ndac upgrade

james n posted:

GraemeH posted:

I've reported my delight with the £22 Canare BNC-BNC on other threads so may as well chip in here too.

G

I'm not surprised - I'm not sure why you need anything more fancy than this to carry a S/PDIF signal. 

£20 for the connectors and £2 for the cable.

Any tips on directionality? I currently have it running the same way as the cable writing. Only been on for a few minutes but sounds very clean - almost lazy, so I can understand the 'relaxed' comment. A few things are leaping out at me, which are quite surprising. Just need to see how long it takes to burn in?

Geko posted:

Any tips on directionality? I currently have it running the same way as the cable writing. Only been on for a few minutes but sounds very clean - almost lazy, so I can understand the 'relaxed' comment. A few things are leaping out at me, which are quite surprising. Just need to see how long it takes to burn in?

If manufacturer gives no advice about directionality, I wouldn't be worried about it. In those cases I always plug it just like you said, same way as the writing goes. 

Please keep us updated about the sound quality. I think it digged deeper in the recording than DC1 but did it in clean and sophistocated way.  

After the first evening I'm finding it lacks a little bit of drive and 'liveness'. It's very good in many other respects, bass does go a little deeper and has plenty of shape. Higher frequency stuff is very natural, maybe loosing a little bit of bite/edge? I think it's definitely less coloured than DC1, which I always think exhibits that typical 'Naim' sound! Certainly for the money it's a very interesting option. If your system leans towards the 'hot' side of nuetral it could be just the ticket to restore the balance?

let's see what it sounds like in a week!

Long thread and I didn't read all, though I would agree with the importance of the source. I used to skimp on the source for many years. After getting the Chord QBD 76 DAC into the system (and not forgetting the Chord Signature TA RCA to DIN), I believe I am now getting extremely close to the full potential of the system.

It is useful to pay a little attention to the source (and perhaps the cables around the source and DAC as well) .

Geko posted:

After the first evening I'm finding it lacks a little bit of drive and 'liveness'. It's very good in many other respects, bass does go a little deeper and has plenty of shape. Higher frequency stuff is very natural, maybe loosing a little bit of bite/edge? I think it's definitely less coloured than DC1, which I always think exhibits that typical 'Naim' sound! Certainly for the money it's a very interesting option. If your system leans towards the 'hot' side of nuetral it could be just the ticket to restore the balance?

let's see what it sounds like in a week!

I know you went with a different cable but for me I found more drive, liveness, bite and edge - a clearer more detailed focuses sound.

Paul Quigley ie posted:

Geko posted:

After the first evening I'm finding it lacks a little bit of drive and 'liveness'. It's very good in many other respects, bass does go a little deeper and has plenty of shape. Higher frequency stuff is very natural, maybe loosing a little bit of bite/edge? I think it's definitely less coloured than DC1, which I always think exhibits that typical 'Naim' sound! Certainly for the money it's a very interesting option. If your system leans towards the 'hot' side of nuetral it could be just the ticket to restore the balance?

let's see what it sounds like in a week!

I know you went with a different cable but for me I found more drive, liveness, bite and edge - a clearer more detailed focuses sound.

Which cable are you using? 

I've done some more testing with DC1 vs Belden 4794R now. Did some quick cable swapping also. It's pretty much like Geko wrote earlier. Belden is very clean sounding cable with some naturalness and easiness that's difficult to describe. But it definitely lacks balls compared to DC1. DC1 has the typical Naim character sound. Vocalist comes closer to you in soundstage, there's that Naim "bass oomph", it has slightly better PRaT and sound just rolls like there's no tomorrow. I'm trying to figure out how bass actually hits lower in certain songs with Belden but then when you play fast paced rock like the new AFI or Jimmy Eat World album, the bass line is still more difficult to follow and blurrier than with DC1. Still on midrange and high frequencies, I think Belden is slightly more detailed and natural, in a good way. Very difficult to choose, both of them are awesome. I need some more time and will now leave the Belden plugged in slightly longer. 

Pretty much spot on with my findings so far Patu.

Interestingly, I'll find one track with the Beldan very good and then I'll try some rock or jazz and wonder what's happened to the PRAT. I'd say than in all instances DC1 seems to exhibit slightly better image depth - although I'm not sure how fair it is to be comparing  $20 cable to a £200 cable?

It's perfectly fair. You don't get higher quality electrons In a dc1

jon honeyball posted:

It's perfectly fair. You don't get higher quality electrons In a dc1

Yes, I don't think that price is such a relevant thing with cables. This comparison is pretty good example. I can't say which cable is better, they're just different. On some tracks I prefer Belden but for my type of music, DC1 has slight edge at the moment. But let's see what happens with longer audition. 

Patu posted:

I've done some more testing with DC1 vs Belden 4794R now. Did some quick cable swapping also. It's pretty much like Geko wrote earlier. Belden is very clean sounding cable with some naturalness and easiness that's difficult to describe. But it definitely lacks balls compared to DC1. DC1 has the typical Naim character sound. Vocalist comes closer to you in soundstage, there's that Naim "bass oomph", it has slightly better PRaT and sound just rolls like there's no tomorrow. I'm trying to figure out how bass actually hits lower in certain songs with Belden but then when you play fast paced rock like the new AFI or Jimmy Eat World album, the bass line is still more difficult to follow and blurrier than with DC1. Still on midrange and high frequencies, I think Belden is slightly more detailed and natural, in a good way. Very difficult to choose, both of them are awesome. I need some more time and will now leave the Belden plugged in slightly longer. 

Think I'll stick with the DC1 then. 

Patu posted:

Paul Quigley ie posted:

Geko posted:

After the first evening I'm finding it lacks a little bit of drive and 'liveness'. It's very good in many other respects, bass does go a little deeper and has plenty of shape. Higher frequency stuff is very natural, maybe loosing a little bit of bite/edge? I think it's definitely less coloured than DC1, which I always think exhibits that typical 'Naim' sound! Certainly for the money it's a very interesting option. If your system leans towards the 'hot' side of nuetral it could be just the ticket to restore the balance?

let's see what it sounds like in a week!

I know you went with a different cable but for me I found more drive, liveness, bite and edge - a clearer more detailed focuses sound.

Which cable are you using? 

I am using a HD-SDI 12G cable from  Alvins cables. He made it with a phono at one end and to the length I wanted too!

jon honeyball posted:

It's perfectly fair. You don't get higher quality electrons In a dc1

I think you can take the electron out of the cable but I don't think you can take the cable out of the electron.��

Some update about the HD-SDI 12G vs DC1. I had the Belden plugged in for over a week and then tried to switch again. Now I have different feelings about the change. I felt like I lost something when I switched back to DC1. Belden has definitely an airier sound with this easy going flow I described earlier. The bass extends deeper and with some tracks I even have resonations in my small apartment I've never had before. The sound is more open and it's easier to pick different instruments and details from the sound. It still never gets annoying or bright, which is something I'm very sensitive to. With DC1, the soundstage gets narrower and vocalist comes slightly more forward. Midbass is more prominent and sound has more attack. All the usual Naim qualities are there, but this time it's not necessary better this way, at least not always. Belden doesn't have all the attack but it's definitely not a slouch, PRaT is till there. I was surprised that I felt like I need to plug the Belden back in and now I have Belden in the system and DC1 sitting on the desk. I'm still not 100% sure about which one I want to keep, maybe both. Though it feels stupid to keep such an expensive cable as DC1 as a backup.

Keep the DC-1 - it's a good backup to have. If you haven't used it in, say 6-12 months, then contemplate selling it.
And you never know - perhaps you may need to connect something else to your DAC

DC-1 only makes sense as a catch all for box upgrade or inclusion of other boxes. 

I had a Belden 4794R cable with Belden BNC plugs made by the Blue Jeans Cable Co. for a grand total of £40. £20 of that was for P&P. Only took 4 days to arrive from placement of order. I use it to connect my MacBPro/M2Tech/nDac.  It has more clarity/detail than my home spun Bandridge LC5509 cable. Good VFM if anyone is looking for a cheap I.C.

Still have the DC1 connecting my CDX2.2 to the nDac and that's how it will remain. Don't have to swap cables between the two sources.

sheffieldgraham posted:

I had a Belden 4794R cable with Belden BNC plugs made by the Blue Jeans Cable Co. for a grand total of £40. £20 of that was for P&P. Only took 4 days to arrive from placement of order. I use it to connect my MacBPro/M2Tech/nDac.  It has more clarity/detail than my home spun Bandridge LC5509 cable. Good VFM if anyone is looking for a cheap I.C.

Still have the DC1 connecting my CDX2.2 to the nDac and that's how it will remain. Don't have to swap cables between the two sources.

Aren't you interested to try out Belden between the CDX2.2 and nDac? I'm not sure what you mean by the last sentence of connecting two sources. MBPro/M2Tech are just as much a source/transport as CDX2.2. 

Re; the Belden 4794R cable, it's about the same diameter as the DC1 but stiffer. It can be bent and does keep it's shape reasonably well. However to avoid stressing the cable with a tight radius of curvature I would spec. a slightly longer length than the DC1. I'm not an expert so I can't say what the max. length would be before any degradation of signal would occur.

Just checked on the Belden web site. 4794R Min. radius of curvature 3.25". Don't think length will be an issue in this type of application.

Patu posted:

sheffieldgraham posted:

I had a Belden 4794R cable with Belden BNC plugs made by the Blue Jeans Cable Co. for a grand total of £40. £20 of that was for P&P. Only took 4 days to arrive from placement of order. I use it to connect my MacBPro/M2Tech/nDac.  It has more clarity/detail than my home spun Bandridge LC5509 cable. Good VFM if anyone is looking for a cheap I.C.

Still have the DC1 connecting my CDX2.2 to the nDac and that's how it will remain. Don't have to swap cables between the two sources.

Aren't you interested to try out Belden between the CDX2.2 and nDac? I'm not sure what you mean by the last sentence of connecting two sources. MBPro/M2Tech are just as much a source/transport as CDX2.2. 

I find the DC1 cable easier to dress than the Belden in my system, hence I'm happy as is.You should see the cables behind my rack to understand that.(12 boxes+T.T.)

Don't have to disconnect the DC1 to put on my  Mac. I use both BNC sockets on the nDAC. One for the DC1/CDX2 the other for the Belden/Mac. I thought  that was clear, sorry.