I am thinking about upgrading my system but would welcome any advice as to the best course of action.
Should I add a XPS dr or 555 to my NDX2,
Or add a Supercap dr to my 282 (in place of my Hicap dr),
Or change my PMC Twenty5 23 for maybe Focal/Sonus Faber?
I feel the NAP250dr has so much more to give but maybe this swapped for a 300dr would give the biggest performance hike?
90% of my music listening is through the NDX2/Tidal.
I am happy to consider used or ex-demo items and have a £7k budget.
I have it in my mind that the speakers should be the first to go and with maybe a £1500 value added to my budget then maybe a nice set of Sonus Fabers or Focals could be looked at.
I feel I should leave upgrade advice of this level to other members who are better placed and more experienced.
I just think to say what you are seeking will help others to advise you.
The twenty5.23s are really good. It would be interesting to know exactly why you’ve zoned in on Focal or Sonus Faber; do you prefer their house sound to PMC? Why not bigger PMCs? Or ATCs. Or ProAc. Or Neat… Anyway, I’d be adding a power supply to the NDX2, ensuring I had an excellent system support and installing dedicated mains. I certainly wouldn’t be changing speakers unless there was something about them that really wasn’t working for me.
£7k would get you a Olympica nova 1 or a Sopra No1. Both should improve upon a few aspect of your old PMC floorstanders - being standmounts will undoubtedly bring you closer to the music, especially if you have a smallish room and like listening nearfield.
If you have a larger room £7k will get you some tasty s/h floorstanders from either but could demand more upstream.
For £7000 you should be able to do both the SuperCap DR and 555 PS DR at Secondhand prices if you are patient. Remember though that you will need an XPS Burndy if you go for the 555.
The XPS DR comes with a Burndy and lifts the performance of the NDX2 appreciably. I wouldn’t rule it out if you have no desire to later upgrade to ND555.
A secondhand XPS DR and a secondhand SuperCap DR are certainly well within budget.
Everyone will have opinions on this but in the world of used bargains you often have to take them as and when they appear. That may dictate which you do first. I’d try to do the power supply for the NDX2 first if you can. You may then decide not to progress the SuperCap but I suspect you would still want to try it.
The good thing is that if you buy wisely at a good price, re-selling can usually be done at little cost.
Depends what you’re trying to a achieve. If you add an XPS or 555 you will get a straight immediate upgrade to your system. Changing speakers is a fundamentally different thing, can potentially be a bigger upgrade but can change completely the tonal balance of your system, home demo essential. I don’t know your PMCs but their reputation is 2nd to none unless you’re not content with the overall nature I’d go for the PSU at this stage.
Thanks everyone for your comments, all are very much appreciated.
Food for thought but the NDX2 PS seems the favourite first upgrade.
As for the speakers, I suppose the fact that the PMC were bought new with my first secondhand 112/155XS, upgraded the amp to 202/200dr and then again to 282/250dr still with the same Twenty5 23’s, I feel it is the speakers time for an upgrade. Saying that they sound pretty good.
As others have said it really depends on what you are trying to achieve. What do you feel is lacking? The standard advice is to improve the source first. Whilst this is excellent advice I do sometimes feel it is rather lazy and just trotting out the same old thing time after time.
The source is of paramount importance. But you already have an excellent source. Do you need to improve it further? Maybe, maybe not. Perhaps you may better get the sort of impeovements you are looking for by changing your speakers.
Consider what you are looking for and consider the system as a whole and where you hope to end up. Adding an XPS or 555 will certainly bring improvements but whether this will be the biggest bang for your buck depends very much on what you are looking to achieve.
I totally get the ‘source first’ method and it makes sense. We do spend a lot of time looking at our speakers, as well as listening to them, and maybe this confuses our senses!
In my view, this is a very good tactic - and its the one that I use. Look around and search - then see what you find. It may take some time - and may not be in the most logical order, but never mind.
You could easily make use of either an XPS2 on your NDX2, or a Supercap on your 282. Or even… (controversial… ) a 2nd HiCap for your 282. All will ‘work’ and are a step forward.
We could call this the serendipity approach…
(My own watching and searching has provided me the following, over the years - NAC82, (2nd) HiCap, XPS2, Kudos X3’s, Linn Lingo, Linn Kore - and just this week, NAC A5 cables. Almost a complete system - just by looking around…)
What you really need is a good dealer who can advise and loan you a power supply for your NDX2 and some speakers to try at home.
BTW, I have used the same speakers while upgrading (home demoing at each stage) from a Uniti 2 all the way up to a 500 system, so I would say there is no rush to upgrade your speakers. I have found that introducing/upgrading power supplies, especially on Naim sources, produces significant uplift in SQ. However demoing at home is the only way to confirm this in your own system.
I too would recommend a PS for your streamer first.
I have used the same speaker since 1989 and understand the thought that changing them will bring big improvements. My reality is that replacing them is pointless when they are so good and keep revealing improvements made upstream. And the potential for making a cockup is huge!