ND555 Impressions

They could do a spelling test, like we had when we were at infant school. 

Go to the  ND555 product page and scroll down to the menus starting:

manuals...

Reviews ...

support

register...

Under support you will find a whole load of stuff in a rather irritating format. There ought to be a link to it from the app but that only takes you to customer support which doesn’t have a link to it either.

Sounding rather good this evening.

DB.

I

Darke Bear posted:

Sounding rather good this evening.

DB.

It must be those empty shelves creating an extra wide soundstage. Actually, have we tried the Fraim without the empty glass shelves for SQ?

Come on shouldn’t a £18k streamer sound good every evening, and morning and afternoon?  

Without the empty shelves it sounds poor. With no glass-loading also poor.

I tried with fewer shelves and with equipment on the shelves - not as good, in this system, so empty is deliberate and gives a very clear open and dynamic fast sound that I prefer.

Others my differ in what they want.

DB.

The Strat (Fender) posted:

Come on shouldn’t a £18k streamer sound good every evening, and morning and afternoon?  

Run-in makes it vary a lot at the moment, but it is great now - at other times not as much.

So 'good' in context of my system to me is meant. But perhaps I should not bother.

DB.

dave marshall posted:

Clive B posted:

dave marshall posted:

Hi Clive,

Equally annoyed with the dim logo scenario, but I've been unable to locate in "settings" the switching off the auto standby option you suggest.

Help!

It's in 'Other Settings'. Once there, select 'Auto Standby Time' and choose 'Never'. Then, if you wish to put it in standby, follow the process I suggest above.

Many thanks, Clive, for some reason, this option doesn't appear in the "settings" menu when using the remote, but is revealed via the Naim app. 

Silly me, imagine expecting the full menu to be available using the posh remote!

Anyway, I've followed your instructions, and, as they say, "let there be light ....................... and there was light! 

Well, now that Clive has sorted out the dim Naim logo problem for me, I now find that the screen display of album artwork has remained frozen from the album played about 10 albums ago.

Not hugely important, since I have the screen set to turn off anyway, but still.......

Whilst I’d be grateful to hear of a fix for this, I’m still a bit miffed that this sort of thing should be happening with a £13,000 product........... harrumph, ????

empty shelves ?  curious....maybe 0+0=1 ?   

dave marshall posted:

dave marshall posted:

Clive B posted:

dave marshall posted:

Hi Clive,

Equally annoyed with the dim logo scenario, but I've been unable to locate in "settings" the switching off the auto standby option you suggest.

Help!

It's in 'Other Settings'. Once there, select 'Auto Standby Time' and choose 'Never'. Then, if you wish to put it in standby, follow the process I suggest above.

Many thanks, Clive, for some reason, this option doesn't appear in the "settings" menu when using the remote, but is revealed via the Naim app. 

Silly me, imagine expecting the full menu to be available using the posh remote!

Anyway, I've followed your instructions, and, as they say, "let there be light ....................... and there was light! 

Well, now that Clive has sorted out the dim Naim logo problem for me, I now find that the screen display of album artwork has remained frozen from the album played about 10 albums ago.

Not hugely important, since I have the screen set to turn off anyway, but still.......

Whilst I’d be grateful to hear of a fix for this, I’m still a bit miffed that this sort of thing should be happening with a £13,000 product........... harrumph, ????

Frozen screen has happened to most of us . Turn off the 555PS then turn it back on . The reboot will fix the issue for awhile . 

musicfan51 posted:

dave marshall posted:

dave marshall posted:

Clive B posted:

dave marshall posted:

Hi Clive,

Equally annoyed with the dim logo scenario, but I've been unable to locate in "settings" the switching off the auto standby option you suggest.

Help!

It's in 'Other Settings'. Once there, select 'Auto Standby Time' and choose 'Never'. Then, if you wish to put it in standby, follow the process I suggest above.

Many thanks, Clive, for some reason, this option doesn't appear in the "settings" menu when using the remote, but is revealed via the Naim app. 

Silly me, imagine expecting the full menu to be available using the posh remote!

Anyway, I've followed your instructions, and, as they say, "let there be light ....................... and there was light! 

Well, now that Clive has sorted out the dim Naim logo problem for me, I now find that the screen display of album artwork has remained frozen from the album played about 10 albums ago.

Not hugely important, since I have the screen set to turn off anyway, but still.......

Whilst I’d be grateful to hear of a fix for this, I’m still a bit miffed that this sort of thing should be happening with a £13,000 product........... harrumph, ????

Frozen screen has happened to most of us . Turn off the 555PS then turn it back on . The reboot will fix the issue for awhile . 

Yep, I’ll do that in the morning, and I’m sure it’ll work, but it’s still a bit naff that it should be happening at all, don’t you think?

Re Nd555,13 grand,just hope l’m not letting my self in for a load of aggro?.

Not had the screen freeze on mine, now into 4 th week or so.

Darke Bear posted:

The Strat (Fender) posted:

Come on shouldn’t a £18k streamer sound good every evening, and morning and afternoon?  

Run-in makes it vary a lot at the moment, but it is great now - at other times not as much.

So 'good' in context of my system to me is meant. But perhaps I should not bother.

DB.

DB,

Well I’ll put my hand up in recognition that I have t tried a ND555 at home nor will I I as purchase is not option for me.

However, I’ve heard it 3 times with Titan 808s, the latest Utopias and Dynaudio Confidence.   On all 3 occasions whilst it’s capabilities were apparent I was struck by how bright it was to the point with a couple of tracks with the Dynas of being unlistenable.  

I’m minded to think back to whenever I’ve heard a CD555 and how I’ve always felt the sheer energy and depth of whatever was being played without any misgivings.   Further, recently I’ve heard the NDX2 with Kudos 505s and the new Focal Kantas and have found it more entertaining by far.  

Then I read that it needs space around it on the rack - really?!  And whilst I recognise run-in in my experience consistency is normally reached after about a week of regular use.  

Now I’m not saying it’s a flawed product  - on the contrary - but enjoying music should surely be easier that this?

Regards,

Lindsay

Well I would just add the ND555/ Dynaudio demo that Lindsay mentions just adds to my list of these types of ND555 demos where I was underwhelmed by what I heard. Having said that, in a room set up with my own system at the dealer, I then bought it. I am really happy with that decision.It does beg the question of how many people are being put off. Perhaps as a source it’s a little ruthless on set ups.....not got enough experience to answer that?

Being a long time user of Naim l’ve never understood why they are so temprermentle ie cable dressing ,air around items space between PSs etc etc!,oh and the right racks,l don’t know of any other manufacturer that has so many comprermises,a lot of other high end items are just plonk &play, l wonder why a lot of us still bother?.

Most kit is sensitive to how and where you place it. You can plonk it down and it will work fine but to get the best out of it, supports and arrangement of the kit can make a worthwhile difference.

Yes, it does seem daft to have to put an ND555 on £2,000 of Fraim, by itself, to avoid it sounding ‘poor’. In reality you probably don’t, unless you have ears like GCHQ. You can of course just wire it all up without cable dressing neurosis and it will sound good, but with greater attention to detail it will be better. There is a sensible compromise in there somewhere. 

hungryhalibut posted:

Yes, it does seem daft to have to put an ND555 on £2,000 of Fraim, by itself, to avoid it sounding ‘poor’. In reality you probably don’t, unless you have ears like GCHQ. You can of course just wire it all up without cable dressing neurosis and it will sound good, but with greater attention to detail it will be better. There is a sensible compromise in there somewhere. 

Nigel,

I think that’s correct.  As I say no doubt run in takes place and also proper placement on a good rack is important.

But I also wonder how much of the variations that we hear are down to fluctuations in our hearing?

Regards,

Lindsay 

I think it is pretty much 'plonk and play'. It's just that some users are a lot more critical than others. Maybe that's excusable given the prices? Mine doesn't have space around it, with a tuner on the shelf below and a preamp above. Care with cabling is fair enough and not too difficult to arrange, but even if they are touching the wall or floor it still works and still sounds very good. I'm not sure that I can detect any difference when a cable touches the wall, but just in case there is a real difference, I take care to ensure that it's clear of the wall. I adopt the same approach with all the Naim myths just in case it makes a difference, but these aren't hard and fast rules which must be obeyed in order for the equipment to play music.

The Strat (Fender) posted:

hungryhalibut posted:

Yes, it does seem daft to have to put an ND555 on £2,000 of Fraim, by itself, to avoid it sounding ‘poor’. In reality you probably don’t, unless you have ears like GCHQ. You can of course just wire it all up without cable dressing neurosis and it will sound good, but with greater attention to detail it will be better. There is a sensible compromise in there somewhere. 

Nigel,

I think that’s correct.  As I say no doubt run in takes place and also proper placement on a good rack is important.

But I also wonder how much of the variations that we hear are down to fluctuations in our hearing?

Regards,

Lindsay 

And the mood we're in at the time, the weather, what else we're worrying about at the time etc.

The Strat (Fender) posted:

DB,

Well I’ll put my hand up in recognition that I have t tried a ND555 at home nor will I I as purchase is not option for me.

However, I’ve heard it 3 times with Titan 808s, the latest Utopias and Dynaudio Confidence.   On all 3 occasions whilst it’s capabilities were apparent I was struck by how bright it was to the point with a couple of tracks with the Dynas of being unlistenable.  

I’m minded to think back to whenever I’ve heard a CD555 and how I’ve always felt the sheer energy and depth of whatever was being played without any misgivings.   Further, recently I’ve heard the NDX2 with Kudos 505s and the new Focal Kantas and have found it more entertaining by far.  

Then I read that it needs space around it on the rack - really?!  And whilst I recognise run-in in my experience consistency is normally reached after about a week of regular use.  

Now I’m not saying it’s a flawed product  - on the contrary - but enjoying music should surely be easier that this?

Regards,

Lindsay

I don't say it needs space, only that for me it sounds far better when it has space - there is a difference if you see it. I find it works ok placed almost any place, but in context of my system I wanted all it can give - I experimented and found just like the CD555 in my system it needed space to breath and really open-out its performance.

I found the CD555 was very compromised in my system when stacked with a lot of other boxes and was far better on its own 'source' stack alone, so I find the same for the ND555 and that is not a big surprise to me. When I changed to S1 Pre I removed the 552 from under the CD555 at that time and things improved even though at that point the 552 was just a weight on the shelf - I then removed that empty-shelf and lowered the source stack and a lot of openness, detail and clarity went and the music was not as good so the shelf went back. That is what I use now and it does work well.

People want these things to not matter and not make any difference - and I'm fine with that but they do for me and as this is Forum to share experiences that is what I do. I try not to attack anyone that is not to my way of thinking. There are always going to be negative comments about expensive items that people are bitter they do not own so perhaps best for us not to comment? Hopefully things can still be shared - I respect your opinion.

DB.

Yes, it is finding the right balance of 'set-up attention to detail' and the return you get for the effort/expense in SQ. That balance will be diiferent for each of us.

At the Audio East Show I has a peek around the back of the Fraim of 500 system in the Dynaudio room and noticed they had 'shrouded' all the Burndies with foam pipe insulation tubing. I thought that was a rather neat, inexpensive and effective way of keeping the Burndies away from other cables, each other, and the floor. Never seen that before.

nigelb posted:

Yes, it is finding the right balance of 'set-up attention to detail' and the return you get for the effort/expense in SQ. That balance will be diiferent for each of us.

At the Audio East Show I has a peek around the back of the Fraim of 500 system in the Dynaudio room and noticed they had 'shrouded' all the Burndies with foam pipe insulation tubing. I thought that was a rather neat, inexpensive and effective way of keeping the Burndies away from other cables, each other, and the floor. Never seen that before.

 

Yes I noticed that. Pity it still sounded awful - imo.  

Darke Bear posted:

Without the empty shelves it sounds poor. With no glass-loading also poor.

DB.

DB - this is what prompted my observation - the categoric assertion that without empty shelves it sounds poor. Yet in your more recent post you say it works ok in ‘any place’. Working ok and poor are diametrically opposed. Maybe that backs up the idea that how things sound, and indeed how we feel about them, changes with our mood, ears, weather, whatever.