You have a very nice digital front end and analog. Just enjoy the music!
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Just curious, did you audition the NDX2 as a direct comparison to the ND5 XS2?
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Yes @YetiZone a neighbour in our apartment building now has the NDX2 plus XPS DR into SN3 plus HiCap DR.
I had many chances to listen while he was on his upgrade path from his previous setup to the bare streamer and amp combo to now both power supplies included.
We have different ears and musical tastes, but we both agree that the ND5 XS2 / DC1 / nDAC is preferable over the bare NDX2 at lesser cost. He then does miss the display though, and I donāt, so thatās something to consider as well.
NDX2 plus XPS DR is a whole different machine again, great synergy. The best combination we heard was also the most expensive one - XPS on the nDAC with the NDX2 but thatās three boxes.
His combo is now amazing and at a different well-balanced level altogether (as it should be for the price). So weāre both happy to each having found our fitting two-box streaming solution.
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The NDAC, and very much so with an auxiliary power supply, is more refined, expressive and insightful than the NDX2 analogue outputā¦ the NDX2 was not designed to perform at that level with its analogue outputs.
I love my NDX2 and use it as a digital source rather than analogue source. Comparing with some non Naim digital sources my NDX2 allows my DAC to sound wonderfully coherent, natural organic and funā¦ the digital source in a serialised streamed chain is sooo important. (IME)
The other key thing of the ndx2 that I really appreciate is the visual displayā¦ itās part of the listening experience for meā¦ and to a lesser extent the Zigbee remote so I am not chained to a tablet or phoneā¦. Important for me, perhaps less so for othersā¦
I do think itās important to not confuse digital transport with digital sourceā¦ they are quite different. The NDX2 is a digital source or analogue sourceā¦ the digital transport it uses is SPDIFā¦ which is a standard. The benefit of the NDX2 is its source capabilities through its streamer board, highly stable clock, DSP SHARC stage, and its digital transport driverā¦ not the fact it uses SPDIF transport, which it does happen to also do in a quality wayā¦
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NDX2 as digital transport into the nDAC with PSU is a wonderful combo. Music flows so effortlessly.
Well worth the 3 shelves in our opinion!
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Thatās interesting, and I donāt think Iāve read that on here before. Plenty of listening impressions, but nothing technically/design based. They kinda look similar architecturally on internal shots, whatās the NDX2 missing that the NDAC has in this area?
The NDX2 uses a cheaper and different DAC converter stage, PCM1792, compared to the renown Texas Instruments (using Burr Brown brand marketing) PCM1704k converters and configuration the NDAC, NDS and ND555 used. In fact the NDAC set the main architecture design pattern these later streamer DAC sections adopted, albeit with refinement and improvements through the models.
But despite thatā¦ let your ears tell youā¦ an NDAC with a 555PS (nonDR) is absolutely gorgeousā¦for most music typesā¦ the NDX2 with 555PS DR is very goodā¦ but does it sound as good and beautiful as the former ?.. in the end only you can decideā¦ you may not agree with me.
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@daddycool and @Simon-in-Suffolk Thanks both - very informative indeed!
I use the screen of my UQ2 when setting up etc, but in daily use it is never touched, but I do think the NDX2 and ND555 colour screen look very good indeed - nice to have the album artwork displayed in all its glory. I take it all issues regarding screen longevity have been addressed and resolved?
Simon, are you using an nDAC with your NDX2 or something newer, Chord etc?
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Regarding longevityā¦ I donāt know, but the technology has changed, not only in longevity, in colour, and just as importantly reduced EM emissions compared to the first gen screens.
My NDX2 was bought not long after they came outā¦ and my ndx2 screen is just as good now as it was then ā¦ and as you can guess it gets a lot of use 
Regarding NDAC, I did sell it in favour of the Chord Hugo mk1 at the timeā¦ as much I loved my NDAC/555PS, I just simply enjoyed the āMandelbrot setā type insight the Hugo gave me more, ā¦ but until I later moved to DAVE I did sometimes miss the scale and bass drive of the NDAC/555PS, which the little Hugo couldnāt really musterā¦ its strengths were elsewhere.
We are so spoilt for choice having all these and other outstanding DACs available to us.
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Hi Simon your posts make very interesting reading, have only had the ndac in my system for just over a month now but the improvement have been a very pleasing upgrade.
I recently added a dedicated supply for the system and at first I thought we had gone backwards and had lost the benefits from the ndac which was really frustrating to say the least but thankfully over the last couple of weeks things have come back on track, nearly there.
What would I like now is to just fine tune the sound, adding a ps possibly the xps dr no way I can run to a 555 but I had planned to swap out he 200dr for a 250dr.
Trying to get a little bit more control of the bass which the ndac seems to have added, it feels like we have gained another deeper layer but I do wonder if the 200 is struggling to control it.
A little more detail but not massively so, generally very happy so far, system still seems to take a good couple of hours to get to its best but I have always found this with my system , getting or trying to get as many listening sessions in as possible.
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Hmmā¦ interestingā¦ now it is quite a time ago since I used a NAP200 ā¦ I do know when I moved to the NAP250 it had more gruntā¦ but I wouldnāt say it was tighter for my speakersā¦
However I do think now much of this is speaker room coupling relatedā¦ unless the amp is very under powered for the speaker load, such that low frequencies become under damped itās more likely to do with speaker / room.
The NDAC especially with aux power supply is going to create a lot more low frequency energyā¦ and you might need to look at your speakers and roomā¦ before changing amp. A lesser source might well be narrower bandwidth and less likely to drive your system to show these room/speaker issues up.
With the right speakers you can use relatively low power amps to provide a very powerful, deep and immersive sound if the room matches those speakers.
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Hi Simon very valid pointās reference room and speak combination something I have given some thoughts to, especially if adding a ps could possibly create more of an issue.
I do play at relatively high levels, only from time to time and had always thought the 200 started to harden where as when I substituted my Bryston into the system this wasnāt an issue although the combination didnāt really work 100%,guessing that I was better sticking to a Naim power amp.
I will definitely take onboard your comments and give it some thought before moving forward, cheers.
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I totally agree with this assesment. As a related example, the LP12 squeezed everything out of my Nait 2, returning a pretty impressive sound stage and bass control.
Moving to the XS3 the bandwith limitation that the Nait 2 is known for (take a smaller picture and do everything right within that) was removed. Consequently the room was energised a lot more to a point where I had to re-arrange some furniture taming the bass. So here the amp made a big difference.
Then I added the bare ND5 XS2 which sounded ālightā against the LP12. It gained the same sound profile as the LP12 with the addition of the nDAC and DC1. So now the source made a difference.
My neighbour mentioned above has the same acoustic room problems in his bigger appartment as we have here in our appartment (same building though) and his system pumps out even more energy into the room than mine. So now looking at the speakers makes a difference, using standmounts. He has just switched to Harbeth PS3 latest version and Iāve kept the Royd speakers. Both very good on low to moderate listening levels, for louder playback we both use our headphones.
ps: next year I may look into a PowerLine for the amp to see what that does for bass control.
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Has anyone compared streaming using an ND5XS2 or NDS to streaming using an Innuos server or even using an ND5XS2 and an Innuos server as server only?
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Only with ZENmini mk3 S & LPSU.
Were you thinking higher SQ, maybe Zen, Zenith, or Statement ?
Or is it something to do with Innous funtionality.
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I was just wondering if using a Naim streamer would be better than using the Innuos for streaming as technically the Innuos is a server not a streamer although I currently use it as a streamer.
Okay
But there is a lot in that questionā¦
I can share experiences with Innous ZENmini, compared with ND5 XS2, for streaming. Also both used as transport. And both with nDAC.
Which Innous item were you thinking ?
edit : your profile say Zenith and Statement ?
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I have an Innuos Statement currently into a Mutec MC3+ USB into an nDac.
I was just wondering if I could improve the streaming side with addition of a dedicated Naim streamer?
Thinkingā¦. 
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That should be interesting. I donāt think there would be much difference in sq between streaming with Zen Mini and Statement.