High End NDAC on the radar?

Yes,

£6999, Next April, I2S link to the forthcoming Naim n-Stream. All fully upgradeable with an XPS2 / 555PS.

James

hi James,
thx! so it has more functions than a "pure" DAC?

I've heard it uses a new technique in its pre DAC data formatting - the RAM buffer implemented before the upsampling DSP unit uses a technique called RITW (re-inventing the wheel) - a technology that has been tried by other manufacturers until Naim found a way of implementing a known solution that no one had thought about before. Clever stuff and i'm sure it'll be the subject of a 'White Paper' very soon.

i was looking in a more "streamer and dac" way;-) right now, using a LINN DS, would like to switch back to NAIM if they combine a DAC and streamer

James

I heard it was BBB (bullshit baffles brains) rather than RITW. Did I get this wrong?

Cheers

Jim

quote:

Originally posted by T38.45:
Hi,
is there any news about the high-end NAIM DAC?
Price, schedule, functions?
Thanks
Ralf

Nothing anyone knows about. They're having a laugh.

There is a difference in the DACs topology. They are not upsampling and reclocking after re-establishing a bit but oversampling the original signal and then applying a high freq, clock to that signal. A very rare 384k is the highest clock freq. I've seen used until now and Naim's is twice that and derived in a different manner. Some may think that semantics but it's conceptually different. It has to do with the way they utilize the sampling and not that they have a buffer which is unique. They are also the only DAC that uses 40 bit floating point to process the buffer etc. How well it works remains to be seen.

Rumbled

quote:

Originally posted by james n:
Yes,

£6999, Next April, I2S link to the forthcoming Naim n-Stream. All fully upgradeable with an XPS2 / 555PS.

James

Can you explain a little bit more. Should I wait for the new DAC, coming in April, and skip the current DAC. I currently have a HDX.

Hans,

I think James was just joking around. There is no news, but there were previously rumors concerning there being three eventual DACs.

Due to this first one being so formidable, people are guessing there wont be any further up the ladder.

-patrick

quote:

Originally posted by Hans Vereecken:

quote:

Originally posted by james n:
Yes,

£6999, Next April, I2S link to the forthcoming Naim n-Stream. All fully upgradeable with an XPS2 / 555PS.

James

Can you explain a little bit more. Should I wait for the new DAC, coming in April, and skip the current DAC. I currently have a HDX.

Unobtainium case and anti gravity suspension. PC's right, no rumors since the proto DAC's actually been around.

n-Stream is a good name though for the streamer!

Wiring made with silver scrotum hair from a castrated unicorn..... soldered by Santa himself.

quote:

Originally posted by pcstockton:
Wiring made with silver scrotum hair from a castrated unicorn..... soldered by Santa himself.

and plucked with zirconium encrusted tweezers over by the dental floss machine.

Nice one JS...

Well, my own private Idaho aint but a stone's throw from Montana.

Our forum's own honorary Mental Toss Flycoon!!!!

Yippee ki yo ki yay

quote:

Originally posted by pcstockton:
Due to this first one being so formidable, people are guessing there wont be any further up the ladder.

-patrick

Hi PC

of course there will be at least one higher version and probably the two initially planed. Naim sells 30K CD players, they won't ignore that market segment. however I don't think they expected the entry level one to turn out so good, so the next one may be awhile. I imagine we will see one in the full sized case with suspension (like SL or 552) and a bigger internal power supply.

hope all is well

Cheers

Bob

Surely this DAC is an interim measure?

It desperately needs inbuilt streaming, which surely will follow soon.

quote:

Originally posted by likesmusic:
Surely this DAC is an interim measure?

It desperately needs inbuilt streaming, which surely will follow soon.

Only if you want to use it as a streamer ...

I really think that it's more likely there will be a separate streamer - basically the UPnP section of the NaimUnity. Maybe with a 5XS level of DAC built in? Then can be upgraded with this first, or later, DACs.

This troll was brought to you by Eloise

Ah, the "witticism" that explains apoplexy elsewhere ref the price.

I've come to realise that it's impossible to keep everyone happy as it would just cost too much for any manufacturer to build all the possible device combinations. The distributed audio value chain must be something like this:

Production -> Distribution -> ripping -> storage -> streaming -> DAC -> amplification -> speakers

I'll ignore the first and last 2 stages, although distribution is increasingly a hot topic as hi-res downloads start to become more available. If I assume that the CD is still the most popular distribution mechanism, then ripping still applies.

The HDX attempts to support all the relevent stages in the value chain, but there is always the nagging doubt that putting all that stuff in one box could lead to compromises. The Uniti does Streaming and DAC and bundles a whole lot more that for the distributed audio purist is unnecessary. The DAC is the first single stage device from Naim and to my mind seems the most sensible move. It can be both an upgrade to the existing CD player line (although it makes the hierarchy much more difficult to comprehend!), and a critical component for DA. Keeping the DAC in a separate box must be the best solution from a pure audio perspective providing that the jitter issue is completely overcome. S/PDIF was designed to carry a digital audio stream and it does not attempt to do anything else unlike USB, Firewire and Ethernet all of which have more complex protocols and operate at higher bit rates which could lead to more HF noise. Naim have made a big thing over it's jitter rejection capabilities - within the next month the DAC will hit the streets and we can listen to it in real systems with the whole spectrum of possible S/PDIF sources - CD players, Streamers, PC Sound cards with S/PDIF out etc. It will be really facinating to find out whether the jitter reduction renders all these sources equal or whether there will still be a difference... blind testing needed here! If the Jitter rejection thing really works well I suspect it will be difficult to tell the difference providing the source is well engineered and does not inject too much HF noise. In this scenario would Naim be better to invest time in producing a 'me too' Streamer or building an even better DAC? I can see some merit in building the better DAC as a reference series case, isolation platforms and the experience gained through the current DAC could lead to a truly refrence DAC at around the £10k mark. I just can't see the merit in Naim building a standalone streamer - now just watch me be proven wrong

Dave

That was a big last paragraph to wade through! Good comments nonetheless. If Naim had built just a streamer folks would have been asking for a standalone DAC. Can't win can they? I am really looking forward to getting my mitts on one of these.

Regards

Jim

Yes, on reflection there are rather a lot of words there!

Like you, I just want to get my hands on one at home and give it a spin in my system with music I know.

quote:

Originally posted by BobF:
Naim sells 30K CD players, they won't ignore that market segment.

I agree, they wont stop making the 555 anytime soon.