500 is back!

Welcome to an enjoyable ride David. I reckon I could hear my DR'd 500 performance-evolving for up to a year, and a friend and contributor here has said the same of his three 500's.

But the real joy is that it sounds like a different (and much better) amplifier right off the bat as you are hearing. A couple of weeks in, I experienced a 24 hour period of 'thin and shouty', so don't worry if you get that too. It lasted, literally only one day and then the SQ was back on form and continued to gradually and subtly improve.

John.

Where to start? The Smiths of course. 

Enjoy it David. It's one heck of a machine. Mine is 4 months now since upgrade. My experience was also that there was never a doubt that it was a much better amp than the original 500, but it has taken a while to truly reveal its capabilities and whilst it continues to have its ups and downs, it is now capable of simply inspiring music making.

Darke Bear has it right when he talks about the importance of an amps ability to separately resolve each of the various strands of music in a performance being the key to a really believable representation of the original event - where one sound, however loud or strident, doesn't modulate other more subtle sounds. An absence of modulation. Ultimately, I guess it's simply superior resolution capability, but it is absolutely the key to suspending your natural disbelief that the sound coming out of home Speakers can sound convincingly like real music.

I have heard this trait from 250dr and 300dr but in my view the source and to some extent preamp have a lot to contribute to this feature of separating out the musical instruments from each other clearly

its a matter of working on the bottlenecks clearly nds/555 is up to this and so is Lp12 but on non DR amps with such level of sources I don't hear any smearing of instruments either

My 500 was DR'd and its power supply serviced (new caps etc) with a return to me mid December last year. My dealer kindly loaned me their demo 300DR whilst the 500 was away.

The 300 impressed me from switch on, but little doubts on comparison crept in. I must be a really Mr Picky sort of guy! Anyway with my 500 away I settled down to live with its younger brother and "forgot" about what was happening in Salisbury.

On return and from switch on I knew I had a really big upgrade to the extent I had a new and much better power amplifier. In fact the 500 and the DR are different amplifiers in my book.

I am now 10 months down the line so it should (?) now be at its best with little or no more to come. One thing that strikes me is CDs or LPs played some time ago now often seem to sound better. Also if the system has not been listened to for say a week or two then a return to using it is a real pleasure. Not an insignificant sum cost wise but in overall system gains well worth it.

You get more music and that's what its all about.

If I have funds available I will go for this one. After electricity and acoustic upgrades this is the next logical step. Thanks for sharing. A lot have call d the effect a NAP 700.

The 700 is a good way of describing the improvement. Not one I have heard before. You won't regret it Bert.

Welcome to your new music collection.

Thought you knew it intimately?

Think again!

I'm still hearing stuff for the first time that I've been listening to for 50 years. And it will take a few months to fully give its all. But you won't be disappointed in the interim.

I was also lucky enough to have a 250DR on loan when mine went in. Glad I had the opportunity to hear how a modern one sounds.

well the 500 is quite superior to all the other Naim poweramps, as it completely eliminates return currents from the speaker from "infecting" the signal earth, which as we know, is the reference 0 voltage, and must remain at 0 V.

That's what I hear anyway - the 552/500 is priced accordingly and very special as an amplifier.

I haven't heard statement and won't be interested and it is priced way out of my spending willingness, and not sure how much more it would do compared to 552/500 compared to spending more on improving ----- sources, cables and speakers.

The Statement S1 has that advantage of the signal NOT going through that very annoying Burndy.

Analogmusic,

I suspect that if I could afford a Statement, I would find it very hard to resist. Because I can't, (and am not likely to), I'm not sure if I would listen to one if I had the opportunity, but I have no doubt that it would better the 552/500 combo. I also feel that my NDS is at least as good as any alternative digital source, and that my SL2s would be difficult to better in my room. That just leaves the option of changing the speaker cables, which at 2x13 metres I cannot afford to do, and the Superlumina Din to Xlrs, which will probably be my next (and last?!) upgrade, once I have come to terms with this one. 

David

douglas posted:

The 700 is a good way of describing the improvement. Not one I have heard before. You won't regret it Bert.

I said if, so let's see if I am lucky to see funds floading in...

Congrats with 500dr it is a truly great amp .... you will not regret it .... it will get better and better ... my purchase is something I have never regretted....congrats

David, the 500 service and DR is THE most outstanding upgrade to the original 500. You've probably seen (heard) for yourself the amazing detail and gutsy performance straight out of the box back from the mothership. If I were to say the 500DR continues to improve at the 3/6/9m mark then that is what I've experienced and now at 9m it is still getting better. Whether if the occasional switch off/on  (ahead of thunderstorms) has done wonders during the burn in or just the stabilisation of the 500's components, it has come a long way since my jaw dropped 9m ago.  There is a journey for you to experience - mostly grin-inspiring but a few "eh?" Moments too as I have experienced a few off days during the initial 3m. Don't worry though as the 500DR just keeps on getting better and even now I get astonished at the beginning of listening sessions, ceteris paribus.  I use an NDS as digital source and Stiletto Skorpion LP12 as vinyl source - the 500DR will bring out the best.  Enjoy!

Thanks to all of you for your good wishes. I am astonished at how good this change is. It is the best value Naim upgrade I've experienced. And only 2 days in! 

You ain't heard nothing yet ..... mine is about 6 months since service and it is brilliant punchy, open, delicate, precise. ... etc etc it makes a 250dr sound confused....

As it is around 6 times the price (new) of a 250 it would be surprising if it was not significantly better. However I am not sure why the 250 has to be labelled as 'confused' to further reinforce the crushing supriority of the 500. The 250 is an excellent amp in all respects at its price point and allows me to fully appreciate any music I listen to through it.

Many many moons before we were lucky enough to move a 252/300 in, let alone the 552/500, the 250 was auditioned at length with 202 and 282. I'm not saying the 250 is a "bad" amp. It has many fans. But I'm not one of them. This also goes for the 250DR. I'm not saying the 250 is bad because it reinforces amps higher up the Naim range. I'm calling it bad because to my ears it was. Your ears are different to mine. This is to be celebrated, not argued over. Bringing a 282/250 home saved me a shedload of money. Everything has an up side.

I think the same regarding the 250/250dr ... I think what it is ... the amp has allot packed into a very small space ... and the close proximity to hi power magnetic flux ultimately limits performance. It is still a very fine amp ... and it covers it's tracks well ... but it is not until you here the 500/500dr do you realise. ..

Richieroo posted:

 is not until you here the 500/500dr do you realise. ..

Or a 252/300 in our case. Different universe.

I don't know about all the amplifier one upmanship

If you were talking about sources - ok, but anyway I will take my now well run in 250 DR and compare against 500 (non DR) and hear how much the 250 sounds confused.

Even my 200 doesn't sound confused, so I am confused with your descriptions Richeroo 

But yes I do use a very nice Vertere DIN/XLR cable for my 250 DR, which does improve the performance significantly, so maybe that's why it sounds clear as a bell.

Dont get me wrong the 250 is great - however, the 500 gives you wonderful depth - and great stereo stage ..... and when you turn up the wick it just holds it - and gives you fantastic reproduction - especially in complex music - where it does not harden fantastic finesse. The 250 is brilliant you are not aware of its limitations until you try its bigger brothers.... Somebody put it brilliantly on this forum .... you get an experience  'ahh - that's how it was done'.

My previous 250dr sounded clear as a bell .... until i listened to the same tracks with the 500 (non dr) -  I was using 272 with 555ps ..... and I could hear the difference within a few seconds.... even at low volumes..

hmmm - I've heard 300 300 DR and 500.... and done hundreds of experiments.

In the end, what you are really, really listening to ..... is the NDS, CD555, LP12 or whatever is your source.

but yes the 500 is very nice, and so is 300 DR, both of them really superb.

but did you hear your 250 with NACA5 or with SL? now that makes a big difference.

250dr was with super lumina as was 500

The 500 is quite a different beast - it does not rely on the negative rail being at gnd - earth, you also have a huge psu - I was amazed as I said before I did a direct substitution with 250dr - hooked up to a 272 / 555ps combo - and it made a very big difference - I was impressed how good the 272 actually was..... I will also add the 500 in question was elderly it was around 12 years young.... and it blew the 250dr away.