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Rich27 said:
The Supernait is a fantastic amp but I am not convinced the dac inside it is getting anywhere near the best out of it. Sonos is fine as a convenient source but the amp imho deserves a much better source. Think NDX (for streaming) or CD5XS as a longer term goal, as always auditioning is key as these options are a serious financial commitment and only worth spending the money if the difference is worth it for you.
No doubt something like the NDX is where it's at for ultimate quality (i'm jealous
), but you have to look at what you get with the ZP90 for less than 10% of the price of an NDX - you get a streaming source capable of streaming CD quality files in bit-perfect quality, (anecdotally it may suffer from a bit of jitter, but no one has quantified or compared this it seems), internet radio, integrated Napster and Spotify services, the market leading user interface, it takes 5 minutes to set-up and it's relatively inexpensive and equally simple to add other zones.
Going in to the SuperNait DAC, my experience suggests that this combination is at least as good as a £1000-£1500 CD player. I've not done any direct comparisons in my current system as it stands because I did my comparisons of CD players a while back and a while later did some comparisons and elected to go with a streaming source and DAC, and only later got the SN, then the Sonos, but based on the fact that quality has improved all along the way, I think the comparison stands.
I even saw a post from someone on the Naim forum who actually said he couldn't tell the difference between a ZP90 into the SN DAC and his CDX2 - now that's just one person's experience, and I got the impression it was not an extensive comparison, so I'm not going to accept it unreservedly, but it at least suggests that the ZP90/SN DAC combo really is very competitive.
I would just love an NDX, and I've no doubt that connected via analogue it would be superior to a ZP90/SN DAC (and via digital it would be better than the ZP90, but there would be no point doing that), but spending £3k on my hifi is unfortunately a very long way off. I also struggle with the idea of taking a backward step in terms of user interface, and I just know that half the time when i started listening to something using the NDX in the lounge, my girlfriend would pipe up and ask me to put it on in the bedroom as well, then I'd have to stop playing it on the NDX and switch to playing it on Sonos anyway.
Anyway I guess what I'm saying is that a ZP90 via digital is far better than it has any right to be for the money and the user interface and general convenience is market-leading. It may be bettered for ultimate sound quality, but value for money is simply astonishing.