Will Naim release a Dacless music streamer?

Surely the NDX has a digital out?

The question is how many would they sell. DACless CDPs were thin on the ground and never sold in huge numbers. Looking at the Naim "paradigm" - if such a thing exists - the tendency is for the innards to "thin out" the higher up the range you go. Which suggests the possibility that if such a beast came into existence it would more likely be above NDS level. Not that a suitable DAC exists at present - in the Naim range.

They will not bash out a unit which can't be hooked up with a necessary component which they do not build. That's the Naim way. So at NDX level you'd be buying a DACless box onto which you hook up the nDAC in Naim's universe. Which wouldn't be all that cheap.

I suspect it wont make a huge difference to the overall price - perhaps 15%~20%. The majority of the components and sophitication around the stable clock, DSP, streaming driver capability, the PSU, chassis and PCB design will stay the same. You might find the price difference is not significant enough to make it worthwhile. After all the NDX DAC is a nice back up if you happen to use it to drive an external DAC.

That's the point, the different in price will be unsignificant

+1

don't forget they do it with add psu s lots of redundant internal psus around.

Do folks think that there is a viable market for high-box-count-systems at every level?  I think that the market probably is for more multi-function boxes at the 5 and XS level, and then only at the highest price levels to cater to those who are ok with, and maybe even happiest with, separate boxes for each function.

How about separating the clock from the dac? (Being facetious, but others like dCS have already, right?)

I don't see that Naim have a ton of value to offer in a streamer/player that is dac-less.

Bart, I think there s a market for multi box at all levels. That is the whole concept of being able to upgrade individual elements of your system, at any level.