Great to hear you’re enjoying it so much.
Ah yes Jim, typo on my part.
If I don’t have active ATC’s, I’d most certainly have the 350 mono blocks and perhaps Kudos 606’s.
I’ve just noticed that the ground switch on my 333 is set to “Floating”, I’ve not changed it, shouldn’t it be set to “Default”, which is ground? I don’t have any other source.
The 332 is set to “Default”
The labelling could be better:
333 - Floating | Default
332 - Default | Ground
Both should be set to “Default” in my case? I’ve now confused myself writing this 
333 Should Be Default and 332 Should Be Default. The Ground should be at the primary source.
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Thanks for confirming … I should know this from my previous nDAC/nd5 but with it coming out of the box with it set to floating and the drawings in the manual showing the same confused me … I did set it to default earlier and it’s made a difference.
Other 333 owners may want to check.
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I agree the way default is different on each unit is confusing!
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So last weekend I got tired of looking at my XPS-DR sitting unplugged and cold on my rack - after all it is a $7K piece. So I rearranged all my kit and hooked up the XPS to my NCS 222 using the special Burndy cable
Initial results were not as expected - unlike when I first hooked it up to my NDX2 - This was completely meh! sounding lifeless = so much so that I considered pulling it back out - but I perservered - mainly because I was knackered from rearranging everything 
Anyway after 2~3 hours I began to notice improvements - not me adapting to it as I was away for much of the time. By Monday it was sounding much to my liking, and after a week it all sounds very good, so the XPS is staying.
My assumption is that the Burndy cable was the culprit and it is still settling in.
I may well pull the XPS out in a couple of months to see if there is a really noticable change in SQ, after which I may get an NPX 300 on trial. Using the XPS is certainly cheaper as its only the cost of the Burndy cable. Im thinking that next I will upgrade the XLR cables, maybe a set from AVOptions or a pair of TelluriumQ Black Diamond.
One thing I notice with the XPS-DR installed is that I have the NCS 222 volume control set a couple of digits higher than previously, so it would seem that the 222 gain has changed slightly.
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Hi Nigel - this is really interesting. Please keep us posted. I’d love to know what you think after you take the XPS DR out.
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Well that will be the interesting part Nigel
XPSDR vs NPX 300
I don’t think too many posts on that comparison ( but I may have missed ) - is the NPX300 that much of a significant improvement to warrant the rather substantial price increase
Does the XPS power both the preamp and source sections of the 222? Would it power a 332 (which is a preamp only)?
Yes the XPS-DR powers the 222 completely as the power lead is removed from the 222
I believe it would also power a 332 as the “XPS+Special Burndy” is a substitute for the NPX 300 with its 2 Burndy cables.
You can always confirm this with Naim support
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Yes. It splits the analog and digital power and is comparable with the 332.
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Yesterday I had my first chance to hear the NC range in action, thanks to a nice event organised by Latham Audio with Mark Raggett taking us through a trip of all the new black boxes!
Some background on the setup first:
- Room: A large asymmetric open space of a HiFi shop (wall on the left hand side and open on the right). Acoustic panels on the ceiling and absorber/diffuser on the front wall.
- Speakers: Audiovector R3 Arreté. Very happy with the choice of speakers and also very useful to me, as I had recently heard them in a small untreated hotel room driven by Exposure mono amps, which was the most magical/enjoyable thing I have probably ever heard so far.
- Audio cables: Superlumina
- Power cables: Powerlines all over (obviously) + the large Chord powerblock
- Ethernet: EE8 + Chord Clearway streaming cable
- Rack: Naim Fraimlite (2 columns)
So the following systems were compared, playing one song back-to-back for each comparison. Different songs were used as we progressed.
- 0 Uniti Nova PE
- 1 NSC 222 - NAP 250
- 2 NSC 222 & NPX 300 - NAP 250
- 3 NSS 333 - NAC332 - NAP 250
- 4 NSS 333 & NPX 300 - NAC332 - NAP 250
- 5 NSS 333 & NPX 300 - NAC332 & NPX 300 - NAP 250
- 6 NSS 333 & NPX 300 - NAC332 & NPX 300 - NAP 350
Each step up adds clarity which provides more insight in the music, separation of instruments and so on. Some notable points:
- I could hear several issues with system “0”, that I didn’t like at all.
- System 1 was so much better and I felt that it was something I could live with.
- System 2 was the point where I thought here is where the magic starts.
- 2 vs 3 was interesting as we are talking about similar cost and box number. A classical piece was used for comparison and the improvement in instrument separation and detail was clear.
- 3 vs 4: A version of “Jolene” was played. With system 3 the sound was more bright and energetic, to the point where the singer was sounding happy to let her man go…
. The addition of NPX 300 brought better balance and “slowed” things down, to the point where you get better insight on the feeling of the signer. - 4 vs 5: Smaller improvement compared to the previous step for my ears, I don’t recall that much.
- 5 vs 6 comparison, occured at a highed volume with a classical piece again, where the 250 started getting constrained with the instruments falling on top of each other. NAP 350 fixed all these issues. But I didn’t get a big wow moment as I was expecting based on what I’ve read here.
Overall, the sound signature is modern and clear. The PRAT is there, even though we didn’t try out any real rock/party music to point this out. I would prefer a bit warmer sound. When I returned home, I considered my system as warm sounding for the first time, and that’s not a word I would use for the PMCs! 
My dealer thinks that the R3 Avantgarde are the sweet spot in the range as the Arreté can be on the bright side a bit. Definitely happy that they didn’t use Focals though 
My previous experience with the Exposure - Audiovector still remains the pinnacle of the best thing I have ever heard. Room size and arrangement could have its impact of course.
My partner likes the looks of the NC series A LOT… Which will come to haunt my wallet in the coming years
Realistically, if I were to invest in NC series, I could see myself with system 3 or 4, especially considering room dimensions and speaker selection. However, at the end of the event I wasn’t that mesmerised to reach the point of saying: “I want/need this!”. I was very happy to listen my own system back home later in the night. Which is good for my wallet .
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Hi guys… side track abit , what’s the best SQ streaming platform u guys use here ? Wanting to optimise the performance of the NC 300 … currently I am using Tidal, perhaps there’s better platform ?
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Thanks for providing your impressions. Interesting that upgraded cables were used. I wonder if that affected the comparison at all.
I auditioned systems 1, 2 and 3 - but due to budget reasons I didn’t want to hear 4 and 5!
I settled on system 1 as it provided a more affordable starting point and my priority was to upgrade my streamer. That said, I am aiming for system 2 at some point. Whilst to my ears system 3 was undeniably better, it was too much of a stretch and my current speakers just wouldn’t do it justice - and there would be no budget left to upgrade them. However, I am very much enjoying my new sounds and re-discovering my music collection.
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I have 2. Looking to 3. In due course.
I found Qobuz to have superior SQ to Tidal. With Qobuz you also get hi res (24 bit) whereas Tidal does MQA versions, which Naim doesn’t exploit.
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Tidal offers Hi res non MQA today too. It’s just that naim is behind the market in updating their streamers to support it. Tidal will also from April lower their pricing on hi res so it is below Qobuz. I’m likely to move to Tidal by then. I’ve made comparisons between tidal and Qobuz hi res and cannot detect any differences.
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I was once a good Tidal customer but they decided to become MQA prostitutes - this time it would take more than them lowering their subscription fees for me to rejoin and give them my hard earned 
So I will keep supporting Qobuz, even if at a higher price (and even if Tidal was free) as a token for their overall good service over the years and great SQ too.
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