What difference between nd5xs and ndx?

Hi Hq

I recently upgraded fro ND5 to NDX. There is a difference for sure, slightly bigger sound stage and better resolution to name a few. I only upgraded as in the process of changing my amps, and it became available second hand. The ND5 is a stonkingly good unit though

But get a listen for yourself.

Yesterday I had a demo at Future of Hi FI event at Acoustic Streams Penzance. Jason from Naim set up the day before and did a great job in quite a small demo room. 

ND5xs was compared to NDX, NDS. This through 282 hicap, 250 Ovator400

We listened to a Shelby Lynne track.  On ND5xs was fine until vocals,  clearly showed limitions with respect to "harshness" , this was cleaned up when NDX came into play.  NDS was a step ahead in so many ways. Then the 555ps was replaced by 555ps DR. Wow. Separation, clear and those Ovators just seemed to disappear.  A track by the Unthanks was also used to demonstrate the DR benefits. 

This problem is i doubt anyone with that setup would consider the ND5. You have to think about system synergy.

David - were the ND5 and NDX played solo or PSUed? If so, which PSUs were used? Thx tp

They all had external power supplies, actually not 100% sure which was used on the NDX. However I think it was as follows.

ND5xs was powered by XP5xs, NDX by the XPS,  NDS by 555PS.

Agree not a balanced system from the source first approach but usefull to reveal the differences between the sources. 

Agree about system balance. There are other posts on here that suggest the ND5XS with the XP5XS is better than the bare NDX.

i suspect all 3 machines are fine at their respective price points.

Ian

I agree, if your budget is NDX only, i think the ND5 with XP5 beats it, as ive auditioned this setup. However adding the XPS to the NDX takes it to another level again.

All that is being discussed is the Naim philosophy.

As I said before all machines are great at their respective price points.

As you add upgrades such as power supplies or move up a level in the hierarchy they get better.

Think about what you want out of your system, set a budget, go demo. Once the initial system s chosen you can have years of fun upgrading. As my dealer described it a couple of days ago, this is electronic Lego !

The converse seems true however -- my trusty Nait XS (with HiCap) is fully capable of revealing (at least some of the) differences between sources.  Improvements from uServe to DAC vis spdif vs. uServe to NDS via ethernet is clearly heard.  From my limited experience, going "source first" does not disappoint. 

Thanks. These combinations are of course of no value whatsoever, if your intention is to rate the individual streamers per se. The differences between the three PSUs on their own are already way too pronounced.... may be useful in other ways though....Cheers

I dunno about that TP.  (A) It's the logical setup for each and (B) of what practical value would a listen to an XP5XS/555PS combo be?  Few if any are likely to purchase that combo, and it would become more of a demo of the power supplies than the streamers. 

If one had the time and patience, and ability to really report fine distinctions accurately, one could build a 3x3 matrix of streamers and ps's and report on all 9 combinations, but I doubt the reported differences in the middle of the matrix would be very useful.  At all.  "No value whatsoever" so to speak

ndx an nd5  digital output though the n dac give the same result .why... I compared  them

Naim-ably impossible, though technically logical!

Given that in this setup one is bypassing the dac sections, my guess is that the two are closer to each other than if you were to listen to the analog output of each directly into that 282/250 combo.

To take it one step further, the logo light of each is EXACTLY THE SAME INTENSITY

And the same shade of green!

I thought the main difference between the two is a better internal power supply on the NDX.

Hence the reason many prefer an ND5 with the XP5 than the bare NDX.

I'm not as we'll informed as others here so am happy to be corrected !