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?

 

 

Posted on: 18 March 2017 by Harry

I'm all grown up. I can take it

Posted on: 18 March 2017 by Dustysox

What worries me Harry is Kerry joining forces with Helen and "ganging" up on us......ouch!!!!

Posted on: 19 March 2017 by ayisgroovy

Well done @Dustysox hope you're having fun with the 500DR! It's a great musical adventure and you'll begin to notice there's a lot more info in those CDs or vinyl which warrant playing all again! Wow, it looks like there a few forum members who have had their 500 serviced and DR'd in a space of a few months. Mine is coming up to 4m and ever since starting this thread have seen my 500 wow me and still gradually improving albeit now gradually. In terms of the music, my previous summary of the 500DR (relative to my earlier NAPs) was that the music oozes confidence and the musical detailing is so much "there" - a much denser weave to use the fabric analogy. While subtle, I can hear the "air" around instruments particularly percussion which gives it a more three dimensional perspective. The air around the tambourine in the background to Another Brick in the Wall track is easily heard and followed. Background riffs such as the Hammond organ in a lot of Joss Stone's tracks are easily identified and followed even during loud passages. Vocals are delivered in a rich manner and realism. I can go on but don't get me wrong - I didn't upgrade my system to be able to recount such geeky attributes but it is merely that the 500DR has allowed me to hear such things. Given that I use an NDS/555PS/555PSDR/SL interconnect/552DR preceding it, it gives testament also to these components that allow the subtle timbre and nuance in music to feed the power amp. All in all, the return of my 500 in serviced and DR form has kept me well occupied with a pastime I love and long may it continue. I can only hasten to imagine what the Statement can take the next level of musicality to!

 

Posted on: 19 March 2017 by Dustysox
ayisgroovy posted:

Well done @Dustysox hope you're having fun with the 500DR! It's a great musical adventure and you'll begin to notice there's a lot more info in those CDs or vinyl which warrant playing all again! Wow, it looks like there a few forum members who have had their 500 serviced and DR'd in a space of a few months. Mine is coming up to 4m and ever since starting this thread have seen my 500 wow me and still gradually improving albeit now gradually. In terms of the music, my previous summary of the 500DR (relative to my earlier NAPs) was that the music oozes confidence and the musical detailing is so much "there" - a much denser weave to use the fabric analogy. While subtle, I can hear the "air" around instruments particularly percussion which gives it a more three dimensional perspective. The air around the tambourine in the background to Another Brick in the Wall track is easily heard and followed. Background riffs such as the Hammond organ in a lot of Joss Stone's tracks are easily identified and followed even during loud passages. Vocals are delivered in a rich manner and realism. I can go on but don't get me wrong - I didn't upgrade my system to be able to recount such geeky attributes but it is merely that the 500DR has allowed me to hear such things. Given that I use an NDS/555PS/555PSDR/SL interconnect/552DR preceding it, it gives testament also to these components that allow the subtle timbre and nuance in music to feed the power amp. All in all, the return of my 500 in serviced and DR form has kept me well occupied with a pastime I love and long may it continue. I can only hasten to imagine what the Statement can take the next level of musicality to!

 

Yes, sorry  ayisgroovy for letting my excitement of the return of my 500 get the better of me on your thread. Apologies.

i have checked and the,serial,numbers are correct but this is definitely not the 500 from two weeks ago!!!

DB my thoughts....pretty much what,ayisgroovy says above...he says he so much better than I ever could!!

Suffice to say am I happy?...Betcha your 500 I am. My 600's are loving this upgrade showing more of what these speakers are capable of.

Thank god it's Sunday and I can sit relax and enjoy some music.

Posted on: 19 March 2017 by ayisgroovy

@Dustysox, if my words were interpreted that way about the thread then please let me say it was not meant that way! I only referred to the thread because I am very heart-warmed that it had generated 4 pages of enthusiasm from those who have an interest, real or passive, in the might 500! In fact I welcome and look forward to any comment on people's experiences re 500 via this thread as it is easy to locate  I hope this Sunday morning is bringing you great tunes on the NAP750.....

 

Posted on: 19 March 2017 by Dustysox
ayisgroovy posted:

@Dustysox, if my words were interpreted that way about the thread then please let me say it was not meant that way! I only referred to the thread because I am very heart-warmed that it had generated 4 pages of enthusiasm from those who have an interest, real or passive, in the might 500! In fact I welcome and look forward to any comment on people's experiences re 500 via this thread as it is easy to locate  I hope this Sunday morning is bringing you great tunes on the NAP750.....

 

Not at all, I was apologising as I had got a bit carried away.

Just listening to,La La Land on Tidal and it sounds glorious.

Posted on: 19 March 2017 by Harry

It’s easy to get carried away. Our 500 is coming up to the one year DR mark and it continues to delight and surprise – in a good way. In describing it, it’s difficult to know where to start. The “in the room” quality of voices, the sheer naturalness of it all, the unfussed, confident grip, seemingly accurate timbre and texture of everything, how the most complex pieces can be mentally broken down into each constituent without losing the whole. Double tracked pieces that turn out to ne four tracked. Four turning out to be eight. The ability of the amp to take away all the padding and leave just the music behind. Whereas a couple of potential changes I’ve listened to in the past two years have merely put a different emphasis on some frequencies (higher frequencies emphasised giving an illusion of more detail), the 500-DR genuinely seems to pull more actual information out of the production, not just reprocess it to sound different. The more I hear, the more admiration I have for much of the skill and dedication that went into making the material and the more “oh, so that’s how they did it” moments come to the fore. You may have been hearing something all your life and however much you appreciate it, it takes something good to demonstrate how it was done, as opposed to that it was done. It’s like time travel. Yes, it’s easy to get carried away.

Today I’m time travelling back to be in the studio with Chuck Berry. It’s impossible to be sad when he starts playing.

Posted on: 20 March 2017 by Richieroo

Harry well put ......... could not have put it better myself. Some tracks I play have some really complex - full on sections. With other amps I was forced to back off the volume. The 500dr just opens this up and holds on to the musical threads - and you suddenly realise  the reason you were backing off originally was due to the amp losing control ... we are not talking very loud levels here. Correspondingly when you turn up the volume .... the openness and finesse is still there. This is a very special amp....I am just over month 4 and the amp is sounding (in the words of Toni) Grrrrreat.

Posted on: 20 March 2017 by Harry

I got this to an extent with the 300 but the 500 plays this card very convincingly. Crank up the volume and it just sounds better. No hardness, no strain, no edginess, no distortion of the sound stage.  Problem is the rest of the street. So I save it until I know I can use it. 

Posted on: 20 March 2017 by kevin J Carden

References to time travel have a strong resonance with me. I suggested a nickname of 'Tardis' for my 552 because of its ability to recreate recording studios from the 50's or the control room in the Kingsway Hall in the 60's. I'd not heard this so acutely when using a 52.

My 500 is off to Naim in early April for service and DR. If the power amp that comes back to me adds to this illusion then I will be truly delighted �� 

Posted on: 20 March 2017 by Harry

As someone has already accurately described the transformation - some time in June you'll be the owner of a NAP750.

Posted on: 20 March 2017 by Dustysox
kevin J Carden posted:

References to time travel have a strong resonance with me. I suggested a nickname of 'Tardis' for my 552 because of its ability to recreate recording studios from the 50's or the control room in the Kingsway Hall in the 60's. I'd not heard this so acutely when using a 52.

My 500 is off to Naim in early April for service and DR. If the power amp that comes back to me adds to this illusion then I will be truly delighted �� 

Harry posted:

As someone has already accurately described the transformation - some time in June you'll be the owner of a NAP750.

And an added bonus is you won't have to hear that "loud pop/click" through the speakers when you switch on for the first time. Then you know you are in for something special!!!!! 

I don't think Naim charge for this 

Posted on: 21 March 2017 by Dustysox

Sat listening and really enjoying my system this evening. It's almost as if Naim have added two more speakers to my system.

Definition is a word that springs to mind.