Yes, I saw your ND5XS2 go through auction, you did well there. You got more for yours than I did 8 months ago.
Reflecting a comment from @Simon-in-Suffolk recently, prices for good late model audio equipment, especially certain Naim products, are holding up well. The seller of the immaculate Atom I just bought only had a 20% depreciation (I.e. the VAT) over 18 months of ownership. This seems quite consistent in percentile terms for the Nova/Star/Atom and ND5XS2/NDX2.
There are some bargains around where there are some forced sellers, and cancelled orders, due to changes in circumstances.
I did try to trade it in with the dealer but they said it was only worth 1200. Silly really, they lost a Aries sale and a bit extra off the streamer because of that low value offer.
Edit. Meant to add. Timing of auction is really important. There has only been a couple of times I haven’t started an auction at 8pm Sunday and both sold for less than expected (camera gear). Peak time for an auction to end is Sunday 7-9pm. Also, wait for the eBay offer to sell for £1. Normally comes around every 2-3 weeks. It would have been a couple of hundred times that amount otherwise!
I am discovering outstandingly good equipment and performance can be done relatively straightforwardly - there are multiple ways to skin a cat… i have started opening my eyes again.
I completely understand. In my case I want to listen to the HMS with my Audio Note. Emotionally I am already commited to listening to the TT2, but wanted a Chord DAC for the moment, and I didn’t want to part with all the moolah in one go. It is interesting to walk my way up the chain, and I don’t anticiapte too large a financial loss on the Qutest.
The m scaler is good… and the Qutest is fantastic… I guess I just got a little greedy for a little more
That said, I’m not sure I could sell the Qutest, I love what it does. I may just keep a hold of it and see if I can use it in another system. Listening to it now and it sounds great. I told the dealer, if the Tt2 doesn’t sound as good in my room when compared to the Qutest, it will be going back… probably for the mscaler
Edit. The last 2 Qutest sales I seen went for £910 and £945. Probably could go for a little more if you time it to end on Sunday evening!
But… wait for the M Scaler…it does make a big difference!
Nothing to write home about, as I don’t think it has galvanic isolation, at least on the USB input? I know H1 didn’t, the reason apparently being it was designed to be possible to run from a phone, but phone wouldn’t have enough power to drive the isolator if it had one. That, I assumed, was why isolating the feed from my Mac Mini USB output made such a difference.
Excellent news Simon, I have owned or home demoed the Hugo 1 and 2,TT2 and Dave. To me the TT2 is the best value of the lot, add the Mscaler and you are done. I have always used headphones too,with all these Dac’s ,and you are right, this gets you so close to the performance it can be overwhelming at times. I urge you to try Lou Reed, Walk on the wild side through your Empyreams. That is one track that just blows me away when the background singers start singing “do de do”.
Now that you have your eyes open, if you try a TT2 again, I urge you to try driving speakers directly off the XLR outputs around back. This is just as transparent as through headphones. I can guarantee you it will drive your ATC’s too, it is able to drive my Peak Consults.
Meze Empyream are one of the headphones I am considering buying at some point, the nice thing about the TT2 is it will drive all the top headphones.
Yes… however as I am using floating DAC and headphones with the USB, the galvanic isolation is not really an issue. If I connected to a grounded amp it definitely would be.
Remember galvanic isolation is simply about breaking earth loops, and low frequency earth/ground current,
I am sure they will make sounds — but I also have no doubt that those PMC benefit hugely from an adequate power-amp… I have PMC Twenty5.23, which are said to be an easier drive than the 22, and I know how well my PMC respond to a better power-amp…
Yes it would, I drove Dynaudio excite 12’s for six months this way. They are 86 DB/4 ohms, I could play comfortably at 85-90 DB’s with no distortion at all. However, if you like to listen at concert levels, adding a proper amp is more appropriate. My Peak Consult speakers are 91 DB’s, they weigh 160 pounds each, and the TT2 can drive them direct. I no longer use the TT2 this way however, since I got back into Vinyl, and needed an analog amp, so went with a Nagra integrated.
Using the XLR outputs it can give up to 18W into 8ohms, which with a pair of 89dB/W speakers is a potential maximum sound level of Nominally 104.5dB if you sit just 1m from the speakers, 98.5 at 2m, 92.5 At 4m. That is peak level, so if high dynamic range music the average level will maybe 20dB or more lower. (Dave’s output is only 2W, so max sound level is about 9.5dB lower.)
Also, some speakers really require a fair bit of current capacity to drive them: My PMCs have the same sensitivity, and my Bryston amp capable of 500W peak is easily driven to overload if I want to play at realistic rock levels, or the 24 bit Telarc Tchaikovsky’s 1812, where I have to have the orchestra well below realistic level to avoid tge canons overloading.
Obviously it depends on the music you play, and the levels you like, but not unexpectedly the TT2 won’t be as capable as a powerful amp. Whilst I guess some people are happy with it driving speakers of only 89dB/W, personally unless sitting very close to tge speakers I’d only think about it for driving efficient speakers, say 96dB/W or more, and it probably comes into its own with horns that typically may be 105dB/W.
I thought that was the case based on the voltage output available at the balanced output (which is TT2’s highest output), but on checking I realise Dave’s wouldn’t drive speakers as its impedance is higher (66 ohms according to Stereophile’s measurements). The headphone output, which would drive 8 ohm speakers, is indeed only 2W nominal (measured slightly higher by Stereophile). Thanks for pointing out. I’ll amend my post to prevent it being misleading.
While I would say I’m a max of 4ft away from speakers, I think I’d only do this as a “Out of curiosity” thing. The cable adapters are only about £35 so worth it just to hear how it sounds. I don’t envisage getting rid of my SN2 etc any time soon… unless it’s to upgrade to a SN3 of course.
gave the zenith a whirl last night in experimental mode and i do feel is marginally better SQ wise (would describe it a smoother sound, not sure how to explain really), appreciate your thoughts on it also
all you need to do to activate is first enable squeezebox support in the ROON setup page , then from Innuous server page, change ROON setup to experimental mode, then on the innuous server DAC settings options select low latency for USB and DSD on, once done back into ROON and on the audio tab you should see a Sqeezelite player, enable this and Rename it HugoTT2 or whatever you prefer, finally click device set up to check (Flac transcode is OFF , and settings ok) then your good to go