Sonos ZP90 + Naim Dac vs ND5 XS

Hi John,

I have a Dr. Gert Volk modified Sonos ZP90 running into the Naim DAC, albeit with a 555PS attached, into SN/HC. I also had the ND5XS at home for a few months and compared the ND5XS vs. the Sonos into Naim DAC. I could not make out any difference with standard CD rips or if there were any, they were so minute as to be insignificant to me personally. In the end I decided to sell the ND5 again because I could not justify the extra cash tied up in my system. Bought and sold 2nd hand, I even made €150 selling it on. I also briefly compared the ND5 into SN/HC vs. my Naim DAC set up and while I was surprised how good the ND5 sounded it wasn't on par with the nDAC. This was especially audible at higher volumes where a lot more noise came through and the nDAC was a lot easier on the ears. That's with a 555PS though, never did the comparison without. Suffice to say, if I hadn't heard the nDAC in comparison, I could have easily lived with the ND5. It's nice, just not as good as the DAC. One reason I decided to sell the ND5 was that, just like for you, hires is not important to me. I honestly don't care much for it at the moment, not available for the music I like and in any case a good CD recording offer everything I could wish for. At the end of the day the decision between Sonos/nDAC or ND5 is also one that probably will take their respective UIs into account. I preferred the Sonos UI by some margin, not least because nStream did not offer any FFW within tracks, which is very annoying, if you are listening to a long set of music. That aside I have to say, I thought the new Rovi's interactive metadata was very nice indeed and I am sure Naim will offer in track FFW at some poínt in the future. Judging on sound quality alone though the nDAC does have the edge and it is not a subtle difference either. If it were me, I would stay with the Sonos and opt for the nDAC, well that's what I did. I see you also have a SuperNait as amp, it will certainly appreciate a higher quality source than the ND5.

If you wanted to pimp your Sonos, have a read through this thread (https://forums.naimaudio.com/di...nt/11281028945629178), it offers some answers to questions you might have.

Good luck

tp

I have a non-pimped Sonos ZP80 feeing in to the DAC section of my NDX.

Whilst it sounds great, to my ears the Sonos is noticeably inferior on the same Redbook material compared to the NDX pulling the same files, flatter and less dynamic and alive.

Source first principles make me think that things would be similar when using the NDac although this isn't something I have tried.  It could be that the NDac copes better with the Sonos's digital out and differences become smaller.

I suspect that the Sonos mods narrow this gap as TP suggests, so you should take this into account when deciding.

Richard

Hi TP,

Your thoughts pretty much echo mine, a good redbook cd rip is fine by me, I'll save the hi-res thing for a little down the track. Thought the nDAC would make the diffrence and I do love the Sonos sofware, it's well designed and integrates well with my existing music collection, Rhapsody & Spotify - no complaints there.

Sounds like I better start saving for an nDAC

My strong preference would be Sonos into Naim DAC. You will be investing in the most influential component. 

Hi Sound_Dust,

Some great feedback here that hopefully will help you, cause in the end it is a personal demo that will help you decide for yourself.

I was in a similar situation having an Squeezebox and opting for eather ND5XS or nDac. When I did this comparison (bear in mind: nDac without additional PSU) my finding was that on my XS based system the nDac was a bit to crispy in the high frequences and felt just "a bit to much". The ND5XS to me was slightly better with a more mature, rounded and rhythmic sound. Again, I am writing this since I compared with a bare nDac. I have no doubt the nDac excells when combined with PSU's (we have people seen writing here over and over again), but face to face it was the ND5XS that did it for me, though with a small margin.

Told many times here, but I'd suggest to audition yourself on your own system with your own music.

Please keep us informed on your decision; interested in your findings

Good luck,

Iver

+1 Naim DAC sounds a lot better then any of the streamers to me with possible exception of NDS. 

However, I agree with Iver that only you can ultimately say which you like best. 

I would choose W4S Sonos ZP90 + Naim DAC over the NDX any day, but not everybody would. 

Of course, we're all hanging on for the Reference DAC 555 ... when's that coming out ... the digital out on the NDS had to be for something 

Very good observation

Hi All,

Just wondering if anyone had any further experiences with the two combinations mentioned. I'm getting closer to financially being able to afford this so I'm keen to glean any more observations.

Just a note, I'd be using just a stock unmodified ZP90, so if we can keep this in consideration.

I've also just realised that the ND5 XS can have multiple inputs so I could keep my Sonos for some of the convenience stuff (Spotify, Radio) and now also be able to play hi-res music. So unless the general thoughts are that a stock unmodified ZP90 + Naim DAC is noticeably superior. I'm now leaning towards the ND5 XS. It seems to make sense.

Sonos digital out is a good one, as well as the digital out of a Squeezebox Touch. This has been debated and it seems that there is general consensus about the fact that they both sound good when paired to a good dac.

Maybe someone can comment on SBT+nDAC vs NDX5XS, that would useful for sound_dust, and for myself! 

As much as I love my Sonos, I'm just not 100% convinced it's capable of truly stunning results, I've paired it to a Rega DAC an yes it's better than the Supernait DAC (I never really liked the SuperNait DAC), but not as good as my old CD5i. I'm a little worried that I'll buy a Naim Dac and the Sonos will hold it back. Then I'm back to square one. And need to get a good streamer. ND5 XS should be a good chunk better than my old CD5i guaranteed.

My main system is HDX + DAC (powered by XPS) into Nait XS (powered by Hicap) but I also have a Sonos ZP90 hooked-up to the same system which I use if I'm playing music in more than one location via Sonos. 

To be quite honest, if I'm on my own and play the same thing on HDX and Sonos and switch between the two, I can't hear that much difference between them, but that may just be my decrepit hearing.  On a couple of occasions friends have said that they can hearer a warmer, more natural sound from the HDX and I have been able to convince myself that they're right, but there's very little in it.

Of course, Sonos on its own (without the DAC, etc) leaves a lot to be desired, and if you're using it for a multi-room solution you're up for a lot of DACs to replicate the same sound quality.  Plus you can't do Hi Res on Sonos, although surely that must change?  For what it does though, Sonos takes a lot of beating.  I'm in the process of installing NaimNet throughout the house but Sonos will still have a place in the system, if only for Spotify and its clock radio alarm function.     

SBT+ nDAc has been discussed here:

https://forums.naimaudio.com/di...nt/18461704861239966

I use the SBT+nDAC and prefer it to the ND5XS but it is down to individual preference - my ranking of various combinations is included in the thread but I must emphasise that it represents my view.

Hi Bertie,

Any chance of a rough description or thoughts on the differences between the two from your perspective.

Here goes:

First of all the ND5XS is very good. I enjoyed listening to it but the small screen was a problem and other functionality was not as good as the SBT in my opinion (e.g no track titles on internet radio and no scrolling of track titles - very useful with long track titles).

When I got back with the nDAC for a home demo, my wife's immediate reaction was " What is that? it sounds so much better than the other box".

I think that the SBT-nDAC combo is smoother, more detailed, clearer and with no loss of PRAT compared to the ND5XS. I am using an external PSU with the SBT and an expensive coax cable.

It was very much like changing from  Credos to SBLs - the sound was so much more natural. But you need to be careful here as I  am a big fan of the SBLs and can't imagine that a better speaker exists (except active SBLs).

What is interesting is that I thought that the SBT through the dac in the ND5XS would sound the same as the ND5XS streaming - it didn't. I am not technical enough to say why this should be so but those clever people at Naim obviously take great care to ensure that the digital stream is kept 'clean'. There is much more to this digital lark that bit perfect outputs.

I hope that this is helpful.

Thanks Bertie,

Looks like is a close call and as always very subjective, appreciate you thoughts on this. I've got some demoing to do!

For me it was an easy choice but there are many posts on the forum where ND5XS was preferred. As ever trust your own ears and you cannot go wrong.

Happy listening