HDX review and feedback

Posted by: Ro_bert0 on 06 September 2010

Having lived with my new HDX for the last 4 months I thought that I would share some brief notes on sound quality and offer some minor suggestions also directed at Naim top brass that would add the icing to a very delicious cake.

Firstly sonics. In comparison with my previous CDX the HDX has a slightly more relaxed presentation whilst offering more detail. Very importantly for me, it has improved the listening enjoyment of my less well recorded discs. Otherwise it is just like a CDX only better!

There is an increase in ambient noise in the room from the hard drives but this is minimal and can be reduced further by moving the HDX off the top shelf of my rack to the next shelf down. I assume this minimises reflective noise?

Now to the suggestions. In an ideal world I like to have the following improvements to my HDX:

1. Internet Radio.
2. Ability to rip HDCD discs in 24bit format.
3. Front display indication of bit depth and sampling rate.
4. Front display indication of when the artist recorded the songs.
5. Maybe strip out some non essentials such as keyboard, mouse and monitor sockets.
6. Is the fan really necessary? It has not yet operated even over the summer.

I look forward to all your comments.
Posted on: 06 September 2010 by jlarsson
My only wish is to be able to add metadata to downloads similar to what the native musicstore offers. Some simple XML format would be just fine.
Posted on: 06 September 2010 by pcstockton
quote:
2. Ability to rip HDCD discs in 24bit format.

that will NEVER happen. Dont hold your breath.
Posted on: 06 September 2010 by John R.
I rip my HDCDs with dBpoweramp and this program does have got a HDCD plug in, which converts the HDCD to a 24bit wav file, but actually it only has got "true" 20bit, since HDCDs only have got 20bits after proper decoding.
Posted on: 06 September 2010 by Eloise
quote:
Originally posted by Ro_bert0:
Having lived with my new HDX for the last 4 months I thought that I would share some brief notes on sound quality and offer some minor suggestions also directed at Naim top brass that would add the icing to a very delicious cake.

Do you have just a "bare" HDX? Is it the version with internal storage of SSD? What kit are you using it with?

quote:
5. Maybe strip out some non essentials such as keyboard, mouse and monitor sockets.
6. Is the fan really necessary? It has not yet operated even over the summer.

The "non-essential" sockets (as you describe them) can be used to provide larger touchscreen (or non-touchscreen) monitor. I think even a keyboard can be used for editing track details, etc. Also these are all part of the PC motherboard the HDX is based on.

If the fan doesn't come on... Don't complain. I guess heat depends on location, environment, etc.

Eloise
Posted on: 06 September 2010 by Klout10
quote:
Originally posted by Ro_bert0:
1. Internet Radio.


Agreed, it's been some time since we've heard about that one! Even the new NDX has internet radio...

Regards,
Michel
Posted on: 07 September 2010 by Harry
quote:
Originally posted by John R.:
I rip my HDCDs with dBpoweramp and this program does have got a HDCD plug in, which converts the HDCD to a 24bit wav file, but actually it only has got "true" 20bit, since HDCDs only have got 20bits after proper decoding.


Same here. Works good.
Posted on: 07 September 2010 by Harry
Since the OP mentions disk noise (and the player is 4 month old) we can assume it's not SSD. Naim are on record as saying they want to incorporate internet radio into the HDX and this will doubtless happen at some point. Perhaps after the NDX ships.
Posted on: 07 September 2010 by Ro_bert0
quote:
Originally posted by John R.:
I rip my HDCDs with dBpoweramp and this program does have got a HDCD plug in, which converts the HDCD to a 24bit wav file, but actually it only has got "true" 20bit, since HDCDs only have got 20bits after proper decoding.


Agreed, this is the way that I have been ripping HDCD discs to avoid the HDX downgrading them to 16bit.
Posted on: 07 September 2010 by Ro_bert0
quote:
Originally posted by Harry K:
Since the OP mentions disk noise (and the player is 4 month old) we can assume it's not SSD. Naim are on record as saying they want to incorporate internet radio into the HDX and this will doubtless happen at some point. Perhaps after the NDX ships.


Hi, yes my HDX has a hard drive. Fingers crossed on the internet radio!