Hello friends,
A good friend is selling a used Naim Dac V1 (at half the list price) and I am tempted to buy it for headphone duties mainly. Maybe also to use as a dac in the main hi fi.
Any experiences / feedback / opinions on this unit? How does it compare with other headphone amp / dacs in the same category?
I am planning to use it to drive a pair of Sennheiser HD660s
Cheers
I owned a DAC v1 for several years m. A very, very good piece of kit. It uses the Audiophilleo Async USB tech which would cost you £800 on its own. Couple that to a linear power supply, high-end headphone amp, 24/768 processing and a decent DAC chip and it’s one hell of a unit.
There are two very minor points: to my ears it could sound a little harsh in the treble so try it out with the rest of your kit before laying down the cash, and secondly it doesn’t have any analog inputs.
The DAC V1s are quietly revered in Naim circles as representing phenomenal value for money. I sold mine at 80% of the original purchase price. So 50% , if it’s in very good condition, is an absolute steal.
Many thanks Rik
Very helpful feedback indeed
Longtime owner of a V1, into a rebuilt NAP 110, fed by a microRendu 1.4 via USPCB. Also use it for the TV and a Pro-ject digital turntable via toslink. Couldn’t be happier. I don’t do a lot of headphone listening due to comfort issues, but when I do it has all that good Naim liveliness to it. The volume control is silky smooth, remote basic but functional. Many say the preamp isn’t that great but I wouldn’t know or care as I find the sound really good.
I do wish it had at least one analog input, so one could run a proper phono stage. I use Roon. Found I prefer the sound of up upsampling just to 24/96 vs full on DSD. The V1 is most definitely sensitive to source.
I love the form factor. Like I said, a V2 with an analog input or two, or maybe a balanced input for headphone amps as well. Less digital inputs would be fine by me to save room.
Best,
CP
Charles many thanks for sharing your experience with the V1. Have you encountered any harsh treble as mentioned by Rik above?
Cheers
Hi Yiannis,
Nope, sure haven’t, and I’m a pretty bad tinnitus sufferer so I’m pretty sensitive to that. A new one does take 200 plus hours to burn in, and can sound pretty rough to begin with. And like I said, quite sensitive to source - if your source has treble issues, then the DAC will push that through. I’m using a rebuilt and modded NAP 110, Rega RX3’s with Chord Rumor 2 (NACA5 before I needed a longer length) FWIW. The 1.4 microRendu board really took it up another notch as well. Best, CP