Upgrade path - n172

272 would be one of the obvious options -- I have seen ex-demo 272 for £2,500. The 272 is much loved by their owners. Or get a 282 with Hicap (quite a bit more expenaive but great) and use your Chord Mojo as source in the interim (with a Raspberry Pi/HIfiberry). I guess the "best" option depends on your endgame...

I had a similar dilemma - I had the 172 for a few years and upgraded my amp and speakers to the 200DR and Focal 906 - decided that it was ready to go for a better source and 272 made a real difference. With your 250.2 should work very nicely. 

There are two obvious options, at similar prices: 272/XPSDR or NDX/282/HicapDR. In either case I'd get the 250.2 upgraded to DR. At a higher level there is the 252, but then you are looking at an NDS/555PSDR to front it. Or maybe an NDX/evilchorddac. 

What HH says but the NDX really needs a XPS as well. 

Regards,

Lindsay

I'd keep the 172 but add a chord dac and streamer as a source

the preamp in 172 is good even with the top of the line Chord Dave (I've heard it)

Try the mojo into 172 with a good chord clearway interconnect minijack to din and you'll understand

spend the money in upgrading 250.2 to 250DR 

and then maybe buy Super lumina speaker cables

Thanks everybody - lots to think about.

Using the mojo gives nice results, but it needs charging fairly regularly and keeping my music on a laptop/iphone or whatever kind of ruins the look a bit... and nothing worse than sitting down with a nice glass of wine for a listen to find someone else needs the laptop, or work are trying to get my on the phone!  First world problems I know.  

Im leaning towards a 272 with a power supply later.  The negative to this is that I dont think it will power a stageline in the future.

I think the s/pdif out on the 272 (the 172 has no digital out) would solve a 'problem' and allow me to use my mojo (or a replacement) for headphone listening.

Thanks again

Put the music on a nas, hide it out of the way somewhere, and you will avoid your current logistical problems, which is the case with a 172, 272, NDX or whatever. 

Timo posted:

272 would be one of the obvious options -- I have seen ex-demo 272 for £2,500. The 272 is much loved by their owners. Or get a 282 with Hicap (quite a bit more expenaive but great) and use your Chord Mojo as source in the interim (with a Raspberry Pi/HIfiberry). I guess the "best" option depends on your endgame...

This post made me switching on my RPi again. It has a Dragonfly Red DAC in the usb port and the RPi is connected by UTP to the LAN. It sounds much better than my ChromeCast Audio into my SN.

I can see that 172 >> RPI / Hifiberry or Mojo >> 282 + HiCap is very good.

272 is the easy way to go though.

analogmusic posted:

I'd keep the 172 but add a chord dac and streamer as a source

the preamp in 172 is good even with the top of the line Chord Dave (I've heard it)

Try the mojo into 172 with a good chord clearway interconnect minijack to din and you'll understand

spend the money in upgrading 250.2 to 250DR 

and then maybe buy Super lumina speaker cables

Could someone suggest where to buy a Clearway minijack to DIN cable?

I'm about to add a  >>Raspberry Pi/HFBerry + Pro to >> Chord 2Qute >> 282 + DTC >> 300

I believe that it is now possible to stream Tidal to the Pi using iPad/iPhone as a control I think previous wisdom was to use Bubbleupnp but that is only available on Android devices.

I believe although I'm yet to try that if you download Volumio onto the Pi and then Lumin app onto your iOS device it is then possible to stream Tidal through the Pi.

As soon as I have achieved this or if anyone already has then I will share.

Lok Lok Dad posted:

analogmusic posted:

I'd keep the 172 but add a chord dac and streamer as a source

the preamp in 172 is good even with the top of the line Chord Dave (I've heard it)

Try the mojo into 172 with a good chord clearway interconnect minijack to din and you'll understand

spend the money in upgrading 250.2 to 250DR 

and then maybe buy Super lumina speaker cables

Could someone suggest where to buy a Clearway minijack to DIN cable?

When I bought my RPi, I tried to get one, could only find them in the UsA. I bought an Audioquest cable instead. This AQ cable is most likely the weakest link currently.

The preamp in the 172 may be good, but the 272 is better and the 282 is better still.

I'd go up to at least the 282  / 250DR before spending vast sums of money on SL cables.

Bob the Builder posted:

I'm about to add a  >>Raspberry Pi/HFBerry + Pro to >> Chord 2Qute >> 282 + DTC >> 300

I believe that it is now possible to stream Tidal to the Pi using iPad/iPhone as a control I think previous wisdom was to use Bubbleupnp but that is only available on Android devices.

I believe although I'm yet to try that if you download Volumio onto the Pi and then Lumin app onto your iOS device it is then possible to stream Tidal through the Pi.

As soon as I have achieved this or if anyone already has then I will share.

To Tidal Users

I know you probably have Naim streamers with Tidal support, but as the iPad has a reasonable Tidal App could I not stream into my nDAC's front USB i/f with as good SQ as the above Raspberry Pi? Not sure what resolution the new iPads support over the USB.

Phil

Front USBs generally tend to just pick up the stored files from an iPod / iPhone (although there may be some work around).

Gavin B posted:

Front USBs generally tend to just pick up the stored files from an iPod / iPhone (although there may be some work around).

Gavin, my iPad streams from apps like Apple Music, BBC Music player and anything playing sound via the USB into a DAC. It's not a means to play stored files which is what the Core USB i/f does with memory sticks or USB drives. Therefore the TIDAL should do the same.

The question was just about the (asynchronous) Bit Rate the Apple USB i/f might support assuming the TIDAL app fetches it and sends it out at the highest rate available. The difference with the Raspberry Pi is that the Dig+Pro board will convert to synchrous spdi/f and SQ will depend on clock accuracy as well.

i just don't know enough about the Apple bits.

Phil

I hadn't read carefully enough that this was into an nDac - I was thinking about the streamers (like my ND5 / Qute).

Thanks again for all of the comments and tips.  I've opted for a 272, which kind of neatly and fortuitously fell into my lap!

Initial thoughts are that it is a great improvement over the 172 - without the audiophile adjectives to describe the sound, I'd just say there is more music!   Some of this takes a little getting used to, as the 172 put everything right in front of my face, while the 272 seems to create a more 'layered' sound.   The only negative I have so far is that the bass is now much more pronounced than it was before - something I hope I can get used to.

I'm not sure I want the answer to this question, but would the next step be an XPS, or swap my 250 for a 300DR?   Which would provide more detail in the music?  Given I have a 172 and possibly 252 to trade in, the cash difference between the 2 options probably isnt massive.

(My 250 is non DR and my speakers are stand mounted B&W 805D.  Hopefully the speakers will last me another few upgrades before they become the weakest link!)

Max I would just sit back and enjoy what you have for now which is a very nice system

XPS DR. 

HiFiman posted:

Max I would just sit back and enjoy what you have for now which is a very nice system

 

Of course you're right!.. it's nice to know the direction though. 

I use a 272 & CD555PSDR into a 300DR and it's a quite stunning combination.

One thing to note is that the presentation from the 300DR is significantly different from the 250.2, so if planning this change you'd definitely need to audition it to see if you can get used to the new sound balance (you're likely to find it less dark or heavy; tending to a more light footed, sprightly presentation).  On the other hand, the 300DR preserves inner detail and delicacy at high volume and still does so amazingly well even at very low volumes.  It all depends on what you want.

On the other hand, the 272 & XPSDR will reveal a considerably greater amount of detail than the 272 alone, allowing instrumental timbres to be better differentiated and making the words in lyrics significantly clearer.

Both options will give you more detail.
Given that your speakers aren't the easiest to drive, the 300DR won't be wasted in comparison to the 250.2
So in summary...

The 272 is good, the 272 with the XPS DR is better.
The 250.2 is good, the 300DR is better.

Nice problem to have!

Looks like I will be adding the XPS DR to my 272 sooner than expected as the chaps from Chester have a new one out on loan to another customer while Salisbury build his 555PS and they are keen to offload the XPS DR once it come back in. The deal was just too tempting - so should be arriving sometime before Christmas and will be able to add my 3d worth to the "272 with/without XPS" discussions.