ND555 Roadshows
Posted by: ChrisH on 04 June 2018
Just saw this on the Naim Facebook page - 22 ND555 Roadshow evenings in UK between June and November.
Its not yet on the website/Connection section yet, Im sure it soon will be, as will other Roadshows elsewhere.
Only 19 are showing so far, Im just hoping there will be one at my local dealer in the 3 remaining to be announced - getting elsewhere to a dealer for a 6.30pm kick off on a Thursday is not so easy on a working day!
Something to look forward to anyway.
nigelb posted:
LA, LA, LA, LA….can't hear you!!
Seriously, nice write up FT. Does this mean you now might consider streaming?
LA LA LA LA .... Nigel, I’m not listening to you!!!
About 6 years ago, we started to dabble in streaming with the DAC-V1 based office system and it has been an unqualified, reliable source of musical joy to this day.
Ultimately, streaming of high resolution music should also eventually trounce vinyl & CD replay for sound quality, in the same way that electric trains are far better than steam trains when assessed objectively. On an emotional level though, there is something about steam trains and turntables that captures the heart.
With the CD versus streaming debate, it’s all about the quality of execution for me. So far, Naim’s CD players have made music connect with me more effectively than streaming sources. However, I am actively looking to replace the CD player.
The NDS is not on the shortlist but the ND555 is, together with Linn, Totaldac and Chord. Whichever option wins out, it will have to support Roon as the user interface, as this is the only one I’ve found that makes the music browsing interesting and engaging in a similar or better way to reading record sleeve notes.
Best regards, FT
I'd posted my opinion on the other thread yesterday, but to review:
My first listen to the ND555 has happened at the Signals event yesterday - many thanks to all at Signals and from Naim that made it happen.
Demonstrations to a large group of people can be rather constrained by time and switching gear but I got enough information to consider it very well worthwhile.
The main demo was of the NDS against an ND555, both powered by a single DR 555PS, in a 552 - 500DR system driving some very large Focal Speakers. The digital side was via Ethernet and from a NA Server somewhere that was just nothing esoteric was my understanding - as that was what Naim wanted as their baseline system. Most of the time was rather (to me) strangely listening to the NDS on different music types as a baseline. After what seemed like a very long while we swapped to the ND555 and compared the track just played on the NDS to now being played on ND555.
I know the NDS sound and the ND555 takes this basic sonic dynamic signature and tone-colour and greatly increases the resolution. It is far more tightly focused and engaging musically. The timing knits together the musicians and music in a more cohesive way that captures your attention more. These are all the sorts of things I'd hoped to hear so it was good to hear them!
Another thing that impressed me was that it was not 'impressive'. My meaning in this is that it has some of the 'Statement' sonic signature of 'just being there' and it is the music that grabs your attention and not the system sound itself. Also there was an effortlessness in presentation - everything just happened and there was no sense of anything having to work hard or struggling to achieve the performance.
That was about it for what was viable at this demo. My next step is to hear it properly against the nearest competition in a few weeks in a personal demo at my Dealer (Signals) and then to have a home-demo prior to any purchase decision.
The ND555 may have finally raised the performance envelope above the CD555 I use as source. This is big for me as when I home-demoed an NDS a few years ago it was not really a clear winner, with CD555 excelling in clarity and dynamics with also far better bass-definition - but the NDS having better detail-retrieval in the mid-band I liked that was IMO better done than from the CD555, so I could at that time hear the direction Naim was taking but it had not, at that time a few years ago surpassed the CD555.
Since then I've heard the NDS sounding improved from product evolution and software changes, so even that demo is not now valid. Yesterday's demo clearly showed a large increase in resolution was possible, so this may be what I'm looking for to take things to the next level. I'll also compare against the Chord Dave DAC with the separate 'up-scaler' box I've heard in recent months that greatly impressed me and showed that so much more is captured on those old CD-format music than many realise.
In fact I spend most effort these days obtaining by a somewhat hit and miss method good mastered copies of music which mostly was laid-down prior to year 2000, even though there is a vast variability even then. The idea that I'd be getting the best quality from the latest high-def masters never really flew after several spectacular and unfortunately repeated fails. So I'd be getting a Streaming source to essentially hear my CDs better and the occasional modern mastering that makes its way past all the music-killing life-extraction soul-removal 'goodies' that seem part of the modern electronic warfare suite that faces anything trying to make it onto a modern master. Rant paragraph over! 
Some technical stuff:
The digital interface stuff is a 'box within a box' isolated from the main case and at the ND555 rear you have a cut-away to access directly this digital inputs box for maximum isolation - a very nice idea IMO.
Also the individually sprung internal suspended sub-chassis are tuned to different frequencies so they can't couple or 'talk' to each other at resonance.
The ND555 box re-regulates the incoming supply again on each board by on-board DR regulators on each PCB.
A nice session and I learned a few things too!
DB.
Darke Bear posted:I'd posted my opinion on the other thread yesterday, but to review:
My first listen to the ND555 has happened at the Signals event yesterday - many thanks to all at Signals and from Naim that made it happen.
Demonstrations to a large group of people can be rather constrained by time and switching gear but I got enough information to consider it very well worthwhile.The main demo was of the NDS against an ND555, both powered by a single DR 555PS, in a 552 - 500DR system driving some very large Focal Speakers. The digital side was via Ethernet and from a NA Server somewhere that was just nothing esoteric was my understanding - as that was what Naim wanted as their baseline system. Most of the time was rather (to me) strangely listening to the NDS on different music types as a baseline. After what seemed like a very long while we swapped to the ND555 and compared the track just played on the NDS to now being played on ND555.
I know the NDS sound and the ND555 takes this basic sonic dynamic signature and tone-colour and greatly increases the resolution. It is far more tightly focused and engaging musically. The timing knits together the musicians and music in a more cohesive way that captures your attention more. These are all the sorts of things I'd hoped to hear so it was good to hear them!
Another thing that impressed me was that it was not 'impressive'. My meaning in this is that it has some of the 'Statement' sonic signature of 'just being there' and it is the music that grabs your attention and not the system sound itself. Also there was an effortlessness in presentation - everything just happened and there was no sense of anything having to work hard or struggling to achieve the performance.
That was about it for what was viable at this demo. My next step is to hear it properly against the nearest competition in a few weeks in a personal demo at my Dealer (Signals) and then to have a home-demo prior to any purchase decision.
The ND555 may have finally raised the performance envelope above the CD555 I use as source. This is big for me as when I home-demoed an NDS a few years ago it was not really a clear winner, with CD555 excelling in clarity and dynamics with also far better bass-definition - but the NDS having better detail-retrieval in the mid-band I liked that was IMO better done than from the CD555, so I could at that time hear the direction Naim was taking but it had not, at that time a few years ago surpassed the CD555.
Since then I've heard the NDS sounding improved from product evolution and software changes, so even that demo is not now valid. Yesterday's demo clearly showed a large increase in resolution was possible, so this may be what I'm looking for to take things to the next level. I'll also compare against the Chord Dave DAC with the separate 'up-scaler' box I've heard in recent months that greatly impressed me and showed that so much more is captured on those old CD-format music than many realise.
In fact I spend most effort these days obtaining by a somewhat hit and miss method good mastered copies of music which mostly was laid-down prior to year 2000, even though there is a vast variability even then. The idea that I'd be getting the best quality from the latest high-def masters never really flew after several spectacular and unfortunately repeated fails. So I'd be getting a Streaming source to essentially hear my CDs better and the occasional modern mastering that makes its way past all the music-killing life-extraction soul-removal 'goodies' that seem part of the modern electronic warfare suite that faces anything trying to make it onto a modern master. Rant paragraph over!
Some technical stuff:
The digital interface stuff is a 'box within a box' isolated from the main case and at the ND555 rear you have a cut-away to access directly this digital inputs box for maximum isolation - a very nice idea IMO.
Also the individually sprung internal suspended sub-chassis are tuned to different frequencies so they can't couple or 'talk' to each other at resonance.
The ND555 box re-regulates the incoming supply again on each board by on-board DR regulators on each PCB.A nice session and I learned a few things too!
DB.
the new lumin x1 streaming dac seems interesting too, with huge power supply, roon ready, optical network....( around 12k). Have you heard about it?
I've not heard everything competing from everyone else I'll admit!
I limit myself to what my excellent local Dealer lets me listen too, as it is easiest for me and I am an old Bear prone to getting cranky when I have to put too much effort into anything these days. I like stuff to work well and seamlessly without too many problems when it comes to music reply, which is why a CD Player has suited me.
That is not to say I can't do the other stuff when needed, as I know all the science and engineering enough to make things work optimally for me, but expect at these price-points for me not to have to work hard to get to listen to the music, which is why I've let the Streaming systems mature and blossom at the level of replay I'm interested in getting to do music replay for me.
The short answer is that If my Dealer has any of these alternatives then I'll listen to them too and if they are better it terms that I prefer then I'm not wedded to the source electronics being from Naim, if someone else does it better at the same cost or less . Naim have made a good strong initial showing with the ND555 and they are aware they have to compete - which is good.
Also the Dealer (if they are any good) has tried many permutations and combinations of the full replay-chain and know what can positively or negatively impact performance. I've had enough demonstrations of what Server hardware and software, network architecture and means of connectivity and file-storage all do to impact things to know it has to all be got right at this price-point not to be wasting my time. So they do all this stuff, show me and we go 'wow I would not have thought that would matter' and there is an evolving learning process and gathered knowledge-base of needed info ripe for all this to fly IMO.
But the home Demo after a good personal Dealer demo is how I'll do this.
And I've heard the Linn stuff and a friend likes and prefers their presentation and I can hear what they are doing well, but their Designers don't really seem to hear things the same as me or have different priorities and I don't gel with them, although others I respect do, so these things are always in many ways personal.
DB.
Just finished an extensive audition of ND555 (compared to NDS) via a 500-series system and fed by a UnitiServe via LAN.
Well... let’s put it this way - it’s as if someone has lifted a vail I never realised was there in the first place.
If I had to use one word to describe ND555, it would be ‘refined’.
Looks like I have the whole summer to start saving....
Gazza posted:Alba1320 posted:I'm not sure if this has already been mentioned, but just in case it hasn't, it seems that NDX2 will be making an appearance at a forthcoming Roadshow event (early July):
"NDX 2 Also Here
We have also just found out that Naim will be bringing along the new NDX 2 which is reportedly sounding even better than the NDS..."It is going to be on dem, apparently.
What a conundrum for NigelB, NDX2 or ND555 to replace his beloved NDS????
It will be interesting to see if the NDX2 can match, or even beat the NDS. I suspect some of the difference between the two will be system, room and speaker dependent with some swings and roundabouts involved. I doubt it will be clear cut. A NDX vs NDX2 bake off might tell us a bit more about how the NDX2 has moved things on.
Anyway, if I have money to spend on HiFi (which is a big if) it will most likely be speakers next as I already own a pretty decent streamer.