Nap 500DR

Whatever can you mean?

Dear me, what have I walked in on here?

Maybe you should consider that he probably doesn't care what you think.  He wants to wait, let him wait.

I would be unable to resist hooking it up. Just to suck some amps through and do some initial listening until the dealer arrived to set up the whole rack to perfection. But each to our own.

Straight AB comparisons of 500DR versus 500 might be thin on the ground. There's bound to be one along at some point. I expect that many prospective 500 upgraders will do it on spec, given the positive experiences already logged with DR upgrades. 

Indeed. I don't care if he never connects it up. My comment was merely an observation.

i cant correlate capacity to spend £XK with the ability to install bought item.

enjoy

ken

I'm sorry are you a pillock? It's just from reading your post it makes me think you're an idiot.

some of the comments are a bit mean. lets hope the gentleman doesn't get offended and say to H*** with all this, I'm not going to post anything at all now.

It is his kit and he can do whatever he wants with it, no?

On the other hand, this is the very first post on the much anticipated 500 DR.

So I'm waiting too for the dealer to show up. 

The suspense would be unbearable for me personally.... 

If I had that type of cash to lay down on some gear, I'm quite sure I could think of  something to keep me occupied until the dealer made his visit, perhaps Jet over to the states for the holidays etc.....

We all wish we had the OP dilemma

well there is always the Chord Dave, now that is the one I am waiting for, much more keen on that.

Too bad that one can't buy it at the moment, as is it not available yet.

i didnt get the impression meni48 had any dilemma but of course may have missed this...

we will know soon -- i want to know what it sounds like too especially after installation by a dealer then i can discount any "may not be installed properly" issues...

enjoy

ken

And I'm curious how come Dark Bear still didn't DR his 500s trio and tell us that after DR the 500s should be spaced, stacked and cable-dressed differently to maximise the performance of a "completely new" beast 

Nigel - if only.

If active, most certainly not so - the X-over may need attention.

..some time back, we replaced a 300 with a 500 on an active SL2 system and it didn't 'work' - did it Peter!

Looks like Meni may be 'passive' - so may be not an issue but Naim should provide a weight-lifting belt with 500 head units!

We certainly did !  ATB Peter and also lovely to be a passivist now.

I admit I've gone for the DR upgrades to my trio of 500s without listening to the result. An unusual occurence for me and I've only done so because of a long chat with a certain audio engineer of some repute who explained to me what the DR modification involves and the resultant improvement it achieves.

Wow, great news Tony. All round to you then!!!!!

I must refrain from reading these posts as I wasn't "too fussed" about this upgrade and now....well it's the usual...... I must have.

Out of interest is it me, or does this DR upgrade seem to be successful and having a greater impact than the pre DR upgrade? 

Best start saving my pennies. As the fella in Vicker of Dibley says about the DR upgrade No No No No, eh yes!!!!!!!

'passivist'!

good one Peter!! 

get well soon... 

enjoy

ken

i'm glad you have 'confessed' tony...

now, watch the avalanche to Salisbury!!

enjoy

ken

I have been so impressed with the DR effect that I have also opted to just do it. Of course, I can cancel any time before the actual surgery. But I won't.

Dusty. The good news is that your 500 will sound every bit as wonderful as it did if you don't upgrade it. But have you heard a 552PS or a 555PS with the DR upgrade? Enough said.

My musical memory isn't good enough to address your qquestion about the effects of other improvements. But my normal memory is confident that the original round of DR upgrades plus the SL cabling  has been transformational beyond the asking price. For me anyway. Happy days. 

I had my 500DR shipped to my home in HK last week. Too bad I could only play it for an hour as there were some issues in my system which the dealer here is having a full checkup of my system.

I moved from 300 to 500DR. Even though only given an hour for the 500DR to perform, it's worth every dollar I spent. The sound signature is the same among them, but 300, in comparison, was like Christian Bale in "Momento". 500DR is the Bale playing as Batman.

indeed after hearing a humble 250 DR, I would say that the DR amps  from 250 DR onwards should be considered as "sons of statement", another beast altogether, and all the non DR amps that came before, should really be considered last generation amps, very good, but now, the technology has improved immensely much in the DR amps.

The new 009 transistors are much better than the older 007 ones, and the DR regulators make a huge leap in enjoyment "Pace Rhythm and Timing"  and sound quality

I expect prices of the older amps, like NAP 250 Olive and 250.2, NAP 135, NAP 300 to fall even more, such is the improvement made. Even at much more attractive prices, I would not buy the older amps now.

Sell your amps while you can still get good money for them 

I suspect the 500 is the last thing to upgrade in Dusty's system realistically. I haven't heard 500 vs 500DR but given that the DR is a development from the 500's discrete regulation which was ahead of all other Naim regulation in any Naim kit, I'd expect the effect of DR regulation on the 552 and 555PS to be greater than the mod to the 500.

I could be wrong of course, but it just doesn't stand to reason. Then again, when has reason ever had anything to do with this game...?

Regards,
Frank.
All opinions are my own and do not reflect the opinion of any organisations I work for, except where this is stated explicitly.

If the DR changes are not just the regulator but also, as we know, the Amp's output '009' transistors, then it should be a large change in performance. The characteristics of the Output Transister limit the performance of any Power Amp - they are always the weak-link as they have to do the most in terms of current, voltage, linearity and high frequency limitations, to mention just a few.

If the 009 Transistor allows for a higher open-loop bandwidth, then there is more gain available to reduce high-frequency distortion, so it should sound better considering just that alone, if the circuit has been re-optimised to utilise that. The regulators on top of that will have been improved since the first 500 release I would have thought - all Naim Power Amps that use regulated supplies are 'discrete regulators' to begin with, but I think Naim are using the 'DR' label as a catch-all to cover multiple improvements along with the better versions of regulators.

It looks likely to be very worthwhile from what I have heard reported recently - especially for those of us that are getting to the point that a service would be coming-up and getting that done too.

DB.

Very true DB. I can't wait to have mine done.