Sadly, I think that you’re right, Graeme. I have a sick CDS II, which I hope Audio T will be able to have fixed for me in Salisbury. But I won’t be confident of that until it’s done.
Then I shall effectively have to disregard the last 30 or 40 years, and go back to the LP12. But that’s progress for you (not!).
So, given lamenting the loss of Naim CD players, what are Naim system owners choosing in their place, assuming they still want a CD player or transport?
Bearing in mind that the CD5si was and is quite a highly regarded CD
player.
Interested to hear others thoughts……
ATB, J
Charles is on the money:
A CD5XS2!
With the huge amount of DACs available and built in to products like the Nova , I notice that there seems to be products from Roksan, Cyrus, Exposure , Rega , Audiolab , Cambridge Audio(and I’m sure there are others ) all with digital outputs . These are transports or CD players that by pass the internal DACs
The Audiolab 6000 CDT is turning up in a lot of Naim systems (I think Pete has one) .
I think Naim could circumvent the weakness in their range that you have identified , simply by adding a digital output to their current basic CD player.
I’m sticking with CD, vinyl and won’t be going anyway near a streaming service. I have a Nova which I use for internet radio and it is a very fine product
Hoping you are home soon to listen to your music
As a stand alone I would go for a Rega Saturn (without DAC) but most likely an Audiolab 6000 CDT
I think Naim should be very wary of how Rega is improving , their Aethos is a cracker
Before we knew that a CDS2 could be repaired with a new mechanism I decided not to go with a streamer and bought a Rega Isis. As a former accountant and internal auditor I weighed up the costs and pros and cons. Musically the Isis was great. It was the most expensive Rega CD player but you only need one bit of kit. With streaming although the quality of musical replay is excellent (better than cd at its best) there is quite a lot of extra kit; switches, streamers, rippers, ethernet, internet, monthly subscriptions etc etc. I love buying ‘new’ cd’s and most are only 50p and rarely more than £5. The final deciding factor for me was when I checked on the download booklet from Hyperion’s Die Schone Mullerin which had an impressive 30 pages but my paper booklet has 72 glossy pages, all in English.
Also streamers may need updating with new technology or even become redundant. My player has a lifetime guarantee for parts and Rega keep two matched mechanisms for my player which should give a lifetime of use for me.
Taking the holistic although also parochial view I would rather Naim focus their attention on keeping existing CDPs on the road if resources are limited.
Things can’t be that bad, other manufacturers are releasing new players all the time.
I’m a little over the covid excuse. Time to move on.
I can’t understand the hostility to streaming here. In my experience it is better than CD in every way - sound quality, cost and usablity. It is infinitely less hassle than my old CDS2/XPS which cost way more, took up two shelves, and demanded at least 2 new pucks a year to avoid the won’t play/skipping experience (and yes I did know about tweaking the little rubbers in the puck).
Streaming is plug and play (if you don’t find that to be the case then get someone to fix your network), sounds better especially via Quobuz hi-res, gives me access to pretty much all the music in the world at a fraction of the money I spent on CDs. As for storage, in boxes under the spare beds is way better than ugly shelves full in the living room - my collection is on my NAS. I really don’t miss crappy fragile “jewel boxes”, artwork too small to have any aesthetic value, and liner notes only readable with a magnifying glass.
Not sure anyone is hostile towards steaming. I stream all the time, it is my preferred source, but also love to listen to my CDs and SACDs that I’ve accumulated overtime. Did rip half my CD collection just don’t listen to it. At least in my case I prefer the actual CD in most cases. Just another option to listen to my favorite music like having a turntable. I had a CD5si but it didn’t do it for me. Sold it and purchased a Marantz CD/SACD Ruby player, excellent DAC and digital out to my DAC if needed.
We used to have a CD player and a matching DAC (Micromega, late 90’s vintage)
Now we have a streamer and a matching DAC.
The world moves on and panders to a hunger for convenience. We’re in our 40s and we’re onboard with it. SWMBO loves AirPlay on the NDX2, and whilst we’ve an extensive CD collection on NAS I often just open Tidal as I’m too lazy to click the Wake on LAN app and fire up the Synology 
Streaming is infinitely easier than physical CD and I end up (via related artists, or influencers on Tidal) discovering a new artist nearly every time I sit down to listen to music. And my musical tastes have grown as a result.
From your other posts in different threads, I thought for you the LP12 and vinyl reigned supreme…not sure why it would be something you’d “go back to”.
Confused.
I’m not against streaming, quite the opposite. But I do think it would be nice to have options, it’s not about one or the other it’s about choice.
That’s pretty similar to the arguments in favour of CD when it replaced vinyl as the dominant medium for music sales. I stuck with vinyl, deterred initially by the awful sound quality of early CD players I’d listened to. It wasn’t that I liked vinyl, in fact I hated the constant battle against dust, listening to the opening bars with my arse pointed at the speakers as I headed back to my seat, etc.
I disliked CD too, for different reasons more or less along the lines of Pev’s post above. For me it was a no-brainer to move on to streaming, first with ripped CDs, then with subscription services when Naim started to support them. In fact I bought more CDs since I started ripping them than I ever bought before. Less so now - even charity shops don’t bother selling them these days.
Same here - I started ripping the CDs I still have when I got my UQ1 back and have found myself looking for / buying used CDs on-line. I haven’t bought a CD in over 20 years!
I don’t think I’ll ever use a CD player, but streaming ripped files on an older unit without access to Tidal/Qobuz is just so easy…
As a long time CD555 owner I find it interesting and just a little rewarding to see the Naim website opens their 500 series with the now well “obsolete” 555 player first, before the 552 and 500 pre and power amps.
I had a Naim CD5 XS, but sold it in June this year along with my Linn LP12. My vinyl and CDs were all sold as well.
Now just do streaming with a Linn Klimax DS3 / Katalyst streamer.
DG…
Well done Douglas - good to see you have brought this thread back on topic thanks
It was starting to go the old chestnut way - CD vs Streaming
It’s been done to death
I was happy when Naim was able to source laser mechs for my CDS3. It is a great CD player and sounds wonderful in my active Naim system. While Naim does not produce a high end CD, there are other alternatives. Rega, CEC, Hegel, Cyrus, Marantz ect. that are very good. CDs remain popular and I have 1600 in my collection. I will eventually buy a streamer but continue to purchase CDs and vinyl.
Me too
I use one with a theta reclocker and separate power supply for the theta and it works incredibly well 