bruss, what Goldnote device you’ve had experience and did you like it?
Looking at their CDP.
Hi. I have a couple of PH10 phono stages and the psu10 that goes with them. Excellent products.
I also did have their Streamer/Dac the DS10 and its psu the Evo10. I sold these as GoldNote had said they were going to get them approved for use with Amazon HD streaming. Unfortunately after a year of waiting they never did. I would still be using them if they had. Excellent build quality and excellent sound quality. I now use Auralic for streaming and I see they now have half size boxes which I am starting to think about to replace the larger boxes I currently use.
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I would have preferred if they had ditched the din sockets for rca or even xlr. Din is so yesterday, even on a retro type product they could have ditched, I hate the things with a passion.
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Why ?
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What an odd thing to “hate with passion”. My CD5XS came with a DIN to DIN lead so I was able to connect it straight to my 50, rather than having to order a new one. What problems has Naim’s use of DIN given you?
Roger
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The fact one has to buy an after market cable in order to use a none Naim source,also they are a throw back to the seventies.
I’ve tried quite a few RCA cables in Naim systems where both options are available, and I have found in every case that the system sounds just a little better with DIN compared to an RCA cable of similar quality. If you use a non-Naim source into a Naim amp obviously the free cable that would have been supplied with a Naim source won’t be there. Naim, Chord, and many other suppliers can sell you a cable at pretty much any price you can think of which will do the job. This has been the case with every amp I’ve bought since the early ‘80s, so I guess I’ve learnt not to hate with a passion the cable I needed to do the job.
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If you haven’t seen this, it’s perhaps worth a read?
Why Naim use DIN Connectors - Frequently Asked Questions - Naim Audio - Community
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RCA won the game and Naim jumped that wagon around 25 years ago.
A pity really as in generel DIN betters RCA.
There’s a lot of RCA/DIN interconnect cables on the market, no issue IMO.
There’s another reason Nait 50 has DIN only.
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What’s wrong with the 1970s? Many great things came from the 70s, including disco and wide flare jeans…
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And some rather splendid music!
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@PerF over time the ever growing list of “we wont do that” … then did!
Martin
During the '90s, Naim had been under a great deal of pressure, particularly from overseas markets such as the North America and Asia, to change to RCA Phonos. While Naim refused to get rid of their preferred DINs - there were clear performance advantages to using them - the re-design of the Classic pre-amps at the turn of the new Century meant that they were able to add some selectable RCA phono inputs without compromising overall performance.
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You rest my case!
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Yet Naim opted for XLR on the new classic range.
Yes, Naim have always quite liked the Cannon XLR - hence why it has been used in single-ended form since the very beginning for connecting on the bigger amps, but with sources it’s only really useful where you have balanced input and output. Of course with the Statement there was a move to balanced operation throughout which necessitated the Cannon XLR and the New Classics have followed that lead.
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They did, but also include DIN sockets and this text on page 9 of the user manual:
5.2 Input connection details
The NAC 332 features several source connection options. For the best sound quality, we
recommend you use the DIN inputs.
The N50 is about performance over convenience hence why it chooses DIN as its primary line level inputs.. It’s no coincidence that certain high end manufacturers with unbalanced designs choose DIN over phono for stereo interconnects.. specifically here DIN 41524 connectors.
Phono originally was designed for DC connections in the 1930s.. it was adopted for audio in a big way, mainly by Japanese manufacturers in the 1970s.. it has now become ubiquitous because it’s cheap…but not necessarily the best for stereo low signal interconnections… DIN audio connectors were developed for the job and standardised in the 1950s.. and as such better controls and handles the single stereo signal return which contributes to higher performance (for two unbalanced stereo signals)
For lower performance audio equipment I suspect one hears no difference between phono and DIN however.
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It might be so that the identical cable with DIN sounds better than RCA on Naim equipment. I’ve never tried and I believe few of us had. But I have tried DIN in one series and RCA in the series above from a brand and RCA was better by a great margin. I heard nothing negative going to RCA there on my 552. Given the limited market on DIN I’d say that yes you can find a great great performing cable that is RCA too. Obviously since 99% of the market is RCA today with non-compromise million dollar pre/amps out there. Cable geometry and materials have gone far beyond what was available when Naim set course on DIN. That development has in my opinion far excelled the DIN connectors in itself.
It’s about the connector contacts and connections for a stereo signal pair, not cables… to boil it down to simple terms in a stereo DIN pair the DIN connection (say DIN 41524) is by definition 25% better than the stereo phono pair connection, all other things being equal.
This is I am sure why other super high end manufacturers like DNM use DIN for unbalanced stereo interconnects.