New NDS collected & installed - first impressions

Posted by: CDI on 14 July 2012

Collected the brand new NDS last night and never thought I'd use the term "broken" in the context of my system but broken was howsit sounded. Flat muffled and pretty awful.Only using an old xps2 but still was disappointed to say the least.

 

Decided to leave it running for 24 hours and have just listened again and can not believe this is the same box as it iS now sounding amazing. Sounds better in every respect and am pretty certain the cds3 is surpassed already. Will hook up CDS3 later to compare but busy now enjoying NDS in a family free house!

 

Not tried 24/196 stuff yet

Posted on: 07 August 2012 by GerryMcg

When I upgraded from UinitiserveSSS/nDac/555PS to NDS 555DR, I was fully intending to sell the uniitiserve, however In have now decided to retain it. This is due to ease of ripping, the edit facility on the iPod app (which I use frequently), the ease of playlist backup and it fills the shelf on which the Snaxo rests. I also like the Music store as a repository for my music. I have not bothered to compare the quality of rips, so this was not a factor although I know as a minimum they are noy inferior to anything else.

 

Gerry 

Posted on: 07 August 2012 by GerryMcg

And the iPod dock facility as the NDS does not have this. I use the dock for Spotify in order to review potential music purchases,

Posted on: 07 August 2012 by Harry

Congratulations CDI. I wish you big fun and I'm sure that's exactly what you're going to have.

 

We've had a good few years use out of the HDX and although It's overkill we are keeping it. It is a good ripper and tagger, not to mention easy to edit data with. As well as it's serving function it will play CDs - which is nice if maybe not frequently useful. And after experimenting with playlists in nStream we'll be using nServe/HDX for playlsits from now on. It would be stupid to buy an HDX to compliment the NDS (at least it would for me) but since it is here and doesn't owe us anything it will stay. If I was coming into streaming cold I'd be looking closely at a US. My dealer tells me that the NDX and US has been a commonly bought combo.

 

The only thing that might put me off the US is the loading slot. I don't think it's awfully clever for a loading system to make contact with the playing surface.