Upgrades, upgrades upgrades. Oh what to do........Power or Source?

RYDER - in comparison to the NDX or CDX2

PEAKMAN (Roger) - I'm not even sure brightness or fizziness are the right words. Perhaps a bit more treble focused? Sometimes this is like describing wine (taste like flint or grass - I'm mean who eats flint or grass?)

Here is one example between the 272 vs. the NDX: I was listening to London Grammer, so very beautiful and raw vocals with strong baseline and midrange violin/strings. With the NDX the strings are very obvious and the baseline strong and tight (but not too strong). With the 272 the vocals were far more intense and the midrange strings more hidden (perhaps not in a bad way, just not as obvious as the NDX - it's all a matter of taste). As the vocals were more noticeable the song just sounded "brighter". 

The dealer is in the Kingston area and I have bought stuff there in the past. Very good service and they were happy for me to bring in my own speakers (they don't stock dynaudios)

Overall I just amazed at how much better a new streamer can sound over an old CD player and I am now a beliver! In addition i have to give a shout out to the Dynaudio Focus 140's. They are by far the cheapest bit of kit in the system but they could handle the job!

Peakman posted:

Hi Rich

Do enjoy your new boxes.  I am surprised how few people go in for intensive auditioning before making a major purchase (at least where dealers offer this service.)  Thanks also for your full write up.  I was a little surprised by your finding that the 272 sounded bright and fizzy but I don't think many other people have directly compared NDX/202/200 with 272/200 (given the price difference, the former ought to sound better).  I don't hear brightness or fizziness with my 272, but your experience makes me wonder how much the 250DR (not to mention the XPS) is an essential contributor to the sound I value so highly.

Roger

Indeed. Synergy is all and 'speakers are a major contributor too. Having had NDX / NDAc / XPS 282 250.2 S400 I actually 'enjoy' the 272 / 250DR S400 more. It is just so musical. 

G

Innocent bystander - on the contrary, I was happy that the NDX was second hand. The difference between the part exchange on the ND5xs and sale price of the NDX made it a much easier decision to make. Both the NDX and ND5xs sound better than my CDP, but I figured that if I'm going to rip all my CDs and become a serious streamer, I want a serious improvement in what I have at the moment - hence the NDX (it's hard saying good bye to your CD rack and putting everything in the loft....��)

Rich1981 posted:

Innocent bystander - on the contrary, I was happy that the NDX was second hand. The difference between the part exchange on the ND5xs and sale price of the NDX made it a much easier decision to make. Both the NDX and ND5xs sound better than my CDP, but I figured that if I'm going to rip all my CDs and become a serious streamer, I want a serious improvement in what I have at the moment - hence the NDX (it's hard saying good bye to your CD rack and putting everything in the loft....��)

Once you have your streaming system all set up, you won't look back.

Trust you will enjoy your new boxes as much as I enjoy mine the Core certainly make the ripping process simple no fluffing about with computers and a NAS. 

hi Rich,

for what it's worth, your findings are similar to mine: i thought the CDX2 was way better than my CD5 (which i've kept around because i play maybe 3 CDs a year) and that the 272/250DR combo, while an impressive bit of engineering, is brighter than the ideal. hate to be one of those jerks who suggests "step 2" just as you've landed happily on an upgrade, but since we seem to have similar tastes, my current 282/250.2 was a big leap forward on all musical counts. (and i've seen quite a few good deals lately on secondhand versions of both!)

enjoy!

--joe

Rich1981 posted:

Here is one example between the 272 vs. the NDX: I was listening to London Grammer, so very beautiful and raw vocals with strong baseline and midrange violin/strings. With the NDX the strings are very obvious and the baseline strong and tight (but not too strong). With the 272 the vocals were far more intense and the midrange strings more hidden (perhaps not in a bad way, just not as obvious as the NDX - it's all a matter of taste). As the vocals were more noticeable the song just sounded "brighter".

Your findings are broadly similar to mine, so I too ended up buying an NDX. The only thing I would add is that you should have a positive approach to building your network, as Naim streamers do require them to be robust. You only have to trawl through the Streaming forum to see that many who think they have an adequate network often don't, and you need to be prepared to invest a bit of time and money in getting it right. It's not rocket science, and your dealer may be able to do it for you - if not, Naim support should be able to sort you out. 

Congratulations on the new gear, and great the speakers are up to it. I also have ndx 202 200 into (16 year) old dynaudios (cost £1200) and auditioned speakers costing double recently - nothing was an improvement on the Dyns for me so I'm also very happy for them to stay. Enjoy the music...

Great choice. I too had a NDX/202/200, very nice.

Now take your time and set up a decent network - a switch, a NAS with good UPnP server software all hooked up with decent ethernet cables (don't be tempted with a short cut to wifi) - tweaks can come later.

I started with a bare NDX and bare 202 (although I did have a NAPSC on it and these are low cost and very worthwhile). Although the NDX lasted me in bare mode, I would suggest a HiCap (DR if possible) for the 202. Other than that, leave well alone, enjoy the music and stay away from the forum as we will have you upgrading to a 282 in no time.

Have fun, you have made good choices IMHO.

Rich1981 posted:

Innocent bystander - on the contrary, I was happy that the NDX was second hand. The difference between the part exchange on the ND5xs and sale price of the NDX made it a much easier decision to make. Both the NDX and ND5xs sound better than my CDP, but I figured that if I'm going to rip all my CDs and become a serious streamer, I want a serious improvement in what I have at the moment - hence the NDX (it's hard saying good bye to your CD rack and putting everything in the loft....��)

Sorry, my misunderstanding of your statement "Next problem. The NDX for sale is second-hand"!

No doubt the Dynas are up to it.  Enjoy the new equipment.  

Regards,

Lindsay

Now stick a napsc and HC on the 202/200 (and perhaps 282 later)or swap out for Supernait 2 and be in a very nice place. 

Rich1981 posted:

Thanks for all your comments, they are very much appreciated. I think I need a long hard think about streaming vs. CD and need to make the call! I have a large CD collect and really enjoy shopping for CD's in bespoke music shops. I also enjoy hunting for the CD and putting it on (perhaps I should get in to vinyl?). However, I assume I can still shop for CD's, then pop them on to the hard-drive (unitiserve?) and put the CD in the loft? I also like to make sure that artist I like get their fair share of the money I spend. 

 

Most of us who have changed from cd to harddisk or streaming based systems, find that we listen to more of our ripped cd than before when we used a cd player, and also buy more cds. The big debate on ton the terrible things about streaming makes little sense since most of us have a local cd collection that is mixed with a streaming service. Of course the big  problem for some is the problem with dropouts with tidal on some Naim systems.

Claus  

Claus-Thoegersen posted:

Rich1981 posted:

Thanks for all your comments, they are very much appreciated. I think I need a long hard think about streaming vs. CD and need to make the call! I have a large CD collect and really enjoy shopping for CD's in bespoke music shops. I also enjoy hunting for the CD and putting it on (perhaps I should get in to vinyl?). However, I assume I can still shop for CD's, then pop them on to the hard-drive (unitiserve?) and put the CD in the loft? I also like to make sure that artist I like get their fair share of the money I spend. 

 

Most of us who have changed from cd to harddisk or streaming based systems, find that we listen to more of our ripped cd than before when we used a cd player, and also buy more cds. The big debate on ton the terrible things about streaming makes little sense since most of us have a local cd collection that is mixed with a streaming service. Of course the big  problem for some is the problem with dropouts with tidal on some Naim systems.

Claus  

I don't know if there is enough data to confirm the assertion  'most of us' in either of the above, though certainly I, too, get the impression that a fair proportion of posters do seem to simply go over to streaming their ripped music rather than playing CDs, presumably for all the reasons previously identified, and it seems many happily still buy CDs - that they immediately rip.

As for a 'local CD collection that is mixed with a streaming service', if that means an online streaming service (e.g. Tidal), there are  quite a few who eschew Tidal because of its lower quality and reliability, and/or lack of preferred content, and normally only stream from their own store of ripped and downloaded music, using online streaming services just for low res sampling of new music (if at all).

I use Tidal as much as I use local streaming at the moment. Tidal for me is primarily for discovery of music/artists new to me and also to listen to stuff I like but not enough to buy.

Most liked stuff I hear on Tidal then gets bought either as a download or as a CD to rip for local streaming which does sound better. I do have to say however that Tidal sounds pretty good these days assuming what is being sampled is well recorded and mastered.

Both local steaming and subscription streaming have there place, well in my world they do.