Naim Dac V1 + Nap 200 Muddy sound

Posted by: YiannisK on 22 March 2016

I would be grateful for any feedback from members who have tried matching the Dac V1 with a Nap 200 (Non DR). I am concerned because I am experiencing recessed vocals, lack of treble detail and a bit of emphasised mid - lower bass (some bass boom close to corners as well). The rhythm and punch are definitely there and they are lovely but I am very concerned about the loss of upper end clarity and the recessed vocals. This is especially obvious when I watch movies and vocals are relatively 'lost' in the rest of the soundtrack. The strange thing is that I am running the combo with speakers which are actually said to have the most forward and shouty upper end: Monitor Audio RX1.

I am of course planning to upgrade asap but I had to pause because of the aforementioned sound. I have heard that MA speakers with NAIM sound VERY shouty and forward so I would have expected a forward midrange, very present vocals and a sharp upper end with my setup. I am of course not looking for such a sound and that is why I was going to upgrade the speakers but I am just wondering if something is wrong or worse 'broken. Before adding the Nap 200 I had the Dac V1 driving the power stage of a Rega Elicit-R and that sounded great (albeit less dynamic). Definitely no issues with vocals and detail with that setup. The sound was actually very balanced with the Rega.

The Nap 200 was purchased used and it is a 2013 model (so no recap needed yet). Speaker cable is Chord Odyssey II (3.5meters per channel). The speakers are on stands about 2m apart and toed in. 

Is the Dac V1 + Nap 200 supposed to sound relatively mellow with recessed vocals? 

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Yiannis

Posted on: 28 March 2016 by YiannisK

Thank you very much for sharing your experience with the V1 + 200. Did you use the Connect with the Coaxial or the optical connection? 

Posted on: 28 March 2016 by JLH

From the Sonos, I mainly used coaxial into one of the DAC-V1's RCA-jack digital inputs. I tried optical, really couldn't tell much difference. I used BNC-to-BNC cable from the ND5 XS into the DAC-V1. In all cases, no fancy interconnects, just reliable well-made cables from Blue Jeans Cables.

Posted on: 02 May 2016 by YiannisK

I just wanted to post an update. Quite interesting and unexpected developments actually. I followed the initial advice and checked all cabling and connections. I ended up disconnecting everything before reconnecting but also made sure I tidied all cables (avoiding proximity to powerlines etc.). The result was that ... everything changed! By everything I mean that the sound went from warm-muddy with recessed upper frequencies to bright-forward with slightly recessed lower end!. I could not believe my ears actually. So in a sense I solved the initial problem based on your advice :-). To my immense surprise though that the sound now became fatiguing. It was the female vocals and the cymbals that started sounding quite intense and thin. I persevered for a week before admitting that I felt really uncomfortable :-(.

I have a suspicion that the initial problem was caused by having the SNAIC cable connected the wrong way around (the little collar towards the NAP200). Following your advice I corrected this resulting in the big change in sound.

It now turns out that the correct sound is difficult for me :-(. It might be the Monitor Audio speakers after all.

I had a chat with my dealer who acknowledges that the Naim has forward vocals and suggested the monitor audio speakers exacerbate the problem. Recommendation was to change the speakers to Focal 906, Spendor, Kef or Dynaudio.

I ended up auditioning the Focal 906 and the Dynaudio x14 as they are in my budget and space requirements. Unfortunately I am not able to audition at home and that is a big concern. The dealer audition room is very nicely damped so even the Monitor Audio speakers (tried them for comparison) did not sound at all bad there. It is therefore possible that my audition there is not a good indication of the sound at my place. I will start a new thread to ask for opinions on this.

Many thanks to all for the very helpful advice. Much appreciated.