NAC-N 272 Volume Control

Huge posted:

Christopher,

Do you feel that's sonically a better option than a 272 / 200DR or 272 / 250DR?  (£6650 vs £5450 or £6650 vs £7000), even with easy to drive speakers?

No idea. But if I was close to making a buying decision I would at least satisfy myself by doing the dem.

C.

Huge posted:

IB, an interesting option, but a little hard to audition!

I omitted to  mention Malco - now that auditionable with TT. I've heard very briefly (through Dave), when there was no immediately evident difference from the Mac Mini/audirvana with which I am familiar and which I found better than ND5XS as renderer. As with MM it also inludes the music store, so no need for stored music to be streamed across the network. 

When I bought my 272 and 250DR I didn't compare it with alternatives, or even listen to it before placing the order. Not what I'd advise others, but it's what I did. It was chosen for logistics: ultimately three boxes, only two power leads, only one box covered in buttons, nice volume control, cannot use a Hiline or SL interconnect. 

I am on the same route as you, Huge.

ND5XS with XS yet different speakers. Upgrading to 272 if funds allow.

Ken,

What speakers do you use?
Do you know anything about their true electrical characteristics (rather than just the almost meaningless 'nominal impedance' that manufacturers quote)?

My speakers are PMC fact 8.

I'm looking around to see if I can find the specs you talk about.
I don't know them. But I get what you mean.

You can find a review on hificritic.com.

You can download the PDF-review for free. But you need to fill in an email and personal info (no need to be truthful).
The graphs aren't that clear on the numbers. But I suggest to also download the review from fact 12 so you can figure it out.

Let me know if they are an easy load.

Hi Ken,

They aren't exactly an easy load, but in no way do they class as a difficult load; on consideration I'd put them on the easier side of moderate, they're a bit better than average, and certainly better than average in this sort of price range.

They aren't actually 8Ω speakers - in reality, they're really more like 7Ω nominal, and minimum impedance is about 5.5Ω.

Phase angle taken alone is pretty good with about +/-40º maxima, unfortunately there are a few places where the phase is near maximum and the impedance is still less than 8Ω.  This is why they aren't exactly an easy load.

At least that's my opinion based on the figures in the graphs and electrical theory.

Huge posted:

Christopher,

Do you feel that's sonically a better option than a 272 / 200DR or 272 / 250DR?  (£6650 vs £5450 or £6650 vs £7000), even with easy to drive speakers?

NDX/Supernait is still a strong contender in my books, especially if you want to keep to just 2 boxes. (I did all my demo listening with Kudos X2s, which are easy to drive.) I really don't think there are any duff options here, more down to personal preferences and speaker matching, but NDX/SN2 would be on my shortlist for sure. 

Now we're discussing other systems, I need to put another few pieces of information into the mix...

Because of tinnitus, I need to focus my system on detail and clarity at low to mid volume rather than on room filling presentation or performance at higher volumes.
I'm price sensitive to some degree (otherwise I'd be considering NDX + XPS / 282 + HiCap / 250DR as my initial suggestion).
I'd rather upgrade incrementally and then choose when to stop rather than committing to a specific endpoint and needing to get to the end before reaping the major benefit.

Getting the NDX first would improve the source, but overall the performance will still be significantly limited by the preamp of the XS - it's the weakest point of the XS when driving easy speakers (with a difficult load the power amp becomes the limiting factor, but that's not the case for my system).

Upgrading the XS 2 to an SN first, wouldn't deal with the limitations of the source.

These are the main reasons for focusing on a 272 (or 272 + XPS combination) and then following up with a 200 (or 250DR) rather than a NDX / SN2 (or more likely NDX / SN2 + HiCapDR).