I’ve heard full Statement setup and it was great, but in world of obtainable upgrades I wondered about discernable value of adding only the Statement Preamp to NAP 500DR system?
Your thoughts and experiences are most appreciated.
I would recommend getting a CD555 with 2 555 DRs or even better would be a ND555 with a melco ripper first. Ask @PeterR, he has a CD555/NAC S1/500DR. Do you have it SuperLumina’d? I assume you have them powerline’d/fraim’d? If not all of these three you should get them, they will get the best out of your system.
Not that I am against another Statement thread (there seem to be a lot popping up suddenly), but @PeterR did just that:
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Hi Fallstaff,
If you keep scrolling down the thread pages, you will find the thread ‘ The S1 shining bright’. This will give you the best impressions of various peoples take on the uplift it provides 
My only suggestion is that everything else with the system has to be spot on: Mains, cables and dressing thereof, Fraim and also importantly the room-response. If it’s all ‘tick’ , there simply is nothing NOT to like about, what the S1 brings to the table! ATB Peter
Ah, above beat me to it, well done.
Why not? You have a very fine CD player and Naim lore says the preamp is the system’s beating heart. Go for it.
Darke Bear is your Man
Peter, I’ve done the full loom, have dedicated power line, newly installed electric wiring as per Naim camp followers, use Fraim and actually love what I have. If I had my way I would add CD555 with 2/555PS, but Naim found the wisdom to walk away from this gem. My CDS3/555PS is very satisfying. As to restructuring my listening room, is lovely well appointed space designed/decorated with my kit in mind.
What I’m looking for is not out of frustration, that was settled by my NAP 500DR. I could live happily ever after, but would subscribe to alternate if I could find it.
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I heard the S1 preamp at ProMusica in Chicago a few years ago. The demo started with a 552 (I was there to hear a few speakers)… I asked Ken if he could switch to the Statement Pre? He said, “you really want to do this?” I laughed and was reminded to never listen to an upgrade you can’t afford. Never the less, we switched preamps. It only took a few notes to crush me. The S1 is in another league. Recordings sounded far more realistic, as if the performer was in the room. Richer, bigger, better dynamics. It was all there.
I think you’d be pleased with the S1 Preamp.
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And yet some members run their DACs directly into power amps viewing the pre-amp as at best superfluous and at worse a source of signal degradation.
My instinct is that - assuming you stay with
CDs - upgrading from CDS3 to CD555 should precede trading the 552 for an S1
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I’ve always found the CDS3 to be far more enjoyable than the CD555. It’s just a nicer listen and I’d consider the 555 a downgrade.
About 4 years ago I purchased a used CD555 w/ 2 555PSDR’ed and recapped. It took about 3 notes for me to realize that not only was the CD555 a significant upgrade, but actually a different galaxy. The CD555 almost takes the “digital” characteristics out of the CD. There are, occasionally, CD555’s available on the used market. I found mine on AudioGon, advertised by a dealer in Vancouver.
As to the Statement preamp, I just arranged to purchase a complete used Statement system to upgrade my current 500 Series rig, so I certainly hope (!) it makes as huge a difference as many in this forum have attested. (You may want to take a peek at a thread I began several days ago entitled “Statement vs. 500’s”.
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Suedkiez & Peter,
Thank you both for directing me to the excellent “S1 Shinning Bright!” It provided answers to all of my unelucidated ruminations, most important why S1 is transformative acquisition. The picture of S1 between Frame stacks addressed my placement quandary.
What remains is question of money and when to spend it.
Thank you each again.
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Mitch, thank you for heads up to your thread, I’ll get to it shortly.
Wish I could find CD555, after the ND555 came out it sounded like everyone was putting theirs up for sale, but I don’t think there was much on this side of the Atlantic.
Thank you again will follow up.
Hungry Halibut,
I do love my CDS3 and am far more charmed by its sound than what I’ve heard from streaming including Qobuz. There was minority opinion that CDS3 was more musical, or more engaging than CD555 and more than few times sales people and installers that I respect urged me to not jump ship. One of the rationales was that geriatrics have musical memory, or disposition that sit easily with CDS3 signature. S1 as presented on forum seems a game worth playing.
Thank you and as in past your thoughts were always relevant deeply on target.
In my drive for perfection I’ve had a CDX 2.2 with Ndac and 555PS, a CDS 3 and then a CDP555. My personal opinion is that the CDP555, in my system, was light years ahead of everything else. I even dabbled with the NDS for a few weeks but I couldn’t get anywhere near the same enjoyment that the CDP555 seems to offer. It’s the way a CDP555 makes instruments just leap out of the mix, that sudden guitar rift you didn’t even notice before or bass lines that you feel rather than hear, the shimmer of a high-hat. Nothing comes quite this close to making sense of the music like a CDP555.
Again, personal opinion but I thought the CDX 2.2/Ndac/555PS was better at this than my CDS 3. For me the CDS 3 was just a tad too polite and light weight. It lacks the growl of the CDX 2 and musical timing of the CDP555. However, in some systems it maybe that this is preferred, who knows?
I do think a CDP555 through an S1 pre-amp will sound absolutely sensational!
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I agree with you Geko
- CDX2.2, DAC, XPS2 I found more propulsive than CDS3
- CD555 just mighty
- Don’t forget CDS1,2
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