Naim DAC-V1
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We suggest you keep the shipping box or boxes for at least 30 days. It is actually a great idea to keep boxes for audio products for the life of the product. Having the box and all packing will increase the trade-in value should you decide to move up and they are handy to have should you ever need to send the unit in for repair.
How To Receive a Motor Freight Order
The trucking company will contact you to schedule a convenient time to deliver the order. Please note that you must be present for delivery.
Visually inspect the box to make sure you see no signs of damage. If you notice any damage at all, take some pictures with your phone and make a note of them on the delivery receipt the driver will ask you to sign. If it is obvious that the product is damaged, please refuse the order and contact us immediately at 888.899.8776 or email support@audioadvice.com.
Open your box as soon as possible and inspect the product for damage and contact us if you find anything wrong.
FedEx Freight Service Comparison
| Feature / Service | Scheduled Curbside Delivery | White Glove Delivery |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled delivery appointment | ✔ | ✔ |
| Delivery location | Ground level only (garage, front door, loading dock) | Room of choice, any floor |
| Delivery team | 1 person | 2 people |
| Placement inside home/business | ✘ | ✔ |
| Upstairs / downstairs delivery | ✘ | ✔ |
| Unpacking | ✘ | ✔ (upon request) |
| Packaging removal | ✘ | ✔ (upon request) |
| Assembly / installation | ✘ | ✘ |
| Old item removal | ✘ | ✘ |
At Audio Advice, we pride ourselves on customer satisfaction. We'll bend over backward to make sure you're 100% satisfied and we won't accept anything less. We offer 30-day hassle-free returns and personalized service from real, live people.
If an item doesn't meet your expectations, you may return or exchange it in its original condition and packaging within 30 days for a full refund, minus shipping fees. Items shipped back in like new condition through standard shipping carriers will only incur a flat fee of $15 to return. If the items were initially shipped through free scheduled delivery via motor freight (commonly referred to as LTL), returning them will result in return shipping fees starting at $150. These items include but are not limited to, oversized items such as TVs, certain subwoofers, floorstanding speakers, furniture, and most items weighing over 75 pounds. Return fees will also apply for exchanges. We want to treat your system as if it is our own and want you to be completely satisfied with your purchase.
Please see the instructions below. We only accept returns for any product purchased directly from our website. If merchandise is not returned in its original condition or is missing packaging, manuals, accessories or other parts, or the resale value of the product has been impaired, a partial refund will be given and calculated on a case-by-case basis.
Non-Returnable Items
The following items cannot be returned or cancelled:
- Special/Custom Order Items
- Open Box Products
- Gift Cards
- In-ear headphones cannot be returned once the packaging has been opened due to personal hygiene reasons. Please contact our customer care team if you'd like help choosing.
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Turntables With a Broken Stylus: All turntables ship out with the stylus intact. If you return a turntable or phono cartridge with a broken or missing stylus you will be subject to a return fee. Please be careful when setting up your turntable and contact us with any questions.
Is It Easy To Return An Item?
Yes, simply give us a call at 888.899.8776 or you can email our support team at support@audioadvice.com. Many times our team of experts can help figure out why the product might not be working like you expected and get things fixed over the phone, so don’t be surprised if we ask a few questions, we love troubleshooting!
If our tech help can not make you happy, we will email over a return shipping label with a Return Number.
Hopefully, you saved all of the original item’s box and packaging inserts. You will want to pack back up your return or exchange in the same way it came out of the original box. Once you have everything packaged correctly, tape the box on the top and bottom to assure it stays together. If Audio Advice shipped the item to you inside a second box, it's a good idea to use that same extra box to help prevent damage on its way back to us. To avoid it accidentally coming back to you, use a magic marker to cross out the old shipping label or just tear it off.
The return shipping label we send you will have our address on it, just make sure you take the box to the right shipper (UPS, FEDEX, or USPS) as per the label.
If you are close to one of our stores, please let us know if it is more convenient for you to return it to us directly. You will still need to get a return number by contacting us and shipping and/or restocking charges may apply.
When Will I See My Refund?
It usually takes around 7-14 days for the refund to show up on the payment method you used. We do inspect all returns for damage and accuracy of the item inside the box before issuing a refund. Some items may be subject to shipping and restocking fees.
Can I Exchange My Purchase For Something Different?
Sometimes those big speakers just don’t fit in the room or you might have bought a small subwoofer and later found out you’d love a bigger one. If you would like to make an exchange within 30 days of receiving your item, just give us a call at 888.899.8776 or email support@audioadvice.com and we will help work out the details. Additional shipping charges and return costs may apply.
How Do I Cancel An Order?
If the item has already shipped out or is a special order item, it is not possible to cancel the order. Please contact us at 888.899.8776 or email support@audioadvice.com to start the return process.
What If I Find Shipping Damage?
We need to know right away about any shipping damage. Please contact us at 888.899.8776 or email support@audioadvice.com within 48 hours of your delivery so we can get the ball rolling on making things right. It’s very helpful to take some pictures and email them to us if possible.
Can I Refuse A Shipment?
You can, but unless the item is damaged, shipping and restocking fees will be deducted from your refund. If your item arrives damaged and you are lucky enough to be there, snap some quick pics and refuse the order. Then contact us so we can get a replacement on the way.
What Happens If My Order Is Defective?
This is actually pretty rare, most consumer electronics work fine out of the box 99.9% of the time. We’d like for you to contact us first by calling 888.899.8776 or email support@audioadvice.com so we can help get to the bottom of things. If your item is indeed defective during the first 30 days, we can usually exchange it for a new, replacement unit.
What About Service After 30 Days?
Audio Advice has a great relationship with all of our brands and can help you with warranty service by the brand after our 30-day guarantee period. Even after the warranty expires, we can arrange for service by the brand on products purchased from Audio Advice. Just call 888.899.8776 or email support@audioadvice.com.
How Do You Determine A Restocking Fee?
You may not believe it, but sometimes we receive items back that were put in the box with zero packaging and are completely destroyed or are missing many of the pieces that came with the item. We also track serial numbers and will get back different serial numbers. We’ve even seen different items than what we shipped out be returned. However, it’s very important to package your return properly so that nothing goes missing or gets damaged in shipping, which will result in a restocking fee or even no refund at all. If a product is opened and the market value of the product is reduced, then a restocking fee may be applied to the cost of restocking and the reduced market value of the product. The bottom line is if you treat us fairly, we will do the same.
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Our prices should always be the same as any other authorized dealer, including big-box retailers and major online retailers.
If you believe that you have found a lower advertised price from a legitimate authorized seller, call us and let us know so we can make sure we can correct any inadvertent error on our side. As a matter of policy, we update our prices automatically if a vendor changes its authorized pricing policies, so we generally have the best prices all the time. Increasingly, there are knock-off copies of products online, usually sold by non-authorized dealers.
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As always, our goal is to provide a terrific customer experience, including industry low prices. We appreciate your support.
Overview
The High Notes
Swiss Army Knife DAC
Class A Headphone Amp
High Speed USB Input
Company & Product Overview
Headquartered in Salisbury, England, Naim Audio has been one of the UK’s most famous high-performance audio manufacturers for over 40 years. Naim employs over 150 people, all of which are in tune with the art of making some of the best-sounding audio gear in the world.
Naim has always placed a special emphasis on having the best possible power feeding the circuitry of their units. They have stuck with this philosophy over the years and it continues to set them apart from the competition.
Audio Advice was first introduced to Naim in early 2014 when we were doing a lot of comparisons to find the best products for playing back digital audio files. We were blown away by the performance offered by Naim and became a dealer on the spot.
Today’s review focuses on a model that has been around for a little over 4 years but received an update recently. We think it might be somewhat of a sleeper in Naim’s vast product lineup that includes over 60 different component pieces, not counting accessories.
The Naim DAC-V1 is a bit of a swiss army knife. It is a D/A converter with USB capability, a preamp (if you configure it that way), and/or a headphone amp. We recently had some of the folks from the Naim factory in our store showing us some of their new gear. The subject of headphone amps came up and they suggested we give this guy a spin.
Design & Build Quality
Similar to several pieces from Naim, the DAC-V1 is about half the width of a standard audio component. It is designed to be the control center for a full digital audio system.
There is a USB input for connecting a computer, and five digital inputs for digital sources. One of these is a BNC connection type, plus two Toslink and two coax. On the output side, you’ll find a standard set of RCA analog outputs and Naim’s famous balanced DIN single cable output, designed to connect up to other Naim components. There is a switch to change the ground scheme from floating to chassis ground. Power gets to the unit through a standard IEC 3 connection detachable power cord.
The unit comes with a nice remote control and a BNC to RCA adapter for the BNC digital input. The front panel has a good-sized display that will give you a view of input, sample rate, and volume when you change it. We particularly liked the big volume knob and the easy to read input selection buttons. Of course, all of this is also on the remote. The full-sized headphone jack is just under the volume knob.
Naim is all about isolating their products from external vibrations, and as such, the DAC-V1 has a really solid outer shell. There is no question that Naim gear is some of the best made on the planet and the DAC-V1 is no exception.
Features & Technology
The DAC-V1 can be used as a stand alone digital-to-analog converter or as a preamp. Through the software, you can set the outputs to fixed or variable, and you can even set a volume limit on the preamp out. In fixed mode, it will connect to your preamp or an integrated amp like a normal source component, and in variable, you can connect it up to a power amp.
The headphone mode is pretty slick too. When you plug in a headphone cord, all of the circuitry switches over to run only the headphone amp section, turning off the outputs. Even if you have it setup for fixed output, the volume control will change the headphone level.
Try to lift the unit and you can tell right away that it has a serious power supply. From the size, you might think it wouldn’t weigh much, but the DAC-V1 weighs in at just under 10 pounds. As with all Naim gear, it has tons of current reserve in the power supply.
The DAC-V1 has the ability to decode audio files via its digital inputs up to 24/192. Naim is not one to sit on any of their technology and recently did a free firmware upgrade, enabling the DAC-V1 to also accept DSD files. They also enabled files up to 384khz into its USB input. We really love companies that keep your investment up to date through software upgrades!
The DAC in the DAC-V1 is like some of the better DACs on the market in that it is asynchronous. In the world of digital audio, timing is everything. If you do not put all of those bits of data back together the way they were recorded, you miss out on subtle nuances in your music. The digital clock that assembles the data is critical to this. In many DACs the clock in the computer is used, which as you might suspect, is not very good. With an asynchronous DAC, the files are pulled from the computer and run through the clock in the Naim DAC rather than just being pulled in already put together in time.
For the volume control, Naim uses a super precise, digitally controlled analog system. The internal processor for handling all the oversampling and filtering of the digital files is a 40-bit SHARC DSP -- considered by many to be the finest chips on the planet when it comes to audio.
Finally, the headphone amp section. Headphones do not require the power of speakers to drive them loudly, but they do require very precise power. Since the dawn of transistor amps, Class A amplifiers have always been considered the best sounding of any type of circuit. Audio Advice sold some of these early Class A type amps, where a 20 watt per channel model might weigh in at 50lbs.
To explain a bit, all music looks like a waveform. There is a peak and a dip. Most amps have one set of circuitry that turns on to do the peak, and another for the dip. This constant turning on and off is known as switching distortion. However, if you left everything on, you would need to be connected directly to a power substation to have a 500 watt Class A amp.
With Class A, the circuits never switch off. This is why they have always been low in power. The sound you get from a Class A amp is super sweet and controlled. Since headphones don’t need even 5 watts, Naim uses a low-power Class A amp for the headphone section. When you plug the headphones in, the unit automatically turns off the preamp section so the unit only needs to worry about the digital section and the headphone amp.
Performance
Audio Advice started carrying Naim their gear was some of the best sounding digital we had ever heard. Naim also makes some of the highest-rated and best-sounding amplifiers in the world, including their $90,000 monoblock Statement power amps. So what happens when you put the best digital in the world with a Class A headphone amp from a company that also makes some of the world’s best amps? In a word, magic!
We connected up the DAC-V1 to the digital output of Naim’s new CORE streamer. This is a unit that rips your CDs better than anything out there, then serves their files up perfectly. It works with the Naim streamers, or you can use its digital out into a DAC like we did here.
This is by far the best headphone amp we have used so far! We threw all kinds of music at it, from classic rock (of course) to jazz, classical, and electronic. We tested headphones from mid-level Grados to the AudioQuest Nightowl, Focal Listen, and Focal Utopia. In every case, it was the best we have ever heard those headphones sound.
You will instantly notice bass with control and impact that you have never heard before. On a good pair of open-back headphones, you will hear separation and a sense of space that every audio enthusiast would drool over. The top end? Fast as lightning yet silky smooth. Pacing, rhythm, and timing are also just perfect.
It will definitely reveal a bad recording, but if the music is great, you will still get lost in it when it gets your foot tapping.
We never even got around to testing it as a preamp. We are sure from the specs it can drive any amp with ease and can see this as a great preamp for a lot of systems, but again, we are just super excited how it sounds just as a headphone amp.
Overall Recommendation
If you are in need of a great DAC that can handle Hi-Res Audio files, this is one to consider. Add in the fact that it is a preamp and you’ll probably be doing your system an upgrade by just adding a power amp.
If you are serious about your headphone listening, you really need to check out the Naim DAC-V1. If your sources are all digital, you’ll be hard-pressed to find its equal.
Details & Specs
- Asynchronous USB input up to 24bit/384kHz to get stunning sound quality from your Mac or PC.
- Single-ended class-A headphone amplifier affords it added versatility.
- The DAC-V1 is now DSD compatible and able to play 64 (2.8MHz sample rate) and 128 files (5.6MHz sample rate); the upgrade required significant optimisation of the core DSP code which has also improved sound quality.
- Five S/PDIF inputs for digital sources like game consoles, set top boxes, and hard disk servers.
- The DAC-V1's compact size makes it perfectly suited as a desktop companion to your Mac or PC, but its exceptional musicality means it will complement our standard-width hi-fi components just as well.
