HDX vs CD5 XS

Only indirectly. The CD5XS was (understandably) blown away by the bare CDX2.  No contest. The HDX was to my ears, somewhat in front of the CDX2 bare, with XPS2 and surprisingly (to me) when both used with the DAC. You'd be looking at something around ND5 level to perform in the same ball park as a CD5 level player, and I would expect the CDP to trail the streamer.

Your ears may disagree. In the final analysis your ears are all that matters.

Out of interest, why do you want to buy both a CD player and a streamer? It seems a huge waste of money to me, when you can just rip your CDs. 

Harry posted:

Only indirectly. The CD5XS was (understandably) blown away by the bare CDX2.  No contest. The HDX was to my ears, somewhat in front of the CDX2 bare, with XPS2 and surprisingly (to me) when both used with the DAC. You'd be looking at something around ND5 level to perform in the same ball park as a CD5 level player, and I would expect the CDP to trail the streamer.

Your ears may disagree. In the final analysis your ears are all that matters.

Thanks Harry,

To check if I've correctly understood, you're saying that HDX sound (with XPS2) is better than CDX2 bare. This was also confirmed when both were connected to a DAC. Right?

So XPS2 is strongly required in your opinion or the HDX performs well even without it?

for me I would go for the NDX - with seperate NAS - this should work out slightly cheaper than the HDX - why buy a NDX and HDX? 

moved from CDX2 XPS to NDX and never regreted it for a moment - plenty of NAS options on the web - went for the QNAP HS 210 running Asset - great como

An HDX costs more than twice as much as a CD5XS, so there's something odd going on if it doesn't sound better. But sound quality is something best judged using your own ears, not mine, so that's easy if you can get yourself to a dealer or two: the other part of the process is deciding what type of source suits you best. In this respect, plenty of people still like to use CDs, but plenty more, myself included, have been glad to see the back of all those flimsy plastic cases. Also, when I ripped my CD collection and stuck it in the loft, I rediscovered many old albums, and along with web based streaming (Tidal etc) and iRadio, this has hugely increased my desire to enjoy music, and discover new material. An HDX will give you all of this except Tidal, at a price. An NDX & a NAS will give you everything an HDX has, plus Tidal/Spotify, and easier multiroom options if you want them.

What I wouldn't do is stretch my resources by buying a a CD player and a streamer - an NDX and a £200 NAS makes more sense to me.

Whatever you choose, good luck, and enjoy the ride......

PPT, Sorry if I phrased it unclearly. I'll have another go.

CDX2 bare is miles better than CD5XS. HDX bare a bit better than CDX2 bare.  Adding XPS2 to CDX2 or HDX brings the performance upgrade you would expect such that HDX/XPS2 is somewhat ahead of CDX2/XPS2.

I ran CDX2 bare and HDX bare both into Naim DAC bare, DAC/XPS2 and DAC/555PS. I thought both digital sources would sound the same when passed through the DAC, DAC/XPS2 and DAC/555PS but the HDX sounded better to me.

Something else for the sake of thought. You say you may go for a dedicated streamer like the NDX. I used an HDX-SSD to serve an NDS and when I took the HDX-SSD out of the chain and fed the NDS with Asset UPnP running on NAS the sound quality shot up considerably. This is not to say that the HDX is bad. For what it does it is very good. But it was getting in the way of the music in my system. For a "one box does all" solution I would still buy the HDX. But if using a dedicated streamer like NDX or NDS I would run a software based server app as opposed to an HDX, US or NS.

IMO only.

IMO too....

i am going to use hdx with my naim DAC

Thanks everybody for your feedbacks!!

Just to clarify, I'm considering to by a NDX only if I will decide to buy a CD player and not the HDX.

So my options are:

1. buying a HDX

2. buying a CD player + NDS o NDX

From what I read (thanks in particular to Harry) HDX sounds better then any of the Naim CD players (CD5 XS and CDX2). So this lead me to consider the HDX.

Tomorrow I'm going to listen and compare an HDX and a CDX2. So I will let you know my personal feeling.

Most of you in any case prefers the NDX as a pure streamer instead of a HDX. But in this scenario how should I manage my 500+ CDs? Should I use a PC to unrip and store them in a NAS and so to play them with a NDX?

jon honeyball posted:

i am going to use hdx with my naim DAC

Nice combo.  Had this for several years and really enjoyed it.  Worked well with a DC1 between them and I'm probably in the minority here, but I actually preferred this combo without a power supply on the end of the nDAC! (with 282/supercap/200).

PPT posted:

 

Tomorrow I'm going to listen and compare an HDX and a CDX2. So I will let you know my personal feeling.

 

This will probably be a crucial test. However, you mentioned NDS in your post. This is in another league, more music than HiFi. If you can swing the cost of NDS I advise getting your ears on one. You can run it off a NAS and UPnP server for a few hundred pounds. It's special. And if you think you are heading in this direction I'd be inclned to get there in the straight and shortest line you can accommodate.

Ripping and tagging CDs is easy and does not require an HDX. 

Have fun.

If you are afraid of ripping than go for an Unitiserve and a NDX...my 2cent

ralf

NDS would be the target but not reachable soon. Need some years for the money. That's why I was thinking to buy a CD player in the meantime. I'm going to listen to the HDX and CD5X/CDX2 today and then I'll take my decision!

thanks everybody 

I think the NDX recommendations are because you can rip your CDs to a NAS and get everything the HDX offers for less money. It also gives web streaming options that the HDX lacks. In your position, I would keep it on my shortlist too. Good luck with your listening session... 

Clear. Thanks Chrissu. In your opinion NDX+Nas sounds equal or better than the HDX ?

I will consider the NDX option too. 

Out of interest, what is the rest of your system?

To  be honest, I've never heard an HDX. I have a Unitiserve, which is pretty much the same thing but with no DAC included. I think the consensus amongst forum members is that NDX and HDX are about the same level of sound quality - but perhaps by the end of the day, you will be able to tell us...

To my ears the HDX and NDX cannot be told apart on sound quality.

Only your ears can judge if you prefer the sound of one piece of equipment to another. 

About five years ago I moved from a CDX2 to an HDX-SSD, the later comfortably beating the former to my ears. 

At that time I had to decide between the HDX or an NDX plus UnitiServe. I chose the former as it was slightly cheaper, one box and the software appeared more mature. 

Since then whilst Naim have refined both products it's definitely the NDX which has received more attention with added facilities such as streaming music services and HLS radio streams. The smartphone app is also getting more attention and is integrated into the Muso line.

If I were buying now I would probably get the NDX and forget the UnitiServe, making do with a third party ripper. It's not that the UnitiServe (or HDX) is a bad device just that it's a lot of money to hand over for a device largely ignored by its creator. 

My dealer prefers the sound of the HDX to the NDX by the way. Just his opinion.

Good luck and let us know how you get on. 

The problem with the servers, Userve, ns01-ns03 and hdx, is the fact that the software will no longer be developped, so no streaming services. Owners like myself still hope for softwre development but time is going and nothing has happened since a small maintanense upgrade in December 2014.

Unless you really like a touch screen, I would ask your dealer if he can demo the hdx compared to ns01 plus the Ndac. This combination is at the hdx price, more or less, and you ar free to add an alternative streamer or pc/mac solution, if you want to get into one of the music subscription services, on top of the server features.

Claus

Claus-Thoegersen posted:

The problem with the servers, Userve, ns01-ns03 and hdx, is the fact that the software will no longer be developped, so no streaming services. Owners like myself still hope for softwre development but time is going and nothing has happened since a small maintanense upgrade in December 2014.

Unless you really like a touch screen, I would ask your dealer if he can demo the hdx compared to ns01 plus the Ndac. This combination is at the hdx price, more or less, and you ar free to add an alternative streamer or pc/mac solution, if you want to get into one of the music subscription services, on top of the server features.

Claus

 

So is  the HDX an end of life product now?

Hi everybody. Yesterday I tried the HDX, the CD5 XS and the CDX2 connected to a Supernait 2 (that is the integrated amp I have). My impression is that the HDS sounds better than the other two. More warm, full, and with more details. I was so convinced that as my reseller had a second hand HDX I bought it yesterday evening! So already installed and set in my home I'm starting enjoying it. I don't know if it has been the best and future proof choice compared to NDX, but I feel happy and just followed my instinct.  I would appreciate to remain in contact with all of you to share impressions, experiences, doubts, suggestions. Thanks everybody for your comments / suggestions / advices / support!

Excellent - I'm sure it's the right thing for you, now that you have compared them all. The HDX and Supernait 2 make a really nice simple, but great sounding, system. And getting it for a bargain price is a nice bonus. 

PPT,

Sounds as if you did your due diligence. Congrats and enjoy!

Congratulations and best wishes with it. Of course we'd like to hear your ownership experiences.