD’s/HiRes downloads which I use to stream through the NDX 2 for the majority of my listening time at home.
I do use TIDAL to explore music I do not own at home and when on the road via my PC with a set of Headphones. The use of TIDAL to preview albums has been very beneficial with the capability to preview albums prior to purchase. I also use internet radio via the NDX 2 on an infrequent basis.
When I first joined the forum I was advised and can endorse that the “Search” function is your friend. It has a lot of great information stored here and in the archived forum located here:
I’d advise against doing this if you wish to continue with Roon, and why wouldn’t you, Roon is brilliant!
NAS devices are underpowered to run Roon, so you would be better off with an NUC for your Roon server and then either add storage to the NUC to hold your music or have a NAS for this purpose.
I appreciate that advice. If I did get a NAS, I would want it to be pretty powerful, so 1) it can run Roon more adequately, and 2) so I can do other things with it, large video file storing/playback, etc. A NUC does sound intriguing, although I may prefer a Mac Mini to stay within the Apple ecosystem that I am currently embedded in.
I run my Roon Core on a MacBook Pro, which is over 5 years old, so not state of the art, but it has no trouble handling it, despite the fact that I use it for other tasks. I’m sure a Mac Mini would be fine too, if you are an Apple user. Having said that, why not just continue running it on your iMac Pro?
Can I ask how you have it connected to your output devices? Are there any downsides to this? For me, currently I have to have the machine woken up in order to use Roon Remote, which I can see being an issue down the road when I purchase some better equipment/speakers.
In a perfect world I’d love the opportunity to listen to my Roon library remotely when I am not at home. I think a NAS would be well suited for that, however I am not 100% certain.
@pollutedwater you may want to explore the Roon message board specifically for ROCK if you are a DIY person. Regardless if you plan on using Roon you don’t need a super powerful device per-se. I currently run Roon on a 6 year old Mac-mini and it’s perfectly fine.
I also agree with @seakayaker I’d personally choose a NDX 2 especially if you plan on using Roon since its built into the latest streamers.
I now run new generation Naim streamers, NDX2 and Atom, so a network connection from the Roon Core works well. I have a wired Ethernet connection for the Macbook, although I often don’t bother to connect it, and it works fine over WiFi. I was considering a dedicated Roon Core device, but it works well as it is, so I’m not yet convinced that I need to add yet another box. Also, I travel a lot, and a portable Roon Core means that I can take it with me.
Hi… having trodden this path… in a carefully controlled and limited streaming environment the NDS will sonically outperform the NDX2 by a fair degree.
From a versatility and streaming performance perspective the NDX2 is ahead of the NDS by a similar amount.
If you are wishing to use non Naim Digital converters…then the NDX2 becomes a no brainier. (as an advanced high end streamer transport)