ND555 Impressions
Posted by: Bert Schurink on 26 July 2018
The Beast will arrive and will be installed tomorrow morning in my system. So I thought it was a good moment to open up a thread with the fist experiences, also giving others the possibility to share their first impressions with the beast.
I feeel a bit like a little child who has his birthday tomorrow. I assume that even while it will be nice weather during the weekend that I will be a spending a lot of hours with my system.
And as expected my car will not arrive before the ND555.
If I tap mine a little harder that I'd like there is a hint of a rattle - I think it means the suspension is working and all is well! 
Others may differ - it sound great anyway.
DB.
Mine rings like the Church Bells on a Sunday morning might have to tap it again though the screen has just froze ??
Yes same here if I tap the side of the ND555 I can hear the suspension doing its job. If I tap the top I get a ringing sound but no rattle of springs. Perfectly normal don’t panic!
Now in my thirteenth week of ownership and had a good listening session this afternoon .. absolutely wonderful. I think my run in is now more or less there.
Mine has had a couple of days running....and there was definitely a dip last night....clarity and depth...was reduced....
Gazza posted:Give it some time Clive, but I think you should rethink, just letting it be. You will always have that doubt in the back of your mind that you are not getting the best from the ND555.
Update on my ND555: Gazza's reply, quoted above, got the better of me and I took it into the dealer today. This decision was reinforced by a sudden reduction in output volume this morning - volume dropped to just above a whisper. This was rectified by switching off and on again at the power supply.
Funnily enough, as I arrived in the shop, they were on the phone to Naim Audio and I spoke to Jason about the issue. Although he said the 'tinkling' noise was probably just the suspension, he offered to have it checked out at Naim HQ just for peace of mind and even said that he'd ensure that it was turned round in a couple of days. That level of customer support is one of the best things about Naim Audio.
Sorry Clive......but it is probably for the best, hope nothing is wrong. Great support though
Clive B posted:Gazza posted:Give it some time Clive, but I think you should rethink, just letting it be. You will always have that doubt in the back of your mind that you are not getting the best from the ND555.Update on my ND555: Gazza's reply, quoted above, got the better of me and I took it into the dealer today. This decision was reinforced by a sudden reduction in output volume this morning - volume dropped to just above a whisper. This was rectified by switching off and on again at the power supply.
Funnily enough, as I arrived in the shop, they were on the phone to Naim Audio and I spoke to Jason about the issue. Although he said the 'tinkling' noise was probably just the suspension, he offered to have it checked out at Naim HQ just for peace of mind and even said that he'd ensure that it was turned round in a couple of days. That level of customer support is one of the best things about Naim Audio.
Clive, if you are anything like me, you will feel better having had Naim check it out!
Sounds like it's the correct move Clive. Sorry to hear this but at least Naim are very good in these situations.
Another small example of a great company's customer focus and service. Long may it continue.
Had a good session Yesterday - what really strikes me are vocals - inflection and tone is getting better and better, as Bert mentioned eloquently .... the bass slam and depth is terrific.......... I am sensing though that this player has allot more to give as it runs in ......... time will tell.
It has more to come and some dips on the way. Mine is at 4 weeks run-in and a few large and smaller bumps in performance later still improving. The seamless clarity is rather special. On some old recordings that also capture the acoustic of the room it is uncanny at times that I'm hearing stuff I think is in or outside the bounds of my room and only after realizing it was on the recording and I'd never noticed it before.
DB.
Darke Bear posted:It has more to come and some dips on the way. Mine is at 4 weeks run-in and a few large and smaller bumps in performance later still improving. The seamless clarity is rather special. On some old recordings that also capture the acoustic of the room it is uncanny at times that I'm hearing stuff I think is in or outside the bounds of my room and only after realizing it was on the recording and I'd never noticed it before.
DB.
So, overall, a growing improvement on the CD555, would you say?
The CD555 was and is still special and in some areas the ND555 has still not passed its performance, but I'm hearing it getting close and in other areas it is a lot better, so overall is is now better. I'm comparing a 4 week run-in product to a multi-year run-in source, so it is hard to be fair, but I think the ND555 will end-up better once it is fully run-in.
The CD555 when properly installed - meaning give it space and don't cram it in with supplies - was very special. The ND555 seems to take this further I'm hearing, in that some music is definitely done better that I achieved before. The ND555 seems to open the frequency extremes out in a seamless way that allows a freedom for the music to just be there that is very appealing.
DB.
My ND555 also seems to be holding back slightly on absolute clarity - I am sure it's something that will improve over the next few weeks..........currently I've just got it playing random from my NAS 24/7 ........ it comes up with some interesting stuff.........which kinda stops you in your tracks.....
I don't thing you can over-force run-in. There seems to be an aspect you can force-along by replete-play and another aspect that just needs elapsed time. My Dealer always seems to get things to run-in quicker but they have experience with that more than me - I just accept it won't be top-performance for a few weeks then it will get better and better over many weeks. With the S1 Pre it took a few weeks for it to open-out then after nine months something just happened and its performance really opened-out amazingly to me and in a very obvious way.
No one has had the ND555 for very long so we don't know how long it will continue to improve but a few I've heard with a few more weeks on them than mine - and one for a day in my system recently, that were definitely more transparent and less 'grainy' - by which I mean by comparison, as you otherwise don't here it that way.
DB.
This evening, using Airplay from Macbook Pro to ND 555, I'm streaming the NPR selection of songs from the forthcoming More Blood, More Tracks album. Simply glorious sound, voice and guitar, in particular. The ND 555 is on song tonight, I have never heard recorded Dylan sound so wonderful. Happy, happy, happy ......
cycling66 posted:This evening, using Airplay from Macbook Pro to ND 555, I'm streaming the NPR selection of songs from the forthcoming More Blood, More Tracks album. Simply glorious sound, voice and guitar, in particular. The ND 555 is on song tonight, I have never heard recorded Dylan sound so wonderful. Happy, happy, happy ......
if you stream from a nas, or better like uniticore or melco, you wiill be on Mars.
I have lost connection to ND555 to Naim Uniticore . It can not find it. Reboots of IPad & ND555 and router have proven fruitless . Last thing I can think of is to reboot UnitiCore.
musicfan51 posted:I have lost connection to ND555 to Naim Uniticore . It can not find it. Reboots of IPad & ND555 and router have proven fruitless . Last thing I can think of is to reboot UnitiCore.
Had this after a Firmware update rebooting the Core solved the problem been spot on since.
I am sure i am not imagining it .... but with music volume turned right down ... I am sure there is more background hiss ..... could this be a part manifestation of running in ND555?
Pcd posted:musicfan51 posted:I have lost connection to ND555 to Naim Uniticore . It can not find it. Reboots of IPad & ND555 and router have proven fruitless . Last thing I can think of is to reboot UnitiCore.
Had this after a Firmware update rebooting the Core solved the problem been spot on since.
It worked after rebooting core. Though it is slower to load than before.
Richieroo posted:I am sure i am not imagining it .... but with music volume turned right down ... I am sure there is more background hiss ..... could this be a part manifestation of running in ND555?
In general you should hear more clarity, however bad recording will now also reveal their noise. If it’s across the board something is wrong and you should get it checked.
Richieroo posted:I am sure i am not imagining it .... but with music volume turned right down ... I am sure there is more background hiss ..... could this be a part manifestation of running in ND555?
If the volume is turned right down on the NAC then you have isolated yourself from any audible hiss coming from the ND555 (or any source) so assuming it’s not imagined.. or you are not simply more aware of it as you are critically listening to your new streamer, it points to something in your NAC/NAP chain... and should be common to all sources .. if not common to all inputs it points to a possible issue on your NAC input channel... you could try swapping to a different input
Ok ...... I will carefully check it out .......... thanks
French Rooster posted:cycling66 posted:This evening, using Airplay from Macbook Pro to ND 555, I'm streaming the NPR selection of songs from the forthcoming More Blood, More Tracks album. Simply glorious sound, voice and guitar, in particular. The ND 555 is on song tonight, I have never heard recorded Dylan sound so wonderful. Happy, happy, happy ......
if you stream from a nas, or better like uniticore or melco, you wiill be on Mars.
Ah, yes. I have a NAS coming on Tuesday, the CDs arriving shortly after, and the high res files from Qobuz a week today, I know this music on the ND 555 is going to lift me to the stars by then.