Giving Back (ND5 XS 2, NDX2, Lumin D2)

Hi All

I've been lurking on these forums for a few months now and I wanted to give something back as I recently had the chance to audition some streamers (the Lumin D2, ND5 XS 2 and the NDX 2) at my dealer.  I've enjoyed the feedback others have been giving on these boxes and thought others may find it helpful to have another opinion.  To be honest, for various reasons I'm not sure how useful my opinions are going to be but since there's not a lot out there in terms of reviews or user feedback I felt I should write something.

Background

Firstly, a bit of background.  My search for a Hi-Fi came to an end (or so I thought) in the 90s.  I spent many years upgrading, auditioning, upgrading again, auditioning and replacing various bits of equipment to the point where I had reached a system which, to my ears, was just right.  I'd been through many brands and many different types of equipment (valve/solid state amps, standmount/floorstanding speakers and so on) until I settled on a combination which just did it for me every time (listed at the bottom in my signature). 

And I've been very happy with things for the last 20 years until I decided to "Sonos" my house a few years ago and just for casual listening, when I had friends round, added a Sonos Connect to my Hi-Fi system.  This was mainly so I could play "what's your favourite song ever?" with people and magically have it playing a few seconds later (obviously the novelty of that has worn off over the years).  You can guess where this is going but I started to listen to music more and more on my Sonos Connect and less and less on my wonderful CD player.  This has been partly because there's access to more music (I obviously subscribe to a streaming service), partly because I'm just a bit too lazy to get up and change CDs and partly because, being honest, the Sonos Connect doesn't actually sounds half bad.  It's not up there with my CD player but (I'm sure partly because it's going through the amp/speaker combination which I like) it's pretty decent.

So, a few months ago I decided it was time to move formats from CDs to "streaming".  I ripped my entire CD collection to my Synology NAS using dbpoweramp and then started the journey of finding a streamer which was more fitting for my Hi-Fi.  As I say, there's nothing very wrong with the Sonos Connect but I assumed there was something as good as, if not better, than my CD player.  Looking around then the Naim streamers were well talked about and the up and coming (now, up and come) new streamer family looked like the kind of thing which, on paper, would be worth listening to.  So, I've had to wait a few months for the ND5 XS 2 to come into my dealer but I had the chance to listen to that, the NDX 2 and also the Lumin D2 a few days ago.

Playlist and Listening Preferences

Before I get onto my thoughts about these three streamers it's probably worth listing out the tracks I used for the audition and also the kind of sound which appeals to me.

The playlist (all tracks either ripped from CD using dbpoweramp or downloaded from Qobuz CD quality).  These are all songs which I know well and is a fair representation of the style and recording quality of the music I listen to.

1. Foo Fighters - Run
2. Tonight Alive - Starlight
3. Aimee Mann - Deathly
4. Beartooth - Hated
5. Coldplay - Amsterdam
6. 12 Stones - Time
7. Grant Lee Buffalo - Fuzzy
8. The Band Perry - Lasso
9. Smashing Pumpkins - Tonight, Tonight
10. Billie Eilish - Idontwannabeyouanymore
11. Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Can't stop
12. Shed Seven - Dolphin

In terms of what I look for in a Hi Fi system and what sort of sounds I like then I struggle here.  I'm reminded of a review I once read (if I'm remembering it correctly) of a Linn Sondek in the 1970s.  At the time it was the epitome of Hi-Fi porn and totally out of my reach but I liked to read about the stuff anyway.  So, as I recall, the conclusion of the review was that you should invite your friends round to listen to your new Sondek.  They won't leave eulogising your amazing new turntable but they will leave thinking that you have the best record collection of anybody they know. 

That review always comes back to me and whenever I audition new equipment I'm actually trying to work out how much I'm enjoying the music rather than thinking about mix, timing, clarity, soundstage and so on.  Having said that, if you forced me I'd say that the things which matter to me are seperation of instruments yet still forming a cohesive whole, being enveloped by sound with the speakers themselves being invisble, control and expansion of the sound when things start to ramp up musically, transparency, lack of system "colour", and smoothness of sound.

The Audition

My equipment is obselete so there wasn't any chance of my dealer being able to recreate my system in their listening rooms.  It was, in their view the closest they had available to what I've got but, realistically, it wouldn't have actually been that close.  That somewhat limits my ability to have an opinion on how good the various streamers are in absolute terms but I still can hopefully add something useful in terms of how they compare to each other.  I realise that there are system matching issues which means it isn't quite as simple as that but I'm reasonably confident that my conclusions weren't affected by that.

We started with the Lumin D2.  This was a recommendation by the dealer to listen to something which is pitched similarly to the cheaper Naim box but has a different sort of sound.  I'd read a few good things about it online and, although it isn't as fully featured as the newer Naim boxes I was determined to be led by sound quality.  I was genuinely shocked when the autidion started as I went through the first few songs on my playlist above - it was truly appalling.  Just about everything was wrong with the sound and I actually had to skip through tracks to try and find something which wasn't an affront to my ears.  After about 5 minutes I called the dealer back in and asked him to check the wiring because I wondered if something was out of phase but he confirmed that it was all wired up correctly.  I didn't see any reason to continue to cut short that audition there and then.

I did wonder if the unfamiliar room, the unfamiliar equipment and warmup issues could have been colouring my judgement so we agreed to return to it at the end because it was unbelievably bad but we then moved on to the ND5 XS 2.

Immediately, this sounded better and I sat and went through the entire playlist making a few notes for each song and enjoying the music.  As I said at the beginning, I can only compare the streamers to each other as the amp/speakers/room were all unfamiliar but this one sounded "right" to me in terms of what I'm looking for out of a hi-fi.  Over and above that there were a few highs and lows along the way and I'll share a few of those.  It coped pretty well with Run although it lacked a bit of cohesion during the shouty bits.  I felt the vocals on Starlight were a little bit processed, similarly the vocals on Deathly were good but not quite like Aimee Mann was in the room with me.  Hated sounded amazingly good, this is a challenging track because it gets quite frenetic and when it ramps up it's easy for things to become "contracted" in terms of soundstage and dynamics but that didn't happen.  Amsterdam vocals got slightly whiny when it gets louder towards the end.  Fuzzy was amazingly smooth without an edge to the topend.  Both Lasso and Tonight, Tonight were excellent as was idontwannebeyouanymore but I did think the vocals sounded processed in the latter.  Can't Stop was a bit light on the bass but that's an issue with the recording (just not mixed to my taste) and Dolphin was excellent.

So, a few negatives, a few positives but all of that set against excellent sound quality with great transparency, really good soundstaging and I really enjoyed the music (the most important thing).  The "negatives" above are just areas that I felt weren't perfect (so 9/10 rather than 10/10) and some of those are possibly as much to do with the recording as with the equipment.  Going into the audition, this was the box that I most wanted to like as I liked the functionality over the Lumin and I didn't want to pay £5k for a NDX 2 (and I don't want a screen!).  So, at this point I was happy.  Now on to the NDX 2.

My hope was that this would sounds the same as the ND5 XS 2 as I'd reached the limit of the recordings and my ears with that box and I wouldn't be able to hear a difference with the NDX 2.

I was wrong.

Here are some of my notes on the NDX 2 ("same" means same as ND5 XS 2).  Run - similar but perhaps slightly better.  Starlight - better, really nice bass and heard some things I hadn't before.  Deathly - "enveloped in loveliness", superb imaging and transparency.  Hated - same.  Amsterdam - great imaging, no whine.  Time, Fuzzy - same.  Lasso - enveloped in loveliness (again).  Tonight, Tonight - great warmth, superb bass in the beginning, Idontwantobeyouanymore - just beautiful.  Can't Stop, Dolphin - Same. 

I then went back to the ND5 XS 2 to see if I was imagining things.  No, I wasn't, the NDX 2 really had made a lot of the music sound better.  It wasn't night and day, and some of the tracks did sound the same but there was a clear difference on some of the tracks with greater transparency, better imaging, smoother and just more enjoyable to listen to.  Although I still don't like the screen.

For completeness, I also went back to the Lumin and, to be fair, it wasn't the "chalk on a blackboard" experience that I'd had at the beginning.  Maybe there was something about familiarity of room and equipment that had made it so awful at the start.  However, whilst it wasn't appalling there was (to my ears) a clear gulf in class between this unit and both the Naim boxes.

I did mention to the dealer that I was really hoping not to have heard much of a difference between the two Naim boxes and he (quite rightly) looked at me rather quizzically and said it would be kind of crazy for Naim to prodce a box at twice the price where you couldn't hear the difference.  Of course, he's right, and for that reason I rejected his offer to hear the NDX 2 with a power supply added!

So, that's the story so far.  I wanted to end up thinking that the ND5 XS 2 was the right box for me but, based on this audition, the NDX 2 is tangibly better to my ears in a significant way.  The next step now is to arrange a home audition for both of these boxes where I can hear them in a familiar setting, with familiar amp/speakers.  I'll also be able to do a proper A/B test against the Sonos Connect and also against my existing CD player.

Until then, happy to answer any questions (if I can) and I hope this was useful feedback for anybody who's in a similar position.