NDX2 or ND555 owners...

If you do that aren't you by-passing the streamer part of the NDX2/ND555 and effectively just using it as a Dac?

Thats the point! It sounds incredible good...I don‘t understand it ...

Hmmm. If so the nDAC even with 555 is cheaper. 

T38.45 posted:

...did you try the digital inputs f.ex coax/bnc? 

I did it ...my setup is macmini and roon bridge usb —-tellurium silver usb—shiit eit——tellurium coax ——ND555.

Frankly, I‘m confused now.....

I have not demoed any NDX 2 or ND555 at home but in https://forums.naimaudio.com/t...one-signature?page=2 I have been suggesting that a comparison between 

Ethernet > NDX2,

Ethernet > DigiOne Signature > DC1 > NDX2

and

Ethernet > NDX2 > nDAC

would be a good test to assess the quality of the NP800 streaming card and of the NDX2's (ND555's) DAC stage. I am not sure that I understand your original post: what have you compared precisely and what are your findings?

I‘m not sure what it is, but some tracks sound better via DAC than internal streaming. Seems they have a darker backround, details are airy and open. Less bass but highly enjoyable vs streaming route. I thought about this, it could be that my current streaming setup (I wait for Cisco switch) is by far not optimal. Apart from that, I will add a better LAN cable as a second step... so I will test this again if everything is finished! 

T38.45 posted:

I‘m not sure what it is, but some tracks sound better via DAC than internal streaming. Seems they have a darker backround, details are airy and open. Less bass but highly enjoyable vs streaming route. I thought about this, it could be that my current streaming setup (I wait for Cisco switch) is by far not optimal. Apart from that, I will add a better LAN cable as a second step... so I will test this again if everything is finished! 

Ideally one would expect all the inputs of a 14k pounds DAC to be of comparable very high quality. Thus, it is not very surprising that some tracks might appear to sound better through one input and others through another input. It would just indicate that the ND555 is a well designed, balanced DAC with very good ethernet and S/PDIF inputs. Have you also tried to stream from an attach a USB drive? How does this compare to ethernet and S/PDIF?

Good point, will do that to test further...

I personally cannot tell the difference, though the BNC cable is a £20 Belden?

T38.45 posted:

I‘m not sure what it is, but some tracks sound better via DAC than internal streaming. Seems they have a darker backround, details are airy and open. Less bass but highly enjoyable vs streaming route. I thought about this, it could be that my current streaming setup (I wait for Cisco switch) is by far not optimal. Apart from that, I will add a better LAN cable as a second step... so I will test this again if everything is finished! 

This is normal really.. although great efforts have been made to decouple internally in the ND555 you will still have closed system coupling between the digital transport input processing and the DAC / clock. Therefore in the limit the digital noise profile of an Ethernet sourced TCP transport flow will sound different (ever so slightly) from a SPDIF transport flow. In the end if these differences are very subtle you will ignore them..

Thanks for feedback so far...curious to see if cisco closes the gap... anyway, the ND555 is by far the best move in my hifi career ( apart from my Nagra pre) ...

T38.45 posted:

Thanks for feedback so far...curious to see if cisco closes the gap... anyway, the ND555 is by far the best move in my hifi career ( apart from my Nagra pre) ...

It is also about four times more expensive than a Naim DAC, thus it shall be significantly better for the price to be justified, I think.

Why would we not expect all the outputs on an ND 555 not to sound excellent? From the outset my plan for the ND 555 was use it for streaming [locally and internet], connecting a CDX2, USB storage and other digital sources and I have had superb sounding playback from all. At the price I would want to be taking advantage of the ND 555's full functionality. Soon, I aim to test a couple of external DACs, too, just to hear what happens.

I would like to come back with some feedback about the Cisco switched I got today. I sum it up: BUY ONE asap:-)
Thanks to the folks here who recommend it- it's really special...dead quiet, clear seperation of voices and instruments, black backround (that's really great, my router added some noise it seems....). Cost? roughly 50bucks! 

Ralf

T38.45 posted:

I would like to come back with some feedback about the Cisco switched I got today. I sum it up: BUY ONE asap:-)
Thanks to the folks here who recommend it- it's really special...dead quiet, clear seperation of voices and instruments, black backround (that's really great, my router added some noise it seems....). Cost? roughly 50bucks! 

Ralf

Congrats Ralf and I second your thanks to the many who recommended this, I would never have dreamed of getting a refurbished switch.