I doubt you could have found a better match for the carpet! Looks great, hope it helps 
Cheers
I use the same granite chopping board , but also have the speaker spikes sitting in audio serenity speaker cups…brought a crisper sound to my ears with Pmc 25.26.
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Early trials seem good. Bass seems tighter and more precise. Naim Fraim Chips to arrive soon and see what they add.
I’m waiting for two sets of Naim Fraim Chips to arrive and see what they add to the equation. Bass seems tighter and crisper even without them.
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Just received my 2nd 10TB Melco. Very very happy as I have now a bit less than 18tb of storage music available for me. Have on the one popular music (rock, pop, jazz, blues…) and on the other one I will load my classical and acoustic collection.
What still needs to happen is putting the Melco’s properly on the Fraim. I will get a third tower of Fraimlite which I will use to place my AV equipment which leaves me with proper placing of all my equipment including bring the Ansuz power distribution from the floor into the rack…
Now the big work will be the transfer and QA of the transfer of classical music to my new Melco and later on re-ripping the last estimated 2500-3000 CD’s
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I did not without the cups?
ND555. Hopefully here this week.
G
Arriving Wednesday!
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Managed to find a nice olive XPS, then an nDAC turned up too…
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Congrats! That’s indeed a bit of kit! You won’t be disappointed 
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Invested in Basstraps from Artnovion
The result surprises on the positive sight; more relaxed sound, firmer low frequencies and bettered 3d soundstage. The Artnovion’s were part of a bigger journey for bettering room-acoustics
Iver
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It’s been warming up for the day. A bit surprised at the uplift so far. May be that I only use the preamp section and DAC of the 272 and have the streaming section turned off.
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Awesome news. Sounds like a nice little uplift for a decent price. Nibs on the next one that turns up on the usual spots.
Nd5xs2 arrived yesterday. I am not so sure about this one…
Have listened for years to my n272, last months of it’s presence here over my 252/250 and the last two months just momentarily replaced by a well run in ndx.
I can’t say I am impressed immediately. Maybe it needs a long run in time, but the lows are currently way too much and the highs too digital for my taste. I am missing the smooth presence of my former streaming/dac companions.
Let’s see how it is in a week’s time, but currently I am not feeling it. Will have the dealer over here next week anyway and will have a talk about it.
What do you mean by turning off the streamer in 272? How?
Well, as of yesterday, and after much confusion over thread size / pitch, the Gaias are now groaning under the weight of my MF9s.
As always, there might well be a chunk of expectation bias to factor in, but, I have to say that these are living up to the marketing blah.
Nothing too dramatic, but everything sounds cleaner, and with more detail than I remember.
I’ll be playing around with speaker positioning over the next couple of days, but I would certainly advise anyone thinking about these to arrange a home demo.
Word of caution though, do double check the thread size and pitch of the inserts on your existing speakers.
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Well I can’t imagine an ND5xs2 being a meaningful upgrade on an NDX. The key word being “meaningful”.
Why did you decide to make the jump from NDX to ND5xs2? Was it a functionality driven decision?
Well, that was part of my upgrade path moving away from the n272. The dealer had sold my n272 and we were waiting (and waiting…) for the nd5xs2 to arrrive so I used the dealer’s ndx in the meantime. The ndx compared to my run in n272 was negligable. A bit better, but nothing to write home about.
So I thought (wrong so far) the nd5xs2, new streamer board and all, dedicated streamer/dac, should at least be equal if not better then the older board streamer/dac of the n272. I do like the newer functionality compared to the ndx and n272 however. If I didn’t care about that, I should have bought a 2nd hand ndx.
Click here: My thread on my n272 phase out path
Not going for a ndx2 is a budget decision. Selling the n272 lead me to buying a new pre with ps and streamer/dac. Also waiting for the turntable, so the nd5xs2 seemed like a solid choice for the time being.
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Your findings are exactly what I’d expect to be honest. Even if the ND5xs2 had been a bit better (but the NDX still has a superior conversion and output stage), I can’t see it being a bold enough improvement to justify the effort of pulling a box out of a rack, let alone the expense. Unless the online streaming features were key for you.
I don’t think any box swap that offers incremental improvement is worth the effort. But that is just me and for sure many would disagree. I think any change should always be a bold move. So 272 to NDX2 (or NDX+XPSdr if a deal can be had), or ND5xs2 as a transport + nDAC or third party DAC of your liking.
I hope it settles and and turns around for you. But as I said, you’re finding exactly what I would have assumed to the be outcome from such a move. It seems a bit like going from and NDS/XPSdr to an NDX2 and thinking it would be an upgrade because it’s newer. I’d expect the same dissatisfaction there too.
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