Active NAP500 DR Upgrade
Posted by: Darke Bear on 13 August 2016
I recently got my set of three Nap500 re-capped and upgraded to DR two weeks ago. They were eight years old so I was going to get it done in the next year or two anyway, but hearing friends DR update performance-lift in passive systems I was suitably impressed and wondered how it would sound in Active use.
Last year I purchased the S1 Pre which was a large upgrade in performance from the 552 I had been using. Add to that the full loom of SL leads I got at the same time and I’ve experienced a large lift in musical performance already – I was wondering if I was being greedy, the answer is obviously yes! 
I’ll leave aside the painful run-in experiences, aside from that I really needed ten days warm-up to get from variable ‘HiFi’ sound to music-making. There is still run-in going on, which manifests as a meandering sinusoidal increase and decrease in performance over time, but it has settled enough to get some first impressions.
I’m very pleased and impressed with what the DR does. There is a lift in clarity and removal of ‘gaps’ in the resolution when music becomes complex or loud – it was as if before things gently smeared-out the resolution at transients. This is especially noticeable on drums and bass guitar notes when played fast. Now there is more power and definition on busy riffs that was not there before.
Overall the Amps produce a bigger and brighter picture of the performance – a larger window into the musical performance.
For example, on the old Renaissance ‘A Song for all Seasons’ which is a complex Prog-Rock with Orchestra, guitar, synth and Annie Haslam’s powerful soprano vocals the album becomes a live album! A friend who knows the Album well and my system, was convinced I’d swapped the CD for a live version – I had to extract the disk for his scrutiny before he admitted it was the same old CD. That particular CD (an old version) has large dynamic range and a lot going on that is now beautifully rendered with clearer insight into the performance and Artist-intent than I’ve heard before.
Overall the DR 500 resolves lower frequencies better and has lower distortion in the high frequencies. The LF does seem to have a lower roll-off point too – it is more seamless and fulsome in a good way. This matches what the S1 Pre did, as that also took the bass performance much lower with far better power and control. The combo CD555S (2x555PS)- S1 Pre – 3x500 DR with Ovator S800 works together beautifully as a system in my opinion.
The usual question is – ‘why don’t you go Passive S1 Monoblocks instead of Active 500DR?’
They are different systems in what they each do well and I prefer what I have done along the Active path.
I’d love the S1 Monoblocks as they are beautiful and in a different league to the NAP500 even with DR, but you still get the passive effect I don’t like – a gentle smothering of the dynamics and immediacy of the performance that is portrayed so much better Active. I can’t afford a set of four S1 Monoblocks - love to but can't.
Back to the DR 500: It is difficult to properly describe what I mean by grater ‘clarity’ - I'll try. The reproduced note-structure and power of both voice and instruments is as if they are playing inside your body at times – I’m not meaning playing loud, just more clarity and power in the harmonic structures with less smear.
And the system does go a lot louder with less dynamic ‘cloying’ at the edges – it is clean, clear and fulsome. One thing I like about a good Active system is the removal of dynamic effects of one part of the music treading on another – this is done much better now.
In short – if you are dithering about getting your NAP500 DR updated – get it done, funds permitting. 
My thanks to Naim for turning it all around in two weeks and my Dealer, Signals, for making it all happen.
DB.
A brief update:
It has been over two months now running-in and a week ago I heard a significant improvement in quality of presentation - just far clearer in every department, bass, mid treble, timing, resolution...
I then took the time to 'tune' my system, as the 500 stacks had been re-built after the return from Naim the same as I had before, but the run-in shenanigans made it impossible to tune it up to peak-performance. I made the small positional changes - mainly to the Snaxo which is frighteningly sensitive to having a sweet-spot on its Fraim, but the other boxes all like to be positioned right. This took about 45mins or so with back and forth until it all sang and was obviously sounding very happy.
Since then I've simply been playing music and hearing further small improvements in clarity. Then today there was a large step improvement and it is clearly into a different league of reproduction from the old non-DR 500 set of amps I know so well and lived with for many years - this has a measure of dynamic clarity and insight I had not really thought possible.
You can turn up the volume and it goes louder in a different way - it presents a fuller more expansive sound into the room, fully detailed - some call it 'micro-detail' of the dynamic structure of notes as they change in playing I have not heard before. Voice is so intimate that the soft breath of a vocalist as they change from one phrase to the next is so stunningly clear - no fuzzy noise, no murky haze - just there. And all done with an effortless ease with no sense of strain.
It plays quiet for my late listening sessions with remarkable detail and sound-stage preserved - the lower noise-floor seems to give a welcome boost here.
To pick-out bits of music to describe the sense of the whole may miss the the fact it sound so integrated and 'happy' as a whole musically.
But to hear the power and extension of bass chords dig far deeper than before and have in addition the texture and 'grain' of the instrument - even when it is an electronic synth, is a delight to experience. Drum hits within denser recording mixes now emerge with power where they were swamped before. Drums on their own were always easy, but the challenge was to hear it properly breath in the larger mix.
Some live concerts that are not exactly the best are resurrected to compelling listening - an old Pat Benatar live CD that was very noisy and thin before now has the nose resolved into a noise acoustic environment of the gig they played and it suddenly has awesome deep bass from nowhere - perhaps some better very LF phase is done better now. Image and presence info is all improved and you hear the artists move about a stage when it is a simple-miked show in realistic way I'd not noticed before.
That is where I am with this now - noticing so many new musical communications in music I thought I knew quite well, only to hear it anew again.
Very impressed with the 500DR. A big upgrade indeed - but it takes a few weeks to run-in for people like me.
DB.
MDS posted:That your newly run-in 500DRs can dig out this extra detail must also be a testament to your source, DB. The CD555 doesn't get much attention on here these days. Nice to know this old-tech source still cuts the mustard.
Mike
I feel you Mike, I am an Active Fan, and usually take notes, when major players Make a move.
Once and a while Members like yourself, and others hit a home run, and explains something in such a way, that it can't be improved on. Simon, Yourself, and the following Gent, I couldn't help but to tuck it away!
And I think, it may be, one of the reasons why DB, and others have put off making that major transition into Streaming!
Introducing Uniti, our revolutionary new streaming platform.
ADRIAN_P MEMBER
""A very impressive redesign and re-implementation of the Uniti range. The pictures look great.
I'd hazard a guess that most members of this forum (and certainly most regular contributors) are owners of Classic/Olive/CB separates systems, perhaps with a Uniti/Muso as a second system somewhere in the house, and probably sporting a grey hair or two. That certainly includes me. As far as "reimagining our music collections" is concerned, it isn't "our" collections Naim is referring to here. It's the new market of 40-ish year olds and younger who have grown up with streaming, without "hifi" and lots of boxes, and for whom great industrial design is as important as audio performance. It is this market that is going to power Naim's growth over the next decade. This unified product range launch provides a very sound basis for attacking that market.
While this announcement disappoints many here who were hoping for a Statement streamer, look at it like this -- what we can see here is a new streaming hardware and software platform with better wifi support, memory, buffering, firmware update and display technology that are all things that needed to be updated before focusing on the high-end audio performance that new streamers higher up the range will surely bring. I think we can expect to see all this platform groundwork carried forward into the next generation of higher-end streamers.''
Enjoy your System DB!
BTW, its time to unload the TT, you don't use it! LOL....
Keep up the good work, I love hearing your description of the changes that take place in your System.
Allante93!
Time you revived that dusty old LP12 DB! Go on, you know you want to...
tonym posted:Time you revived that dusty old LP12 DB! Go on, you know you want to...
Did someone mention me!! I don't need reviving I need to walk into a room and remember why I did!!!!
tonym posted:Time you revived that dusty old LP12 DB! Go on, you know you want to...
I did borrow a line-stage box from the Dealer and have had the old LP12 playing through the system! I was amazed it still works as I use it so rarely these days - the last time was a few years ago.
The situation is that I may buy something to get it going again to spin some old vinyl that I don't have good CDs for, either as they don't exist or they have ruined the transfer to CD. I do prefer the CD version when the transfer has been done right - it is not even close, but for when it has been messed-up the Vinyl trounces the CD every time.
Paradoxically the qualities I admire from Vinyl, the low-level linearity, are usually thrown-away by many popular line-stages that tend towards wanting to emphasis the things CD does so well, so I will probably choose one that preserves what I like from a good Vinyl source. It will probably happen.
So I aim to have in addition to my CD555 both Vinyl and Streaming at some future date.
DB.
And I thought I was going too far with my 555 atop two Medium Fraim (left above) with the two 555PS in their own stack.
But I did find that the 555 performed so much better when isolated on the double fraim that it had to stay. Also the gap between power supplies makes a very large difference that you have to hear before you will believe it.
DB.
I did find that going from single rack to double rack made a big difference but fair to say i havent tried seperating things more vertically other than i didnt like empty shelves providing the seperation
