ND555 Impressions

yeti42 posted:

Can no one with a Dave have taken an ND555 home? I’d assumed the uncharacteristic reticence on the part of the Chordites (Chordates?) indicated there was no meaningful comparison.

As someone has mentioned, Dark Bear apparently has, though thtabis the only comparison of which O am aware. For myself, Guven that the ND555 needs 2 PSs to sound at its best, and needs a preamp, It is something I cannot even contemplate affording unless I win the lottery. If listening was convenient I might be tempted to have a hear out of curiosity, but where I live it is not. But with Dave so good nothing pushes me to anything other than the most mild of curiosity.

First growing pain tonight. Significant increase in size of sound stage. It feels kind of artificial because I have never heard it this wide or deep before. More detail has emerged in the bigger space. The image seems a bit lopsided and the presentation has become a bit forward, but not spitting or jaring.  This is the first deviation I've heard from the bigger than NDS, easy, detailed and insightful presentation, since last Friday evening. Still very easy to listen to and enjoy. But things are obviously happening. Interesting. I'm really looking forward to hearing what it's doing tomorrow - work permitting.

Harry posted:

First growing pain tonight. Significant increase in size of sound stage. It feels kind of artificial because I have never heard it this wide or deep before. More detail has emerged in the bigger space. The image seems a bit lopsided and the presentation has become a bit forward, but not spitting or jaring.  This is the first deviation I've heard from the bigger than NDS, easy, detailed and insightful presentation, since last Friday evening. Still very easy to listen to and enjoy. But things are obviously happening. Interesting. I'm really looking forward to hearing what it's doing tomorrow - work permitting.

presumably part of the run-in rollercoaster Harry?

continue to enjoy...

/ken

Gazza posted:

Dark Bear tried at his dealer and felt that ND555 and a single PS were comparable with Dave/Upscaler....different presentations though. But the second PS made a big difference and the ND555 was better in his opinion. Hope I summarised that correctly DB.

That was essentially my opinion from a few weeks ago when I first properly heard the ND555 at my Dealer's when we compared against the Dave-Upscaler, which I also rated having an exceptional quality for a streaming system I had heard until that point.

For me - and it may be I'm particularly fussy here - the two supplies took the ND555 into a different league of performance and there was no similar trick that could be done with the Dave player, so there was not the fair comparison at that point. But it was at this level, for me, of ND555 with 2x 555PS that it had the qualities I knew from my CD555 2x 555PS and missed when not there - essentially low-bass resolution of timing and note-structure, heightened resolution of presence information and more open top-end. That made it special and I listened to it until ejected from my Dealer as I lost track of time - and arrange for home-demo.

The rest you know - I await my unit hopefully later this month some time or early next. Meantime my CD555 is really performing excellently and I then start to question my choices, but I think the ND555 was significantly better in most but perhaps not all areas and run-in would prove the if it significantly cleared the CD555 performance, which I suspect it can. But it also raised a lot of issues I need to get done right and it is nice to hear report of a new App that may be improved where I was having some problems in my home demo.

DB.

Thanks Ken. Yes it is and yes I will

The app will slowly improve all the time DB. It used to be a right lash up compared to what it is now, and it will continue to evolve. It never stops.

Great Comparison DB can't wait to get mine ....... however, NDS is still sounding great........

And it always will. Because it is.

Out of interest has anyone downloaded the latest Naim App? Ive seen a massive improvement on time finding rooms...or am i alone!!

No Darren. It's better. But for me, the wake up lag is troubling.

Just had the dealer on the phone my ND555 and 555PS are in transit and will be installed later today.

Nice one do report back on how it sounds

Harry posted:

No Darren. It's better. But for me, the wake up lag is troubling.

I wonder what's going on, Harry, as I've not been seeing significant wake up lag.

I just came in from walking the dog, and had wifi off on my phone.  I turned on wifi and opened the Naim app.  My Qute was there, and then the ND555 showed up barely 2 seconds later. Once it showed up everything was functional etc.  Now, why the Qute was already there and the ND555 had to be 'found' at all I don't know, but it happened so fast that it didn't bother me.  Sounds like your experience has been / is way worse.

PS this with the just-released app store build of the Naim App, not the beta.

Harry, strange ? when I had the demo unit out from Audience I to noticed a slight lag on the volume but also on one occasion when I went to open the APP all my Naim stuff was on the screen but the ND555 was in an updating mode you could not get it to open.

I powered the unit down along with my router waited a few minutes, restarted the router then the ND555 after this the lag was still their but not as bad as before.

My ND555  is being installed later today I will report back on what the volume control is like never had a problem with the NDX so it will be interesting. 

I powered down the whole network last week end to no avail. I didn't power down the ND555, but a power cut today has done that for me!  I will check later to see if this has affected the wake up lag.

The dem unit did it too. The NDS did not. I immediately suspected the network. On the other hand, it was fine with the NDS and none of our MuSos or QBs are affected.

Pleased to hear that new units are still turning up this week. The happiness is spreading.

Pcd posted:

Just had the dealer on the phone my ND555 and 555PS are in transit and will be installed later today.

Congratulations Pcd! Great piece of stereo gear 

My $5.00 rca to 3.5mm mini cable arrived and now I use system automation to control volume via the Naim App.  I do prefer that to using the 252's remote.

Harry, up and running sounding rather good fresh out of the box the volume on the app is working fine much the same as my NDX.Will report on any changes.

Anyway back to the music.

Congratulations. have fun. I'm just off to have some myself

I have a faulty remote. No biggie. I'll speak to the dealer when I can tear myself away from the music.

I recently had an audition of the ND555,.

It's a very impressive machine with an incredibly involving sound. Background noise was non-existent, the level of detail was everything you would want. Superb.

Need to comment ND555 here after living with it for a couple of weeks now. 

To spill the beans directly: it’s very, very, very good, straight out of the box. NDS (with 2*555PS) isn’t even close. Not sounding broken in any way, but ND555 is in another league. The best league no matter what kind of source you prefer. I’m seriously done now, can’t see any reason to upgrade. Now or ever (famous words you will chew down later but what the he...)

It’s MAYBE better now, a couple of weeks later, really can’t say, and I’m sure the many Music cables in the system does what they are  supposed to do (Kudos 808 also a big part of it) BUT: My God, it sounds sooooo good, not “Hi-Fi good”, but with a presence and musically unheard of  before. Ever! 

//Jonas

Similar story here, although we're only a week in. The capabilities or the ND555 are unbelievable, as in if you had told me a month ago that an advance of this magnitude was possible I wouldn't have believed it.

We would mind a 552 with a full range volume control. Assuming one can ever be built with no detrimental effect on musical performance. Other than that, I think we probably are done now.

Are you for the most, part using Super Lumina on ND555? And if so, have you made the comparison with the Hi-Line supplied as standard? I found the ND555, among all its remarkable features, very very sweet, maybe a bit too sweet.????

Chag -

David O'Higgins posted:

Bert Schurink posted:

For me this album of Melody Gardot is the best way to sell the ND555. Before I didn’t need to stay until the end with this album, while I also on the NDS liked this album and the feedback you hear. Now this album is pure magic. The air, soundstage, accuracy of voice etc....absolutely recommended....

 

Whatever about selling ND555, it certainly looks like a good way of selling Melody Gardot!

After reading Berts post, I listened to this album in Tidal, and I fully agree that it showcases the  ND555 perfectly, ( and Melody also). I then bought the 24 bit version, which improves on Tidal. Only problem now is how to explain to my spouse the image displayed in my previously non controversial streamer display.

We're using our SL loom. The Hi-Line included with it won't come out of its box.