I am really enjoying the synergy that they bring. I had them burning in with my NAP250 for a few weeks prior. Noticed an immediate improvement in resolution and clarity. Little details coming through. Harder to tell their true impact as I jumped right to the Etude. I do love the new sound signature that the TT2,Mscaler and Etude present. So much from so little (size).
Now that I find I am using the TT2 to its fullest, I can appreciate what an great piece of quality audio it is. Pre, Dac and Headphone amp, does it all really, really well.
I am still waiting on True signal XLRS, just have an inexpensive pair in place until they arrive through customs. But it will be interesting to see and compare what they bring to the “show”.
Hi dayjay,
I too am trying an Ultimate amp at the moment. It really doesn’t sound like the Chord power station amps of the recent past, does it?
In fact, it’s sounding worryingly good and would replace twice as many Naim amp boxes.
Lots of lights though and I haven’t worked out if it is possible to turn them down or better still off for evening listening.
In the centre of the amp, above the off button, is a slot. Behind it is a recessed button that dims the lights. Use a credit card to switch it. They are very very good amps, beat my previous amp in all areas and replaced four boxes. Be interested in seeing what you think
We can live with the power amp but the Ultima 2 pre is just too illuminated for our tastes. The twin lines of VU leds in the front display are too distracting, so the boss has vetoed this pre-amp.
Most people note how little of the Naim volume range is actually useable with modern line-level inputs, i.e. 8 o’clock to about 10 o’clock in most cases. The Chord pre-amp useable range makes Naim’s volume pot range seem vast.
Feeding the pre from DAVE via balanced connectors with the pre-amp gain on the lowest possible setting, the volume knob positions are 3 (quiet) to 7 (pleasingly loud) to 10 (oh, steady on!) . So a range of 5 discrete positions (i.e. 3-7). However, the volume knob range is 0 to 98! To be fair, the range is larger when using the turntable - we use 10 (civilised) to about 32 (Led Zeppelin).
I only have digital sources so I have no need of a chord pre. The TT 2 drives it very well indeed, as I’m sure the Dave would. I may have a listen to the pre in my dealers in the future, just to scratch am itch but it works very well as it is to be honest
The Ultima 2 pre sounds really very good indeed, once it has warmed up for a couple of hours from stone cold.
The Ultima range is good enough to warrant giving Naim pause for thought.
The benefits of balanced connection in terms of lower background noise seem overwhelming to us now, especially with the turntable. With vinyl still being our highest quality source, I am thinking very hard indeed about how to go fully balanced. The Chord pre-amp may not be the answer for us due to the extrovert illuminated appearance but there are other balanced pre-amps.
I so wish Naim would bite the bullet and make a step change in the architecture of its amps, including bringing out balanced designs. Time will tell.
I am using pre-power balanced interconnects made of pure unobtainium, wrapped in Aston Martin stitched leather.
I kid you not.
Someone’s having a laugh at those with more money than sense.
Fortunately, they are on loan from the dealer, who apologised because they were the only ones he had left. They will be going back with the amps at the end of the audition.
If we do go down the fully balanced amplifier route, I’ll probably ask @Xanthe for advice on which Mogami cable & connectors to buy instead!
I hear you. This experience the is by design as well. So I can determine if the more expensive option is the best one - which I have found with cables (and many things) is not always the case. I also have I’ll be trying a local cable makers xlrs and having those in the mix. They fall somewhere down the middle in terms of pricing.
I have gone back to unbalanced… but realistically I have concluded with the Dave and Etude there is not much if any difference between unbalanced and balanced other than volume level.
Well with my Empyreans I like what the mscalar does, however through speakers I find the mscalar can over brighten some masters… but not others… curious… I can turn the mscalar multiplier down when this happens… but contemplating whether I want this faff.
I am having Naim modify my CDX2 to allow it to connect to Dave. It’s a mk1 CDX2.
Very interesting Simon. It sounds like you’ve reached a very good place with the Chord electronics and the Naim source (well sources when the CDX2 arrives back). Nice one !
Hope you enjoy them. I was very impressed by them when I was trying them along side the Ultra Silver and Black Diamonds.
I’m settled with my core system and the last area I was experimenting with (transport) has reached an end point.
I received the OpticalRendu about a week and half ago but only really had a chance to listen to it properly over the last two days after I was away. I liked what I heard before I left but since getting back and receiving the LPS from my better half, it sounds really very good.
I’m using the second rail of the LPS on the MScaler at the moment as well (set to 12v) and That also sounds great. I’ll give it a bit of time and go back to the power bank to see how it differs once I’ve got used to it.
Hi Simon, that’s good to know, as my dealer also suggested that there was no need for balanced.
I’ve finally got round to pinching his demo Etude (after a long delay due to a speaker upgrade) and a couple of days in, my 250DR is sitting in a corner looking nervous. I’ve got a few spare cables to try, including some Townsend Fractals and a Hiline, plus some Chord Epics on loan, so I’ll be playing around with them over the next couple of days.
The reply I got from Chord when I asked this question, " It will make no odds to the DAVE but Etude benefits from a balanced input provided via XLR "
Like you I found little difference using both types of cable but asked the question anyway, so went with TQ Black XLR.
