My Naim journey in pictures

Nice. A few questions:

1. What is your current setup? What are the four boxes?

2. What does your newest bring that the TP setup failed to provide? Is there anything from the TP setup you miss?

3. What is in the engine room? 

Note: some of most organized cabling I've seen! 

DynFan160 posted:

Nice. A few questions:

1. What is your current setup? What are the four boxes?

2. What does your newest bring that the TP setup failed to provide? Is there anything from the TP setup you miss?

3. What is in the engine room? 

Note: some of most organized cabling I've seen! 

Thanks.

1. 272/XPS-DR/300

2. I felt the biggest drawback of the TP set up to be the DAC. It was very detailed, but very digital. It replaced the SN1 and brought a huge improvement in resolution but lost any lifelike quality. The MB100's were amazing and I hadn't intended changing them at all; I'd have been very happy to stay with them but an unmissable opportunity came my way.

3. RHS Top to bottom - a CAT6 patch panel, a D-Link gigabit switch, an APC UPS, a TP-Link gigabit router, and finally a QNAP NAS. The stuff on the LHS is a satellite distribution panel, an OTA distribution panel, and an IP telephony unit.

Nice! May I know what speaker is that?

engjoo posted:

Nice! May I know what speaker is that?

Anthony Gallo Ref 3.1

Interesting post ... enjoyed it

Oh and, nice system by the way.

intothevoid posted:

DynFan160 posted:

Nice. A few questions:

1. What is your current setup? What are the four boxes?

2. What does your newest bring that the TP setup failed to provide? Is there anything from the TP setup you miss?

3. What is in the engine room? 

Note: some of most organized cabling I've seen! 

Thanks.

1. 272/XPS-DR/300

2. I felt the biggest drawback of the TP set up to be the DAC. It was very detailed, but very digital. It replaced the SN1 and brought a huge improvement in resolution but lost any lifelike quality. The MB100's were amazing and I hadn't intended changing them at all; I'd have been very happy to stay with them but an unmissable opportunity came my way.

3. RHS Top to bottom - a CAT6 patch panel, a D-Link gigabit switch, an APC UPS, a TP-Link gigabit router, and finally a QNAP NAS. The stuff on the LHS is a satellite distribution panel, an OTA distribution panel, and an IP telephony unit.

 

Does the 272 get one XPS-DR or are they both for the 300?

Was trying the 272 with the 2x TP monos an option? 

Very nice and neat setup! 

Nice evolution story, with a lovely looking set up today. Interesting post!

DynFan160 posted:

Does the 272 get one XPS-DR or are they both for the 300?

Was trying the 272 with the 2x TP monos an option? 

The 272 has the XPS-DR and the 300 has its own dedicated 300PS power supply. They are not interchangeable, although look identical from the front.

The timing of buying and selling was the hardest to co-ordinate, changing  everything as I did. I'd have been happy to use the 272 with the TP's but it didn't work out that way. I did use my Qute2 into the MB100's after selling the DAC-VC and it was surprisingly good. The TP mono blocks are extraordinary VFM in my opinion.

But the 300 is better 

Judging by the photo you have the two power supplies at the bottom and second shelf and the amp at the third, was a reason for this ? I would have thought having the amp at the bottom , the two ps above..   Was it due to sound or cable routing ?

cheers

Makes sense - no power transformer in the 300 amp box so having it stacked like this should work well. 

Brains at the top, brawn at the bottom, trying to keep sensitive electronics away from power supplies. The standard connecting cables are quite long (too long?) for this compact set up and are difficult to dress. I can see why an empty shelf is sometimes used to take up the slack in cables.

An empty shelf below the 300 would make it sound better, but it wouldn't look as pretty.  I have only a 250, but it's quite tricky to get the Burndy between the XPS and 272 just right; with a 300 and its two floppy burndies it's a lot more difficult. Ultimately the best solution is two racks, so the burndies can run sideways, but that gives the problem of the interconnects between the 272 and the 300 dragging on the floor... I've had to get longer legs for my Quadraspire in an attempt to get the SL din to XLR off the floor, but the blooming thing still just touches the carpet, so I've given up worrying about it. 

Hungryhalibut posted:

An empty shelf below the 300 would make it sound better, but it wouldn't look as pretty.  I have only a 250, but it's quite tricky to get the Burndy between the XPS and 272 just right; with a 300 and its two floppy burndies it's a lot more difficult. Ultimately the best solution is two racks, so the burndies can run sideways, but that gives the problem of the interconnects between the 272 and the 300 dragging on the floor... I've had to get longer legs for my Quadraspire in an attempt to get the SL din to XLR off the floor, but the blooming thing still just touches the carpet, so I've given up worrying about it. 

Absolutely spot on, as always, Nigel.

That engine room is totally bad-ass!  I love it!

DrMark posted:

That engine room is totally bad-ass!  I love it!

Funny, same thing I was thinking!!!!!!

intothevoid posted:

DynFan160 posted:

Nice. A few questions:

1. What is your current setup? What are the four boxes?

2. What does your newest bring that the TP setup failed to provide? Is there anything from the TP setup you miss?

3. What is in the engine room? 

Note: some of most organized cabling I've seen! 

Thanks.

1. 272/XPS-DR/300

2. I felt the biggest drawback of the TP set up to be the DAC. It was very detailed, but very digital. It replaced the SN1 and brought a huge improvement in resolution but lost any lifelike quality. The MB100's were amazing and I hadn't intended changing them at all; I'd have been very happy to stay with them but an unmissable opportunity came my way.

3. RHS Top to bottom - a CAT6 patch panel, a D-Link gigabit switch, an APC UPS, a TP-Link gigabit router, and finally a QNAP NAS. The stuff on the LHS is a satellite distribution panel, an OTA distribution panel, and an IP telephony unit.

 

Again for me please. 

3. RHS Top to bottom - what does RHS mean ?  Patch panel ?  D-Link ?  APC ?   UPS ?   TP -Link ?      I can fathom that LHS means Left Hand Side though OTA and IP telephony unit is a mystery.   What purpose does it all fulfill ? 

TOBYJUG posted:

intothevoid posted:

DynFan160 posted:

 

3. RHS Top to bottom - a CAT6 patch panel, a D-Link gigabit switch, an APC UPS, a TP-Link gigabit router, and finally a QNAP NAS. The stuff on the LHS is a satellite distribution panel, an OTA distribution panel, and an IP telephony unit.

 

Again for me please. 

3. RHS Top to bottom - what does RHS mean ?  Patch panel ?  D-Link ?  APC ?   UPS ?   TP -Link ?      I can fathom that LHS means Left Hand Side though OTA and IP telephony unit is a mystery.   What purpose does it all fulfill ? 

So much for the abridged version, now for the long answer

RHS - Right Hand Side

Patch panel - my house is fully CAT6 wired with all cables conveying in the engine room and wired in to this panel. Think of it like an electrical fuse box.

D-Link - manufacturer of the switch which connects up all the network point via the patch panel.

APC - manufacturer of the UPS (uninterruptible power supply). All this equipment is connected to the UPS so in the event of a power cut my system still runs (preventing hard-disk crashes. Also gives me the opportunity to shutdown cleanly if the outage is prolonged.

UPS - see above.

TP-Link - manufacturer of the router. In most domestic situations this is all that people have. Broadband providers usually supply wireless routers which are OK for average use, but when you get in to heavy usage, streaming, video you need something better.

LHS - left hand side (but you figured that out!)

OTA - over the air, I.e. Terrestrial broadcasts, tv, FM, DAB

IP Telephony - I have six dect telephone handsets throughout the house that can connect to a conventional phone line or can be used to make calls over the Internet using a SIP (session initiation protocol) provider. Basically means that I can make phone calls for next to no cost, anytime, anywhere.

HTH (hope this helps )

Nice post/ evolution, Sir. I'll give you a like. Lol

TOBYJUG posted:

3. RHS Top to bottom - what does RHS mean ? <snip>    .........................

I can fathom that LHS means Left Hand Side though 

Sorry TJ but I did find that    

intothevoid posted:

DynFan160 posted:

Nice. A few questions:

1. What is your current setup? What are the four boxes?

2. What does your newest bring that the TP setup failed to provide? Is there anything from the TP setup you miss?

3. What is in the engine room? 

Note: some of most organized cabling I've seen! 

 

 

2. I felt the biggest drawback of the TP set up to be the DAC. It was very detailed, but very digital. It replaced the SN1 and brought a huge improvement in resolution but lost any lifelike quality. The MB100's were amazing and I hadn't intended changing them at all; I'd have been very happy to stay with them but an unmissable opportunity came my way.

 

 

This is rather interesting, I'm currently using a TeddyDAC & have sort of came to the same conclusion.  I bought this DAC as it was supposed to be very "analog" sounding from what I had read, though it may not have the best resolution.  Compared to my previous DAC's (built in OPPO BDP-95 & Simaudio 100D), this was an upgrade, but at times I felt it to be a little too forward/harsh in the top end.  This only became noticeable when an external power supply was added to my pre.  I found this to be the case with my current 282/HiCAP DR.  I recently got into vinyl & when compared to my RP-40 w/Exact 2 cartridge, its easy to notice this digital harshness in the top end.  So I wasn't sure if this is just digital sound in general, or if I woould see improvements by upgrading my DAC.

Which other DAC's have you compared the TeddyDAC too, just the internal in the SN1 & the 272? (if any others, what have you compared?)

Love the evolution What's the next step? 

One note on the positioning of the APC vs patch-panel / switch: have you considered moving it as low in the rack as possible. UPS can be quite 'noisy'. 

Adam Zielinski posted:

Love the evolution What's the next step? 

One note on the positioning of the APC vs patch-panel / switch: have you considered moving it as low in the rack as possible. UPS can be quite 'noisy'. 

Thanks Adam. Next (and last) is to replace cables with SL and then stop worrying about it all.

The OCD has to stop somewhere!

I tried the same (ie stopping) - lost that battle before it really began

There should be a re-hab for naim-infected....  

daren_p posted: 

 

This is rather interesting, I'm currently using a TeddyDAC & have sort of came to the same conclusion.  I bought this DAC as it was supposed to be very "analog" sounding from what I had read, though it may not have the best resolution.  Compared to my previous DAC's (built in OPPO BDP-95 & Simaudio 100D), this was an upgrade, but at times I felt it to be a little too forward/harsh in the top end.  This only became noticeable when an external power supply was added to my pre.  I found this to be the case with my current 282/HiCAP DR.  I recently got into vinyl & when compared to my RP-40 w/Exact 2 cartridge, its easy to notice this digital harshness in the top end.  So I wasn't sure if this is just digital sound in general, or if I woould see improvements by upgrading my DAC.

 

Which other DAC's have you compared the TeddyDAC too, just the internal in the SN1 & the 272? (if any others, what have you compared?)

Didn't try any DAC's other than those mentioned. I tried to keep it simple this time.