An afternoon at Cymbiosis - NDX2 and then the Titan 505s
Posted by: The Strat (Fender) on 19 September 2018
An excellent afternoon as ever at Cymbiosis
We started off with the NDX2/555/282/SC/250 first with S20s. Very very enjoyable, full of great timing, expressive vocals, the dynamics on the Tennstedt Beethoven III performance quite breathtaking but equally with something more restful Nichola Bennedeti (wrong spelling)/Bach beautiful tones. Clearly Naim have thrown down the challenge with the new streamers.
But then the S20s were replaced with the 505s Truly was a transformation, complete paradigm shift, more - so much more - of everything, dynamics, tonal colours. Probably the best I’ve ever heard Goodbye Pork Pie/Brush With The Blues by Jeff Beck.
But there is a dilemma. For all I like the idea of a streaming solution and the flexibility it brings - my experience with the Qb is very positive - I just worry that I’ll lose that glorious fluidity the CDS3 gives. With regard to speakers I wasn’t intending to change and notwithstanding that the performance of the 505s is quite outstanding my S20s are in no way redundant, indeed as I write they sound superb. So any decisions might take a little while.
Thanks to Peter, Wayne and Phil at Cymbiosis for allowing such a great listening session - music always wins. Also great to see Nigel and Karen as ever.
Regards,
Lindsay
Posted on: 21 September 2018 by Bart
No I'm a fan of the Gibbons. The O's are great with little tube amps, but with 252/SCDR/250DR I can get away with a bit "more" speaker. Some day I'd love to do a system with a 'little' tube amp and O's, but I already have a 2nd system.
Posted on: 21 September 2018 by Bart
Sadly, I know of one person (mort2k if I remember his name on here correctly) who has not been able to get 606s to work in his room (unless they were very nearly in the middle of the room). He has a problem with the room being too square and this gives him a nasty bass problem. 505s are working well though at the moment (he’s working his way through a long list of speakers). I keep telling him he should move house but he’s not keen on that option (or his wife isn’t!)
Fortunately my room is rather rectangular, with large openings in the rear wall -- plenty of breathing room to the sides of the speakers (10 feet). Distance from the front wall is the challenge and more than about 10" is challenging. The bottom-ported Titans may be good in that situation I hear.
Posted on: 21 September 2018 by nigelb
The 505s are in fact front ported and the main man at Kudos showed me the very clever wood-working (actually MDF-working) that directs the port to a front slot at the base of the speaker.
This means that the 505s can be used a little closer to rear walls without losing bass control. I heard the 505s in a rather cramped hotel room at the Bristol show and they we situated quite close to rear and side walls. They sounded superb and bass was extended but superbly controlled.
They are one astonishing speaker IMHO.
Posted on: 21 September 2018 by Bart
I'm going to make a field trip to Tyler in late October to do a Kudos listen session. The reviews are too good to not listen if I'm serious about new speakers.
Posted on: 21 September 2018 by Octa_dyn
Let me know if you want to meet over there. Just tell me when exactly. That is if you don't mind.
Posted on: 21 September 2018 by MangoMonkey
I'll probably just order the 606s..
been spending too much time on the bogleheads forum recently though...
Naim dropped the ball on ND555. If I can't control upnp via the remote, they should've just gotten rid of the screen entirely. Not much point to the screen...
Posted on: 22 September 2018 by Crispy
I'll probably just order the 606s..
been spending too much time on the bogleheads forum recently though...
Naim dropped the ball on ND555. If I can't control upnp via the remote, they should've just gotten rid of the screen entirely. Not much point to the screen...
I don’t think that every setting can be controlled through the app, which is a little strange. Not sure how that will impact ND5 XS 2 when it comes out.
Posted on: 22 September 2018 by ChrisSU
I'll probably just order the 606s..
been spending too much time on the bogleheads forum recently though...
Naim dropped the ball on ND555. If I can't control upnp via the remote, they should've just gotten rid of the screen entirely. Not much point to the screen...
I don’t think that every setting can be controlled through the app, which is a little strange. Not sure how that will impact ND5 XS 2 when it comes out.
Unlike the old remote/display, I can’t think of anything the new ones do that can’t be done on the app. If that is not the case, the ND5XS2 isn’t going to work.
Posted on: 22 September 2018 by feeling_zen
It will provably be configured by a web interface like your router. This is how most appliances without any other interface are initially configured. I am a bit sad that the current streamers don't let you do this. You can connect on port tcp80, but only get a static page showing the model number.
Given that the current range have oled screens that eventually die, a web config interface would have made such failures more trivial.
Posted on: 22 September 2018 by Christopher_M
.......a web config interface would have made such failures more trivial.
Forum might become a bit quieter then 
Posted on: 22 September 2018 by feeling_zen
.......a web config interface would have made such failures more trivial.
Forum might become a bit quieter then
In all fairness, my 5 year old UQ2 and 4 year old NDX have perfect screens still.
Yet the omission of a web interface seems like a silly oversight.
Posted on: 22 September 2018 by The Strat (Fender)
Funny how a good demo session manifests. Rather than rushing into an order for new hardware I’ve been buying CDs and vinyl 
Posted on: 22 September 2018 by Simon-in-Suffolk
Glad I am not the only one... I suspect it says more about your current system than you realise
Posted on: 22 September 2018 by Bart
Funny how a good demo session manifests. Rather than rushing into an order for new hardware I’ve been buying CDs and vinyl
Isn't it nice to come home, put on your hi fi, and really enjoy it?
Posted on: 22 September 2018 by The Strat (Fender)
Funny how a good demo session manifests. Rather than rushing into an order for new hardware I’ve been buying CDs and vinyl
Isn't it nice to come home, put on your hi fi, and really enjoy it?
. Listening to Jazz File on R3 on FM (Nat 05) - it’s so good!
Posted on: 22 September 2018 by ken c
Funny how a good demo session manifests. Rather than rushing into an order for new hardware I’ve been buying CDs and vinyl
Isn't it nice to come home, put on your hi fi, and really enjoy it?
. Listening to Jazz File on R3 on FM (Nat 05) - it’s so good!
snap!
enjoy/ken
Posted on: 22 September 2018 by Chris Dolan
Can you simply just use both? Nothing says you need to give up the CDS3 before you are ready and if you liked the NDX2 and bought one, you could:
1) Pick and choose which music you listen to on which source.
2) Eventually realise you are comfortable with just the NDX2 and only then let the CDS3 go.
Even if you did go all in (a big if), you will need a period of overlap to carefully rip a CD collection.
But I've only got one PSU, so it would mean running the NDX2 bare. No if I made the change it will be in one move.
My thoughts on this were simply use one power supply and connect it to the piece of kit that needed to be powered - is that naive?
Posted on: 23 September 2018 by Polarbear
Funny how a good demo session manifests. Rather than rushing into an order for new hardware I’ve been buying CDs and vinyl
Isn't it nice to come home, put on your hi fi, and really enjoy it?
Thats the whole point of a HI-fi Bart. To many people worry about what might or might not be and let listening to the system ruin their listening to the music.
Sometimes its better to just sit back and listen to the music and forget systems and upgrades etc!
Posted on: 23 September 2018 by ken c
Sometimes its better to just sit back and listen to the music and forget systems and upgrades etc!
jaw-dropping statement PB...
enjoy/ken
Posted on: 23 September 2018 by Polarbear
Sometimes its better to just sit back and listen to the music and forget systems and upgrades etc!
jaw-dropping statement PB...
enjoy/ken
No Idea what you mean Ken I am happy and have been for a long time 
Keep on enjoying the music!
Posted on: 23 September 2018 by Bart
Sometimes its better to just sit back and listen to the music and forget systems and upgrades etc!
jaw-dropping statement PB...
enjoy/ken
No Idea what you mean Ken I am happy and have been for a long time
Keep on enjoying the music!
Im back on the upgrade carousel, but was off it for 5+ years and did the electronics in a matter of days. The speakers are dragging on, but they'll be done soon too. In the meantime, the family is loving the ND555 and Roon and we're again listening to a TON of music.
And the hobbiest in me has been happy getting Roon going and learning how it handles metadata and which data to let IT manage vs. relying on MY data. It keeps me occupied when I don't want to pay bills or do my real job work.
Posted on: 23 September 2018 by Timo
That’s really how it should be — music as a family affair, everybody loving music filling the house.
Posted on: 23 September 2018 by Bart
That’s really how it should be — music as a family affair, everybody loving music filling the house.
My wife and I are jointly preparing dinner for friends. I tried the new Florence + The Machine album but we could only take so much wailing. Wish You Were Here always pleases however.
Posted on: 24 September 2018 by Jonners
The 505s are in fact front ported and the main man at Kudos showed me the very clever wood-working (actually MDF-working) that directs the port to a front slot at the base of the speaker.
This means that the 505s can be used a little closer to rear walls without losing bass control. I heard the 505s in a rather cramped hotel room at the Bristol show and they we situated quite close to rear and side walls. They sounded superb and bass was extended but superbly controlled.
They are one astonishing speaker IMHO.
Well that's good to know as I'm looking to replace my Dynaudio 1.3SE's - great speaker but a move to a flat has meant they've had to be positioned in an alcove and they need room to breathe to perform at their best.
I saw the 505's at Cymbiosis when I picked up my LP12 a couple of weeks ago, I didn't hear them but they look sodding imposing for a standmount!
