ND555 Impressions

Bart posted:

Richard Sellicks posted:

Cost me a new kitchen!

My wife is an excellent cook and loves to cook for us. Every kitchen upgrade has been a huge win for me too. She’s away for a new work venture all summer so I’ve been doing the cooking for me and the dog (he shares my steaks and chops) . . . and I’ve totally upgraded the living room hi fi. She’ll eventually notice when she’s home. 

The onlt thing she’s ever felt she had to say no to was a Ferrari. But she was just being proactive; I had no intention to buy one.

Bart, you really are a lucky chap.  My missus isn't sure where our kitchen is, let alone how to use it  (and we live in a 3-bed bungalow).

OK, I exagerate a little, but only a little, she always cooks a dinner on Christmas day and at Easter... and it's tasty, no complaints at all.  I, on the other hand, know exactly how our microwave works and what the nutritional values are for almost every Sainsburys & Tesco ready meal   

i am following actually the excellent serial “ sharp objects “.  The husband has a big simaudio and vpi system, estimated at 120k dollars.  But he is like a dog for his wife, at her orders.  The wife is cooking too.

1000 posts...dam you Bert..i’ve still not got my ND555!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You never know they may be learning a few tweaks as they build, just as they did with the CD555. The early ones were not quite as good, unless modified later by Naim when returned to Salisbury.

Gazza posted:

You never know they may be learning a few tweaks as they build, just as they did with the CD555. The early ones were not quite as good, unless modified later by Naim when returned to Salisbury.

Bless ya Gazza...my shout...what you drinking 

Order placed this afternoon for my ND555 .................... well, my NDS is quite clearly "broken", innit. 

Congratulations. Please queue here.

Harry posted:

Congratulations. Please queue here.

Hi Harry,

I'm quite happy to soldier on with my "broken" NDS for a while, and have offered to go the back of my dealer's queue, so as he can pacify any of his more impatient customers.

Mr. Staines, you owe me a beer! 

French Rooster posted:

Dave J posted:

And what will you do for her?

he will let her play with the remote 

(new naim remote )

Dustysox posted:

1000 posts...dam you Bert..i’ve still not got my ND555!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can’t argue we didn’t support you with this post. Hope you soon will be released from the suffering......

I know Dave, I know. It's such a shitty situation. Somehow you'll just have to find a way to get through it.

You should all have placed an order in February.... like I did. Have faith in Naim and avoid the stress. My ND555 is still sounding sublime. 

dave marshall posted:

Harry posted:

Congratulations. Please queue here.

Hi Harry,

I'm quite happy to soldier on with my "broken" NDS for a while, and have offered to go the back of my dealer's queue, so as he can pacify any of his more impatient customers.

Mr. Staines, you owe me a beer! 

Well done, bet yours turns up before mine!!

in fact, my NDS sounds absolutely/unbeatable/unbelievably...unbroken this evening...slumming/slamming the music this evening!!

Bert Schurink posted:

Dustysox posted:

1000 posts...dam you Bert..i’ve still not got my ND555!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can’t argue we didn’t support you with this post. Hope you soon will be released from the suffering......

I can’t believe after my earlier post that I happen to stumble on post No 1000...maybe my luck is changing.

Yeah..thanks for all the support ????

DaveBk posted:

You should all have placed an order in February.... like I did. Have faith in Naim and avoid the stress. My ND555 is still sounding sublime. 

O, stop it Dave ????

Order, placed last day of June...was a hot afternoon...O hang on a minute..I feel a song coming on!!!!

Sounds like a Bobby Goldsboro moment......frozen in time, great then....OK now and again for the memory

dave marshall posted:

Order placed this afternoon for my ND555 .................... well, my NDS is quite clearly "broken", innit. 

Come off it, your NDS is just fine. It's your HDX that's broken 

I am expecting mine to arrive mid september, and ordered first week of August. Thats not a long wait, but lets see.

what connectivity approach for eg podcast stream on an ipad gives best quality w nd555 - there is airplay 2, chromecast, bluetooth...

any experience?

thx Lars

LarsDK posted:

what connectivity approach for eg podcast stream on an ipad gives best quality w nd555 - there is airplay 2, chromecast, bluetooth...

any experience?

I can’t speak from experience of the ND555, but from other Naim streamers, I would say probably Chromecast. The stream doesn’t go via the iPad, it goes directly over your network from router to streamer with the iPad just acting as a controller. 

Sometimes I have found a direct connection from iPad to streamer USB port best. Thus works well with the Radio Paradise FLAC stream. This may be a little inconvenient if you don’t sit close to the streamer, unless you have a spare tablet or phone you can use. 

Dave. I didn't realise you have the HDX.  When ours failed (feeding NDS/555PS)  I got Minimserver up and running on a the QNAP as a temporary measure to keep the music flowing. I was not prepared to the change in sound quality. There are many things I can't hear a difference between. This was not one of them. Your results may vary. When our HDX was repaired we sold it.

Harry posted:

Dave. I didn't realise you have the HDX.  When ours failed (feeding NDS/555PS)  I got Minimserver up and running on a the QNAP as a temporary measure to keep the music flowing. I was not prepared to the change in sound quality. There are many things I can't hear a difference between. This was not one of them. Your results may vary. When our HDX was repaired we sold it.

Yes, Minimserver is functioning fine on my Qnap, other than the issue with cover art, but I haven't had the chance for a serious listen / comparison with the HDX being used as my server, having only installed it yesterday.

I guess the big decision will be whether to continue with the NAS, or replace the HDX with a Core .................. I know that's an expensive solution, but I do value the present simplicity of ripping which the HDX provides.

That will have to wait for later, though, until after the ND555 has been pressed into service, .................... and paid for! 

NAS all the way for me. Naim's proprietary model for tagging is silly in my view. But it's good to have a choice. Choice is always essential.

We compared internal HDD to NAS and couldn't hear a difference. So we always ripped our music to NAS because it's more flexible for scaling and redundancy. When we started ripping DVD and BD for high res music, and started downloading high res and standard res music, the importance of clean tagging became obvious very quickly. And it's easy to do with something like dBpoweramp. It was only when I started using Minimserver as a stop gap that I realised how awful Naim's tagging system for WAVs is. So far as I know the Core continues with this "Naim only" model for WAVs. If I couldn't hear a difference between WAV and FLAC it wouldn't be an issue for me. 

nigelb posted:

Richard Dane posted:

Nigel, I think you know the answer to that one.  If I were your dealer I would be lining up a NAC552 and an ND555 for a demo at yours.  I'd definitely be interested to hear such a demo myself. The NAC552 is very special but then, from what limited amount I've heard of it so far, and from the reports on this forum, likely so is the ND555.  Enjoy yourself...

Yes a demo of both the 552 with my NDS and the ND555 with my 252 would make sense. It has to be those pairings though as I can't afford both a 552 and a ND555, unless my numbers come up of course.

My gut tells me 552 first both on SQ grounds and because you can find second hand (sorry, pre-loved) examples and I could possibly trade in my 252/SuperCapDR if I can find a dealer with a cherished 552. But then the ND555 seems such an advance from the NDS and I already own a 555DR.

Oooh, this is a tough one.

I think Nigel these are First World challenges!

Home-demo part 2 underway...

Interesting.

Darke Bear posted:

Home-demo part 2 underway...

Interesting.

Hope you are impressed !