Am I dreaming.. or was there really an ND555 Roadshow event ?

Even though I have no digital source in my system and not looking for one I may well go to the event at The Sound Org (York) to hear what is currently happening in the Naim digital domain.

Richard

FangfossFlyer posted:

Even though I have no digital source in my system and not looking for one I may well go to the event at The Sound Org (York) to hear what is currently happening in the Naim digital domain.

Richard

we would be very curious here to know how the nds compares with the  nd555.  Perhaps you will be able to share, it would be cool!

Chester on Saturday morning for me. Better than a trip to Aldi......

My local dealer Billy Vee will be having a bake off on July 7. Looking forward to the event.

I am sure a few of us will share our thoughts on the event at Signals, this Thursday.

quickben posted:

Chester on Saturday morning for me. Better than a trip to Aldi......

If placing an order, you might be soon on first-name basis with your local Aldi staff... 

My first listen to the ND555 has happened at the Signals event today - many thanks to all at Signals and from Naim that made it happen.
A lot of such demonstrations to a 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.

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.

Thanks DB for the first review!

What would you consider = nearest competition?  Would the Linn be on that list? (1 box!)

Gavin

Indeed interesting evening.. thanks Jason, Alastair and Andy... one could certainly hear the difference between the NDS and ND555 in terms of resolving more complex audio... and to me more interesting audio....  also interesting to hear about the motivation for the ND555, and the few false starts it had.

Now I would love to hear it using my ATCs... then I could compare with some other favourite DACs of mine..

I think the 'nearest competition' is to personal tastes and I've not really gelled with Linn's presentation in the main, so I'll personally try against the offering from Chord that I recently heard doing a good musical job. I'd imagine that, as the rest of my system has turned-out to be Naim, then the ND555 has a good chance to do well in it.

I began with a Linn source - Naim Amps - Linn speakers decades ago and ventured into various different manufacturer devices and at one point (shock) I had no Naim components at all! Then they gradually came back as I realized for myself what was missing and had a better sense of what I wanted - and what constituted a good HiFi system for me.

So I want to be comfortable within myself that I'm making the best choices - for me - in any future big upgrade of the source. The context is that at present I am very happy with the presentation and performance of my system, but it is CD-only and I think as excellent as the CD555 is that it may have been and should have been bettered by now - if I experience that this is the case then I can make informed decisions.

I never these days buy blind - been there and done that and I learned you can make big mistakes.
But from what I hear the ND555 is an obvious upgrade for an NDS owner (to how I hear it) and merits consideration against best completion.

DB.

never hear that 555 level of component on permanent  demo in any shop period ,and at a show really didn't hear a great demo either

The Signals ND555 is now being fed back on two threads, so I will keep my comments short. Yes, there is indeed a nice SQ improvement moving from NDS to ND555, and I will take a further listen when the NDX2 ariives in a month or so, judging from what I was told last night. Also I will take a look at the Chord Dave again.

I have heard the ND555 twice now, both in £100 k systems with Focal speakers that do not gel for me. Both times I came away thinking I would be gutted to have paid that money for that sound....... Got home, cranked up my humble system, played the same Pink Floyd track in CD quality, not high res. My system lacked all of the benefits others like about the ND555, but mine still sounds musical and enjoyable.

I wonder in just keeping with what they are comfortable with, Naim have given themselves a glass ceiling?

Thanks to Signals & the Naim chaps for an interesting demo. I would have liked more opportunity to hear music I'm more familiar with, but the straight A to B comparison, NDS vs. ND, was clear and unequivocable - ND was much better. If you happen to own one of the former, it might be wise not to listen to the latter.

I'll be polite - the giant demo Focals, although a rather nice green colour, were not to my taste soundwise. The only meaningful comparison to me would be my DAVE/Melco plus Blu2 vs. ND in my home sytem. I shall be following Darke Bear's comparison with great interest.

Sorry to have missed you last night Tony. The speakers were a brave colour which I rather liked.  The speakers themselves though were not my cup of tea in terms of either appearance or sound.

Did you go for a Blu2 in the end? DB mentioned that he is tempted...

Best regards, FT

Good to see you all to briefly Tony. I was rather surprised when my wife said she liked the look of the speakers, particularly the colour. The sound from them was not to my taste though.

Thank you for sharing your reviews and I hope you all enjoyed your day out at Signals. The choice of speakers can often change the dynamics in demos to the extent that it detracts from the experience. I am under the impression that the speakers were not everyone's cup of tea and they may have upset the apple cart. I'll be attending the Roadshow on July 7 when it comes to my neck of the woods. The speakers will be B&W 802 Diamonds (if I recall, but it may be a newer model). I remain optimistic.

Gazza posted:

Good to see you all to briefly Tony. I was rather surprised when my wife said she liked the look of the speakers, particularly the colour. The sound from them was not to my taste though.

Blimey Gazza, thought for a minute you were about to type your wife liked the look of me! Obviously a woman of better taste than that.

Yes, sorry I didn't have time for more of a chat - I was on the first sitting.

Foot tapper posted:

Sorry to have missed you last night Tony. The speakers were a brave colour which I rather liked.  The speakers themselves though were not my cup of tea in terms of either appearance or sound.

Did you go for a Blu2 in the end? DB mentioned that he is tempted...

Best regards, FT

Sorry I missed you too old bean. The colour of the Focals was certainly pretty interesting - reminded me of a 1970s beach buggy.

Not gone for a Blu2 - I'm awaiting the hopefully imminent announcement of Chord's version with the same upscaler but minus the disc player gubbins. CD's just so yesterday...

tonym posted:

Gazza posted:

Good to see you all to briefly Tony. I was rather surprised when my wife said she liked the look of the speakers, particularly the colour. The sound from them was not to my taste though.

Blimey Gazza, thought for a minute you were about to type your wife liked the look of me! Obviously a woman of better taste than that.

Yes, sorry I didn't have time for more of a chat - I was on the first sitting.

You should have splashed on the Castrol R, that would have done the trick.

Demo at Acoustica, Chester this morning including bacon butties, as Geoff and Pete kept us in a good mood. Should have been 7 of us for the first demo but 4 got there late which meant they ran less structured and finished early so latecomers got a listen. Configured with 300 as 500 not available and into B&W 803s. Otherwise very similar setup to elsewhere.

Initially some jazz via NDS then folk on both setups and after that just 555. So very little straight comparison though what there was showed more texture and clarity of definition than the NDS. The 555 showed well with the other tracks too but felt somewhat rushed. It is definitely a class act in the right overall system and room. If Ernie delivers big time then might be in the frame but no immediate plans!

Oops that was us what was late! We had a similar structure but switched back to NDS at the end and then back to ND555 for the last few minutes. 

Well the NDS at no point sounded “broken” but the ND555 does sound considerably better.  If I was in a position to get one then I may well have gone for it - it’s far too easy to say “I would if I had the money” when I don’t have the money.  But I can completely understand anyone going for the 555.

I would ideally want to hear in my own system (I don’t like those B&Ws - no boogie to ‘em, at least to my ears) but I was very impressed with how natural the ND555 sounded - it just sounds right.  Sorry I cannot be more specific than that. (Slight edit to confirm it’s the ND555 that sounds “right”)

What I did find interesting is that Jason from naim has 2x300 active into SL2s- which is where I am going next (Though I don’t have the ND555 that he has for weekend use, or the 552)

It would be interesting to add NDS + 2 x 555PS vs ND555 + 1 x 555PS as cost  wise  these are perhaps a fairer comparison of how far things have come. 

.sjb

Thanks FT,

Indeed it’s like direct comparison between CDS3/555PS and CD555, however I still think it would be an interesting “test” to hear by how much the step-up in SQ is impacted (lessened I presume) by the 2 vs 1 PPS. 

The quanta difference may well be reinstated with 2 x PS on both. 

I’m sure anyone interested in a pre-loved NDS would like to know!

.sjb

Though in the Signals demo session I had he did qualify the remark that he did like 2 x 555ps, but not everyone, some found it a slightly harsher sound.......he said people need to demo at home.

Personally, even after just a short listen, I'd put the single 555 PS ND555 a long way ahead of a 2 x 555 PS NDS. The nature of the difference is different too. Basically, it needs to be heard. Since quite a few NDS and CD 555 owners already have 2 x 555 PS, I suspect this knowledge will be out there quite soon.

FootTapper, it was Jason doing the dem, not Doug