I currently have a CDX. At some point I was hoping to buy an XPS.

However I have just been offered a CDS-PS. I understand this can be used in place of an XPS. The CDS-PS is £475.

So my question is, How good is the CDS-PS compared to the XPS? 70% of the performance for 25% of the price would seem to be a good deal. Has anyone made the comparison?

Please see my profile for details of the rest of my kit.

Thanks

Matt

Matthew:

When I spoke with Dave Dever at NANA about upgrading my CDS1 I was left with the impression that the CDS-PS was pretty close to the XPS. My guess is it's about 85% of an XPS.

Pricewise it sounds like buying a CDS-PS would be prudent if you can get it for 25% of an XPS.

Arthur Bye

Matthew,

*** WARNING *** BE SURE THAT YOU USE A MODIFIED BURNDY - THE ORIGINAL CDS-I/CDPS COULD CAUSE TERMINAL DAMAGE TO YOUR CDX ***

Now, the relevant comparison for you should be between a used XPS and the (presumably used) CDPS.

Find the age of the CDPS (there's a list of serial numbers vs age on the Naim-Audio website). Try to guess how much an XPS would cost if you could get one that old. Bear in mind also that the XPS would have a black Burndy which is supposed to be a well spent £240 in relation to the cost of a CDX/XPS (half that for used price over a grey one?)

I paid £600 for a five-year-old CDPS with black Burndy from a London-based dealer, and thought that was a good deal. Even assuming a grey Burndy yours is also a good price, although if it's 7-8 years+ you'll need to budget for a service. This can be put off if funds are tight, and will give it a big boost when you can manage it.

Regarding performance, the previous owner upgraded a CDS-I/CDPS to CDS-II/CDPS. He then upgraded to an XPS. Including the fact that the CDS-II was still running this was perhaps 30% of the total improvement. Clear? No?

To clarify, this is 30% of the difference from an already impressive CDS-I, not 30% of the total performance.

The performance jump from bare CDX to CDX/XPS is huge. The CDPS should also be a big jump with the CDX, but I've not tried it myself.

cheers, Martin

Matthew-

If you can swing the XPS financially, it is clearly better on par with the difference in purchase price. The design of the ground plane is different and provides a much lower noise performance.

Hope this helps,
Dave Dever, NANA
[CDS II + XPS]

As the previous owner that Martin refers to ... can I add my clarification to all of this! ... In my experience (although it is hard to be totally objective given that both the head unit and the XPS take an extended period to run in) about 70% of the benefit of moving from a CDS1 (CDS1 head unit and CDSPS) to a CDS11 (CDS11 head unit and XPS) was down to the new head unit and the remaining 30% came with the XPS. In other words the XPS is clearly better than the CDSPS but doesn't offer the same performance uplift as the head unit upgrade. In the context of the cash that you are talking about i would think that it is a great move although I would TOTALLY agree with martin's comments about the black burndy which is a complete no brainer versus the grey

I hope that's clear and of vague interest!!

Andy

Thanks for all the advice. I think I'll try to listen to the CDS-PS before I buy.

Matt