Naim DAC

Because one can...

Quite a few DAC chips are intrinsically balanced, they produce a plus and minus output simultaneously. This helps to reduce the error. My DAC works this way, and to get a single ended output the balanced outputs have to be added together. So another opamp is involved.

Connect a computer directly with something like an M-Audio Transit, http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/produ...sb-hi-resolution-mobile-audio-interface-.html or use an indirect solution like a Squeezebox. I'd recommend the latter, the only constraint is that it cannot drive a DAC at more than 48kHz, so you won't get the full benefit of any hi-res audio Gilad provides you with.

The Naim DAC will drop right into your setup and probably won't cost you very much, especially if you sell the CDS2/XPS. You'll need a new auxiliary PS for the DAC for cosmetic reasons, it will only improve the sound when you know what you're listening to.

Paul

 

OK, so where does the computer or hard drive live? Does it have to be in the living room, or could it be under the stairs? Gilad has his in the kitchen, and the data is apparently transmitted to the DS thingy via the mains. Obviously, it sounds completely crap because he has the constraint of using Linn speakers, but that's another story.

You should know that I know nothing about computers at all, they are a completely boring subject as far as I'm concerned. Even ants or bees are more interesting.

 

I recommend you stick to CDs then...

I'm not interested in paying for downloads, or in playing mp3s. The advantages of storing music on a big hard drive, IME, are,

1. Speed. Instant access to anything in the collection.
2. Random access. When I'm working I let it choose random tracks. It plays tracks I didn't know I had, or from albums I wouldn't want to play all the way through. It's really quite interesting what's been in my CD collection for years.
3. Downloaded stuff, for example, Rob's cable test or some of the stuff over on PFM, can be played through the hifi with no messing about.
4. It's possible to play high resolution files, 'better than CD' without investing in more soon to be obsolescent hardware and software.

And perhaps other stuff.

But the technology isn't mature. It's not as simple as plugging a CD player in. I have a network at home for other reasons, both wired and wireless. It already had a 'NAS' before I decided to get a Squeezebox. So everything was already in place and in use.

Your mileage will definitely vary.

Paul

 

If you have a Mac, it's output is bit perfect straight from the box, you can just plug in a dac , perhaps use an ipod 'touch' as a remote.
Keith.

 

Oh bollocks - I've fucked it up now and can't be arsed any further - some of us have poxy work in the morning you know .

 

Moany yes that logo,but bigger!

 

Right - that's it, I can't be bothered to do it again......

P.S. Can hardly read the slogan - something about harmony, truth and the American way - is that right?

P.P.S Add two more 0's to the cheque.

 

Well, that's what I was worried about when I asked if the Naim DAC is future-proof. Perhaps I'll hold off for now.

 

Stick with vinyl, bub.

Sounds best, the replay technology has matured, and it's cool with da kidz.

Joe

 

It looks future-proof to the extent that, except for Firewire, it has all the connections you are ever likely to need. It will have Naim "upgradability" if you don't mind more boxes and string and, of course, "PRAT" which no other brand has.

If by future-proof you mean 'any danger of it being improved in the near future?' then start saving for the 555 version.

 

Nope.

From the Naim text:

"Naim's buffer or memory method of jitter removal relies on a simple concept: the audio data is clocked into the memory at the incoming, inconsistently timed rate and is then clocked out of the memory and into the DAC chips using a precise clock."

The buffer connects two clock domains which are not synchronously related. Dirty in, clean/stable out.

An oversampling digital filter is a synchronous system that runs on one clock only, it cannot decouple differing clocks.

BTW the Naim solution is far from new. I noted a similar invention in my laboratory notebook in 1997, and am sure others were there before me.

 

The accurate DSP clock has to be related to the incoming clock, otherwise your buffer will sooner or later become empty or full, either case being bad. So a single sample buffer suffices. Which must already exist in the dirty side since the input is serial and left and right samples have to be accumulated before anything else can happen.

Paul

 

I thought that two have two clocks beating against each other was not a good idea, and that it is far better to have just one controlling the data 'draw' into the buffer?

 

The dac can be made to sound good with a little work on psu's and out-put stage.
It is dynamic, fast and open, very detailed too, should be just up James' street

 

I've never understood why anyone would buy something to modify and hopefully improve it to sound good, I can understand it if it was cheap, which is hardly the case here. Why not buy something that sounds right in the first place?

 

Yes, this looks like a "CDX" style version of the DAC with internal transformer/PS, but upgradeable with an optional external PS. I guess the "CDS" version will appear in due course, in a slightly taller box, with obligatory offboard PS. I wonder what the "555" version will look like.

I still think it's an interesting product, and will no doubt trundle down the road for a demo at some point.

 

I'll be getting one for home comparison with a couple of others. It will be interesting to hear what another grand or so buys.

Recent comparisons have led me to conclude that there are some serious diminishing returns with digital, despite the usual claims. The CD555 was a serious disappointment, but that level of performance at a couple of grand makes more sense - if they can do that.

 

Dev,

|was referring to the twisted pair sabre dac cost around £150ish, not the Salisbury effort which is , incidentally not in the league as the Sabre even with the ivy stage.

 

Cheers Tony .

 

How do you know this, Tony? The Naim DAC hasn't yet been released!