S/H XPS question

So after near-enough 18 years I’m finally coming round to the idea of adding an XPS to my CDX2. I’m mulling over an Olive to save money on a later, black unit and apart from the aesthetic differences (which don’t bother me as the rack’s out of sight), I’m wondering if there’d be any compatibility issues?
I appreciate the later models had bigger transformers, etc but I would be interested in other members’ views on whether any resulting performance in uplift really is worth the extra outlay. TIA.

I had an Olive XPS with a CDS2 and it sounded sublime. And then I had a serviced XPS2 with a CDS3. It sounded excellent and more detailed than the CDS2 Olive XPS combination.

With a CDX2 I would go with an XPS2 or XPSDR or 555DR PS.

The olive series XPS has a smaller transformer like you say but was designed for the Olive kit in mind.

The character of the CDX2 is in keeping with the XPS2 power supply onwards.

The XPS will work fine with the CDX2 but I haven’t heard the combination.

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I use an XPS2 (non DR) with my CDX2… :expressionless:

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The transformer in the olive XPS wasn’t a purpose design, it is a transformer that was designed for use in a Supercap.

Because of this the voltage in the secondaries is a lot higher than it needs to be for powering a CD player. This results in the voltage regulators getting hot, due to the large voltage they have to drop.

If I remember correctly, Naim recommend that the olive XPS is not suitable for powering its later streamers. The high current demand in the digital circuits and the high voltage drop is not good for the regs. :scream:

If there is a chance in the future you’ll be buying a streamer, buy a black XPS2.

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I had a s/h non-DR 555PS on my CDX2 which really made it sing. These can be picked up relatively cheaply. This was a significant step up on the XPS2.

An Olive XPS may well also need a service?

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That’s right. You can’t use the Olive XPS for Naim streamers. It will power the CDX2 though and the CDS3 as well as the olive CD players.

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