Hi Dan,
When we decided to switch to streaming from playing cds, we had a CDS3/555PSDR and this was the benchmark that any future streamer had to beat.
Turns out that this was a pretty high benchmark! Very few streamers bettered it to these cloth ears, even the NDS.
Here’s the thread that captured the journey:
Music streaming: it’s hard to find the right time
We found the Chord M Scaler & DAVE to be broadly equivalent to the ND555 with one supply but we preferred its strengths over the strengths of the ND555. Others have preferred the ND555 over the Chord pairing and we can appreciate why.
However, there was a colossal price difference in favour of the Chord pairing, even though we already had the 555PSDR.
Some have retorted that the ND555 with 2 power supplies is better and we don’t doubt this but that extra supply moves the ND555 squarely into MSB and DCS territory. We preferred both DCS and MSB at that price point. Others may hear it differently.
On amps, we adored the 52/135s for a number of years. It’s just a classic pairing. We didn’t want better sound but we did want fewer boxes, a trend that is now gathering serious pace.
We tried the Chord pairing and were shocked. With the then new Ultima range, Chord finally banished the boom & tizz for which it was known. The Ultima amps were faster, yes demonstrably faster, than our Naim pairing, had a much lower noise floor, substantially more grunt & grip when needed and didn’t possess a volume sweet spot. They just sound effortlessly the same regardless of volume.
To us, they sounded much more equivalent to a 552/500 pairing but without the volume sweet spot of the 552.
We still love the 52/135s though, as we do our DAC-V1 & NAP140 (returning tomorrow from Darran at Class A!) and our Mu-so Qb. We also have an all olive 72/hicap/140 and an all olive 82/SC/250 with NAT02 and CDX/XPS (all owned from new) in the family as well.
As for the S1 pre, well that really is something special, as Peter kindly demonstrated with his CD555, S1/500DR and PMC Fact12 system.