In praise of 272/250DR

Tabby cat posted:

Those considering a mains lead for £2000 should buy a £2000 bike it will do wonders for your health and in comparison to the lead you can appreciate its VFM .Also you will save money on public transport if you use it and can put the money towards more music.

Good posting, I absolutely agree!! 

It's  weird how much things cost. My Superlumina din to XLR wire costs about £1,600, for a bit of wire and two wobbly plugs. Yet my bike was 'only' £1,100 and has top notch Ultegra gears and carbon fibre forks and seat post, is lovely to ride and gets me out and about in the countryside as well as being really useful to pop to the shops when I don't fancy walking. Of course the bike is mass produced but you get a lot for your money, whereas the wire is just that - a bit of wire. Anyway, I'm very fortunate as I have both. 

Not to steer the boat in the opposite direction but I've noticed (by being woken up by it) my 250DR hums. Quite a bit I might add.

It's probably interference over the mains. Turn everything else -other than the Naim stuff - in the house off and see if the hum stops. Then turn things back on one at a time and you'll see what's causing it. Dedicated mains can help here, though it's not guaranteed to work. Even if it doesn't cure the hum it will improve the sound. We used to get clicking from light switches through the speakers and installing the mains circuit stopped it completely. Our 250 has never once hummed in the two years we've had it. 

My 300PS hums a little and the 555PS hums a bit more.  Nothing to do with mains, I have a mains "DC blocker" (i.e. a high-pass filter, @ approx 1-5Hz).

The 300PS is detectable @ 1m, the 555 @ 2m; but only when it's quiet in the house.

My old 300 hummed but not the DR version which is strange as they both have the same PS. Perhaps the tranformer in the new PS 300 is less fussy. 

I've had three different Naim power amps, all used on the same mains circuit. Two of them hummed louder than I'd have liked, the other one (my current 200DR) is much more quiet. I didn't find putting it on a dedicated mains circuit to reduce the hum, although it did improve sound quality.

My XPS2 hummed constantly. Following its DR upgrade the hum is practically non existent.

Must have been lucky been using Naim for well over thirty years changing my Olive set up last year for new black boxes the XPS dr and Supercap dr are virtually silent the 250 dr could be quite buzzy at times have since upgraded to a 300 dr and fortunately this is also extremely quiet.

Kenth Immerbo posted:

2WheelsRBetter posted:

Kenth Immerbo posted:

Listening too the new Jaco P Live on CD via analogin (CD5XS) and it's so much better then my NaitXS already.

Just curious - have you tried listening to CD5XS through "digital in" into the 272?  I'm curious how the two DACs compare.

Day 2

fiddeling around with all the different option that the 272 gives you and thats just endless and sound is getting better over all so it's hard to tell whats the best, but CD5XS as a transport via Spidif out too optical in2 in my case using the BNC adapter with a cheap monster cable is the best right now.

(Opening bottle No2 of that french bubbel Wine)  

I like Stanley Clarke 

 

Thanks very much for this report back.  I am using an Oppo BDP-83SE as digital transport via SPIDIF optical to the 272 and was curious how the 272's DAC compares to that in the CD5XS.  It's reassuring to know that you find the 272's DAC preferable. 

A week after my 272 and 250DR arrival, there are clear signs the boxes settled a bit and the SQ is much improved. The 250DR hums still but it's all forgiven 

Yes great combo.... my 250dr hummed like a hewi at times ... seemed very sensitive to hum. Great sound quality ..... when funds permit you must get a dr psu for your 272. Enjoy!!! 

One last thing I found the 272 very sensitive to placement ... it needs to be on a good support platform 

2 weeks and getting better, tighter bass and much broader soundstage. No hums dead quiet.

Proper placement for boxes and speakers YES

Cables, Naim and dressed ok YES

but NO  Imaginery Diseases.