What will adding a Ndac to an ND5XS2 bring

Great to hear you’re enjoying it so far, your experience sounds familiar :slightly_smiling_face: In a couple of months go back to the nd5 on its own, that for me really highlighted what it brings. It really is a great source, when I was demoing the 300 series one of my big questions was whether they thought my source was up to the task, the answer was “absolutely”. I trust their opinion, and that this was not just to get a sale :slightly_smiling_face:

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I also 100% agree with you Mark63. I have the nd5xs2 into a nDAC and XPSDr power supply and yeah it’s going to take something special to move away from this combo.

@silverback I also had a similar assessment about music slowing down when I added my nDAC. I vividly remember listening to John Coltrane(I know you don’t listen to Jazz) and remarked at how I could easily hear each note like it had been slowed down…

Anyway congrats and enjoy.

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Hi ratrat. Do you normally have the units stacked as in the picture when in use?
I’ve read from other members that there is electrical/electonic interference when they are that close to each other. I have no personal experience, I have just read it on the flrum here.

Are you sure about this Chris? It seems to me that streaming is mostly all of what the NDS does. I can’t really see any other original purpose for it other than a good Dac for a CD transport.

@david1111

Not really.
It just makes for a better picture sometimes. Often, I add a note for stacking police, it’s just “temporary for a photo”. Sure, it’s not really good practice.

Preference is for all items to be separate and isolated both mechanically and electrically.

My own experience is that the better the equipment, the more it benefits from mechanical isolation and “space”, from other items. In particular, keeping sources and pre-amps away from the Naim power supplies, power-amps too.

In my case, we have two systems, in two separate rooms. This year, I’ve been moving things around a lot and it’s just temporary to simply place an item, one on top of another. It’s not a permanent or long term thing at all.

Hope that helps
R

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Is it worth adding an ndac to an NDX? Have an NDX on my study system

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Morning marcusman can I ask your thoughts on adding the xpsdr to the ndac just curious as to the benefits you found after adding it to your system, cheers.

Sorry just realised I asked you the same question earlier in the thread, still waking up😂.

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I think I was advised previously that the DAC in the nDAC is much better than the one in the NDX. IIRC it’s the same as in the CD555 so probably a good move.

Edit: oh and don’t forget you can then upgrade the nDAC with an XPS :wink:

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Yes, the streaming board was designed for local streams from a UPnP server at a time when subscription services as we know them didn’t exist. When they became popular Naim obviously felt that they needed to support them and eventually added Spotify Connect, and then Tidal. The lossless Tidal implementation wasn’t straightforward, and it took them a lot of time and effort both before and after release to keep it working reliably
Had they known about this Naim would never have designed a streamer with such a small buffer, which is fine for streaming CD rips but struggles to cope with a lossless web stream, let alone a 24 bit stream.

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Yeah, three boxes instead of one is really what I am after :joy:

Thanks though - may try the upgrade next year

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It is indeed, but just to split hairs, there are two mono dacs! Excerpt from the product page:
Following the digital filter are the two mono Burr-Brown digital to analogue converter chips, as used in the CD555 CD player.

Not forgetting the 555PS :grinning:

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That is the one downside, especially if space is tight as it is for me :grinning:

It did look quite temporary. I’m more of a hall monitor than the police officer. :grin:

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Oh I see. That makes sense, thanks for the clarification.
I will eventually be adding a pre-owned ND5XS2 in order to stream Qobuz now that it’s in Canada.

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You are in the same part of the world as me – near Toronto. You say that you might add a pre-owned ND5XS2, so I ask if you are aware that Naim has reduced the price on just about everything except the NC range by about 20%. I just ordered an ND5XS2 myself!

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That’s excellent news. Thanks for the tip.
I won’t be purchasing anything else though until after we move house in a couple of years. It may only be available as pre-owned at that point, or they may have dropped the price further.
Congrats on the new acquisition!

No worries. Just let your nDAC and your ears/brain settle in before seeking out a PS if you choose to go there.

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This will be a bog step up I think - especially with psu on nDAC.
Had hdx into nDAC … huge step.
NDAC is pricewise a steal

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Same chip as in cd555 and nd555

Me just getting carried away, but definitely steady as she goes I think is the order of the day👍.

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