nd555 announcement : music matters show/ 8 march

ok, this is simply great!! guess NDS (2) will have same look& feel than...cool!

T38.45 posted:

ok, this is simply great!! guess NDS (2) will have same look& feel than...cool!

go to “nd555 rumour update”  topic to see the look.

Interesting it has an on/off or standby button......

Looks like updated architecture/Uniti based and in a very attractive and complementary classic case. I wonder what the price point is? is it a direct replacement for the NDS?

No mention of the Seattle music matters Hifi Show, Latest Connection magazine by Naim by email gives a whole list of shows except Music matters, would be a shame for the guys in the U.S.

DUPREE posted:

Looks like updated architecture/Uniti based and in a very attractive and complementary classic case. I wonder what the price point is? is it a direct replacement for the NDS?

Surely as it's pitched as 500 series, it will be much higher than NDS? I suspect twice the price of NDS or higher.

best

David

Gazza posted:

No mention of the Seattle music matters Hifi Show, Latest Connection magazine by Naim by email gives a whole list of shows except Music matters, would be a shame for the guys in the U.S.

it will be shown, as in Bristol, but not demonstrated.

DUPREE posted:

Looks like updated architecture/Uniti based and in a very attractive and complementary classic case. I wonder what the price point is? is it a direct replacement for the NDS?

£13,000. 

and $20,000 + apparently for US customers 

Terry Smith posted:

and $20,000 + apparently for US customers 

That makes me pretty skeptical. I wonder what perceived value they can add to a digital streamer to make it worth 2x a NDS; I would hope that is with power supply as if not it is going to be even a multiple of the Klimax DSM. Guess we will know soon enough.

My guess will be twice the price of NDS and then you add a 555PS and a couple of BurndieS.

best

David

2 PSUs 

Hungryhalibut posted:

DUPREE posted:

Looks like updated architecture/Uniti based and in a very attractive and complementary classic case. I wonder what the price point is? is it a direct replacement for the NDS?

£13,000. 

This is exactly what I have heard.

Looks nice, it is showing us what the range of streamers will look like in couple of years.....

So sell the 272, keeps the 555PS, get a 552 then after ND555... sounds like a plan, expensive one but it is a plan

Looks amazing, but what I'm really more interested in is timing on the NDX replacement....

Hope we're looking at a much faster roll-out than the Uniti range

Who said anything about an NDX replacement....... I very much doubt there will be one unless key parts became obsolete ... what would be the point..

My dealer tells me there will be trickle down from the ND555; it seems inevitable.  The question is how long.  (I can see a somewhat diabolical Naim releasing only the ND555 for a looong period of time to try to maximize sales of the flagship before releasing less expensive alternatives...)

Almost certainly.....but how long that will be....probably late 2018 or 2019. Sooner is better ,but no bugs

Simon-in-Suffolk posted:

Who said anything about an NDX replacement....... I very much doubt there will be one unless key parts became obsolete ... what would be the point..

Chromecast, Airplay, Roon, Tidal sounding as good as UPnP and without dropouts, and reliable WiFi performance, I would imagine. 

ChrisSU posted:

Simon-in-Suffolk posted:

Who said anything about an NDX replacement....... I very much doubt there will be one unless key parts became obsolete ... what would be the point..

Chromecast, Airplay, Roon, Tidal sounding as good as UPnP and without dropouts, and reliable WiFi performance, I would imagine. 

And using modern components that aren't going to go end of life nearly as quickly...

And sounding the best it possibly can for its price point. I suspect that will come before anything else.

My understanding is that the ND555 will be the culmination of the tuning and development of the DAC in the NDS (and DAC), including mechanical optimisation. I stand to be corrected, but that is my understanding.

For me this is good news. If the NDS hardware can be made to sound significantly better I'm in the queue and shoving.  Nothing else would be of interest to me.

Aren't rumours wonderful?!

Harry posted:

And sounding the best it possibly can for its price point. I suspect that will come before anything else.

My understanding is that the ND555 will be the culmination of the tuning and development of the DAC in the NDS (and DAC), including mechanical optimisation. I stand to be corrected, but that is my understanding.

For me this is good news. If the NDS hardware can be made to sound significantly better I'm in the queue and shoving.  Nothing else would be of interest to me.

Aren't rumours wonderful?!

I doubt this is the case. I would imagine it is a much improved DAC with improved capabilities as the NDS DAC is obsolete in a technical sense. They can't just tune up the NDS and add more mechanical isolation and call it a day. I would imagine and hope the ND555 is more of a technological tour-de force with better hardware and the new NAIM platform derived from the Uniti tweeked out until hopefully it provides sonic uphoria. Despite the struggles and false starts I really do think their platform is heading in the right direction and hope for great things in the pipeline.

DUPREE posted:

Harry posted:

And sounding the best it possibly can for its price point. I suspect that will come before anything else.

My understanding is that the ND555 will be the culmination of the tuning and development of the DAC in the NDS (and DAC), including mechanical optimisation. I stand to be corrected, but that is my understanding.

For me this is good news. If the NDS hardware can be made to sound significantly better I'm in the queue and shoving.  Nothing else would be of interest to me.

Aren't rumours wonderful?!

I doubt this is the case. I would imagine it is a much improved DAC with improved capabilities as the NDS DAC is obsolete in a technical sense. They can't just tune up the NDS and add more mechanical isolation and call it a day. I would imagine and hope the ND555 is more of a technological tour-de force with better hardware and the new NAIM platform derived from the Uniti tweeked out until hopefully it provides sonic uphoria. Despite the struggles and false starts I really do think their platform is heading in the right direction and hope for great things in the pipeline.

nds dac is obsolete ?   the most recent dac is not always better. The dac inside the nds is late 90’s dac, i don’t remember the name, in a 2012 product.  The streaming platform software is perhaps obsolete, but it works wonderfully.  The nd555 will bring of course an improvement, but for 25 k with ps price.   I am quite sure there will be some who will prefer the nds over the nd555, as cds3 over cd555.     But i am not saying i would not buy the nd555....if i had the funds.  I am also happy that naim try to push the boundaries.

Taking the CD555 as an example. It was massively over engineered, with minutely critical attention to every possible detail, to get the best musical performance out of the CDS3, with which it shared its DAC and digital filter. The results were stunning and demonstrated conclusively that the CD had hitherto not been able to give of its all, at any price level. Or so I read over and over again in all the reviews.

This is what Naim do so well. I believe they will do it again with the ND555. They don't tend to throw a good thing away because it is not a new thing. They will take its musical performance to levels which were not thought possible, or at least not possible to be heard by the human ear. Until it was.

And then again it might all be brand new. We will know soon enough. I don't care if it is all brand new as long as it plays music better than the NDS. And by a wide enough margin. It's a no lose situation for me. We love the NDS so much in this house that we won't be disappointed if our money stays in our bank and not the dealer's.  However, we think this is unlikely. But who knows? Yet.

I'm very optimistic.  I'm using a Uniti Atom for streaming duties right now while my dealer tries to flog my NDX (hence my apprehension about timing).  Frankly it sounds almost as good as the NDX, and the user interface and display is brilliant.  So I have no doubts the ND555 will be a stunner.  Just hope 95% of that ends up in the NDX replacement...