DAC V-1 upgrade questions

Naim have taken the necessary steps to ensure that the USB performance is optimal, I would say, at least in terms of isolation, buffering, re-clocking and all that business.  I've owned a DAC-V1 for a couple of years now, and still find the sound quality via USB superior to the SPDIF inputs, but of course that's as likely to be a personal preference as much as anything else.  My own PC is optimised and dedicated to its role of delivering music, Netflix, Youtube and alike, but media software makes the biggest difference to my ears.  Jriver using WASAPI Exclusive mode performs notably better than Kodi for example, at least when I compared them.   I think getting the right software and configuring it correctly, to deliver bit-perfect digital audio is as important, if not more so, than the type of tweaking you're questioning. 

DAC V-1 cannot be updgraded, bar a power lead. Any discussion on modifying it will be in a direct breach of the Naim forum rules anyway

If you'd like to experiment with different power supplies have a look at NAIM's own nDAC.

DAC V1 is what it is -- a self contained unit of lovelyness.

If you want upgrades, get an NDAC and then start looking at power supplies.

Yep, not much to do except the input/output/power cabling. Using a Sonore microRendu into the USB on mine and it sounds amazing.  

I don't meant upgrading the DAC itself but PC and other parts of the system which might influence the USB signal going to the DAC.

Like I mentioned in the 1st post - USB sound card, clocking unit both  with separate PSU and/or and advanced USB spdif converter with separate PSU.

And what about SATA and fan filters plates for PC - are they worth looking at? Or only in case of SQ problems?

Ok then. I would head over to the CA (computer audiophile) forum where you can go down a serious rabbit hole of PC mods, boutique renderers and power supplies etc. I think most members here pretty much running straight up Naim gear. 

What some have noticed is that their USB signal is not free of noise and this can limit the ultimate performance of some DAC designs. This might be noticed in spatial and low level resolution and a 'darker' backdrop in contrast to the soundscape, or even better instrument timbre. Most tweaks are aimed then at cleaning up this USB signal and presenting it to the DAC  in as pure a form as possible.

The DAC-V1 itself remains as designed.

It is probably worth going through what is required for streaming. It starts with the music store, for which there are two basic approaches: 1) a networked store that streams the file across a network to a remote renderer, often in a box combined with the DAC, commonly called a streamer, and 2) a store that inorporates the rendering software that feeds digital music stream directly to a n external DAC without using a network (sometimes called a player).

Regardless of whether the store is in the computer or external to it in this case, it sounds as if in the OP's case software on the computer is doing the rendering, and the computer soundcard doing the DAC job? If that is correct then changing the DAC is likely to make a huge difference to the sound quality, whether DACv1, nDAC, something lesser like the Dragonfly, or something many think is better like the Chord Mojo or Hugo.

As has already been mentioned, isolating the computer's inevitable RF interference is likely also to be beneficial, though sone DACs are more sensitive to it than others -these Chord ones in particular do benefit, and options include the Gustard U12 and Uptone Regen.

And it may well be that you could improve the renderer -there are others for a PC with which I'm not familiar so leave others to advise, however one of the very best you can get is Audirvana, which runs on Mac, and best quality is achieved having it dedicated to that purpose, e.g. using a headless Mac Mini. An alternative receiving some favourable reviews on another thread is the microRend, which is external to a computer. MR, and computer sources, tend to have the benefit of relatively low cost with the best ones matching up to top level specialist gear, but are somewhat hands-on to set up and do benefit from careful optimisation.

Another option, if you are looking for a new music store, is something that combines store and renderer, like NAim Uniti Core or Melco, effectively doing what MacMiniAudirvana can do but with a turnkey approach (and the Core subject to confirmation as tomhow it sounds in this role as it is still very new). That would replace your computer and feed direct to a DAC.

Alternatively go for an all-in-one streamer, like ND5XS, streaming music files to it over a network from wherever they are now. It  doesn't sound as good as some of the alternatives mentioned above, but has the advantage of simplicity

One of the companies that makes those external devices is called Audiophillio. It is my understanding that some of their optimizations are built into the DAC V1. 

If you go down this rabbit hole you'll need to concentrate on the PC itself