nd5 xs advice needed

The ND5XS has already been superseded by the ND5XS2. The main difference, it seems to me, is the removal of the information screen, although of course there may well be internal improvements also.

 I bought my ND5XS in 2016 and have never regretted the move from the previous CDX front end.

It comes with Spotify and Tidal embedded. You can use either for 320kbps. I would use Spotify for this myself, due to it’s superior interface, however I use Tidal for it’s 1411kbps “lossless” service.

If you want to use the likes of Deezer or Qobuz, you’ll have to do it via a Chromecast Music Dongle, but the sound quality will not be as good.

There is currently a problem with the Tidal/NAIM interface in that Tidal have apparently made a software change that affects playback via the NAIM app.

My experience is that, since this first started to occur about 5 weeks ago, it actually seems to be reducing over time, and the NAIM Customer Support desk tell me that NAIM are aware and hope to completely resolve the issue “early in the new year”.

I’d say an ND5XS at a grand is a bargain and you should snap it up.

Make sure you have the current firmware downloaded.

Also, of course, there’s the sudden expansion of your “collection” from a roomful of CD’s to a whole planet of music! I find it’s really good for discovering new stuff by simply “following your nose” from one track/album to the next.

I found that linking it to an outboard PSU improved an already good performance and I’d recommend this as a future upgrade...

Bonne chance!

I have been running a ND5XS for a few years. 90% of use is from ripped CDs, I am not massively into streaming. I would also say that a grand is bargain, you won't regret it.

Hi. 

Is this price okay? - Yes. £1k for a streamer of this quality is a good price. I chopped mine in as a p/x in the summer and got £1000 for it so clearly their value is reducing over time, but then you get into questions of how long do you wait and will the price ever be acceptable to you if it's always going down? 

Is the nd5 xs already outdated... Will maim keep it up to date softwarewise? - It'll continue to play MP3, FLAC etc and will hook into Tidal natively until something dramatic happens to that as a service. It'll continue to sound as good as it does now. Like everything s/w driven eventually it'll be deprecated and become old-hat, but that's a while off.

Will it stream with all those nice platforms like tidal? - Yes, Tidal support is built-in and is seamless through the Android & IOS app.

It's quite some money for a five year old steamer...and I don't like buying stuff that might be discontinued shortly. - It'll still work, and the benefit is you get some serious kit for a lot less than the cost of new. People on here still rave about Olive & Chrome Bumper kit. There are no moving parts to wear out either.

If you fancy one, dive in and enjoy it.

Used prices on ND5xs are around £1500-£1600 so with the trade in of your CD5i, that looks about the right deal.

You will be happy to get all those CD's ripped (barring the time involved to do so!) & stored away safe & will also see a nice SQ improvement over the CD5i 

I would agree that €1000 plus your CD player sounds ok for a ND5 XS, but it is already superseded since several months and the ND5 XS2 isn’t just a few internal changes, it’s a completely new streaming platform. Although I think Naim will go on supporting the ND5XS with occasional firmware upgrades, the new streamers including the ND5 XS2 support new streaming methods and you might want to think about trading your CD player in for a new ND5XS 2 rather than an old ND5 XS. That would cost you another €1500 or so though.

bedt

David

Gentlemen, thank you so much for your help and advice. 

So, if I understand you correctly:

- sound quality will improve by quite a bit over my cd5i

- I'll be able to stream at least tidal

- once naim ditches software support I'll need to simply download music through tidal to my nas and move on from there

- it's at least a fair deal at 1k Germanistan Kopecs 

Doesn't sound too bad

Dankeschön, Carlo

Ps: Merry Christmas!

You cannot download from Tidal. It can only be used to listen to music and you willl never own it yourself. 

Well, then I'll need to find another way to enlarge my music archive. 

Any suggestions on this one?

I get my music from Qobuz, Hyperion, Linn, High Res Audio, Bandcamp, Erased Tapes and various other places. 

In addition buy CDs and rip them to a NAS drive.

Der Carlo posted:

Well, then I'll need to find another way to enlarge my music archive. 

Any suggestions on this one?

Buying used cd's certainly is the most cost-effective for standard res music.  

Back to your original question -- the ND5XS certainly will play your music files, satisfyingly.  The newer platform (ND5XS2, NDX2, ND555) is . . . newer . . . more likely to be able to support new services that come along either inherently (it already supports Roon) or with tweaks devised by Naim in the future.  And the reports are that the sound rendering has improved.  It all depends on where you want to put your money, and when.  No right answer for everyone.

Naim streamers are a joy, especially into a NAC, as you gain control of the NAC via the Naim app.  I would be surprised if you did not find the ND5XS at least as good as the CD5i.  

Resale is easy, if you want to move up later, if you get a good enough deal, which CD5i + 1K seems, to me.

If you are bent on moving on from CD, go for it. Me, I kept CD to benchmark my ND.  Probably a silly decision, the longer dust accumulates on the CDP.

Nick

I'll pick up the streamer in a couple of days and see how well it performs at my place and against my cd5i.

If it's not clearly and by far better than the cd5i I'll keep my money and buy a shelf - otherwise the nd5 xs would just be a premium shelf itself. 

We'll see what happens!

Der Carlo posted:

I'll pick up the streamer in a couple of days and see how well it performs at my place and against my cd5i.

If it's not clearly and by far better than the cd5i I'll keep my money and buy a shelf - otherwise the nd5 xs would just be a premium shelf itself. 

We'll see what happens!

For your test make sure you're feeding the player lossless files -- no iTunes store crap!  

I intended to prepare a USB stick with a few of my favorite songs. So I'd have the chance of comparing the players side by side, switching back and forth while running the same song. Other than that I'll try to get hold of at least one studio master to see what that thing is really capable of. But since I'd run mostly my ripped CDs, plus a little tidal here and there, I guess it's better to stick with a realistic comparison.

From what my dealer told me, the nd5 xs has to be much much better than my cd5i thanks to the technology involved ... No more spinning motors, servos etc. Less internal noise is the thing I guess. 

If I need studio masters to get ahead of my CD player, that would be a total deal breaker for me  

What is iTunes?

Awesome forum by the way! So much useful input, so friendly people around here... I really enjoy it.

Lossless WAV or AIFF from USB stick is the way to hear the ND at its best.  Other methods can be as good; but there are more ways to go wrong along the way.  No way I know of to mess up USB stick and lossless together.

While you are at it, try the back USB vs the front.  See if they differ. Some say they do.

Nick

With the ND5 XS only the front USB supports playback; the rear USB is for updates only.

Thanks, huge. That will help saving some time!

Only two days and I'll have it. 

Huge posted:

With the ND5 XS only the front USB supports playback; the rear USB is for updates only.

I was confusing ND streamers with nDAC, of course.  Thank you, Huge.

Nick

Okay folks, here comes my verdict after listening to some Norah Jones, Staind and Incubus...

... in short: nd5 xs is better than the cs5i. 

... in long(er): the streamer sounds clearer; both voices and instruments. Bass is tighter and dryer. It seems to - kind of - lift everything. The whole music is more "present" and punchier whereas the CD player is looser. I'm not quite sure but from time to time I thought the CD player was easier to listen to. Sometimes the streamer appeared to be edgy or sharp...I guess I got that feeling simply because the streamer is more precise and that's new to my ears.

All in all I will not buy that thing. It definitely is better but not 1k Euros better. Also, it is not the showroom model but a second hand player and it's already eight years old. Too much money for too little improvement - at least for my ears.

Just to let you know my setup: I used the din cord to connect the streamer to my preamp. I ripped the CDs using dbpoweramp (flac), stored it on an USB and then straight into the streamer.

Gentlemen, thank you once again for your support, I guess I'll be back in a couple of years, when I'm rich or steamers are cheap.

All the best, der Carlo