My Qute will now be downgraded, sigh!

Posted by: Richard Lord on 10 June 2011

I have decided to upgrade my system by ordering the North Star DAC, the Essensio model.  The cheapest they make.  At £825 it seems very good value. See the review by Keith Howard in this months Hi Fi News (July).  It has no display, other than two rows of LEDs and no remote.  It does, however, have several independent digital inputs, both Toslink and the preferred Coax.  But most importantly it has an asynchronous USB input. 

My Qute will now have to suffer the indignity of being used as my preferred method of controlling the volume.

I would have far preferred to have bought a Naim product.  Maybe the NDX, but it does not have an asynchronous USB. True, it does have an iPod compatible front panel USB, but that is not the same thing.  Also, it might be considered absurd to combine a £3,000 music streamer with a £1,400 Qute, but especially one being used only for volume control purposes. But there is no included volume control with either the NDX or the N-DAC.  I know I am supposed to partner an NDX with a Naim preamp and external power supply.  But quite apart from the considerable cost disadvantage, I would then need two Fraims.  I just have no space to spare for such an indulgence. Anyway I demand simplicity.  An NDX with a volume control would have been my (far) preferred choice. Oh, how I wish Naim made such a device. But they don't so I have to make do with something else.

The Essensio is a stepping stone to hopefully when a value for money DAC appears which also has similar features as the Essensio, but includes a good quality volume control.  Yes, of course I could have chosen the Weiss. But I am still reluctant to stray too far from the Naim arena.  What I am spending is small beer relatively speaking.  I am hedging my bets just in case Naim do unwrap something that truly meets my needs: good sounding but simple. An upgraded Qute, with no power amp perhaps and supports asynchronous USB.  Yes, I know unlikely, but I can dream.

For those proposing I choose UPNP, well, I have tried that. I still have the server, but now relegated to be an exra backup for iTunes.  UPNP is a Windows supported service; it is not supported by Apple. The Naim supplied DTC was a nightmare compared to iTunes. The experience convinced me that I will absolutely never compromise my system by going back to a Windows PC.  Yes, I could run Windows using Fusion or whatever on my Mac, but as someone rather eloquently put it in another thread, it would be like using your Lamborghini as a skip.  Apologies to the PC fan club.

Richard

Posted on: 23 June 2011 by Tog
Originally Posted by Pev:

"Yes, but as I understand it Steve Jobs heard of your disappointment, halted production and immediately had the next production run upgraded so it would meet your requirements - now that's what I call service "

 

 Touche!

 

Steve, if you're listening - I want flac, upnp, and flash support built in please... 

 

oh, and make it Linux friendly for Tog...

No worries Pev - OSX comes Linux friendly out of the box - so friendly in fact that they would need to "get a room" - which might be incest since they are very close relatives indeed but I digress

 

@Guido - I know it is odd but he has appraently been make pronuncements that the "Cloud" makes file-systems irrelevant to all but Linux geeks since the App will manage how you collect and organize your files. Given that file management is the weakest aspect of iOS it would appear that far from being a flaw it is a feature. Am I weird to like file systems or should I see someone about it? 

 

Tog

Posted on: 23 June 2011 by lhau
Hifi is too niche market for the new Steve. The "next" Steve maybe... I am not counting on them trying to please us soon, though I do hope to be surprised on this!
Posted on: 23 June 2011 by Tog

It is a shame because I love Apple's video streaming at 720p (higher res soon I hope)

 

Tog

Posted on: 23 June 2011 by Richard Lord
Originally Posted by lhau:
Richard, I think what most of us don't feel right is not your choice of software nor USB. The thing is, you could have used a USB to spdif connector into ndac and a proper preamp with the kind of money you originally spent on the serve and qute......

Let's see, the nDac costs around £2,000, then Naim suggest/recommend upgrading to an XPS, another £3,000+, a basic preamp, say the 202 is another £1775, plus basic psu, say a flatcap XS at £745 comes to around £7,500.  And that is using probably the wrong combinations of components for the nDAC and the 250 power amp and my PMC speakers.  But even at that price, it is way over the £2,225 (based on full retail) for my Essensio and Qute.  Remember, at present the Qute is only acting as a volume control. The other bits are unused.  True, I could sell the Qute and buy a Creek passive, but there is no guarantee that 1. it would sound any better than my Qute and 2. its output impedance would be appropriate for the 250.

 

But there is yet another serious drawback to your otherwise sensible suggestion: the box count would rise from the present 2 units to 4 and that is assuming the USB to sp/dif convertor is allowed to lie on the floor.  This would mean another Fraim, so more expense, but much more importantly a loss of living space.  My living room would have to be compromised.  I will do many things in the pursuit of good sound, but not allow it to dominate my life.

 

So all in all, my Essensio together with my Qute gives me first class sound, maximises my living space and looks good too!  A bonus, I can easily read the displayed setting on the Qute from across the room when I need to adjust volume.  

 

What I originally wanted from Naim was a DAC with several digital inputs, plus a volume control. Hence the Qute. Had Naim been prepared to move a Qute derivative upmarket with a superior DAC, let us say of the quality in the nDAC, I would have chosen it. I believe there is a market for such a device.

 

Now I have a sound I truly enjoy, I would only change/upgrade after a long listening test at home.  

 

Richard

Posted on: 23 June 2011 by lhau
Originally Posted by Richard Lord:
Originally Posted by lhau:
Richard, I think what most of us don't feel right is not your choice of software nor USB. The thing is, you could have used a USB to spdif connector into ndac and a proper preamp with the kind of money you originally spent on the serve and qute......

Let's see, the nDac costs around £2,000, then Naim suggest/recommend upgrading to an XPS, another £3,000+, a basic preamp, say the 202 is another £1775, plus basic psu, say a flatcap XS at £745 comes to around £7,500.  And that is using probably the wrong combinations of components for the nDAC and the 250 power amp and my PMC speakers.  But even at that price, it is way over the £2,225 (based on full retail) for my Essensio and Qute.  Remember, at present the Qute is only acting as a volume control. The other bits are unused.  True, I could sell the Qute and buy a Creek passive, but there is no guarantee that 1. it would sound any better than my Qute and 2. its output impedance would be appropriate for the 250.

 

But there is yet another serious drawback to your otherwise sensible suggestion: the box count would rise from the present 2 units to 4 and that is assuming the USB to sp/dif convertor is allowed to lie on the floor.  This would mean another Fraim, so more expense, but much more importantly a loss of living space.  My living room would have to be compromised.  I will do many things in the pursuit of good sound, but not allow it to dominate my life.

 

So all in all, my Essensio together with my Qute gives me first class sound, maximises my living space and looks good too!  A bonus, I can easily read the displayed setting on the Qute from across the room when I need to adjust volume.  

 

What I originally wanted from Naim was a DAC with several digital inputs, plus a volume control. Hence the Qute. Had Naim been prepared to move a Qute derivative upmarket with a superior DAC, let us say of the quality in the nDAC, I would have chosen it. I believe there is a market for such a device.

 

Now I have a sound I truly enjoy, I would only change/upgrade after a long listening test at home.  

 

Richard

Richard,

 

I understand that you bought a UnitiServe and a Qute, both are not power supplied.....

 

If you include the price of power supply, it is yet another level.

 

But I see you are a nice gentleman who is enjoying right now, no point to discuss on this anymore. Please forgive me, I will drop it from here.

 

When you have more time with the system, please let us hear more of your experience. That is something really interesting to me indeed.