Has anyone heard or tried the new Naim Dac?

Thanks so much for the info Sandra.

The DeVore Super 8's are one of the most musical
speakers out there, so it sounds like the Cambridge
is a bad match. Naim is funny that way. The XS
or Supernait paired with a CDX2,CDS3 or CDS2 cd
player drives the DeVores with pure organic musicality.

However, when I first bought my XS using a Bel Canto Dac
it was way too bright. I still have the Bel Canto, but
after a lot of tuning using Synergistic Research products,
a Teddycap and Naim speaker wire(a must for Naim amps) I
am now getting nice musical sound that is both fluid
and holographic. It still doesn't have that truth of
timbre that the high end Naim cd players have but it does
have a lot better sound stage, air and sparkle.

I wouldn't mind having one of their high end cd players, but
I think it is a huge waste of money to spend that kind of
coin on a cd spinner when high rez media and hard drives
are the way of the future. I also think that the current
music servers are way over priced and the technology is too
new to consider. Kind of like buying a plasma for 10k when
they first came out.

Thanks again for your input and good luck on your system.

I am picking up a new Naim DAC tomorrow and will report back after I get some experience at home with it. I am also trying out a Supernait with my Harbeth C7ES3 speakers. Does anyone else have the same speaker/amp combo?
Thanks

I don't know if you're interested in just the Naim dac or not, but last weekend I spent 2 days in Seattle just listening to cd players and the one I liked the best was the Simaudio 300D dac for $1600. It was warm, rich, detailed, had excellent bass. I had listened to the McIntosh MCD500, Audio research CD8 and their new USB based dac, Ayre QB9, Naim dac, Meridian, Linn and a few others. The Simaudio was just what I was looking for and it was hooked up to a Wadia 170i transport with a ipod which completely surprised me. I really had no interest in listening to Simaudio products as I really don't like the looks of them and you also don't hear much about them, but I wanted to hear everything that I could in the 2 days that I was over there. It was playing through Dynaudio speakers, then I had them move it to another system that had Avalon speakers. Great sounding dac at a very reasonable price, includes USB, spdif, toslink connections and plays high resolution music. I don't know much about Itunes, I'm trying to find out if you can download high res. music from them. If not, I will just buy this dac and connect it to my windows computer.
Just thought I would mention it in case anybody is looking for a good computer based dac. Sandra

Sandra -

That's the first I've heard about the Simaudio DAC, apart from press releases. I'm glad you found one you like. Simaudio is a great company that makes bullet proof gear that sounds fantastic. Its too bad they don't get more mention.

Have you heard the Bryston BDA-1 DAC or BCD-1 CD player? How does the Simaudio 300D compare?

I heard the Naim DAC yesterday at my local dealer's. I didn't find any brightness personally. That doesn't mean I doubt what you or anyone else heard either. System matching, room acoustics, and tastes all have to be factored in.

iTunes only has compressed music avaiable for purchase. Not sure if it'll do hi-res from your own ripped discs or not. I use iTunes for my library. I rip everything in Apple Lossless and I can't hear a difference between them and CDs. I don't own any hi-res stuff, so no comment on that.

JR

Hi JR, I really wanted to listen to the Bryston cdp or dac but didn't run into any in Seattle. I was only there for 2 days and had to keep a close watch on my time.
I would like to hear the Naim dac with other equipment, it may sound completely different, although if you get on the Naim forums there are a few others that say the same thing I heard, somewhat digital sounding. I didn't hear anything digital about the Simaudio dac, it was smooth, warm, rich, with plenty of detail, just what I like.
I'm finding out that the ipod will not play high res. material, so it and the Wadia's out. I really don't listen with earbuds anyway, I don't think it's good for your hearing. I guess I'll just hook up the dac to my windows computer via USB, and if I really like the sound, will work on getting a pc with spdif coax. I talked to Simaudio today and that's what they recommend-coax. USB doesn't do high resolution, but apparently the Wadia/ipod doesn't either and it sounded very good.
What was the Naim dac hooked up to when you heard it, and what speakers?