ND555 - have pulled the trigger

I’’m not sure what ‘pre-order’ actually means, but based on -

1) I’m an early adopter in most technology.

2) The steaming tech in the NDS is getting rather old, even if I still think the analogue filter stage is where the magic lies.

3) I’ve not spent any money on HiFi for over 2 years.

I spoke to my dealer on the day they were announced and expressed a firm intent to buy if it exceeds NDS level performance.

Not sure if that counts as a ‘pre-order’ but given a relationship with my dealer over 10 years, I hope it’s pretty close.

Dave.

Congratulations Bert- it’s going to be nothing short of fantastic!

That's a brave move, Bert, ordering "unheard".  Certainly demonstrates your confidence in Naim.  Brand loyalty exemplified.

I suspect you won't be disappointed though and your posts on here when you get your ND555 will be hugely popular. 

As you say, you only live once. And throwing caution-to-wind can be invigorating!

Well done, I say. 

I concur with  MDS ........ throw caution to the wind and hope that Mr Fjeld is  speaking with authority !

Good for you Bert. I’m sure it will be worth every penny (or Euro) and I’m looking forward to hearing all about it when it lands.

Regards

David

There is no NDS555 to purchase at the moment.

I'm not in the market for one, but if I were, I cannot put a deposit down for a product that is not available for purchase.

I would normally say congratulations, but again that would be for a product that is ready to ship or a product that has a confirmed shipping day in the future.

analogmusic posted:

There is no NDS555 to purchase at the moment.

I'm not in the market for one, but if I were, I cannot put a deposit down for a product that is not available for purchase.

I would normally say congratulations, but again that would be for a product that is ready to ship or a product that has a confirmed shipping day in the future.

 

People do it for high-end cars that are 'revealed' at shows before production, and millions seem to do it when a new iPhone is announced. What's wrong with doing it for high-end audio? 

analogmusic posted:

There is no NDS555 to purchase at the moment.

I'm not in the market for one, but if I were, I cannot put a deposit down for a product that is not available for purchase.

I would normally say congratulations, but again that would be for a product that is ready to ship or a product that has a confirmed shipping day in the future.

 

I am not putting a deposit in, just placed the pre-order. So as soon the dealer has it I will get it.

for all the others I will definitely publish a detailed report of my experiences...

Same deal as me then Bert. Looking forward to joining you in the early reviews.

Dave.

glad you didn't place a deposit 

Clive B posted:

I will need to decide whether to trade in my NDS for an ND555 and keep my NAP500 non-DR or keep my NDS and have the DR mod done on my NAP500. That will be an interesting two-way demo! I just need to wait until my dealer can get hold of an ND555 - I don't think I'd be willing to make that sort of investment without a serious demo.

Just as you're considering forgoing a NAP500 DR upgrade to help finance an ND555, I'm considering whether or not I want an ND555 more than I want to keep my recently aquired and even more recently serviced CD555, a 'life long' desired CD player.

Life can be difficult at times, can't it?    

(It's at times like this that I regret the lifestyle that led to the loss of my first wife... and half of my estate   )

Bert Schurink posted:

analogmusic posted:

There is no NDS555 to purchase at the moment.

I'm not in the market for one, but if I were, I cannot put a deposit down for a product that is not available for purchase.

I would normally say congratulations, but again that would be for a product that is ready to ship or a product that has a confirmed shipping day in the future.

 

I am not putting a deposit in, just placed the pre-order. So as soon the dealer has it I will get it.

for all the others I will definitely publish a detailed report of my experiences...

i am waiting for your report Bert, and i am a bit jealous too.... Another subject :  you post the link for the jazz lounge live site.  Do you know if there are other than mp4 formats?  i tried 2 downloads but they are on mp4 and impossible to open or listen to them....

French Rooster posted:

Bert Schurink posted:

analogmusic posted:

There is no NDS555 to purchase at the moment.

I'm not in the market for one, but if I were, I cannot put a deposit down for a product that is not available for purchase.

I would normally say congratulations, but again that would be for a product that is ready to ship or a product that has a confirmed shipping day in the future.

 

I am not putting a deposit in, just placed the pre-order. So as soon the dealer has it I will get it.

for all the others I will definitely publish a detailed report of my experiences...

i am waiting for your report Bert, and i am a bit jealous too.... Another subject :  you post the link for the jazz lounge live site.  Do you know if there are other than mp4 formats?  i tried 2 downloads but they are on mp4 and impossible to open or listen to them....

Hi French Rooster,

It’s relatively simple. You download it in the offered MP4 and use a freeware program or powerdb to convert it to flac. It’s really a small effort. And so far the audio quality very often surprises me.

rjstaines posted:

Clive B posted:

I will need to decide whether to trade in my NDS for an ND555 and keep my NAP500 non-DR or keep my NDS and have the DR mod done on my NAP500. That will be an interesting two-way demo! I just need to wait until my dealer can get hold of an ND555 - I don't think I'd be willing to make that sort of investment without a serious demo.

Just as you're considering forgoing a NAP500 DR upgrade to help finance an ND555, I'm considering whether or not I want an ND555 more than I want to keep my recently aquired and even more recently serviced CD555, a 'life long' desired CD player.

Life can be difficult at times, can't it?    

(It's at times like this that I regret the lifestyle that led to the loss of my first wife... and half of my estate   )

 

 

Don’t be to hard on yourself. Also had my hard times, but it’s all a learning process and we tend to get to get out of it with rich experiences. Quite a number on the forum like me have to realize that most of our lives is already behind us, we better make the best out of it....

French Rooster posted:..

i am waiting for your report Bert, and i am a bit jealous too.... Another subject :  you post the link for the jazz lounge live site.  Do you know if there are other than mp4 formats?  i tried 2 downloads but they are on mp4 and impossible to open or listen to them....

Lot of confusion with MP4, it’s not actually a format or series of formats, it’s a multimedia file container structure. So if your MP4 is containing AAC lossy or ALAC lossless (which are common music audio formats wrapped within mp4), you may well find simply changing the file extension from .mp4 to .m4a allows your media server or streamer to correctly interpret the wrapper and extract the formats from within. This way no chance of  transcoding errors or metadata errors are introduced and requires no conversion software to do.  Apple introduced the .m4a extension to help reduce this confusion for mp4 wrapped audio formats.

Simon-in-Suffolk posted:

French Rooster posted:..

i am waiting for your report Bert, and i am a bit jealous too.... Another subject :  you post the link for the jazz lounge live site.  Do you know if there are other than mp4 formats?  i tried 2 downloads but they are on mp4 and impossible to open or listen to them....

Lot of confusion with MP4, it’s not actually a format or series of formats, it’s a multimedia file container structure. So if your MP4 is containing AAC lossy or ALAC lossless (which are common music audio formats wrapped within mp4), you may well find simply changing the file extension from .mp4 to .m4a allows your media server or streamer to correctly interpret the wrapper and extract the formats from within. This way no chance of  transcoding errors or metadata errors are introduced and requires no conversion software to do.  Apple introduced the .m4a extension to help reduce this confusion for mp4 wrapped audio formats.

Even better, thanks for the tip Simon. As always your technical insights help us a lot.

Nice one Bert - i look forward to reading your thoughts on the ND555 and how it compares to your NDS.

James

The best thing about buying something so expensive unheard on a punt is that regardless of performance, most people's brains just won't let them hear anything other than a fantastic upgrade. 

Not at all suggesting this will befall the OP and I have just as much faith in Naim to deliver. But in this hobby, I've heard so many dire systems that the owner just could not hear the reality of because to do so would be to admit chucking money down the drain. 

Buying on a punt is fine (even unavoidable for many of us depending on location). But there is a cost threshold for every person after which their subjectivity regarding the purchase falls off a cliff.

Fair point. Luckily i'm not making a life decision based on what Bert thinks of the ND555 when he gets it. I'm just interested in what he thinks

feeling_zen posted:

The best thing about buying something so expensive unheard on a punt is that regardless of performance, most people's brains just won't let them hear anything other than a fantastic upgrade. 

Not at all suggesting this will befall the OP and I have just as much faith in Naim to deliver. But in this hobby, I've heard so many dire systems that the owner just could not hear the reality of because to do so would be to admit chucking money down the drain. 

Buying on a punt is fine (even unavoidable for many of us depending on location). But there is a cost threshold for every person after which their subjectivity regarding the purchase falls off a cliff.

You have a point. I based my decision on trust that it will be much better. I am realistic enough to realize when it didn’t bring significant benefit. But we also need to remember that most comparing scenarios are a bit challenging to really compare. And even in those situations we tend to be psychologically influenced by the higher priced item.

"heard so many dire systems that the owner just could not hear the reality"

Most of us "hear our own reality", we do not all hear the same anymore than we all see color the same.  

There's also the question of value. As we climb the audio tree, the incremental benefit of each subsequent upgrade delivers relatively less improvement per dollar (it must be an asymptotic curve). What seems good value to one person might appear outrageously costly to another. Then we also need to consider the opportunity cost and not just in terms of alternative upgrade paths, but other uses for our disposable income. 

Clive the merit and value it is as you suggest, all relative, I was hearing about a Naim customer who had seven Statement S1 amps for their AV system.... 

I've got a $200 Allo Digiplayer running into a bare ndac at the moment. There's interesting enough not that much of a difference between it and the ndac fed by a NDS/555DR.

At the moment, I'm comparing the NDS/555DR against NDS/555DR into bare ndac. Totally unexpected, but I'm preferring the latter. 

Either there's something seriously wrong elsewhere in the system - or my hearing ... Or...

I need to borrow  xps Dr cable - to finslly compare the Allo into ndac/555 against the NDS/555.

But yeah, the nd555 isnt happening here - I don't trust naims abilities on the source side post CD anymore. 

A bunch of folks I know are now running uniticore into NDS via spdif. 

I expect a solid PSU on the Allo to take it to the nds level in terms of streaming.

Having said that, the proofs in the pudding - let's see whether it's the NDS of the ndac that gets sold off in a month. Who knows - I might even be among the first  owners of the nd555, throwing good money after bad..

Although - I hate the flashy color screen - and the aesthetics of the new range - so I'll sit this generation out..

It is interesting to me per Mangomonkey:

"I've got a $200 Allo Digiplayer running into a bare ndac at the moment. There's interesting enough not that much of a difference between it and the ndac fed by a NDS/555DR.

At the moment, I'm comparing the NDS/555DR against NDS/555DR into bare ndac. Totally unexpected, but I'm preferring the latter."

I had a NDS/555DR for a couple of years and replaced it with a bare nDAC and I'm very happy with it.  Don't miss the NDS at all.  

Like Mangomonkey, "I don't trust naims abilities on the source side post CD anymore."