How good is the NAC N172?

I thought the N172 was pretty good! I was working at the Gramophone in Edmonton part time and was updating and tidying up the Naim equipment so I connected up the N172 to a 250 with some Ovator S400's, the source was a CD5i.

Once it had warmed up it was quite entertaining. But your ears will be the decisive factor.

Tim

Hi Tim,

thanks for the reply,

I have heard a Naim network player through a Superuniti demo I had last year and thought the sound quality through some Linn Kelidh was really good. Can you or anyone tell me if the pre amp/streamer section of the N172 is the same as the Superuniti or is it a 'lesser' version to meet the requirements of that range.

if it is same or better version of the SuperUniti it may be worth a punt? 

I originally had a listen to a Superunity but ended up buying a NAC N172 and a pair of Audiolab 8200MB amps as I preferred the resulting sound, I think the Superunity has a better DAC but to me it's internal amplifier held it back.

Hi guys, 

cheers for the input, I found quite a long stream on the N172 on the forum back to last year but in the Hi Fi corner bit, can't remember the dates but it seems to have massively divided opinions amongst the faithful.

Some think it is sacrilege due to the fact you can't add/upgrade the unit by adding a power supply and others think it is trying to be too many things in one and is not purist enough eg a very good pre amp or a very good streamer?

Bit of a difficult one for me as I have read some really positive reviews on the Web from the likes of What Hi Fi and Gramophone who rate it quite well but the impression I got was it is only really to be considered as a "one stop " deal if you have no interest in going up the Naim tree of upgrades. So it would be fine for the newcomers to Naim. I personally like most aspects of the Naim sound but prefer the refinement and detail of the CJ/Chord set up I have as well especially for classical as it takes some of the harsher edge off the sound you can get with Naim (based on my set up) I am sure that the more costly newer Naim kit won't have that but just my experience

I have to go for a few long listening sessions myself I think is the verdict to try and get a mental sound picture of what the N172 can deliver? I really liked the streamer /amp combination of the Superuniti when I heard it last year so fingers crossed it was not a one off. The other option may be a ND5 XS streamer and keep the CJ for now and maybe look at a Linn Majik DSM for contrast

lots to think about but looking at about £1500 to 2000 upgrade in the next year or so? 

L 

I had a CJ PV14ls2 with a Naim CD 5x and flatcap.  I'm still true to that configuration, only now it's a CJ CT5/LP70 and nDAC / XPS2 / Paul Hynes /Weiss interface.  I don't know the 172 and you need to compare in your own system.

i think you are on the right track.  Source is important, but its surprising how far you might have to go to get one that performs as well as you might like.  Vinyl definitely gets you happier quicker than digital in my experience. The weaknesses of vinyl are more benign.  My digital no longer has weaknesses, but it was at a price.

I might have been involved in those long posts last year.

I listened to a SuperUniti, ND5XS/NAIT XS and in the end plumped for the NAC172 and NAP155XS. I did have Rega RS3s and it was just fab.I changed to Spendor A5s, and the only thing I would say is the NAP155XS is maybe a little light for the speakers (I just have to crank the volume more than I did with the RS3s), however I do not regret the choice of the 172 (nor the 155 for that). It has been much more robust than the Qute I had (in terms of the network) but the ultimately the sounds it makes are quite brilliant. The difficulty I had at the time of purchase was getting a demo, but perseverance ruled and I'm please I tracked one down. Really worth the audition.

Cheers guys for the feedback, 

I will see if I can get an audition organised and let you know how it goes. There are a couple of options I want to try on home demo if I can which are the :-

N172 as a direct replacement to the CJ to see how it compares to my CJ/Chord combo and then I would like to try and get the ND5 streamer unit and maybe a Hicap to see how that set up works as a straight source component addition to the system. 

The more I think about it the Majik DSM may not be comparable and I would probably have to go up to Akurate to get as good a sound unless they have really upgraded the Linn players.

i generally preferred the Naim sound again based on my experience last year when I attended out a Linn Lounge event. A lot more money as well?!

it keeps it interesting if nothing else but like you mentioned you do have to deal with with bigger numbers to get the improvements you get on vinyl?