Ok, however my post was more on the ironic side. Chord is too often overated here, I think. I am reading other forums, some prefer others dacs at the same level of price, or even cheaper, like Denafrips, Mytech, RME, …
But here, i think that Chord dacs took too much place and it tires me. Sorry to say.
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That meaningless word again! 
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Perhaps because they sound good and a lot of members like how they play music… if you’re tired of it you don’t have to read it, just skip!
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Absolutely not, it’s the reason of audio components. But I agree it’s subjective.
It’s difficult, they appear in so many threads…
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Playing music (or other sounds!)is the reason for audio components - musicality is a meaningless term! My syatem plays music that sounds like real music played by musicians …But it doesn’t make music itself, indeed my aim is for it not to have a sound of its own at all, as far as achievable in a practical system.
But I think this is diverting the thread from discussion of surprise!
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When you see the word Chord, or name of something you know is made by them, just skip to the next post if you find it tiring to read…
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I should do that, I agree.
To me, musicality is one of the most useful descriptors in HiFi. If it doesn’t sound musical it’s not worth a bean. Uber detailed hifi is exhausting. I don’t always agree with @frenchrooster but here I absolutely do. This endless worshipping of Chord is tedious in the extreme. Maybe all those that get moist thinking of Rob Watts should share their love on the Chord Forum. There are some who seem to think that Chord is something descended from Heaven, one wonders why they slum it on the Naim Forum, as Naim are clearly incapable of designing decent dacs.
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I’m wondering whether Chord have paid fans to infiltrate the forum. Good grief, they might have even got into the Beta test group…
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My concern about the word ‘musicality’ is that it is bandied about with such implication that music presented by another system simply isn’t music, whereas in reality it is just people’s different tastes or expectations as to what music “should “ sound like - and it can be used equally by people on either side of a system divide.
As for Chord, some of us (maybe many - I haven’t a clue) don’t revere the brand, or the designer - we have just found that the DACs play music better than other DACs we have heard. In my case with the Hugo it was simply that it sounded more natural than the DAC in the ND5XS, and my preceding CD players Shearne Phase 7 and Cambridge CD2, all of which had sounded very similar to one another: Suddenly I recognised what people had been referring to as the sound of digital, because it had gone. Dave brought amazing clarity into the mix - as if all my life before I had been wearing a pair of ordinary spectacles, and had discovered high dispersion high transmission lenses with anti-reflection coatings. Nothing wrong with what was before - just missing the clarity that is possible. Wow was literal as my cellist son sitting next to me mouthed under his breath as the audition started, echoing my silent reaction. I can only apologise if you, FR and possibly others don’t wish to hear about it.
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Surely if people are saying that they prefer the sound of the Chord products, feedback to Naim is not a bad thing? Now if they made it into the alpha test group…
It’s not that I don’t want to hear about it, it’s simply the almost evangelical zeal in some posts that becomes rather wearing. I don’t want forensic detail, I want music that hangs together and is enjoyable. The TV is usually on the much softer film mode rather than vivid or whatever it’s called. I wonder how Chord would feel if people were constantly banging on on their forum, if there is one, about how Naim was so much better and how Steve Sells sits at the right hand of God.
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Difficult to say, I’ve upgraded amplification on main system.
Lowthers were nicknamed “The Coffins” by my wife’s aunt and it has stuck, so they’re not really welcome in our main living room.
I’m very pleased to have them in my study where they’re driven by a hi capped Nac72 / Nap 180 and hi capped cd3.5. All my kit is old stuff now but sounds great to me.
Incidentally both my boys own Klipschorn horn loaded speakers now so the Lowthers must have made an impression!
T
And how many Naim employees do we have in here saying “you need to upgrade” ? 
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Are you talking about the (latest) Naim DAC firmware update version 4.11.8 of December 2015?
If so, how can I tell whether my nDAC has it?
Do I have to plug my pc into it?
How do you stop your snaic cables touching the floor?
None, as far I’m aware.
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Yes, I did an extended home demo of Qutest vs (bare) Naim DAC.
The Qutest went back.
It never grabbed me at all.
(But it was more detailed).
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This used to be an interesting thread 
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