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Naim dac opinions

J

johnny nocash

pfm Member
Good afternoon folks. Has anyone out there compared the sound quality of the NDac against the dac-V1?
If yes, I'd love to hear your opinions. Cheers
 
Thanks for that link McNaim. Varying opinions of course but being as I'm in the camp that hasn't been too impressed with modern hyper detailed DACs maybe a dip into Naim versions is worth a try.
From that thread it seems that the Ndac is better than the V1 (unless someone tells me different) but I'm a bit concerned about the lack of chips bearing in mind the Ndacs age.
 
I got a S/H Naim DAC of PFM a few months ago, and compared it with my Chord 2Qute.

I kept the NDAC and sold the Chord. Also added a s/h Teddy XPS

I can't say which was better, but I can say that I preferred the sound of the NDAC. To my ears its sounded more musical and less forensic that the 2Qute.
The 2Qute got every ounce of detail out but that sounded a little tiring to me. YMMV obvs :)
 
Thanks for the input vinyl_paul. I heard a Chord Hugo (amongst others)which weren't to my taste so my intrigue about the Naim DACs continues. Was there a reason why you opted for the Ndac over the V-1?
 
johnny nocash said:
Thanks for the input vinyl_paul. I heard a Chord Hugo (amongst others)which weren't to my taste so my intrigue about the Naim DACs continues. Was there a reason why you opted for the Ndac over the V-1?
Click to expand...

To be brutely honest, one come up on PFM and I thought the price was right so I bought it! Haven't tried V-1.
I happily buy S/H off here, try it out, and if I get bored or tempted often swap and change - for me its part of the fun.

For example I have just got a S/H Auralic Altair G1 to play with - that might mean my nDAC and TeddyXPS will be up for sale soon :)
Going to start on new thread on that question.
 
I had a ndac which I thought was nothing special. The addition of a Teddy XPS brought about significant improvements. However, a Teddy dac gives an even better performance and is significantly less expensive.

You pay your money and you make your choice.......
 
Stemcor said:
I had a ndac which I thought was nothing special. The addition of a Teddy XPS brought about significant improvements. However, a Teddy dac gives an even better performance and is significantly less expensive.

You pay your money and you make your choice.......
Click to expand...

Wow, that was not my experience at all . . .
 
Bob Edwards said:
Wow, that was not my experience at all . . .
Click to expand...

Me neither - I think the Naim DAC is capable of really great performance.

However, I've wrote before, in my experience its performance level is highly dependent on the digital signal fed into it. I've heard the nDac sounding very average and conversely very, very good when different transports were used into it.
 
ajm said:
Me neither - I think the Naim DAC is capable of really great performance.

However, I've wrote before, in my experience its performance level is highly dependent on the digital signal fed into it. I've heard the nDac sounding very average and conversely very, very good when different transports were used into it.
Click to expand...

Same; will look forward to it. I have an Exposure 3010S2 CD and a Naim DVD5 coming, the differences should be interesting.

Heard the Teddy v. nDAC years ago; there wasn't a musical/sonic area where the Teddy was close (relatively speaking, of course, and, needless to say, IMO).

And that, for me at least, is what makes the equipment side of this hobby so fun - there is such a diverse range of experiences and opinions.
 
ajm said:
Me neither - I think the Naim DAC is capable of really great performance.

However, I've wrote before, in my experience its performance level is highly dependent on the digital signal fed into it. I've heard the nDac sounding very average and conversely very, very good when different transports were used into it.
Click to expand...

Goes to show that the transport can make or break a DAC - what's up top should not be underestimated.
 
had the ndac once comparing it to my weiss dac . can`t remember much though but i think the lack of volume control may have been a deciding factor . I have often weighed up the little V1 as they are readily available and remote control . then i read little things about the display going dim and various other niggles like this one

https://www.pinkfishmedia.net/forum/threads/naim-dac-v1-output-to-only-one-channel.237740/

had my remote control bel canto dac for many years with absolutely no problems so currently still not too sure about the naim
 
Someone mentioned to me recently, that the NDac digital gubbins are the same as the 555 CD player. Is this correct?
 
I've not done the comparison myself, but someone I know compared the NDAC + Naim Preamp (not sure which one) with DAC-V1 straight into a power amp and preferred the V1, though I suspect the huge cost differential and one box vs two was part of the decision, as he was living in a relatively small flat at the time.
 
Ali T said:
Someone mentioned to me recently, that the NDac digital gubbins are the same as the 555 CD player. Is this correct?
Click to expand...

I believe it is. In fact, the N-DAC, CDS3 and CD555 all used the same 1704K DAC chips according to historical info (that you can google). I own a CDS3 and a DAC V1 that I use as a headphone amp - a role in which it excels.
For an experiment I removed the CDS3 from my main system and replaced with the V1 playing rips of my CDs via Ammara 3.0 on a Mac mini (the usual front end of my headphone system). The V1 sounded thin and insubstantial compared to the CDS3 (I make no claims as to detail retrieval etc., which doesn't particularly interest me, I just didn't like it as much). I discussed this with an old school pal who has a lifetime in music and hifi journalism and his take was that the V1 uses a newer Sharp DAC chip whereas the CDS3 uses the Burr-Brown chip, but the chip is only part of the story. Considered old hat by many, the chip nevertheless is but a small component of the thorough end to end implementation in which the stars aligned for Naim to make it one of their more revered products.
 
mjw said:
the chip is only part of the story
Click to expand...

Agree with this.

Even though the nDac may use the same DAC chip as the CD555 it's unrealistic to expect to plug any old transport into the nDac and expect it to sound the same as a CD555 in my opinion.
 
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