Incidentally, I used DacMagic, DL III and now NaimUniti. I should have known the answer but so many variable was involved so I will tell you the whole story before my opinion.
I bought the very first batch of DacMagic and I had Synology Server -> (Lan) -> PS3 -> (generic toslink optical cable) -> CA DacMagic -> (DH Lab Silver Sonic Professional Studio Balanced interconnect) -> CA 840Av2 -> (generic copper for bass, silver sonic T14 for tweeter, bi-amp bi-wire via speaker A/B) -> ProAc Studio 110
Well, this DacMagic was quite boring and dry with not very interesting bass and I feel it was the limitation to the system. (I tend to blame the "source" when something is wrong, that is just me)
The DacMagic was replaced by a DL III in the above setup, immediately there is some warmth, higher resolution and tighter bass and rhythm. It was a good deal above the DacMagic. The sound was pretty good but still lacking of something, I would say still a bit dry.
In the interest of simplifying my system to only 1 power plug and seeking some improvement in sound, I went out and hunt for a streamer. The DS-i I have heard in 2 shops and they were both quite bassless (don't know if it was due to the setup of the shops!), so in the end I got the Naim Uniti.
When I got the Uniti, the setup was:
Synology Server -> (Lan) -> NaimUniti -> (generic copper for bass, silver sonic T14 for tweeter, bi-wire) -> ProAc Studio 110
While the Uniti was not burnt in, the sound had a lot of rhythm and tight bass, but the treble did not get better and in fact a bit muddy. So it really didn't improve as much as I thought. So I tweaked it to:
Synology Server -> (Lan) -> NaimUniti -> (Silver sonic T14 and use ProAc jumper plates) -> ProAc Studio 110
I immediately notice great improvement in clarity of mid-high frequency and finally feel the money's worth, however, the bass was gone and soften so much and the mid-high became quite bright. I immediately know that is speaker cable problem because I knew it should be able to produce much better bass from my previous setup.
So my final tweak was:
Synology Server -> (Lan) -> NaimUniti -> (Naim NAC A5 and use NAC A5 to make the jumper) -> ProAc Studio 110
I have those made for me by the dealer. And into the third week the NaimUniti is more broken in too, it sound so good now.
After telling you the story, I think I can give you my opinion.
I think the PS DL III has the basic characteristic of warm, tight bass that you should like if you use Naim, though I think the Naim DAC in the Uniti is better sounding. I guess you will get about 80-85% of satisfaction you get from your Naim CD5i (it is thought that the Uniti is close to it). But that is only a guess because as you see,
1. I have changed the amp (I definitely consider the Naim an upgrade)
2. changed the speaker cables (the Naim one was known to match Naim gear and the fact it is five time the costs of my old cables....)
3. eliminated the interconnect from DAC to amp
4. changed the Amplification method (after I changed it to single wire and jumper, I feel my previous setup was a total mistake)
I don't know if the PS III will have higher resolution (Naim is definitely not the last word in resolution) if I connected the speaker cables correctly.
But I do believe the PS III is a good DAC for the money (I think it is US$600 now?) and would give you much fun. I have traded it in so I cannot tell you what it is like when connected to Uniti as amp...... I think it was a good piece of kit, just that I hated that 840A and I saw this nice Uniti came up. Well, if you ask me DacMagic and DL III, I would definitely tell you not to waste money on DacMagic.
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