ND555 Impressions

I'm impressed........

Michael posted:

I will be sharing the dem alongside the trusty ears of J.N. who is joining us. I have 2 x 555PSDR supplies here so we can try various options using one or two supplies on the ND555. Like RJS I am not intending to part with the CD555 head unit, so will have the luxury of three top notch sources using vinyl, cd and streaming. Will report tomorrow. Excited!

 

 

An interesting day ahead for you folks! A comment regarding you hanging onto the 555...If you discover, as I very much suspect you will, that the ND sounds that much better than the 555, and you invest in one, then you might well find that you won't really want to use the CD player. That was certainly my experience when I made the "Mistake" of borrowing a Chord QBD76HDSD from our mutual dealer. I had no intention of  moving on the 555, but the Chord (usual caveats, in my system, my room, my ears) was that much better I really didn't want to bother playing CDs any more.

tonym posted:

Michael posted:

I will be sharing the dem alongside the trusty ears of J.N. who is joining us. I have 2 x 555PSDR supplies here so we can try various options using one or two supplies on the ND555. Like RJS I am not intending to part with the CD555 head unit, so will have the luxury of three top notch sources using vinyl, cd and streaming. Will report tomorrow. Excited!

 

 

An interesting day ahead for you folks! A comment regarding you hanging onto the 555...If you discover, as I very much suspect you will, that the ND sounds that much better than the 555, and you invest in one, then you might well find that you won't really want to use the CD player. That was certainly my experience when I made the "Mistake" of borrowing a Chord QBD76HDSD from our mutual dealer. I had no intention of  moving on the 555, but the Chord (usual caveats, in my system, my room, my ears) was that much better I really didn't want to bother playing CDs any more.

I had the same throught as well. People who now have a CD555 and get a ND555 will most probably feel like not playing CD's anymore, or only out of nostalgia reasons. That would also enable these guys then to use the beauty of a 2nd 555PS on the ND555.

Richieroo posted:

Bert thanks for the edginess update ........ does this apply to vocal sibilence???

Edgy was not a problem of vocals only of piano sounds. And for piano it has been resolved now.

Richieroo posted:

Hi - what concerns me is my NDS front end is voiced for my system .... spot on ...... neither bright or too bass heavy........does the ND555 change the general 'balance' of the system? I know when I installed a 552 to my 500 ......... holy smoke.. it was more upfront, fast and full of detail. The 552 initially sounded bright ...... but with careful auditioning it was apparent it was just letting allot more information through.......... it sounds like the ND555 is somewhat like this from Harry's description....any thoughts?

Yes it does change the presentation. It let's much more information through and also emits more energy. The effect in my listening situation is that I am more surrounded by sound then that the sound is projected towards me, It didn't create a problem at all in my setup, it just made the experience so much more pleasant....

Thanks for that Burt .... I have just had a demo at Audio T .... as a taster ........ my view was that it appeared not to significantly effect balance ........unfortunately it was on lesser amplification (282/hi cap dr/250dr) than my set up ....... but I could definitely hear it was allowing a wide sound stage with excellent detail .......... vocals sounded excellent.... someday iIwill try a home demo ........ I have just changed rooms so I am in the process of shaking down my system.....so I will wait a while....hopefully not too long!!! 

Bert Schurink posted:

Richieroo posted:

Bert is it possible - to switch the colour display off when the ND555 is playing???

When you push the display button I haven't seen that switching off but just the buttons. I will soon dig in a bit deeper. But if possible not so obvious how to switch off.

You have to press the Home button on the remote and select Settings->Display->Display off during playback.

I take it this prevents the image displaying from then on ...... 

I would imagine if you put it into deep sleep, it will do its reboot like a Nova etc and you would presumably have to reset. Could be wrong though.

Is there not a detailed instruction manual which explains things such as how to turn the display off? Maybe there’s one available online (I haven’t checked). 

No just the support page on the web, it says you use the remote to turn off display during playback......nothing else.

Alba1320 posted:

Clive B posted:

Is there not a detailed instruction manual which explains things such as how to turn the display off? Maybe there’s one available online (I haven’t checked). 

Along the lines of blackbird's post above, the online Support FAQ contains the following:

I wonder, are instruction manuals, even with something as potentially complex as ND555, a thing of the past?

In the past the switching off the display helped in improving the quality of the sound. Interested how much the influence is now with the changed display.

Alba1320 posted:

^ FWIW, the instructions posted above are in answer to the following question:

Doesn’t work for me selected the option, but the screen is still on.....

İs using a single PS for both cd555 and nd555 a good idea? Will it be apractical thing to do, i can live with my cd Player for a month then streamer..... any toughts? Am i  cheap and Naive?

Maybe I'll be able to try when I use the dealer's ND555 unit tomorrow, that is if Harry hasn't already investigated the display off process with this unit.

Emre posted:

İs using a single PS for both cd555 and nd555 a good idea? Will it be apractical thing to do, i can live with my cd Player for a month then streamer..... any toughts? Am i  cheap and Naive?

Swapping a PS between both a good idea ? Not really because all Naim kit benefits from being left on and to be honest, it sounds like a bit of strange way to enjoy your system swapping between sources on a monthly basis.

Get the ND555 on demo and see which one you prefer. You can decide whether you need both sources and determine whether keeping both sources available justifies buying another 555PS....

All IMHO of course  

Well folks a very interesting afternoon listening to the ND555 at home with Pam, Andy from Signals and J.N. The main object of the exercise was to  compare the new streamer to my trusty CD555. We didn't even bother to compare it to the NDX as we knew what the outcome of that would be!

We started off by playing a few familiar tracks on the CD player and then on the ND555 using  just one 555PSDR. We were not prepared for what was coming out of the speakers from the new streamer. I agree with all that has been written by previous contributors to this thread about sound-stage, clarity, grip and the sheer naturalness of instruments and voices and I was immediately able to identify with all that has been written so I won't repeat it again. Within a few notes of each track we could hear that the ND555 was clearly better in all departments than the CD555, which was initially quite disturbing! 

Thus far we were using my existing QNAP NAS, Andy bought along a Melco Music Server and we connected that up, which introduced another level in ease and clarity, certainly something to consider adding to the system at a later date maybe.

We then did the full Monty and added a second 555PSDR which brought even more to the party, so all in all it was a very interesting progression for us all through the various upgrade stages available. I would add that many have commented in the past that adding a second 555PS to the CD555 was not to everyone's taste making it rather too hi-fi and less musical, but this does not seem to be the case with the ND555. Interestingly Naim never really pushed the idea of a twin supply on the CD555 whereas they certainly are saying that there are gains to be had by doing so on the ND555. 

So to sum up:-

a) with one 555PSDR using my existing NAS set up  there was a clear improvement all round over the CD555,

b) adding the Melco and the second supply, this brought more of the same, as you would expect, but to a lesser degree, where you are entering the realms of the law of diminishing returns I guess, but if one can afford to do it, it is certainly worthwhile.

So what have I decided to do? The NDX goes, the ND555 is ordered and I will box the CD555 head unit up but keep it for nostalgia sake, as trade in values are now so small. It can have the occasional outing when the mood takes me! I can then use the ND555 with my two 555PSDR supplies and know I am getting the most out of it for now, until I add the icing on the cake with a dedicated music server such as the Melco, 

Well done Naim it has been worth the wait and good to see how the implementation of digital audio has evolved over the years to a very high level now.

Thanks for a thorough review. Much appreciated

Holy cra... 16k€ for a streamer without PSU? it MUST be good:-)

Michael posted:

Well folks a very interesting afternoon listening to the ND555 at home with Pam, Andy from Signals and J.N. The main object of the exercise was to  compare the new streamer to my trusty CD555. We didn't even bother to compare it to the NDX as we knew what the outcome of that would be!

We started off by playing a few familiar tracks on the CD player and then on the ND555 using  just one 555PSDR. We were not prepared for what was coming out of the speakers from the new streamer. I agree with all that has been written by previous contributors to this thread about sound-stage, clarity, grip and the sheer naturalness of instruments and voices and I was immediately able to identify with all that has been written so I won't repeat it again. Within a few notes of each track we could hear that the ND555 was clearly better in all departments than the CD555, which was initially quite disturbing! 

Thus far we were using my existing QNAP NAS, Andy bought along a Melco Music Server and we connected that up, which introduced another level in ease and clarity, certainly something to consider adding to the system at a later date maybe.

We then did the full Monty and added a second 555PSDR which brought even more to the party, so all in all it was a very interesting progression for us all through the various upgrade stages available. I would add that many have commented in the past that adding a second 555PS to the CD555 was not to everyone's taste making it rather too hi-fi and less musical, but this does not seem to be the case with the ND555. Interestingly Naim never really pushed the idea of a twin supply on the CD555 whereas they certainly are saying that there are gains to be had by doing so on the ND555. 

So to sum up:-

a) with one 555PSDR using my existing NAS set up  there was a clear improvement all round over the CD555,

b) adding the Melco and the second supply, this brought more of the same, as you would expect, but to a lesser degree, where you are entering the realms of the law of diminishing returns I guess, but if one can afford to do it, it is certainly worthwhile.

So what have I decided to do? The NDX goes, the ND555 is ordered and I will box the CD555 head unit up but keep it for nostalgia sake, as trade in values are now so small. It can have the occasional outing when the mood takes me! I can then use the ND555 with my two 555PSDR supplies and know I am getting the most out of it for now, until I add the icing on the cake with a dedicated music server such as the Melco, 

Well done Naim it has been worth the wait and good to see how the implementation of digital audio has evolved over the years to a very high level now.

Thanks Michael!
Does John agree with you?

BP.

And no volume control either? If only I had a power supply to go with it I could find out.

yeti42 posted:

And no volume control either?

I think you’ll find your preamp has one of those!

BPhotographer posted:

Michael posted:

Well folks a very interesting afternoon listening to the ND555 at home with Pam, Andy from Signals and J.N. The main object of the exercise was to  compare the new streamer to my trusty CD555. We didn't even bother to compare it to the NDX as we knew what the outcome of that would be!

... ...

Thanks Michael!
Does John agree with you?

BP.

John?  Hello, anyone seen John? 

Is that a John I see cringing at the inevitable prospect of having to upgrade to an ND555?

I share your pain, as I'm going to have to DR the 555PS as well!

Yours most impoverished, FT

I know John is busy this evening but he said he would add his comments in due course. Yes he agreed completely with our findings. Fortunately having owned the NDX and got all my tracks ripped and a network up and running it is a swap in and out situation for me. John, however will have to start from base camp, but he does have the advantage that he can go straight to a  Melco. 

Alba1320 posted:

yeti42 posted:

And no volume control either? If only I had a power supply to go with it I could find out.

So who’s going to skip the pre amp then?

That FAQ is rather tucked away on the brochure page, could do with a link from Product Support in the main menu at least.