I have a confession to make…
I sat and had a decent listen to, give or take, my target system in the short to mid term.
I’ve lived with my SN2 for a while now (in to the years) and overall have to say its been my favourite Naim integrated amp having gone through a 3R, 5, NAIT XS, NAIT XS 2 and a SN1 prior to that.
I enjoyed the 5 sound a lot but I had different speakers then and overall it was a more modest office system I used during the day in the background mostly. It’s since evolved to become my main 2 channel system and in parallel going through various sources like the CD 5i and CD 5XS as well as a ND5 XS and currently a ND5 XS 2 I’ve evolved my source expectations accordingly.
I also evolved over time from Chord IC’s to the current Hi-Line and added in Powerline Mains over time to polish things up incrementally. I’m still on a mix of full fat and lite in that respect.
I went with an open mind and an idea to swap in an NDX 2 and juggle about getting rid of a few black boxes in the process. The conclusion of which being that I let my NAIT XS 2 and SN2 go and ordered up a new SN3 as a first step (contrary to the collective hive mind guidance on source first priority, forgive my weakness if you will)
One key take away was that the SN3 was running bare and the NDX 2 had a XPS DR driving it, so I’m now leaning towards doing a phase two where I liquidate my CD5 XS, ND5 XS 2 and HiCap DR and make the move to a bare NDX 2 + bare SN3.
I’ve also tagged on a very good deal on Powerlines and a possible swap in of a SL IC to give a lift in the short term to the ND5 XS 2 and a nice friend for the NDX 2 when it slots in.
In my case I also wanted to add a TT to the mix which was not getting enough use in my TV room and show it some love and in doing so reinvigorate my enjoyment of vinyl as a source!
So compared to what I have and where I’m going, the SN3 seemed a little more grown up and authoritative in presentation, the soundstage is a little more open and the midrange (which at times niggled me on the SN2) was more cohesive with better separation, not perfect or where you’d be with a 252 or 282 level preamp but an improvement to my cloth ears none the less.
It’s mostly subtle nuances compared to the SN2 and very source dependant admittedly, but it gave me enough confidence that longer term I’d have an amp in the middle of the system that would stay in control and engage me to the level I’d become accustomed to with it’s older sibling.
Ultimately I’d have done the source swap first but I had a good chance to do a deal on the amp and financially it was a manageable step that gave me a path to fund a new bare system and then add PSU’s to it down the line, preferably I’d add the XPS DR first and finish off with a nice new HiCap DR, my current one is fine and at 5 years old now will command a decent price to offset the cost of the NDX 2. A new HiCap is not cheap but modest relative to the system it joins and somewhat easier to do overall.
Hope that helps give some insight and views, I’ll update as things change and give feedback relative to my own setup if of interest.