Some time ago I published my observations on Another demo of HDX vs Klimax DS

I was very enthusiastic on how much better the KDS with Dynamik PS sounds comparing to HDX (not surprising giving a price difference).
The post has received a mixed response from the forum members -- some of them defending the HDX sound presentations while the others agree on KDS superiority.
I was very delighted with speed of KDS which could easily front a Naim system.
Nothing has changed since that time and I still consider KDS with Dynamic PS as a better source than HDX -- at least when it comes down to resolution, openess and soundstage.
At the end of my post I have left some space for the future tests of Naim DAC against KDS.

Now I have my Naim DAC/XPS is 24/7 burn-in for over a week and it's got down to a quite stable presentation.
I do believe it will continue progressing for another month or so -- but my previous experience with Naim CDPs suggests one week is enough to run a serious test against competitors.

Me and my friend have finally decided to run Naim DAC/XPS vs Linn Klimax in a direct A/B test.
We have split it in two days -- by 2 hours each session.

Summary.

We did not do any hi-res in those two sessions but it seems that the Red Book is very close to the limit.
We failed to capture the difference in resolution -- both gears suggested the same amount of details. Both were fantastically open and crystal clear.
The soundstage and imaging was very similar with both.
There was a number of musical moments where we were stressed to discern which source were playing.
But the sound characters of DAC and KDS are very DIFFERENT.
We both noticed that DAC is more extended in bass and the bass is more articulated. My friend has appreciated this and attributed this to the regular strength of Naim design.
But the midrange was the point where we fell apart. DAC was ruthlessly confident in reproducing the transients with sparky character while KDS played the same in a much softer manner.
I normally attribute this to the excellent microdynamic while my friend associates this with a small harshness in DAC reporduction and was not happy with it.
I can't really call DAC sound as harsh but I agree that it possibly needs a bit sooth down.
The KDS softness produces an illusion of analogue replay which can capture the minds of vinyl lovers.
But I find myself much more comfortable with musical involvement and energetics which DAC was showing on all tracks.

In short -- both of us acknowledged that DAC/KDS are in the same league and only differ in sound presentation.
My friend confessed he could easily live with DAC.
I should say that from my memory CDS3 sounds a bit softer than DAC and possibly better rival to KDS (except that DAC and KDS both suggest better resolution than CDS3).
So possibly my tolerance to DAC crispy transients was over-enthusiastic -- or possibly I need just to wait for DAC (or most probably XPS) to further sooth down.
At the same time the KDS transients are too soft and not up to the specs of the natural sound reproduction of - say - turntables.
My Transporter built-in DAC is also soothing music down too much and that was the reason I used to run it through more energetic PS Audio DLLIII.
I find Naim DAC/XPS is very natural on strings and absolutely love it's musicality. It just sings.

Anyway this test was another example that Hi-Fi is not only about of what we hear -- but more about of HOW do we interpret and value of what we hear.


Below are the specs for those who are interested in details.

The room was around 30 m2 with open gates behind the sofa so that speakers were firing far behind our back.
Room is well treated for audio performance except some very rare low frequency resonances.

The system was :

Cary SL-05 preamp (6N7P fully balanced tube gain stage with external tube PS)

Two Cardas Gold reference XLRs into Cary CAD 805 AE monoblocks (zero feedback SETs with 211 output tubes driven by 300B)

Tannoy 5-point reference cables into Tannoy Canterbury SE 2-way speakers ( 235 L monstrous cabinets with 15 " paper cones and coaxial horn-loaded tweeters),

Tannoy slotted ports were closed.
All gears are fed by Power Plant Premier re-generator, all power cords are Naim Powerlines -- except KDS who exhibits extremely unfriendly PL design

PPP is fed by monster Transparent power cord into wall outlet.

All gears are standing on Finite Element Master Reference Pagode rack which enlists three stages of suspension.
The gears are additionally suspended with 3-point set of Ceraballs.
Both rack and Tannoys are based on 3-point set of Cerabase.

Very neat and meticulously assembled system for the soft-sound lovers.
I keep feeling that Cary SETs are not fast enough to drive Tannoys at their best.
I think the push-pull poweramps like ARCs or Cary 211 can make Tannoy to sound stiffer -- but I'm not sure my friend is ready to change for tighter sound.


Linn KDS was connected with Cardas Golden Reference XLR and powered with PS Audio AC10 power cord intom PPP.
Naim DAC and XPS were powered with PLs into a separate spur into a separate wall outlet. DAC was connected to preamp with Linn Silver RCA interconnect (which is granted by Linn along with KDS).

Two important notes.

1. Linn KDS sounds a bit better through original Silver IC than through (more expensive) Cardas Gold Reference XLR.
But we still used XLR for KDS as we didn't have another pair of RCA cables to connect my DAC to preamp.

2. Naim DAC through RCA is not the best option as my own home experiments were very convincing that HiLine DIN-DIN is the best IC for the DAC.
So as one can see the cabling of both source were not up to their best.

All tests have been done on 16/44 only.
KDS was equipped with Dynamic PS and run by Kinsky software from NetGear NAS.
Naim DAC sourced the same files from SanDisk USB flash in WAV format.

Below is the custom playlist of test records which me and my friend compiled on the fly:


01 - Jesse Cook, Djivan Gasparyan - Incantation
02 - Antonio Forcione - Tarantella
Guitar virtuoso. Very good PRAT test. DAC and KDS sound very different on these tracks.
I was happy with DACs transient reproduction while my friend much preffered softer KDS presentation.
Doudouk was sounding very similar on both sources.
The fist track performs a lot of details which were equally replayed by DAC and KDS.

03 - Mokave - Pepe Linque
Very impressive bass tapping. DAC produced more articulated bass than KDS with more energy.

04 - Therese Juel - Tiden Bara Gar
Soundstage and imaging. DAC and KDS were very close.

05 - Solisti New York - The Royal March, Stravinsky (Chesky Records)
Live orchestra perfoms with big dynamic range (typical for classical music). DAC and KDS were fairly close with KDS performed softer on copper winds.
This was a point to evaluate DAC winds as harsh or natural? I think a bit harsh. I will be more happy to have them softer.

06 - A Styr My Chryi (with Bonnie Raitt)
Natural insruments and female voice. Very high quality recording with lots of details from spatially separated instruments. DAC and KDS were very close.

07 - Rebecca Pidgeon - Spanish Harlem (Chesky Records)
Very impressive female voice. DAC and KDS were very close.

08 - Annie Lennox - A Thousand Beautiful Things
The bass section on this track has very different voicing on various systems. All Naim gears I know were always ahead on this track. Same for the DAC -- bass was fuller than on KDS.

09 - Boz Scagz - Lowdown (Unplugged)
Very gentle recording with very good imaging. Very good test for musicality and involvement. DAC and KDS were very close on this track.

10 - Mike Oldfield - Oceania
Electronic music. DAC bass was more articulated than KDS. Other than bass DAC and KDS were very close.

11 - Mike Oldfield - Far Above The Clouds (Tubular Bells III)
Difficult test for complicated multi-instrument passages. Fantastic macro-dynamic.
The instruments were well-posed on both sources but Naim exhibited more power and chest-penetration on this track.
The lead guitar was a bit screaming on DAC while KDS presentation soothed this down.

We used to A/B test the fragments but always end up with playing the track in full on both sources.

Thanks for that.
The world is now a better place to live in.

AMA,

crikey this post seems to be breeding...

Let's keep it to just the one...