172xs or ndx

It’s not clear what preamp you are using with the 250, as your profile mentions a SuperUniti. If you are thinking of either a 172 or NDX as the only thing to go with the 250, the NDX won’t work without a separate preamp. I’d suggest that it’s either NDX with 282/Hicap or a 272. The 172 is really not up to the 250 and the S400s. 

Does that help?

thanks HH, yes I need to change my profile its been a while since I had the SU.

So currently in using a auralic altair which is similar in attributes to a 172xs I suppose. you have answered my question though, that the ndx has no preamp capability.  

I will have to go 172 first due to funds and then on to a 272 I expect or wait for a newer tech to come out

What's wrong with the Altair? If you've set your sights on an NDX or 272, wouldn't it be better to keep it until you can afford to get what you really want rather than  changing it now?

I wonder what the 'good price' for the NDX might be? They are often around used for just over £2,000, and I've seen 272s for sale for about £2,300. It's little different and you may be better sticking with the Auralic until a 272 comes up. The 172, which I've no doubt is jolly good for the price, was discontinued because nobody was buying it, so selling it on later may be more challenging. 

Chris, absolutely nothing wrong with the altair, although having to switch over when wanting to listen to music is annoying but as mentioned im probably being a bit hasty.

I can hold on to it for a while until as you mention a 272 becomes more affordable.

I think the interest in system synergy always gets me, and having a naim instead of the auralic to me makes more sense but its not a necessity at this stage.

Hungryhalibut posted:

I wonder what the 'good price' for the NDX might be? They are often around used for just over £2,000, and I've seen 272s for sale for about £2,300. It's little different and you may be better sticking with the Auralic until a 272 comes up. The 172, which I've no doubt is jolly good for the price, was discontinued because nobody was buying it, so selling it on later may be more challenging. 

I actually wondered whether the SQ of the new Uniti range killed the 172 -- i.e.the anticipation of sales drops. But obviously I have no clue about what's going on in the heads of Naim executives... 

The Altair is well reviewed, I think. So personally I would also save up for a proper upgrade rather than a sideway move with the 172. Unless of course your Altair is white... 

So I managed to get a 272 in the end for £2k, so happy with that, in terms of streaming I believe I cannot use Roon yet so what other software do I need from the pc that holds the music?

longmanjon posted:

So I managed to get a 272 in the end for £2k, so happy with that, in terms of streaming I believe I cannot use Roon yet so what other software do I need from the pc that holds the music?

The two usual suggestions are either MinimServer or Asset from dbPowerAmp.  The former is more technical to set up, but either will do the job well.

Even better is to use a simple NAS (Synology or QNAP are usually recommended), that way you don't need the PC on and the music files are available 24x7.  It only needs a simple cheap NAS for music streaming (such as a Synology 115j, Synology 216j or Synology 216se) and you only really need one disk in the NAS (but you do need to provide a proper backup as always - just as you already do for your PC!).

I got rid of my nas in exchange for a pc from work as it’s energy efficient and runs my movies and pictures and music on the network which is also backed up.

i could run twonky also I suppose

longmanjon posted:

So I managed to get a 272 in the end for £2k, so happy with that, in terms of streaming I believe I cannot use Roon yet so what other software do I need from the pc that holds the music?

 Any UPnP server will serve music files over the network to your 272 - as Eloise says, Minim and Asset are good choices. If you want Roon, I understand that the current Naim streamers don't have the processing power to run it, so you would need an external device for that.

My Synology NAS uses <16W (max!) and serves movies and music to the network (in contrast, my 'energy efficient' PC uses 110 - 250W depending on what it's doing).  I use a television for movie display rather than my PCs monitor, so I only use the PC as a PC, not as a media player / media server.  Less acoustic noise and less electronic noise on the mains.

The requirement for a device with more processing power as a Roon server is a definitive reason for running a more power hungry device as a server (e.g. a PC, a Roon specific media server or a Roon supported high end NAS).

I would recommend against tWonky, as, for many people, it causes a lot of odd unpredictable problems.

longmanjon posted:

I could run twonky also I suppose

You could... but why would you run Twonky when I've suggested too far superior UPnP servers which are compatible with Naim (many users here use one or the other) and offer greater browsing options?

longmanjon posted:

thanks HH, yes I need to change my profile its been a while since I had the SU.

So currently in using a auralic altair which is similar in attributes to a 172xs I suppose. you have answered my question though, that the ndx has no preamp capability.  

I will have to go 172 first due to funds and then on to a 272 I expect or wait for a newer tech to come out

the auralic streamers/dacs are top draw they give naim a good run for their money  I surgest you keep it .