Serious case of the 'itis

A lack of impact - i.e. a softening of the source's sound further down the chain may well indicate that something is in need of a service.  When was the last time your kit was serviced?  Particularly those regulated NAP135s...

A service?

Looking at the kit you have, it should be more than capable of reproducing the results you heard

Are you sure it's not the room or other factors ..you might need to tweak speaker placement?  Or a service

Serviced around 4 years ago....dont think it is the speaker placement ...spent a happy few hours last night with that...but good news it should be capable.....have to say I was surprised.

I’d have expected the 52/135 to be at least as good as the 282/250DR, and very likely better. If the issue started when the NDS was introduced, is that not the source of the problem?

Just checked,....all olive boxes serviced 2 years ago - recapped etc.

HH yes the NDS creates much more detail, soundstaging but the oomp of the drums has gone,

What did the NDS replace that gave you impact with the 52/135s/SFs

Well I don't think it has replaced anything but rather higlighted issues that were not there before. My comparison is from the demo I had. 

The NDS replaces a mini mac /nDac combination, but was a bit muddy and midrange can hide alot of deficencies.

OK thanks David.  It may be down to room and positioning, as well as other factors.  Any major upgrade often means a bit of rearrangement - quite often for the speakers - and also a bit of housekeeping on kit placement, racks, spike tightening, connection cleaning.  If you haven't already done so, a new bit of kit like the NDS is the perfect excuse to rebuild the whole system from scratch.  Also, have you had a walk around the room listening out for how the sound changes - certain frequencies may well be reinforced and others nulled.  Use this as an opportunity to re-optimise the speaker positioning.

It’s quite a strong possibility that some room acoustic panels need to be introduced.

Do you have room for some corner bass traps, or first reflection panels?

Same speakers ? Same cables ?

Yes.....it all sounds detailed but thin. A lack of colour and warmth....not that I want to much of that but there is none. The Muso has more....which cannot be right!

Are your speakers in phase?

Which rack do you have?

Which cables?

I’m assuming you’ve removed the four transit screws... Make sure that the two Burndy leads are hanging free, not touching anything, and that you have formed them into the right shape before inserting the plugs into the sockets, so that they are unstressed. And of course, they need to be the right way round and to have that all important massage. 

After redoing the system install as Richard suggests I'd check on the interconnects/cables used in the shop demo. Were any Super Lumina used?

Thanks.....I will rebuild the system. No Supa Luminas used and the speakers are in phase....I checked!

That Olive system should be banging, I've owned 282/300 and my current 82/180 has more PRAT and impact.

If everything is the same i.e no superlumina then maybe it is the 250dr

Is the 555PS a DR version? it makes quite a difference as I have just discovered.

Bruce

I will do some rebuilding tonight. Thnaks for the advice ....perhaps it is the DR for the 555. Hopefully the rebuild will sort it out. Its been running for 3 days now so shold be warmed up

re the DR 555PS upgrade, it made a really big difference to my NDS, and the bass resolution was definitely part of that but I would also second the suggestions so far. Although I don't know your speakers I don't think the system you have should be sounding thin, so check the simple things first before spending more.

Bruce

As others have commented; don't simply throw (upgrade) money at your current dissatisfaction. It sounds like something might be amiss, or there's a fundamental difference in room acoustics compared to your dealer's demo-space. 135's have terrific leading-edge dynamic slam, and if serviced and up to spec, should not be lacking in that area.

That said; I think there is a (logical) synergy with Olive/CB Naim and the newer 'Reference' kit. It could just be that the NDS likes its new partners better.

Can you get your dealer to visit you? Experienced ears can be very useful.

Good luck.

John.

Me and the missus demo'd new speakers using a 282/Supercap/300DR and we both agreed that once we had set them up at home on my 82/HICAP/CB250 that we not lost anything really.  We just played music and laughed out loud it was so good.

I have had a similar experience to this. I upgraded from a Audiolab 8200CD and original SuperNait to a Nac N-272 and NAP 200 (I kept the same speakers and speaker cables and plugged into the same powerboard), the drums were less dynamic. I changed the 200 to a 250 DR which was an improvement but still did not have the same dynamics as the SuperNait. I had the power board plugged into a ethernet over power device, bypassed that, dynamics improved again but still not what I had with the SuperNait. Purchased a PS Audio Dectet powerboard . Improved things greatly, still not quite where the SuperNait was at but I think I am about 90% there. Unfortunately I'm still using Ethernet over power so my stream from my Mac Mini would still be a little dirty. A Synology NAS and a switch and  XPS DR are the next things on the list, which I think will get me there and then some.  

Once I even had my Mini Mac plugged directly into the DAC of the SuperNait because the Audiolab was away getting repaired and the drums were still very dynamic, the overall sound was not as good as I don't believe the DAC in the SuperNait was as good as the DAC in the Audiolab 8200CD. But the drums still had the oomph (my reference album these days for checking drum dynamics is AC/DC Back in Black). 

It might be worth going back to your dealer and see what cables, switches etc he was using and compare it to your set up, you might be getting some noise on your  network cables that is colouring or diluting the sound. Or maybe check the quality of the power going to the NDS. I'd be checking these first, would be more economical that upgrading. 

Thanks for all the advice.....I am going to spend some serious time rebuilding everything at the weekend to get to the round of this.