UnitiServe/DAC or UnitiServe/NDX Part 2
Posted by: King Size on 23 March 2015
About six weeks ago I started a thread asking the question "UnitiServe/DAC or UnitiServe/NDX". The original thread can be found here:
My primary question was whether it was better to use the UnitiServe as a player into the DAC or as a uPnP server in conjunction with the NDX.
Understandably opinions were mixed as to which would be the optimal set up so it all came down to the actual demo, which took place on Saturday with a final demo earlier today.
We started off with a comparison of my current CD player (CD5XS) to the ND5XS using the Serve as a uPnP server. As a long time CDP fan I was surprised at just how much better the ND5XS was - overall presentation was very similar but it was demonstrably better. This helped establish a streaming benchmark to which we could now compare the NDX and DAC. The NDX was quite different to the ND5XS (I guess pretty similar to the usual CD5XS v CDX2 comparison) and at first I wasn't quite convinced I liked it but after switching back to the ND5XS and again to the NDX it became clear that, while the presentation was different, the overall performance was again much better (bigger and bolder but also more precise and detailed). We then switched to the DAC fed via SPDIF from the UnitiServe. This time the quality gap compared to the NDX was minimal but the DAC seemed to be tonally richer , but almost too rich (kind of like and over saturated picture). At this stage I was tending to favour the DAC however I think I had enough and wasn't really trusting my ability to critically assess the two options. It's quite possible that my expectation of the DAC to be better could have also played a role.
Fast forward to today and I decided to redo the final NDX / DAC comparison but this time I would do it both with fresh ears and unsighted so I would have no idea which source was playing. Track one - I couldn't discern any real difference, which turned out to be a good thing as apparently no source change was made. We then listened to the same track again and this time I could hear differences but couldn't make up my mind which I preferred.
Moving on to the second track my preference became clearer and I was able to choose and state a favourite. We then moved on to a third track and again I was able to choose a favourite. Up until now I had simply chosen favourites but wasn't told what they were. Turns out in both instances I chose the NDX over the DAC.
To be fair it was pretty close between the two but I felt the NDX was more cohesive and balanced where the DAC fed by the Serve came across as a little overblown. Of course these are my own opinions and are only applicable under the circumstances of the test but thought they may be of interest.
Anyway, I now have a U-Serve SSD (I changed my mind from the 2TB version), Synology NAS and NDX on order. Delivery and installation should be this weekend.