Blimey. Dont bother with a 500. Go straight for a full Statement.
It actually makes financial and mental wellbeing sense. You save lots on upgrades and don’t have to stress about how poor your current set up really is.
Plus, you don’t have to come on here and ask the forum for opinions.
Instead just post a few pictures of your Statement rig and gain instant sycophantic friends!
Agree. What i found.
But now, I feel inadequate.
I’ve just found a spare £30k. Off to my dealer for a 555 and a couple of psus!
I would also consider using the NDX2 as a transport into an external DAC, rather than using a PSU to upgrade the analogue circuitry.
I had been using my NDX2 with a 555PSDR for over 2 years. As good as the internal NDX2 DAC is I’ve found it ultimately to be a limiting factor. I’m now using my NDX2 with Powerline into a Matrix Audio X-Sabre Pro. Others here also use Chord DACs with great results.
I’m now much happier with the NDX2/Matrix Audio source into 552 and Sugden amp. I sold my 555PSDR and S-XPS burndy and will be using the funds for a turntable and phono stage.
Thanks, I’ll take that into consideration.
I have to admit I get rather lost at this point!
I’ve been reading comments about Dave coming to call on certain forum members along with his close pal Mr M Scaler and not willing to leave. I think for the time being I’ll stick with our friends from Salisbury, no Naim’s mentioned.
Hi 0.0,
If you are feeling shy, permit me to name the drama. Should I max out my Naim streaming source or might I prefer to use the NDX2 as streamer feeding a Chord M Scaler + DAVE? Or even investigate DCS streamers?
There are plenty of dealers who stock both Naim and Chord streaming products, so will set up the audition for you. Once you hear both combinations in a good demo, you will know which one is for you quite quickly. It took me all of about 10 seconds into the first track.
The Naim, Naim/Chord and DCS streaming options are all very good indeed, so audition them and pick your preferred one. It’s a personal choice.
Best regards, BF
When Naim brought out the ND555 it didn’t feel the need to update the 555PS DR or improve upon it so it can’t be that shabby
I’d agree with that, love Naim’s amplification, but DAC is a weak link in Naim’s product offering. A NDX2 + PS555DR is a lot of money, and with that sort of cash, you can get much bang for your buck if willing to consider other DAC alternatives.
A bit tired personally to read that “ Naim dac weak link “ more and more often.
Hopefully there are some who still buy the very prehistoric Ndac over concurrents like Chord, Mytech…
Recently a member with Statements, prefer the CD555 over full 100 k DCS Vivaldi stack he owns too. It means something, the modern and hyper sophisticated DCS, vs the CD555 dinosaur.
Also, hazarding a guess here but I would imagine a large proportion of ND555 users were existing NDS or CD555 users.
Obviously you would tailor a product to a market that is already almost within reach of a new range…
Agreed, It also means that better, best and ultimate don’t necessarily mean the same to individuals.
It’s more about tailoring the sound to your own specifics and ears.
It would be interesting if all products were priced the same, would everyone still have either a 500 level or statement based system?
Now that’s an interesting thought.
Interesting that you went NDS to NDX2 (both with 555ps) - how did you find it?
Thanks
Gary
Coming into the room initially I would have found it hard to spot that the NDS wasn’t there but listening now I’d say more ‘natural’. Silly term perhaps but listening mostly to classical and jazz those who will understand what I’m trying to say. It’s more real for sure. And it’s not about the new screen - which is set off!
Heaven knows what the big boy delivers!
It’s not a silly term at all, especially as so much hifi seems to have no idea what natural means.
I have moved on from my NDX2. I liked the streaming functionality but the DAC (to me) is mediocre at best and the screen (again, for me) is a waste, they should have done much more with it to make it useful.
Note: I am all in with Roon, listening is 90% streaming, 10% CD’s (2000 LP’s gathering dust in the basement). What did I do? Bricasti Design M3 with network card and remote, around $5K US, less that a NDX 2 in the states. What do you get? A far superior DAC, actually two DAC’s, a delta sigma PCM and a dedicated DSD DAC. You get preamp/volume functionality and lots of digital inputs, and, with the network card you have a Roon Ready end point. From a sonic and features perspective, this thing kills the NDX2. It will also allow me to go direct to a power amp, eliminating preamp/integrated amp.
In my case, going all digital, it makes much more sense.
I love sound of naim dac in my ndx2. It seems to become popular to tell everyone how much money you can save to buy a ‘better’ dac, but i’ve heard different dac with/with no preamp function and naim with naim works best. It’s not just about ‘quality’ of dac, it’s about a lot lot more, about how it all connects together and way different units speak with other ones.
Mind you, running things against my newly fully spec LP12 does for me at least fire things up- at least for this old chap! Shove on a new 45 US Jazz LP - boy, there’s nothing like it! Most of my NDX2 is spent listening to BBC3 - excellent to these sub 12KHZ ears at least!
Understood. Just relating one man’s experience. I was using the NDX2 in a full Naim context, i.e. SN3 and HiCap DR. My new solution sounds much better TO ME. That’s all it means, nothing more, nothing less.
Naim has a much tougher sell in the US. We don’t have a big network of dealers willing to loan the stuff out for home demo’s (you’re lucky in the UK), and the gear is quite a bit more expensive here. The value proposition is very different.
Well a PS555 DR is now on order, I’ll post my findings for any other interested parties once it arrives and starts to settle in.
Set up the NDX2 via an S-XPS cable to the newly installed PS555 DR earlier this afternoon. I have to say that I was expecting a night and day difference which has not materialised. It’s a new power supply so I guess there is some settling in time needed and I will add more comments as things progress. There is more to the sound, certain things like voices and subtler details in tracks seem to stand out a bit more. I blasted out Matthew Halsall’s Salute to the Sun first followed by Roger Water’s Us + Them both of which revealed a little more detail, perhaps even a bit more of the feeling of it being live in the latter with a sensation of more space without the creation of a wider soundstage.
Stepping stones…