Hard drive sonic quality

Posted by: Southweststokie on 07 July 2013

Hi all,

I currently have CDS3 - Sarum TA - 282/Supercap - 250.2 - JmLab Electra 926's. If I wanted to move from CD player to hard drive would Unitiserve - nDac - XPS match the sonic quality of my CDS3. I know the obvious answer is to try it but before I consider going there I'm sure this forum of all Naim knowledge has an informed opinion.

Thanks,

Ken

Posted on: 07 July 2013 by The Meerkat

Yes! But then I would say that, wouldn't I

Posted on: 07 July 2013 by Southweststokie

Originally Posted by The Meerkat:

Yes! But then I would say that, wouldn't I

Shat it!

Posted on: 07 July 2013 by GerryMcg

Hi Ken,

Some 2 years ago I bought a Unitiserve and the Naim DAC. At the time my main source was CDS3/555PS. I continued to use the CD player as this was better sounding than the US/DAC. I then bought an XPS2 second hand (at a bargain price) to power the US/DAC in order to improve the SQ of this source, still intending to use the CD player for "serious" listening. The XPS did bring a big improvement to the hard drive performance but it was still inferior to the CD player. Soon after I tried the 555PS on the US /DAC, this was an eye-opener with the hard disk source clearly exceeding the CDS3/555PS combo. I sold the CDS3 soon after this exchange.

I see that you use an XPS to power your CDS3 and I would guess that the hard disk set-up with the XPS would >= the CDS3/XPS player.

Gerry

Posted on: 07 July 2013 by Harry

The DAC with an XPS2 was mo mean performer but the addition of a 555PS was a real event. I can still remember what I heard and how it struck me. But the flavour is different from the CDS3 and as you have already said, only your ears will know what is best for you.

Nice "problem" to have though.