300 serviced and DR - now the midrange sounds so cold / hard

Could be a case of just getting use to the new sound of the amp, break-in, although at six months I would think the sound quality probably won't drastically change one way or the other. There is also the possibility of mixing DR boxes with non DR boxes that may have a negative effect on sound quality.

Some here do prefer the sound of the non DR boxes, you may just like the presentation of the older amps. That's the chance you take when you change one item, you might have to change other things you weren't expecting or didn't realize to make it all gel again.

I cannot offer any advice only commiserations,  after investing so much time and money you must be feeling pretty glum Olivier.  Suggesting you throw more and more money at the problem isn't the advice I would give I would trade in that 300DR for a non DR unit and get back to the sound you love perhaps spend the difference on a streamer .

There's possibly a change in system synergy with the move to the 300DR. Have you tried repositioning the speakers to see if that will help ?

Out of interest, how old is the 252 / Supercap - are they due a service too ?

Olivier1961 posted:

Has anyone an idea what has go wrong? Is it only the DR upgrade or is now the combination with the Chord Sarum the problem?

Thanks for your reply!

Olivier 

I DR'd / serviced my 300 about 18 months ago, it took a lot longer than six months before I noticed a sudden jump in SQ but I guess it depends on how much you run your system. My system is mostly run only at weekends.  My XPS and Supercap had also been DR'd before hand. Hope this helps.

Ken

Try reverting to Naim cables.  

Is an ‘upgraded’ to DR amp such as 250.2 & 300 exactly the same as a ‘bespoke’ new DR amp?

G

GraemeH posted:

Is an ‘upgraded’ to DR amp such as 250.2 & 300 exactly the same as a ‘bespoke’ new DR amp?

G

According to Naim, yes, they are exactly the same.

badlands posted:

Could be a case of just getting use to the new sound of the amp, break-in, although at six months I would think the sound quality probably won't drastically change one way or the other. There is also the possibility of mixing DR boxes with non DR boxes that may have a negative effect on sound quality.

Some here do prefer the sound of the non DR boxes, you may just like the presentation of the older amps. That's the chance you take when you change one item, you might have to change other things you weren't expecting or didn't realize to make it all gel again.

I ‘am afraid that when I also DR the Supercap and XPS it gets worse...but maybe it’s the solution.

Back to non DR? Hmmm yep but that means also back to less deep low performance etc etc

Thanks for your response!

Bob the Builder posted:

I cannot offer any advice only commiserations,  after investing so much time and money you must be feeling pretty glum Olivier.  Suggesting you throw more and more money at the problem isn't the advice I would give I would trade in that 300DR for a non DR unit and get back to the sound you love perhaps spend the difference on a streamer .

Pretty glum indeed!!

Back to non DR will be the answer when I can’t find the solution..... 

Thanks for your response 

I’d do two things, both of which have already been mentioned, and both of which cost nothing. Firstly, try the Naim standard interconnect and din to XLRs. See what that does for a week. If that doesn’t fix it, try moving the speakers around a bit. If they sound a bit hard, starting with them facing straight forward and then toeing in just enough to give a stable image on vocals may help. 

For what it’s worth, which is probably very little, my 300DR, which is about six weeks old, doesn’t make things sound cold and hard at all. 

james n posted:

There's possibly a change in system synergy with the move to the 300DR. Have you tried repositioning the speakers to see if that will help ?

Out of interest, how old is the 252 / Supercap - are they due a service too ?

Repositioning speakers is unfortunately not the answer.... 252 and Supercap are from 2009. They need service next year or in 2019 I think.....

Thanks for your response!

Hungryhalibut posted:

I’d do two things, both of which have already been mentioned, and both of which cost nothing. Firstly, try the Naim standard interconnect and din to XLRs. See what that does for a week. If that doesn’t fix it, try moving the speakers around a bit. If they sound a bit hard, starting with them facing straight forward and then toeing in just enough to give a stable image on vocals may help. 

For what it’s worth, which is probably very little, my 300DR, which is about six weeks old, doesn’t make things sound cold and hard at all. 

Good idea....I will try the original cable’s and see what it does.

Moving the speakers doesn’t seem to be the answer but I can try it again of course.

Thanks for your suggestions! 

I had my 300dr’d and it came “on song” pretty much immediately with gradual improvements over time. 

Trust your ears,  if it doesn’t sound right (assuming you have given it a couple of days to warm up and double checked no faux pas connecting it up!) then call on your local dealer, preferably them to you. 

I had a 552 which returned from  a service and sounded dreadful, I put this down to “ burn in” and lived with it for a few months....  It transpires there were undlying issues that only became clear when my dealer swapped it out for his demonstrator so it had to return to HQ again.

Thankfully  when it returned from Naim it sounded how it should, point being without the help,of my dealer I would have thought what’s all this 552 fuss about and probably sold it.....

Gary

Obviously you spent sig amount of money on the dr upgrade and it turns out you are not satisfied. I think the only reasonable approach to find out weather it's really due to the dr upgrade is to do a direct comparison with a non dr 300. can you talk to your dealer to get one on loan?  Then take your time to listen to both side by side. This way you should be able to come to a sound judgment. 

Cheers f 

fathings cat posted:

I had my 300dr’d and it came “on song” pretty much immediately with gradual improvements over time. 

Trust your ears,  if it doesn’t sound right (assuming you have given it a couple of days to warm up and double checked no faux pas connecting it up!) then call on your local dealer, preferably them to you. 

I had a 552 which returned from  a service and sounded dreadful, I put this down to “ burn in” and lived with it for a few months....  It transpires there were undlying issues that only became clear when my dealer swapped it out for his demonstrator so it had to return to HQ again.

Thankfully  when it returned from Naim it sounded how it should, point being without the help,of my dealer I would have thought what’s all this 552 fuss about and probably sold it.....

Gary

I have no local (NL) dealer on this moment....Cymbiosis (in the UK) was my dealer for the service and DR update.

Maybe they can advise me about a test or double check at Naim.

Thanks for your reply!

Give it another week or two. Sarum and DR works very fine together, I would guess it needs more time to come alive. Haven’t we all been there (many times) but with different Naim pieces over the years?

//Jonas

It’s had six months. I’m not sure another week or two will make a difference. 

Try to use all the standards Naim cables, including power cables. Nice medium should come back. If not, go back to non DR 300

Interesting - I was remarking earlier how beautiful my serviced and DR'd in January NAP300/300PS were sounding - with Chord Sarum Super ARAY mostly. Much much better than pre-DR but it feels as though there has been an all round performance hike recently. 

All upgrades with Chord Sarum cables worked pretty well. Upgrade to 300 DR gave also a big positive difference...just the mid-high seems the problem....

I will try the standard cables and will see what happens

Back to non DR is also an option. A fresh 300 (serviced) but without DR will probably sounds much better then my old 300 without service. 

....or could it be that my SF speakers are no longer the right match in this set?

Olivier1961 posted:

Hello Naim fans,

I upgraded my set the last few years with Chord cables and about 6 months ago I serviced and DR’ed my 300 from 2006.

Yes absolutely true... a lot changed in a positive way but the beautiful realistic midrange (vocals) from my SF are gone! They now sound so ‘unfriendly’ / cold... I really have lost the fun listening to my set

 

Olivier 

Send it to me.

Olivier1961 posted:

....or could it be that my SF speakers are no longer the right match in this set?

My dealer sells SF, they also sell Focal, Dynaudio, Athom, Magico and Proac, to name a few, of all those speakers, SF are the easiest on the ears, as far as cold and hardness is concerned. Personally, I would look elsewhere for the problem.

Olivier1961 posted:

fathings cat posted:

I had my 300dr’d and it came “on song” pretty much immediately with gradual improvements over time. 

Trust your ears,  if it doesn’t sound right (assuming you have given it a couple of days to warm up and double checked no faux pas connecting it up!) then call on your local dealer, preferably them to you. 

I had a 552 which returned from  a service and sounded dreadful, I put this down to “ burn in” and lived with it for a few months....  It transpires there were undlying issues that only became clear when my dealer swapped it out for his demonstrator so it had to return to HQ again.

Thankfully  when it returned from Naim it sounded how it should, point being without the help,of my dealer I would have thought what’s all this 552 fuss about and probably sold it.....

Gary

I have no local (NL) dealer on this moment....Cymbiosis (in the UK) was my dealer for the service and DR update.

Maybe they can advise me about a test or double check at Naim.

Thanks for your reply!

Cymbiosis is a great dealer, and I am quite sure they would not leave an unsatisfied customer on his own. Give them a call. 

If it’s so off, trust your ears and contact your dealer. Waiting for half a year as suggested before will settle the overall sound, but will not correct if something is in principle wrong....