12yr old NAP500 back to the Mothership for service and DR upgrade. Hello 300s. Hellllooo 500DR!
Posted by: ayisgroovy on 01 January 2017
Being the first day into 2017, and currently enjoying the new tunes my updated power amp is making, I thought I'd share my recent experiences from my 500DR service and upgrade.
October 2016: After much deliberation over "if" and then "when" I should take my 12yr old baby for the service and DR upgrade, they were picked up by my north London dealer of many a year - Grahams. As a tie-me-over for the ensuing weeks, I was given a NAP300(non DR) on loan which was a wonderful gesture by my dealer - thank you guys for this and for getting me a time slot for the 500 within 2 weeks of calling. So, whilst listening to some tunes via the 300, I thought I'd share my journey with you from a relatively humble set up to what is near my end target
Now, I've come a long way from exactly two years ago: CDX2/82/Supercap(o)/250(o)/NACA5/B&W802N, via a 52/SC/135s, to now a rather gutsy setup involving an NDS/2x555PS(1 DR)/SL 5-5din/552DR/SL din-XLR/500/Ultra Black/B&W802N. Most notable was the introduction of the 552 and 500, which was not made at the same time for financial reasons! This all came about through an element of good fortune at work and a "you only live once" change of heart. I've always loved audio equipment from my teen years (LP12/Ittok/K18/Nait/Kans) and my view has always been it's an investment into something that is tangible and gives me joy on tap over years.
I have digressed. The point I think I'm trying to make is here is that once you have (temporarily) paused on the upgrading bug, you settle down and enjoy your system and the delivery of music. Over time, ceteris paribus, you don't really notice gradual degradation that may have taken place. I've been very happy with the 500 (of course!) and it is only until it was swapped out this weekend for its return to the mothership and loan-300 installed that the differences were quite noticeable.
26Nov2016. Fast forward. A wonderful day - my 500 is ready for pick up and comes back serviced, DR'd (yay!), and the 500 head unit casing polished/refurbished looking like new! Thank you Naim! Ok, you might say that 4.9k should buy you a lot and expect a lot but the DR upgrade was to be first and foremost priority via replacing internal components, but the bodywork refurb didn't have to be done but was a very nice gesture by Naim. So, initial impressions during first couple of hours of running? Wow wow wow! In a nutshell, the keywords I would use are: gusto, deeper blacks (intra periods of silence), confidence/control, increased 3D depth/airiness, amazing revelation of detail/nuances. To elaborate on the inky blackness, this allowed the start/stop of musical notes/chords to be heard clearly which helps "clarify" the tempo which drives any track and as a by-product accentuates the timing of the leading edge of notes. As with the overall presentation of music, the DR+service really puts the 500DR into a different league. The 300 I had on loan is no slouch either by spec or relative to 135s, but how I would encapsulate my comments on the good points of the 500DR is that it is a very very "confident" amp together with ample gusto on dynamic range. Alternatively, what I am trying to say is that the new born confidence presents the music as it was intended to be with drum "thwacks" sounding just that and previously fuzzy bass lines snapping into focus and much more easier to follow, are just examples. Further, detail enhancement is another wonderful strength and just makes it seem as if your music collection was New and you needed to play it all over again!
The rest of November merged into December and sad to say the abnormally busy work schedule offered few chances to sit down and spin a few FLACS though in certain ways this was no bad things as perhaps it could have made me oblivious to some of the running in woes over the first month post DR/service. Now that the Christmas break had come (and now sadly gone) I had a great chance to re-aquaint myself with my new amp, and further appreciate the subtle improvements since the early days since returning from the mothership. I'm adamant that bass notes have grown deeper and extended over the month, and so has a further opening up of spatial mapping as well as a modest sweetening of the very high frequencies. Consistent with earlier posts by fellow Naim 500 owners who have gone through the DR+service upgrade and subsequent burn in angst, I'm pretty sure that I have gone through the trough of the performance J-curve and now on the upside leg as every (ok, most) time I play music on the system is just so enjoyable - I don't need to look for the new positive traits of the 500DR, they come out and slap me around the face and say "hey look at what I can do now" notes.
So, to finish off this post thus far, I am sitting in my listening chair on New Years' Day, tunes on, with a smug and growing grin on my face and sets 2017 off with a good start! A question to 500DR owners - how long does the improvement continue for before the improvements level off into the future?
Ah, but you only think it does 
Richieroo posted:I agree - the std 500 is brilliant ..... but the 500dr is fantastic .... be prepared for a long bed in period mines approaching 3 months and is still gradually improving ........ playing 24/7. I find DR upgraded 500 runs very much much cooler.....
Depending on if you also get the supply serviced along with the DR you may find, as I did, that it continues to improve even at 6 months. At the six month point I noticed a sudden increase in low-bass performance and general clarity everywhere. I waited a couple of weeks to before really commenting here, but other visitors also noticed it and it was not all in my mind as some would love to have it.
It seems that as the low-end gets clearer it improves everything else too. Low-bass combinations of bass guitar and drums are now far better defined and the interplay between them is makes more sense and reveals rather playful lines that can skip-along that were not very clear before. You also get the more of the well-known 'bass-lead' effect but in the low-bass, where the music is led by the bass and it is so much more engaging and hypnotic; the extra bass weight and quality has changed the perceived timing - for me anyway.
The reason I mention the power supply part of the service possibly being the main part in this is that I had a demo of a new DR with the new PS and swapping the PS for an older one did the same sort of things to bass weight and authority.
So at 3 months you probably are nowhere near their full potential.
I'm very pleasantly amazed with how much performance lift the DR update for the 500 Amp did. Each component in the chain obviously plays a part in the end-result - and I've already found that components that contain gain-stages have more impact than those that do not, but the Power Amp not only has gain but must deliver current and control a complex load - and it is clear to me that there was a lot more to have in performance from this than I formally realised.
Well done Naim.
DB.
Darke Bear posted:Richieroo posted:I agree - the std 500 is brilliant ..... but the 500dr is fantastic .... be prepared for a long bed in period mines approaching 3 months and is still gradually improving ........ playing 24/7. I find DR upgraded 500 runs very much much cooler.....
Depending on if you also get the supply serviced along with the DR you may find, as I did, that it continues to improve even at 6 months. At the six month point I noticed a sudden increase in low-bass performance and general clarity everywhere. I waited a couple of weeks to before really commenting here, but other visitors also noticed it and it was not all in my mind as some would love to have it.
It seems that as the low-end gets clearer it improves everything else too. Low-bass combinations of bass guitar and drums are now far better defined and the interplay between them is makes more sense and reveals rather playful lines that can skip-along that were not very clear before. You also get the more of the well-known 'bass-lead' effect but in the low-bass, where the music is led by the bass and it is so much more engaging and hypnotic; the extra bass weight and quality has changed the perceived timing - for me anyway.
The reason I mention the power supply part of the service possibly being the main part in this is that I had a demo of a new DR with the new PS and swapping the PS for an older one did the same sort of things to bass weight and authority.
So at 3 months you probably are nowhere near their full potential.
I'm very pleasantly amazed with how much performance lift the DR update for the 500 Amp did. Each component in the chain obviously plays a part in the end-result - and I've already found that components that contain gain-stages have more impact than those that do not, but the Power Amp not only has gain but must deliver current and control a complex load - and it is clear to me that there was a lot more to have in performance from this than I formally realised.
Well done Naim.
DB.
An excellent descriptive post. Soooo excited in wait to get mine back Dr'd/serviced.
The 500DR is something very special. It says a lot that it delivers for you with the 272 Pre and for me with S1 Pre - this confirms my impression that this DR upgrade was a very significant for the power-amp. The DR obviously improved all of Naim's hierarchy of Amps that I have heard so far. I've heard the 250DR taken into a very special performance league for a relatively small single-box power-amp, then the 300 taken to an amazing performance that in many areas was better than the old 500 - but the 500DR is very special. The only amp I've heard better was the S1 Monoblock Amps that are in a different financial league for me if I want to remain Active.
Speaking of Active, then I can say the 500DR will not disappoint! Anyone that has not had their Active system DR-updated is missing an incredible musical experience.
But the fact it is working so well and delivering with the 272 Pre tells me that the Power Amp is a critical component in any HiFi system. From the day many decades ago I heard the first NAP160 comprehensively obliterate a nominally more powerful Quad amp that was then considered a reference, I have realised Naim know how to make power amps. They have taken their craft to a new level with the DR-update and the new amp makes the old one sound so wrong! The upgrade is far larger than the 552 DR upgrade I had when that was my Pre - by comparison that was subtle!
But for me in my system the full fruit of the DR upgrade really emerged properly after the 6 month point of run-in. I'm now at month 7 and it is still taking-off into hyperspace improving even more.
DB.