I use one box for digital transport (ND5XS2), another box as dac (Naim DAC), another box to power the dac’s analog stage (555DR).
It sounds very good to me.
So I’m also a fan of separates when it comes to power supplies and parts of the digital front end.
So. In this interesting search, where are you now at?
That sounds familiar Jim!
It’s a bit like having an opticalRendu powered by an external Paul Hynes or Sean Jacobs (or MCRU) power supply. We went for the Paul Hynes SR4T in the end.
Best regards, BF
Hi Simon,
Buying a new DAC, and therefore a transport, would mean moving away from Naim.
That will depend on family plans : buying a house or not. At the moment everything’s stalled due to the covid situation.
The thread has been rather interesting though! 
In terms of transport and servers/storage, the trend is having both integrated : a server directly connected to a DAC (Aurender and alike).
This is, in my opinion, a mistake.
As I see it, in terms of sound quality (minimising noise) the perfect structure would be in 3 parts :
1 : Server and storage (Roon/RAAT or UPnP/DLNA), located somewhere on the network and well away from the audio gear
2 : A stand alone transport capable of both RAAT, UPnP/DLNA and possibly offering access to Qobuz.
Very well designed in terms of computing noise management.
With digital outputs up to PCM 24 bits / 384 kHz (which rules out AES/EBU and S/PDIF).
3 : and the DAC
Mixing 1 and 2 is convenient, but is a compromise (a mistake).
Aurender, for instance, won’t add Roon to their servers. They can’t cope with the noise generated by the computing power the Roon Server needs.
Considering the above, the only options available at the moment are :
dCS Network Bridge.
But it has a limited digital output, up to 24/192, AES (no quality USB output)
Sonore Signature Rendu Optical SE (… ridiculously expensive case and power supply)
Lumin U1
The perfect transport would have been the dCS Network bridge, unfortunately it hasn’t a quality USB output.
dCS dose not plan to add one (apparently they are struggling to implement it).
Thomas…Your post is a great post. 
I’ve gone from a dCS NB, dCS Bartók, to a RPi 4, with a HiFiBerry HD DAC. I should add that this a temporary measure! 
Don’t ask about the Bartók, it’s a long story!
There are some really good DACs out there at the moment, and not everyone wants an all in one solution (DAC, Streamer, Preamp, headphone, etc…) I would never use the preamp or headphone.
I am a Roon user, and have a Nucleus which holds all my ripped CDs and 24/96 downloads. So, a quality transport only option, paired with a good DAC, as an Endpoint, is something I am seriously looking at.
Interesting points and thread. It us clear why you want to seperate 1 from 2 & 3, but why do you want to seperate 2 from 3? Is it just because your preferred DAC doesn’t have streaming capability?
It seems to me that digital inputs and outputs drive plus cabling adds complexity and makes it more difficult and costly to achieve sound quality objectives.
Best regards
Hans
My dealer likes to use the ND5XS2 as an endpoint for other dacs; it might be a very good value/performance option.
I’m considering the Soulution 711 amplifier and the Soulution 760 DAC.
The DAC handles UPnP/DLNA protocols, but not RAAT.
It’ll probably be implemented in the future.
Nevertheless, the thread was informative.
But, as said above, I’m not in a rush for changes. Not at all.
I like my system, a lot! It really sounds beautifully 
What led me to consider a change is the box count. I have 7… that’s a lot. But if I move, box count won’t be a concern anymore.
How was the Bartok?
What happened?
I like long stories!
They all say that.
(e.g. Melco…)
Melco is a very different matter.
Implementing the RAAT protocol on a DAC (it’s network interface) is one thing.
Adding the Roon Server to the Melco server is a totally different matter.
Two totally different matters, really.
First rule of Roon : do not connect a Roon Server to a DAC.
The Bartók was great, but I’m told to get the best out of it, you need the ‘Clock’, just like a NDX 2 needs a PS.
I’m moving house and the mortgage provider wasn’t happy with the fact that the Bartók was on Interest Free credit. So, to progress the house move, the Bartók had to go. 
Once I move, then I’m game on for a new streamer. The little RPi 4 looks a tad lonely on the rack, does it not!
It looks great.
Bit perfect!
[I find it interesting that both Darko and Guttenberg (reviewers) only used the Bartok as a headphone amp…]
Bricasti M5 is in this category. Relatively new, but well reviewed. Their M3 DAC is ‘new-tech’.
£14,500 is an expensive way to listen to headphones. I got the non headphone amp Bartók for £9,700, as I traded in a Matrix DAC.
Personally, I don’t do headphones.
Somewhere on the Roon site it says, “Just connect the Nucleus to a DAC, and off you go”. Not ideal, I know, but that’s what I did and it worked. 
That works, abviously.
But I’m pretty sure this isn’t Roon Labs’ advice.
Probably a forum member that didn’t read the documentation 
Connecting a computer to a DAC never is a good idea… The Nucleus is a computer. Just like any other computer, it is noisy.
Roon Labs’ advice :
Google for : " To get the best sound quality from Roon "
I totally agree with you Thomas
I have found where it mentions it. It’s from the Nucleus ‘White Paper’. Here’s the extract from it.
“External DACs, receivers, integrated amplifiers, and speakers can be connected either directly via USB, HDMI, or over the network”.
This is a list connecting options.
A direct USB or HDMI connection will work like a charm, and it is nice to have all those options.
I probably would not connect my Nucleus to Chord DAVE if I had one.
But on lifestyle system like a Muso I wouldn’t bother connecting a Nucleus directly.
It’s what I do as well (not that I’m some sort of expert) The ND5xs2 is excellent IMHO.
