Should I go NDX or DAC

Posted by: Richwleeds on 10 June 2011

I am about to order a streaming solution for my main Hifi (552, 2 * 300, active SBL).  I am torn between a DAC or NDX. It would work alongside my LP12 and CD555

 

All my digital sources are in ITunes (mainly lossless),  I have an apple network and use a combination of Apple TV and Airport Express to stream music to other systems in the house. My itunes library is housed in a 2TB hard drive attached to my Apple Airport Extreme  router (effectively I think acting as a NAS). I cannot get a wired connection to the hi-fi room so any solution would have to be wireless.

 

I listen to the i-Tunes library, Spotify and internet radio via Airplay and if I need to stream other sources (e.g. football commentary from Leeds United's web service) I use Airfoil to push out the the audio signal.  

 

If I go DAC I would stream to an Apple TV and then feed its digital signal to the DAC and use an Ipod touch as a supplementary source. I know that would work great and enable me to use airplay for Spotify and internet radio, and airfoil for non airplay sources

 

Before I order the DAC I have been thinking about NDX as a more integrated solution - but could anyone advise the advantages / disadvantages of the NDX option instead of the DAC for my setup - I guess the main things I am concerned about are compatibility to Apple (happy to convert files if necessary), whether I would lose Spotify & Airplay and whether an NDX option would still allow me to use Airplay / ATV/ AEs for the rest of the house.  

 

Many thanks  - Richard

Posted on: 10 June 2011 by DQ
Hi, My inclination would be to get the ndx and also buy the apple tv. You can put the apple tv into the dac on the ndx - giving you access to all the Apple, Spotify etc you want at a digital audio conversion that is very good. For high end audio you can set up a upnp server to stream via the ndx. You will also get remote volume control for your amps thrown in (via iPad or iPod). I have compared the two dacs (ndx va ndac). For converting from an Apple tv the difference is not that meaningful. For higher quality stuff it is. Cheers David
Posted on: 10 June 2011 by Richwleeds

Thanks David that sounds like a neat solution...

 

One question though - when you say upnp server for high quality audio - do you mean something like Eye Connect running on my MAC streaming my Apple Lossless files without the need for conversion?

 

Or were you thinking of me having to create a separate high quality library in some other format?

 

Richard

Posted on: 10 June 2011 by DQ

Richard,

 

Initially you can certainly do that. A friend of mine is doing that at the moment with his mac and NDX combo. Ultimately you may want to create a wav copy of your files and put them either in a separate directory or maybe on a dedicated NAS.

- See Simon's post for why do wav rather than lossless

- The advantage of the NAS being that you don't have to have a mac or pc running then. If you always have a machine running, then less of a big deal.

I was a long time user (and liker) of itunes. However, as I have gotten used to UPNP I am starting to see the benefits of getting away from the complex library management inherent in itunes. I kept itunes running in parallel for a while (via apple TV), but found myself more and more hooked on the NDX/UPnP combination. Also the internet radio function on the NDX is very good.

 

Cheers

Posted on: 12 June 2011 by murkku

I've retired my Airport Express (it was used for iTunes/Airplay & Spotify with nDAC) now that I have NDX.

Using NDX's iRadio as input I can broadcast (320kbps) sounds from my Macs with Nicecast. The quality is more than enough for exploring new stuff with Spotify. Transcoding UPnP server for more serious stuff.

Still, native Airplay support would be a huge plus for NDX.

Posted on: 12 June 2011 by Tog

@Richard - not sure what the complexity is with itunes library management but that might be me.

 

As for the OP - NDX is surely the most sensible option.

 

Tog

Posted on: 13 June 2011 by Robbert

In this case. What DAC is better? The DAC from the nDAC or NDX ? Or is it the same DAC?

 

I'm following this topic because i'm in nearly same position. 282/250-2/nDAC/airport express do i have now.

 

Looking for the advantage of the NDX instead of the nDAC.

Posted on: 13 June 2011 by murkku

Robbert,

 

The DAC chips are not the same and neither is their signature sound so my advice is to listen to them both. It comes down to personal preference & usability issues.

 

I had a similiar setup before, but after a good month with NDX and nDAC (accompanied by XPS2) I decided the nDAC didn't justify it's price and had to go. I sold it last week and haven't missed it at all.

 

So try them both and trust your ears, worked for me.

Posted on: 13 June 2011 by aysil
Originally Posted by Richwleeds:

...

 I cannot get a wired connection to the hi-fi room so any solution would have to be wireless.

 ...

Whenever I see this remark, I want to ask why not? can you reconsider this? It is really no big deal to drill holes through the walls and even through the ceiling if necessary to keep the wires short and almost invisible.

Posted on: 13 June 2011 by Robbert

ill you get better sound quality wired instead of wireless? Is there any difference in signal?

Posted on: 13 June 2011 by lhau
Let's not talk about sq first. You have a more stable connection, and also, your song list will certain come up faster with wire.
Posted on: 14 June 2011 by murkku

My NDX is wired to an Airport Express.

This makes NDX operate in wired mode but it's actually just bridged to a n-class wlan (provided by AE).

 

Wired ethernet is still a lot "easier" for most applications and it avoids many pitfalls of wireless networking.

The point being: hi-res streaming is no problem with properly setup wlan.

Posted on: 14 June 2011 by Salmon Dave
Originally Posted by murkku:

Robbert,

 

The DAC chips are not the same and neither is their signature sound so my advice is to listen to them both. It comes down to personal preference & usability issues.

 

I had a similiar setup before, but after a good month with NDX and nDAC (accompanied by XPS2) I decided the nDAC didn't justify it's price and had to go. I sold it last week and haven't missed it at all.

 

So try them both and trust your ears, worked for me.

Totally seconded.

Tried the DAC, preferred the NDX. Both without PSUs (though I did use the DAC with XPS2 for a while). NDX my choice, may not be yours. And it's a total solution.

 

DAC still sounds better than 99% of DACs!

Posted on: 16 June 2011 by Richwleeds

Thanks for all your helpful comments

 

I have now ordered the NDX, will also use Apple TV as a secondary digital source...

 

And I am exploring the feasibility of hard wiring the NDX

 

Cheers

 

Richard

Posted on: 17 June 2011 by Orfeo

good news richard

waiting for your comments

Posted on: 20 June 2011 by Rockingdoc
drill those holes. I'm no electrician, but found it quite easy to make a neatish job of cabling to my music room. The improvement over wireless is vast.