New NAP300DR - not a rant

Enjoyed the write-up and photos, Graham. The system looks fabulous. Enjoy!

Mike

Thanks for posting Graham.As always great right up and pics.

Heard the 300 - 300 Dr comparison recently and thought it sounded much better.

Loving your cat she always seems to make the pics on install days !

ATB Ian

Good write-up Graham!

The fact you got the Burndies from touching the wall will also improve the SQ significantly - my own system goes rather flat when that happens. Practical against cosmetic concerns is nice to see too and well described as to why.

When I heard a DR300 at my Dealer he commented that it was performing close to a non-DR 500 Amp; since I swapped old non-DR 300 for my non-DR 500 I can imagine what you are hearing - the comment on plucked string decay is some of what you get done a lot better - play piano music and you will be shocked I think.

Enjoy and write some more as they run-in!

DB.

Great write up Graham, thanks for posting.

I can only imagine how good that must sound.

Nice one Graham! Hope the UHES boys fed your cat.

Thanks Graham, that was a good read.

The DR upgrades to the PSs was  truly remarkable.  I haven't heard a DR power amp yet but if a similar kind of magic is in store, a lot of people are going to be very happy indeed. I'll be interested to hear how things develop.

An excellent detailed report with good photos as usual Graham.

Glorious towers of power.

Enjoy; and keep the burn-in reports coming.

John.

Hi Graham,

Glad you are enjoying the DR's. Have you noticed any improvement in bass control. Ahead even of the noise floor it is this that made such a dramatic improvement to my system. I  had  thought that the room was the problem. I now  know why room correction treatments I applied in the past did not work.

Gerry

Graham congratulations!

Your description of the "DR effect" is interesting because it mirrors my experience exactly when i listened DRed components that are not amps.

Martin

Cat hid in a wardrobe which she does when feeling shy.  She did appear later...

Hi Gerry,

I think I can hear improved control across the whole frequency range, not just limited to bass output.  If your room acoustics are challenging maybe they highlighted the bass change at the expense of higher frequencies?

Also, how old were your previous NAP300s?  Reason I ask is that if someone replaced say a 10 year old NAP300 with a new one (even if not DRed) I would still expect it to sound better due to being brand new.  Older equipment in need of a service can sound a little flabby in the bass department.

My amps are 5 and 6 years old so hopefully the degradation vs. new was small.

Cables touching the walls provide a stronger method for room based vibrations to enter the equipment than just airborn vibrations. 

That's why HiLines and Super Lumina cables feature a degree of decoupling.  However Burndies don't.

The Burndies weren't previously touching the wall before, however there's a bit less slack (still some) in the cables now so it all looks that bit neater.

Hi Graham,

In fact I had the 3 of them serviced late last year. This in turn did also improve the control, but nowhere to the extent that the DR's have.

Gerry

Graham has already answered the essence of what happens - Walls and floors couple vibration to the cable and into the system, so you want to have cables free. Floors are worse for muddying the bass and general murkiness and walls impart hardness and glare to the sound higher up the frequency ranges.

I'd miss-read Graham's description to imply the cables were touching before, so my comment was not applicable.

I found that if an interconnect cable touches the wall or floor a 'hardness' enters the sound which gives everything an edge it should not have. When the interconnect is free then there is a softer presentation, which is due to less distortion of lower-level information in the signal.

Burndies touching the floor spoil the bass and timing in low frequencies - in my system it is immediately obvious if they have settled and touch the floor. I have about a 1mm gap and that is enough for it to be ok - if the Burndy moves freely when touched then you are ok, but if it seems locked-tight then you have more you can get from your system if you free it up.

Also if you can prevent the cables touching the metal uprights of Fraim at the back it sounds better, as these tend to ring; the wooden bits are relatively ok though to touch if you need to.

All a matter of compromise - you know when you have it right, as you forget about the system and the music then has you.

DB.

OK, so that answers my question but was rather an expensive way for you to find out!

How long did you find the run in process to be on the DRed amps?

Also try to keep the AC mains cables away from the signal and DC power cables.  In my set up with brawn stack on the right, power inlets on the right hand side and wall mains inlet to the right of the brawn stack that's actually surprisingly easy.

1. Definitely, but encouraged me to go the DR route.

2. There was a step change immediately, but improvement has continued over 4/5 months, and I have never been able to hear time-related improvemnt previously..

So it's been nearly two weeks' now since the 300DRs were installed.  That should put them a fair way through the burn in process.  Tonight I will swap over one of the amps used for the bass with the one used for the BMR, as the lower loads through the BMR unit mean a slower burn in.  Switching it this way should accelerate that process.

It's hard to comment on the SQ difference without just sounding like a repeat of other upgrades: lower noise floor and generally better control of instruments throughout the frequency range.  In my system this is particularly noticeable in the high(er) frequency ranges.  There's a sense of crispness and isolation of notes and instruments that wasn't present before.

Playing some music I know very well that I haven't listened to for 6+ months was an eye opener however that encompasses other changes to my system than just the 300DRs (the SNAXO Super Lumina cable).  Loads more detail and hearing things that simply didn't seem to be there previously, which is always a fun thing to do.

Given the number of other posts recommending the DR upgrades it's likely no surprise that I fully endorse that too!

I'm two weeks in with a NAP 300 DR which replaced my non DR version of the same amp and I'm still struggling to pick my jaw up off the floor.

Clarity is the big difference for me (which I suppose is the lower noise floor). It's the bottom end where it's more noticeable to me. Bass lines are sooooooo easy to follow, drums strike with so much more power. The clarity at this end is making a big difference to the mid range and upper frequencies. I recently saw a post that suggested adding a sub had a similar effect across the whole frequency range.

The depth of bass is quite striking. It seems much deeper than before.

I'm absolutely thrilled with this purchase.

Excellent news Graham. A bit spooky, as only about 48 minutes ago, I was wondering how you were getting on with your new trio of amps.

'Tidy' as they say in Wales.

John.

Do Naim publish noise spec. for their amps?

I am currently fighting (and probably losing) a severe attack of up-gradeitus & as well as Naim I will obviously look at other manufacturers.

Bryston, for instance publish these figures for their 3BSST2 amp.

IMD or THD + noise: < 0.005% 20Hz to 20kHz at 150 watts into 8 W

< 0.007% 20Hz to 20kHz at 250 watts into 4 W

Noise: Measured with input shorted, 20 Hz to 20K Hz.

>110dB below rated output 29dB gain (- 75 dBu)

>113dB below rated output 23dB gain (- 78 dBu)

I know spec. is not everything & I will obviously audition before deciding anything.

Me too! I was not going to pester Graham until he was happy to give a report, so good to hear they are running-in nicely.

DB.