from 4 to 6 boxes

from what I got my only real upgrade vfm would be since I have a 555PS-DR/300DR

NDS/252/552

NDX/252/552

what serves to the streamer or you're just into Tidal ?

spotify premium...had Tidal less albums and don't think its better and more expensive

you joking?

there playlist suck

Hungryhalibut posted:

No. I prefer the sound of the 300 and have never heard a 500 system sound as good as one with a 300. 500 owners would not, of course, agree, but to me the 300 is the best Naim amp, Statement excepted of course. Adding a 552 will make the system sound much bigger and more dynamic - far more than a 500 would. 

When I had the 552/300 I used a Cherry pair of SL2s. When I downsized the system I sold the lot and used various speakers in the interim. Then, when I got the 272 system I happened upon the maple pair of SL2s that I have now. So the 272/250 and CDS3/552/300 systems are a direct comparison, as the speakers are constant. The bigger system is of course better but the issue is whether it's £20,000+ better. Your 272 system is better than mine of course as it has the 555 and the 300, so the jump to the 552 would be less. The 272 certainly punches above its weight. 

You need to be careful to know exactly what you are chasing, and whether you really need to chase it. As I've had a bigger system I no longer want one, nor could I afford it even if I wanted it. All I'm saying is that you will get more from an NDS and 552 than a 500. And if your dealer says different, they are wrong. 

HH for all the extra money I'm going to spend say on a NDS/252/SupercapDR or NDS/552DR do you think its really worth whats given back...Im soley going off the system I demoed

Given your speakers and the 300, yes I do. The 552 is one of Naim's best value products. So long as you have the cash of course. 

Will they be be best value for streaming Spotify? Maybe  with a Brinkmann turntable but Spotify?  

i agree you should consider nds/552 altough its a big investment given how you think of your current system. However does not make sense with spotify premium

i use a simple tool to convert spotify playlists to tidal, if thats the main difference to you - soundiiz

lars

Maybe I'm being dense as I'd not picked up on the Spotify and Tidal mention - I just read it as a casual aside. Is the OP actually saying that Spotify is the main source, rather than CD rips or high res music? If so, no wonder the current and already very expensive system is not delivering the goods. I've tried Spotify on my own setup and it's useless for anything than casual listening, and makes the main system sound no more satisfying than the Qb in the kitchen. Even Tidal is far worse than listening to CD rips from the Nas and when the three month trial ended I got rid of it, as I hardly used it - partly because of the ropey sound and partly because of the hopeless range of music. I cannot really believe that anyone could be happy with Spotify through the Sopra 3, and how anyone could possibly hear the impact of the Vertere Ethernet cable with said source. Let's hope I'm barking up the wrong tree, for if Spotify is the main source I'm going to change my recommendation of a 552 to selling the lot and getting a mu-so. For the £20,000 cost of the 552 you could buy an awful lot of used CDs on Music Magpie, rip them to a Nas and get far better results than Spotify through ten Statements and cables made from kryptonite. 

Hungryhalibut posted:

Maybe I'm being dense as I'd not picked up on the Spotify and Tidal mention - I just read it as a casual aside. Is the OP actually saying that Spotify is the main source, rather than CD rips or high res music? If so, no wonder the current and already very expensive system is not delivering the goods. I've tried Spotify on my own setup and it's useless for anything than casual listening, and makes the main system sound no more satisfying than the Qb in the kitchen. Even Tidal is far worse than listening to CD rips from the Nas and when the three month trial ended I got rid of it, as I hardly used it - partly because of the ropey sound and partly because of the hopeless range of music. I cannot really believe that anyone could be happy with Spotify through the Sopra 3, and how anyone could possibly hear the impact of the Vertere Ethernet cable with said source. Let's hope I'm barking up the wrong tree, for if Spotify is the main source I'm going to change my recommendation of a 552 to selling the lot and getting a mu-so. For the £20,000 cost of the 552 you could buy an awful lot of used CDs on Music Magpie, rip them to a Nas and get far better results than Spotify through ten Statements and cables made from kryptonite. 

HH yes unfortunately I do a lot of casual listening on Spotify Premium and Tidal HiFi hence why I purchased the N272 in the first place, I have not got around to ripping my old Cd's because a lot of the music is redundant and I grew out of it and to me streaming allows me to listen to new genres etc...now as to buying Hi-res down loads I have not got there yet.

I am using Tidal hifi (CDquality) one, my cd2x , nas with cd2x rips and hires and a turntable

All got there places, Tidal is fantastic for new albums or one song wonders but it is no match for my cd rips or cd2x as a source

So how about a melco,innous or core for you Greekspec2? 

You can rip cds, download hires files and make your casual listening with tidal/Spotify as always

It is a minor investment considering going you are using a 1000£ ethernet cable and plans for 552/NDS

Try that way before investing a lot on hardware

or try nice brinkmann turntable ( bardo ) instead of NDS and see how 552 will sound vs Spotify 

you are running DOS operating  system on a brand new top of the line Mac.... you will get the DOS experience more or less, maybe faster but still same

Unfortunately Spotify uses 320kbps MP3 which is lossy audio data format compressed 4.4:1: Essentially it's throwing away 75% of the data in the music before you even play it; OK, mostly that's the less important data, but you're still not getting all the music.

Don't forget MP3 was intended to compress audio for computer use; so it's designed for the limitations of computer sound cards.  Think of it like this... In effect you're doing much the same as processing the music through a computer soundcard with all it's limitations, and then sending the computer limited result to the 272.  No matter how good the 272 is it can't undo the damage done to the signal by the MP3 processing.  Even with Tidal and the data buffering of the 272, the uneven flow rate you get form an internet connection still has an impact and most people find it doesn't sound as good as CD data played from a properly setup local NAS drive.

Spottify and Tidal are very good for finding new music, but serious listening is best done from a local NAS drive.

Huge posted:

Unfortunately Spotify uses 320kbps MP3 which is lossy audio data format compressed 4.4:1: Essentially it's throwing away 75% of the data in the music before you even play it; OK, mostly that's the less important data, but you're still not getting all the music.

Don't forget MP3 was intended to compress audio for computer use; so it's designed for the limitations of computer sound cards.  Think of it like this... In effect you're doing much the same as processing the music through a computer soundcard with all it's limitations, and then sending the computer limited result to the 272.  No matter how good the 272 is it can't undo the damage done to the signal by the MP3 processing.  Even with Tidal and the data buffering of the 272, the uneven flow rate you get form an internet connection still has an impact and most people find it doesn't sound as good as CD data played from a properly setup local NAS drive.

Spottify and Tidal are very good for finding new music, but serious listening is best done from a local NAS drive.

so would I use my CD/DVD drive to burn my old Cd's and save them as a file instead on to another blank disc, I have a few hi-res songs saved on my laptop which is access through the NAS on my DOSIS  modem using UPnP

How music is ripped and served does count.

Ripping CDs in wav. with XLD is OK as are NAS .But it would still be better , in your shoes, consider something like a CORE which rips with perfect tags and serve them better to your streamer.

I would start from there for a sound and sensible path.

Antonio1 posted:

How music is ripped and served does count.

Ripping CDs in wav. with XLD is OK as are NAS .But it would still be better , in your shoes, consider something like a CORE which rips with perfect tags and serve them better to your streamer.

I would start from there for a sound and sensible path.

so with a Uniti-Core and cd's ripped the only connection that would be needed after that is use my extra Poweline for power and purchase a DC-1...this is if I wanna listen to my old CD collection and what if some Cd's are burned will they sound like crap anyways once ripped onto a unit?

Hungryhalibut posted:

Maybe I'm being dense as I'd not picked up on the Spotify and Tidal mention - I just read it as a casual aside. Is the OP actually saying that Spotify is the main source, rather than CD rips or high res music? If so, no wonder the current and already very expensive system is not delivering the goods. I've tried Spotify on my own setup and it's useless for anything than casual listening, and makes the main system sound no more satisfying than the Qb in the kitchen. Even Tidal is far worse than listening to CD rips from the Nas and when the three month trial ended I got rid of it, as I hardly used it - partly because of the ropey sound and partly because of the hopeless range of music. I cannot really believe that anyone could be happy with Spotify through the Sopra 3, and how anyone could possibly hear the impact of the Vertere Ethernet cable with said source. Let's hope I'm barking up the wrong tree, for if Spotify is the main source I'm going to change my recommendation of a 552 to selling the lot and getting a mu-so. For the £20,000 cost of the 552 you could buy an awful lot of used CDs on Music Magpie, rip them to a Nas and get far better results than Spotify through ten Statements and cables made from kryptonite. 

I thought 80% of the purpose of purchasing a N272/NDS/NDX was for listening to internet radio and Spotify,Tidal?

no it is not at all.... it is one of the advantages.... with a set up yours you have better performing mods..

my tidal listening is at %25 rest is streaming and CD player.. streaming from nas is a easy access to your collection and sounds excellent, tidal is good but a step down, spootify 320 is not good, i was ripping my CDs losses alac format even with my iPod nearly 10 years ago let alone 272/300/sopra 3 setup

your naims will come alive.. 

That's entirely up to the owner.  The point I'm getting at is that you are hearing nothing like what your already excellent system is capable of. If you have good nas and upnp server, you don't need a Core. 

Sounds like the biggest upgrade you're gonna get here is a free one!

Hungryhalibut posted:

That's entirely up to the owner.  The point I'm getting at is that you are hearing nothing like what your already excellent system is capable of. If you have good nas and upnp server, you don't need a Core. 

I use my DOCSIS 3.0 Arris Surfboard SBG6900-AC cable modem that has a built in NAS sorta say

from the outside to my wall I use Audioquest RG6 Carbon coax cable terminated with there ITC F-cons, then use Audioquest NRG 1.5 to power the modem,then use the Vertere Ethernet into my N272 directly from the modem....

I'm limited since I'm renting a newish condo and can't do what I want till I get into a house

Emre posted:

no it is not at all.... it is one of the advantages.... with a set up yours you have better performing mods..

my tidal listening is at %25 rest is streaming and CD player.. streaming from nas is a easy access to your collection and sounds excellent, tidal is good but a step down, spootify 320 is not good, i was ripping my CDs losses alac format even with my iPod nearly 10 years ago let alone 272/300/sopra 3 setup

your naims will come alive.. 

I gave up on Cd's a while ago and have not touched them since 

Then a core/melco/innous will do a great job with you check them out, they are overpriced nas but easy to use in your fraim with a power supply

greekspec2 posted:

Antonio1 posted:

How music is ripped and served does count.

Ripping CDs in wav. with XLD is OK as are NAS .But it would still be better , in your shoes, consider something like a CORE which rips with perfect tags and serve them better to your streamer.

I would start from there for a sound and sensible path.

so with a Uniti-Core and cd's ripped the only connection that would be needed after that is use my extra Poweline for power and purchase a DC-1...this is if I wanna listen to my old CD collection and what if some Cd's are burned will they sound like crap anyways once ripped onto a unit?

About ripping ,opinions differ here. 

I prefer the wav sound wise , anyway the server is important, not that the NAS is bad but any improvement in the source is easily heard along the chain.

Also, once you get a CORE you could just try and compare those burned CDs  and new rips.

Antonio1 posted:

greekspec2 posted:

Antonio1 posted:

How music is ripped and served does count.

Ripping CDs in wav. with XLD is OK as are NAS .But it would still be better , in your shoes, consider something like a CORE which rips with perfect tags and serve them better to your streamer.

I would start from there for a sound and sensible path.

so with a Uniti-Core and cd's ripped the only connection that would be needed after that is use my extra Poweline for power and purchase a DC-1...this is if I wanna listen to my old CD collection and what if some Cd's are burned will they sound like crap anyways once ripped onto a unit?

About ripping ,opinions differ here. 

I prefer the wav sound wise , anyway the server is important, not that the NAS is bad but any improvement in the source is easily heard along the chain.

Also, once you get a CORE you could just try and compare those burned CDs  and new rips.

there are quite few Unitiserve for sell around $1000usd or should I look towards the Core