ND555 Impressions

Just got my ND555, easy to set up, and with the 2 new burndies attached it is significantly better than NDS, more like my vinyl player. I will need to compare with the latter, in a few weeks time.

Congratulations, it will get better over the next few weeks.

All files tested and working perfectly...so there are no issues playing them via an ND555.

Hope that helps

The run-in is now into week 3 (about day 16) and today it is very unpleasant and frankly unlistenable. A fuzzy-smeary dullness with sharpness where there should not be - I'll see if it lifts later. It is reassuring to have both heard the run-in version I borrowed - and to have had good communication with another forum member in USA who told of similar problems and was on point of thinking they had a problem with their ND555 - until it cleared.

I write this for others who may experience this too, as if you only ever read that it is all bliss and lovely with no problems you may panic and get worried if this is not your experience.

Last night the listening experience was good - but things were going off as I found I was selecting music a bit in the end to not hit the particular run-in bump, but now that is not possible, so I have to wait until it passes.

DB.

Gazza posted:

Congratulations, it will get better over the next few weeks.

Thanks Gaza, that’s why I will wait to compare with my analogue set up. 

Darke Bear posted:

The run-in is now into week 3 (about day 16) and today it is very unpleasant and frankly unlistenable. A fuzzy-smeary dullness with sharpness where there should not be - I'll see if it lifts later. It is reassuring to have both heard the run-in version I borrowed - and to have had good communication with another forum member in USA who told of similar problems and was on point of thinking they had a problem with their ND555 - until it cleared.

I write this for others who may experience this too, as if you only ever read that it is all bliss and lovely with no problems you may panic and get worried if this is not your experience.

Last night the listening experience was good - but things were going off as I found I was selecting music a bit in the end to not hit the particular run-in bump, but now that is not possible, so I have to wait until it passes.

DB.

I'm experiencing something like this, too. I am on day 30 [had to look it up, I thought it was a lot less]. About a week ago after only hearing a good, resonant sounding ND 555, the sound become sharp edged, with a sort of digital hollowness. Then, this weekend, all was good again, clear and solid sounds, across a range of music, solo viola, deep new jazz based Americana, Robin Williamson and more. Then this afternoon, things do not seem quite right again. A new recording of an early music mix sounded positively ugly, horrible and hollow. The new John Hiatt is on now and it is sort of ok but I'm not hearing anything like the sort of sound that almost took my breath away early on, during demo and after install.  I'm listening via Qobuz as embedded in Audirvana+, UPnP/ND 555.

I've connected a Hugo2 to the digital out with the intention of seeing what the difference might be but not given it any proper test yet.

ND555 and 555PS are six weeks old just played this Chely Wright album when I had the ND555 first Chelys voice on a couple of tracks could be described as slightly edgy no such thing now just a pure unadulterated musical experience.

Not sure what sort of magic fairy dust Naim have put inside of the ND555 but it surely works..

Michael posted:

All files tested and working perfectly...so there are no issues playing them via an ND555.

Hope that helps

Hello Michael

Thanks for doing that. Its good news.  I am primarily have a rebirth of audio as a result of super digital equipment and the potential of HiRez source material.  If the ND555 I have on order had an issue with HiRez, that would be a dilemma for me.  Glad to hear that they work on the usb slot in the front.

Bailyhill

cycling66 posted:

Darke Bear posted:

The run-in is now into week 3 (about day 16) and today it is very unpleasant and frankly unlistenable. A fuzzy-smeary dullness with sharpness where there should not be - I'll see if it lifts later. It is reassuring to have both heard the run-in version I borrowed - and to have had good communication with another forum member in USA who told of similar problems and was on point of thinking they had a problem with their ND555 - until it cleared.

I write this for others who may experience this too, as if you only ever read that it is all bliss and lovely with no problems you may panic and get worried if this is not your experience.

Last night the listening experience was good - but things were going off as I found I was selecting music a bit in the end to not hit the particular run-in bump, but now that is not possible, so I have to wait until it passes.

DB.

I'm experiencing something like this, too. I am on day 30 [had to look it up, I thought it was a lot less]. About a week ago after only hearing a good, resonant sounding ND 555, the sound become sharp edged, with a sort of digital hollowness. Then, this weekend, all was good again, clear and solid sounds, across a range of music, solo viola, deep new jazz based Americana, Robin Williamson and more. Then this afternoon, things do not seem quite right again. A new recording of an early music mix sounded positively ugly, horrible and hollow. The new John Hiatt is on now and it is sort of ok but I'm not hearing anything like the sort of sound that almost took my breath away early on, during demo and after install.  I'm listening via Qobuz as embedded in Audirvana+, UPnP/ND 555.

I've connected a Hugo2 to the digital out with the intention of seeing what the difference might be but not given it any proper test yet.

Mains pollution, Qobuz servers, your state of mind and ... the quality of recordings are not constants! What makes you think that the differences that you are perceiving (from sublime to hollow) are the consequence of changes in the ND555? 

nbpf posted:

cycling66 posted:

Darke Bear posted:

The run-in is now into week 3 (about day 16) and today it is very unpleasant and frankly unlistenable. A fuzzy-smeary dullness with sharpness where there should not be - I'll see if it lifts later. It is reassuring to have both heard the run-in version I borrowed - and to have had good communication with another forum member in USA who told of similar problems and was on point of thinking they had a problem with their ND555 - until it cleared.

I write this for others who may experience this too, as if you only ever read that it is all bliss and lovely with no problems you may panic and get worried if this is not your experience.

Last night the listening experience was good - but things were going off as I found I was selecting music a bit in the end to not hit the particular run-in bump, but now that is not possible, so I have to wait until it passes.

DB.

I'm experiencing something like this, too. I am on day 30 [had to look it up, I thought it was a lot less]. About a week ago after only hearing a good, resonant sounding ND 555, the sound become sharp edged, with a sort of digital hollowness. Then, this weekend, all was good again, clear and solid sounds, across a range of music, solo viola, deep new jazz based Americana, Robin Williamson and more. Then this afternoon, things do not seem quite right again. A new recording of an early music mix sounded positively ugly, horrible and hollow. The new John Hiatt is on now and it is sort of ok but I'm not hearing anything like the sort of sound that almost took my breath away early on, during demo and after install.  I'm listening via Qobuz as embedded in Audirvana+, UPnP/ND 555.

I've connected a Hugo2 to the digital out with the intention of seeing what the difference might be but not given it any proper test yet.

Mains pollution, Qobuz servers, your state of mind and ... the quality of recordings are not constants! What makes you think that the differences that you are perceiving (from sublime to hollow) are the consequence of changes in the ND555? 

Hello NBPF

I agree with most of your recent post.  However I have 4 standard pieces that I use to make judgments of this type.  Perhaps each poster needs to play his favorite two or three pieces to make sure that part of the eval is a constant.  Plan to do this when I get my ND555 in a couple of weeks.

Bailyhill

Bailyhill posted:

nbpf posted:

cycling66 posted:

Darke Bear posted:

The run-in is now into week 3 (about day 16) and today it is very unpleasant and frankly unlistenable. A fuzzy-smeary dullness with sharpness where there should not be - I'll see if it lifts later. It is reassuring to have both heard the run-in version I borrowed - and to have had good communication with another forum member in USA who told of similar problems and was on point of thinking they had a problem with their ND555 - until it cleared.

I write this for others who may experience this too, as if you only ever read that it is all bliss and lovely with no problems you may panic and get worried if this is not your experience.

Last night the listening experience was good - but things were going off as I found I was selecting music a bit in the end to not hit the particular run-in bump, but now that is not possible, so I have to wait until it passes.

DB.

I'm experiencing something like this, too. I am on day 30 [had to look it up, I thought it was a lot less]. About a week ago after only hearing a good, resonant sounding ND 555, the sound become sharp edged, with a sort of digital hollowness. Then, this weekend, all was good again, clear and solid sounds, across a range of music, solo viola, deep new jazz based Americana, Robin Williamson and more. Then this afternoon, things do not seem quite right again. A new recording of an early music mix sounded positively ugly, horrible and hollow. The new John Hiatt is on now and it is sort of ok but I'm not hearing anything like the sort of sound that almost took my breath away early on, during demo and after install.  I'm listening via Qobuz as embedded in Audirvana+, UPnP/ND 555.

I've connected a Hugo2 to the digital out with the intention of seeing what the difference might be but not given it any proper test yet.

Mains pollution, Qobuz servers, your state of mind and ... the quality of recordings are not constants! What makes you think that the differences that you are perceiving (from sublime to hollow) are the consequence of changes in the ND555? 

Hello NBPF

I agree with most of your recent post.  However I have 4 standard pieces that I use to make judgments of this type.  Perhaps each poster needs to play his favorite two or three pieces to make sure that part of the eval is a constant.  Plan to do this when I get my ND555 in a couple of weeks.

Bailyhill

Oh and I am pretty sure most of the veteran posters of ND555 impressions already do that--base comments on some standard set of source material.  Sorry, forgot to say that in my previous post.  Probably should have used "edit"

Bailyhill

TomSer posted:

Michael posted:

Tom e-mail sent.

As a further test I tried playing the file direct from a USB stick plugged straight into the front socket of the ND555 rather than playing it off the Melco and again it plays flawlessly. 

Hi Micheal,

Got your message and replied to it. 
Let us know the results of your tests.

Bert will probably try the same tests.

Cheers,

Tom

Hi guys without changing anything I played the album again and it totally plays faultless and is a huge enjoy,ent, so I don’t know what caused the issues yesterday. Perhaps it was some background task running on the Melco which affected it or something else. It’s a great album and running totally without issues, showing off ot’s Fantastic recording and also pleasant music...., give it a try it displays what the ND555 is capable of.....

Bert Schurink posted:

Simon-in-Suffolk posted:

Bert, enjoy... what are your impressions when you put some complex music or discordant music on??? To me that shows a major attribute of the ND555.. interested in your views..

Simon. With complex music you hear every detail every aspect, without feeeling overwhelmed. I will post further impressions, but for now this is the most musical source I have ever heard, including black gold.

That is one of the big differences ! It handles complex musical passages so very well. You can differentiate the instruments and vocals much better with ND555 vs NDS. Prat is obviously better too. 

Darke Bear posted:

The run-in is now into week 3 (about day 16) and today it is very unpleasant and frankly unlistenable. A fuzzy-smeary dullness with sharpness where there should not be - I'll see if it lifts later. It is reassuring to have both heard the run-in version I borrowed - and to have had good communication with another forum member in USA who told of similar problems and was on point of thinking they had a problem with their ND555 - until it cleared.

I write this for others who may experience this too, as if you only ever read that it is all bliss and lovely with no problems you may panic and get worried if this is not your experience.

Last night the listening experience was good - but things were going off as I found I was selecting music a bit in the end to not hit the particular run-in bump, but now that is not possible, so I have to wait until it passes.

DB.

Run in is very real on the ND555. It needs at least 4 weeks . I think even more !

cycling66 posted:

Darke Bear posted:

The run-in is now into week 3 (about day 16) and today it is very unpleasant and frankly unlistenable. A fuzzy-smeary dullness with sharpness where there should not be - I'll see if it lifts later. It is reassuring to have both heard the run-in version I borrowed - and to have had good communication with another forum member in USA who told of similar problems and was on point of thinking they had a problem with their ND555 - until it cleared.

I write this for others who may experience this too, as if you only ever read that it is all bliss and lovely with no problems you may panic and get worried if this is not your experience.

Last night the listening experience was good - but things were going off as I found I was selecting music a bit in the end to not hit the particular run-in bump, but now that is not possible, so I have to wait until it passes.

DB.

I'm experiencing something like this, too. I am on day 30 [had to look it up, I thought it was a lot less]. About a week ago after only hearing a good, resonant sounding ND 555, the sound become sharp edged, with a sort of digital hollowness. Then, this weekend, all was good again, clear and solid sounds, across a range of music, solo viola, deep new jazz based Americana, Robin Williamson and more. Then this afternoon, things do not seem quite right again. A new recording of an early music mix sounded positively ugly, horrible and hollow. The new John Hiatt is on now and it is sort of ok but I'm not hearing anything like the sort of sound that almost took my breath away early on, during demo and after install.  I'm listening via Qobuz as embedded in Audirvana+, UPnP/ND 555.

I've connected a Hugo2 to the digital out with the intention of seeing what the difference might be but not given it any proper test yet.

 

I think the ND555 is so new it has yet to be determined how long full run in actually is . 

Darke Bear posted:

The run-in is now into week 3 (about day 16) and today it is very unpleasant and frankly unlistenable. A fuzzy-smeary dullness with sharpness where there should not be - I'll see if it lifts later. It is reassuring to have both heard the run-in version I borrowed - and to have had good communication with another forum member in USA who told of similar problems and was on point of thinking they had a problem with their ND555 - until it cleared.

I write this for others who may experience this too, as if you only ever read that it is all bliss and lovely with no problems you may panic and get worried if this is not your experience.

Last night the listening experience was good - but things were going off as I found I was selecting music a bit in the end to not hit the particular run-in bump, but now that is not possible, so I have to wait until it passes.

DB.

The sound quality definitely goes up and down during run in. 

nbpf posted:

cycling66 posted:

Darke Bear posted:

The run-in is now into week 3 (about day 16) and today it is very unpleasant and frankly unlistenable. A fuzzy-smeary dullness with sharpness where there should not be - I'll see if it lifts later. It is reassuring to have both heard the run-in version I borrowed - and to have had good communication with another forum member in USA who told of similar problems and was on point of thinking they had a problem with their ND555 - until it cleared.

I write this for others who may experience this too, as if you only ever read that it is all bliss and lovely with no problems you may panic and get worried if this is not your experience.

Last night the listening experience was good - but things were going off as I found I was selecting music a bit in the end to not hit the particular run-in bump, but now that is not possible, so I have to wait until it passes.

DB.

I'm experiencing something like this, too. I am on day 30 [had to look it up, I thought it was a lot less]. About a week ago after only hearing a good, resonant sounding ND 555, the sound become sharp edged, with a sort of digital hollowness. Then, this weekend, all was good again, clear and solid sounds, across a range of music, solo viola, deep new jazz based Americana, Robin Williamson and more. Then this afternoon, things do not seem quite right again. A new recording of an early music mix sounded positively ugly, horrible and hollow. The new John Hiatt is on now and it is sort of ok but I'm not hearing anything like the sort of sound that almost took my breath away early on, during demo and after install.  I'm listening via Qobuz as embedded in Audirvana+, UPnP/ND 555.

I've connected a Hugo2 to the digital out with the intention of seeing what the difference might be but not given it any proper test yet.

Mains pollution, Qobuz servers, your state of mind and ... the quality of recordings are not constants! What makes you think that the differences that you are perceiving (from sublime to hollow) are the consequence of changes in the ND555? 

Thank you,  nbpf, I had not realised all those aspects could alter how I hear the music from the ND 555. I'll have to be more rigorous in future listening and comments. Such a complex business.

The analyse versus listen versus enjoy models have been discussed at length and the advent of the ND555 won't change peoples' methods and approaches. I try not to over analyse using "test" recordings. If you listen for changes you will likely hear changes. I think most of us tend to mix and match. I've got my favourite recordings which I tend to gravitate to but I try not to be an oscilloscope. 

We should each use whatever method(s) best suits us. Our ND555 has peaked and toughed somewhat, but not hugely.  It's so far past the NDS it's almost unreal, and this was the case from when it was first plugged in. Maybe I've got good mains. maybe my ears are heavily damped. Maybe my system lacks the analytical resolution to highlight these effects? I don't know. But I know what I like. And I know how to get it in spades. 

I'll check back in a week or two. If I'm not too busy having fun in the lounge.

...a few hours on and the particular run-in nasty cleared and another level of detail unfolded - a silky-clarity there now with more fine detail retrieval and rendering. I've heard this same effect with the SL interconnect cable run-in when there were waves of harshness or dullness followed by more clarity than before - there a repeat of this several more times until it finally bottoms-out.

Nice to hear progress. As to why I may notice it when some other people may not - if could be a combination of me and the Active system being very unforgiving of such things as they meander their way along. 

DB.

There are so many variables across people and systems. It's remarkable we have anything approaching a consensus. I suspect, but I have no idea, that putting aside the inevitable differences between people, their expectations, how they listen and what they listen to, rooms, systems, mains, and so on, you have a system operating at a level approaching t as good as it gets. I expect the downside of something so revealing is what you are going through as the ND555 settles. If this is the case, at least the upside is magnificent. And dominant.

I listened to something a bit rough tonight. Despite being a "challenging" recording in places, the separation, textures, sense of acoustic space and musical drive would be amazing if it didn't sound so easy and natural that I'm starting to take it for granted. Vocal phrasing and reverb that I've never heard before. And yet, they were there all the time, just waiting.

Darke Bear posted:

...a few hours on and the particular run-in nasty cleared and another level of detail unfolded - a silky-clarity there now with more fine detail retrieval and rendering. I've heard this same effect with the SL interconnect cable run-in when there were waves of harshness or dullness followed by more clarity than before - there a repeat of this several more times until it finally bottoms-out.

Nice to hear progress. As to why I may notice it when some other people may not - if could be a combination of me and the Active system being very unforgiving of such things as they meander their way along. 

DB.

Hi DB, I appreciate your reports and the related sharp ears. Perhaps you want to change your name in Dark Owl. But seriously, while we are less accurate in articulating this the ND555 is a special affair and gradually getting better, you might also have one of the most revealing systems in the forum. I am every single day enjoying what I hear and of course I also go through some less exciting days, to be amazed the next day again. I am never 100% sure was it still the next step in thebND555 or was it just a bad electricity day or my mental constitution.

Bert Schurink posted:

Darke Bear posted:

...a few hours on and the particular run-in nasty cleared and another level of detail unfolded - a silky-clarity there now with more fine detail retrieval and rendering. I've heard this same effect with the SL interconnect cable run-in when there were waves of harshness or dullness followed by more clarity than before - there a repeat of this several more times until it finally bottoms-out.

Nice to hear progress. As to why I may notice it when some other people may not - if could be a combination of me and the Active system being very unforgiving of such things as they meander their way along. 

DB.

Hi DB, I appreciate your reports and the related sharp ears. Perhaps you want to change your name in Dark Owl. But seriously, while we are less accurate in articulating this the ND555 is a special affair and gradually getting better, you might also have one of the most revealing systems in the forum. I am every single day enjoying what I hear and of course I also go through some less exciting days, to be amazed the next day again. I am never 100% sure was it still the next step in thebND555 or was it just a bad electricity day or my mental constitution.

Oh no doubt there is a roller coaster of sound quality as the ND555 runs in. 

Hi ..... I have moved my room recently and  my setup sounds pretty good in the new room ....... and I have got to terms with adjusting my seating in relation to the local room nodes........ I have auditioned the ND555 but not in my system - it was terrific - In the context of my system I am hoping the bass will be qualitatively tighter with more depth -  but not quantitatively more ... this is what my audition seem to indicate. Have others found this ..........

No two rooms and systems will sound exactly the same. However, for what it's worth, my finding is that the ND555 gives increased bass information, clarity, separation,. texture/timbre, tightness and tunefulness, without adding to the weight. If anything a small degree of bloat has been lost. This is what I was hoping for and in my particular circumstances, this is what the ND555 has delivered.

Thanks Harry for this ......... that is indeed what I detected when auditioning (its difficult to put into words) .... so its quite reassuring to hear your finding. Actually I tend to find the bass spectrum is qualitatively very difficult to reproduce and is the easiest end of the spectrum to mess up - as you have quantum effects of the room as well...in the form of pressure waves.