ND555 Impressions

cycling66 posted:

French Rooster posted:

cycling66 posted:

This evening, using Airplay from Macbook Pro to ND 555, I'm streaming the NPR selection of songs from the forthcoming More Blood, More Tracks album. Simply glorious sound, voice and guitar, in particular. The ND 555 is on song tonight, I have never heard recorded Dylan sound so wonderful.  Happy, happy, happy ......

if you stream from a nas, or better like uniticore or melco, you wiill be on Mars.  

Ah, yes. I have a NAS coming on Tuesday, the CDs arriving shortly after, and the high res files from Qobuz a week today, I know this music on the ND 555 is going to lift me to the stars by then.

nice period for you, enjoy !

End of week four today of run-in and any hopes of it being done with by now gone, as it has now gone dull, cloudy and thuddy-bass, wooly-HF... again I know it will pass - so just posting for those that eventually may experience this sort of thing - seems part of the process.

An early adopter with run-in ahead of me told me he was only really happy with the performance getting more or less stable after six weeks run-in.

I'm always very impressed by people that get no real run-in problems - it probably is system dependent too, as my system really puts it in your face if something is not right.

...back to TV for a bit.

DB.

I have had a great evening listening to King Crimson live in Vienna, the new David Crosby album, Caravanserai by Santana and many others.......last night it was pretty awful by comparison. Strange this burn in mullarkey.

Darke Bear posted:

End of week four today of run-in and any hopes of it being done with by now gone, as it has now gone dull, cloudy and thuddy-bass, wooly-HF... again I know it will pass - so just posting for those that eventually may experience this sort of thing - seems part of the process.

An early adopter with run-in ahead of me told me he was only really happy with the performance getting more or less stable after six weeks run-in.

I'm always very impressed by people that get no real run-in problems - it probably is system dependent too, as my system really puts it in your face if something is not right.

...back to TV for a bit.

DB.

I think 6 to 8 weeks run in sounds about right for the ND555. 

I know the NDS was about that long . 555DR power supply was about 8 weeks. 

This is sounding so nice with the bass, my setup before wouldn’t have gotten close to the quality level of what I hear now....

musicfan51 posted:

Darke Bear posted:

End of week four today of run-in and any hopes of it being done with by now gone, as it has now gone dull, cloudy and thuddy-bass, wooly-HF... again I know it will pass - so just posting for those that eventually may experience this sort of thing - seems part of the process.

An early adopter with run-in ahead of me told me he was only really happy with the performance getting more or less stable after six weeks run-in.

I'm always very impressed by people that get no real run-in problems - it probably is system dependent too, as my system really puts it in your face if something is not right.

...back to TV for a bit.

DB.

I think 6 to 8 weeks run in sounds about right for the ND555. 

I know the NDS was about that long . 555DR power supply was about 8 weeks. 

Very much depends on your listening behavior and the ears. Some people keep it running for 24/7, while I didn’t do that just played at my normal listening hours. Means sometimes less then an hour a day with peaks of 6 hours. If you have a system like DB you are also hearing longer the subtile aspects of the change.....

...a bit later I play the same Album tracks and the particular 'congestion' problem seems to have cleared and it is open again. Some of the run-in phases seem to go in waves and can last a few hours then be gone and back to 'normal'.

As I said before I'm not certain it can just be blasted through by repeat-run of tracks, but I think that does help. There does seem to be an 'elapsed time' component to it as well.

DB.

wow! what a roller-coaster!!!

enjoy/ken

...it is a bit. The only 'good' part of later run-in is that it seems that the roller-coaster has a higher frequency. Early-in and it would be off for a day awful, then great for two days ... but later it seems to speed-up, a few hours on-off, with whatever process is going on.

I played a splurge of music from different Artists to exorcise/exercise  the system and highly-enjoyable again. I don't mind it sounding a 'bit' ragged in run-in but really shut-in or over-harsh are the extremes that force me away to do something else.

DB.

Whilst mine is back at base having the 'tinkling' checked out, I have been playing vinyl (which is such a faff by comparison). I have also found a yearning to listen to music which I only have on CD. Hence, I have slotted an old Marantz CD63SE in where the ND555, and previously NDS, had been. Surprisingly, it sounds quite acceptable. OK, the bass is less well defined and controlled, but the mid-range is exceptionally good, particularly so when you consider that the player is 22 years old, has never been serviced and cost <£300.

I'm not surprised that the CD63 sounds more than acceptable. It always was a good player and it still is. I have a CD94 with a broken mech in the loft. So I do admit to some bias. Marantz always had a well deserved reputation for excellent CPDs at their respective price points.

I agree on the Marantz I have owned the 67SE and 63KI both great CD spinners....

Thanks to everyone for their input. I’ve been following this thread with deep interest. 

Did anyone of you check the ND555 against an LP12 yet? 

DL_Audio posted:

Thanks to everyone for their input. I’ve been following this thread with deep interest. 

Did anyone of you check the ND555 against an LP12 yet? 

I didn't do a back to back comparison (which is difficult anyway owing to different masters etc.), but it is something I will probably do at some time. Obviously the ND555 is a lot less faff and you don't get the intrusive clicks and pops. Both offer a very believable reproduction of music. It is also difficult to be precise about performance of the LP12 owing to the multitude of built permutations. However, I would say with some certainty that live recordings on the ND555 really do, well, come alive.

I think top-end Vinyl replay will always do something on good well-pressed and Mastered Vinyl that will keep people very happy with it.

I think some recent things, such as certain phono-stages that immediately digitize the signal at high bit-rate and apparently sound good may make people think - 'why can't I just capture that bit-stream and replay it in a Hi-Def format?'. Friends already do this and turning their speakers off or very low AtoD capture and get rather good results.

The ND555 comes closest to the 'immediacy' aspect of top-end Vinyl replay to my way of hearing it, when the rest of the source-implementation is carefully also done - and the source material from good capture and Mastering used.

I've not found, personally, that most (meaning less than 1% and that is being generous) of rock and popular music in HiDef format qualifies as good enough in what they have done in the re-mastering stage of these releases. But obtaining any well-mastered CD format Rips (done roughly before year 2000, but with some later) and replay via ND555 IMO beats most Vinyl replay.

I still say 'most', as I think a system where only the best Vinyl pressings on a top-end deck-arm-cartridge well set-up and maintained will probably beat the ND555 in a lot of cases - but I think not everywhere.

Some music material is suited to good digital replay more than Vinyl replay IMO - good masters of live recordings for example where a wide-bandwidth of a lot of things happening also containing very low frequency info is done better on the ND555.

DB.

I am very pleased with the ND555 which is step-up from the NDS. I have it for 2 weeks using it exclusively and a few days ago thought that I would look to sell my vinyl set-up. Played some albums yesterday old and new and I was surprised that the vinyl was, for me,  still preferable to the streaming solution this included London Grammar's Truth is a beautiful thing.  I will leave it for a few more weeks before I do a more detailed comparison as no doubt the ND555 will improve.

I use an Origin Live Resolution TT with Conqueror arm.  The TT has the new light speed controller, which has speed drift < 0.00001%  and wow and flutter at < .04%.

Mine has been running in for around 4 days....played Bruce Springsteen live....and wow it was really good. Fleetwood Mac Tusk at 96....sounded fabulous.....delighted...

GerryMcg posted:

I am very pleased with the ND555 which is step-up from the NDS. I have it for 2 weeks using it exclusively and a few days ago thought that I would look to sell my vinyl set-up. Played some albums yesterday old and new and I was surprised that the vinyl was, for me,  still preferable to the streaming solution this included London Grammar's Truth is a beautiful thing.  I will leave it for a few more weeks before I do a more detailed comparison as no doubt the ND555 will improve.

I use an Origin Live Resolution TT with Conqueror arm.  The TT has the new light speed controller, which has speed drift < 0.00001%  and wow and flutter at < .04%.

 

 

I will tell you that the ND555 gets quite a bit better in my opinion and I do believe full run in is about 6 weeks of continuous play. But high quality Vinyl played with a very good turntable is going to beat a high quality streamer. But it is getting closer with the ND555. And there a lot of advantages to Streaming over turntables as far as convenience .  Doing custom made play lists is one of them . I have about 20 play lists right now of 50 songs or more and it great to sit down and listen to them without having to get out of my chair. 

I quite agree that the ND555 is much closer to good quality vinyl, I could never understand those previously who reckoned the NDS was the equal of vinyl, although most had  LP12’s . If the ND555 prover superior to my vinyl set up I will be quite happy to sell it. 

As for convenience I make little use of playlists preferring full length albums so SQ is all important.

GerryMcg posted:

I quite agree that the ND555 is much closer to good quality vinyl, I could never understand those previously who reckoned the NDS was the equal of vinyl, although most had  LP12’s . If the ND555 prover superior to my vinyl set up I will be quite happy to sell it. 

As for convenience I make little use of playlists preferring full length albums so SQ is all important.

Everyone has different ways of listening to music ! I listen to Jazz and Classic Rock . Playlists are fun . You pick and arrange the music the way you want it to flow , from exciting to more Mellow . I do listen to the classic rock albums all the way though . Like Dark Side of the Moon or Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors, Of Led Zeppelin IV. But for causal listening , sitting back in the easy chair and listening to a play list you created, can be quite enjoyable! 

I have a top spec LP12 Ekos SE Kandid & Keel and I agree that the ND555 has narrowed the gap by a fair margin,  compared to my previous CD555. I would never part with my large collection of vinyl though (being in my 70s and having loved it all my life) because it has that magic and I still enjoy the ritual of playing a record. I now feel that I have the best of both worlds and digital replay has never sounded better in my system.

Michael posted:

I have a top spec LP12 Ekos SE Kandid & Keel and I agree that the ND555 has narrowed the gap by a fair margin,  compared to my previous CD555. I would never part with my large collection of vinyl though (being in my 70s and having loved it all my life) because it has that magic and I still enjoy the ritual of playing a record. I now feel that I have the best of both worlds and digital replay has never sounded better in my system.

Michael do you think it changes your listening habits. Meaning for instance that you listen less to Vinyl ?

For some reason I played Eltons I've seen that movie too omg how fresh does that sound....it is epic try it....no bad for 40 year old track.....Elton at his peak....

The Naim launch approach to the ND555 has seemed understated, no reviews in the press, as yet? The April press talk of the struggle to get a 500 series streamer.....still working on the finished product. It’s a very accomplished streamer.

Been four months now still waiting for mine.,frustrating.regards Bob.