I’ll live in hope my dealer gets one traded in for the new streamer sometime soon so I can try the combo myself.
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Yes that’s correct!
Thanks GlenJ, just had a quick look at the Naim connection guide and the wiring diagram for connecting a naim dac to a 282 shows 5 pin din out of ndac to aux2 on the 282, that confused things for me as the aux2 is showing signal and power carrying wires, would this din5 to din5 normal come with the ndac, sorry for the numerous questions just getting a little confused as to how to connect the dac into my current system,thanks in advance.
It’s so worth it. Complete bargain! Nice thing is if you don’t like it, you can sell it without loss or possibly gain a few.
Yes, the nDAC is supplied with a lavender cable din5 to din5. It’s the same cable that is supplied with your ND5XS2.
You should:
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connect the DC1 cable from digital Out to one of the Dac’s input
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connect the lavender cable to the Dac’s analogue output to one the 282 input (I use the CD input, you could alomso use the ‘tuner’ input for example). Make sure to select DIN output on the nDAC.
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on the focal powered by naim app, go to settings and select ‘digital output’ so that the nd5xs2 only outputs digital data
The ND5XS2 should not have a lavander cable connected to it.
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Just as a word of advice from experience, I would avoid using these adaptors.
If you can, get a BNC terminated cable.
They dont maintain the required 75 ohm for these types of connections.
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That’s interesting. What difference does it make in your experience?
I didn’t think they made any difference until i tried one on a cable I had connecting my CD transport to my DAC. The CD sound was well off that of my streamer, so much I almost sent the transport back.
I then ditched the adaptor and used a Bnc cable.
The CD player came to life.
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Many thanks GlenJ, useful to get first hand knowledge, cheers.
Yes. You should be in a better situation using that cable without the BNC adapters and connected to the RCA s/pdif input.
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Given it’s quite a rare item, I’m sure your dealer would forgive you for buying one elsewhere.
Two places to look are eBay and PFM.
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Wait til you add a PSU to the nDAC, it lifts it to a whole new level.
We have Sonettos and a 300DR is a big step up from a 250DR with them. Far better control across the frequency spectrum.
PSU on nDAC more bang for buck tho.
Get a good BNC terminated cable. Mark Grant or naim DC1 are the normal recommendations.
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Also here ndac and nd5-xs2 as transport. DC-1 bnc-bnc digital cable. If you get a powerline, use it on the DAC, but if you also have xps, give it priority. Over time I added three powerlines and the last of the three, connected to nd5-xs2, also made its contribution
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I did the same. It took almost 2 years to find 2nd hand ones but totally worth it and they make a difference.
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Having a rethink regarding getting an ndac, as ndx2’s seem to becoming more readily available s/h I may go this route, for me adding the cost of an ndac, dc1 cable and a new shelf is adding up compared to selling my Nd5xs2 and putting the monies towards the cost of a s/h ndx2 could work out better in the long run.
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For me the NDAC is a clear winner against the NDX2 when both used without a separate PSU. I wouldn’t bother with a DC1 as I found that a £30 cable sounded just as good, but yes, of course you still need an extra shelf.
Having said that, the NDX2 really needs a power supply upgrade to shine with its internal DAC, so that’s an extra shelf either way.
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Would you say there is no gain going to the ndx2 without adding a psu just stick with the ndac option, I have seen mentioned a few times that the difference between the Nd5xs2 and the ndx2 is very small, considering the large difference in cost.
Will give it some more thought, think it was the availability of an ndx2 that prompted my possible change of direction.
Have plans to add a dedicated supply so may do that next and see how things go, thanks Chris.
To me the NDX2 is still a clear step up from the ND5XS2, but I still don’t find it up to the standard of a system like yours - to me it needs either a PSU upgrade or a DAC upgrade to hold its own. With the 1st gen streamers I thought the ND5XS was a big step down from the NDX, but I think the gap has closed with the Mk2 versions.
Either way, I’d say that your 4 box amp deserves a 2 box source of some sort. Which option suits you best is something only you can decide, and I found that it took me quite some time to work this out: I was lucky to have a great dealer who loaned me various boxes as well as letting me spend quite a lot of time in his demo room.
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I would love to try either an ndac or a ndx2 in my system just to hear for myself the difference in the setup, not sure any of my local dealers would be prepared to loan out an ndx2 unless I was contemplating buying new which at £6k that will not be happening, and as we know there seem to be very few ndac’s available at dealers.
I maybe need to make a few calls and see what options are available, for me demo’s although helpful don’t paint the complete picture, at home is much more productive but not very easy to achieve, cheers.
If you want an NDAC I would just buy it. If you don’t like it you should be able to sell it for about what you paid, and you can try it at your leisure rather than feeling any pressure to buy or return it.
You could potentially do the same with an NDX2 but perhaps best to wait for used prices to stabilise as people move to New Classics.
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