No need to be confused.
IF (and I hope that this is not the case) Naim are not able to fix my CDS II, I will just return full time to my LP12 and collection of LPs.
I have no interest in streaming.
I’m sorry if my post was not clear.
Maybe don’t rule out the CD5Si. I’m perfectly happy with mine. Recently compared to much more expensive products from Rega and felt it more than held its own. Interesting, I think it sounds better running through RCAs.
Mike
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IMO both Naim and Linn made sensible decisions in pruning/eliminating their range of standalone CD players (four years ago in the case of Naim) for the reasons that @Richard.Dane outlined above. It is interesting that ATC’s DACs come with a CD drive and don’t offer streaming. I guess Richard’s point about software development costs might be one of the reasons.
As for CDs in a Naim system, there are plenty of other manufacturers making CD players at all prices. So forgoing CDs (and streaming) altogether seems a rather idiosyncratic act of self-denial to me, but each to their own, I guess.
Roger
Unless you happen to be a Star owner affected by the ripping drop-out issues…
I don’t agree with what you say, but so be it. No going back.
Some enterprising company (probably Japanese) may see a gap in the market left by Naim and Linn, move in, and clear up. Or maybe not.
It will be no great hardship, as noted above, to go back to the LP12.
Agree with you about rca ! 
I have looked for alternatives to my CDS3 when the mech issue was at its peak.
I personally would audition the Cyrus XT CD player or transport, which can soon be upgraded with a separate power supply. Another option would be a used Rega Isis. Luxman also makes good cd players but they do not come in black so i skipped that from the start 
At the end i purchased a second CDS3 and have 2 mechs as spares as backups if Naim would not be able to source additional mechs when the time will come for a service…
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Like I mentioned before, the Uniti Core sort of combines the line between CDs and streaming. Okay, not entirely, but modifying so that it could be used as a CD transport as an option would be a good solution. Maybe that is possible as a firmware update and using the BNC output? I don’t really know.
My old Arcam Alpha 7SE recently stopped powering up and I’ve sold it for use as spares or a DIY project. I recently compared it as a transport against my Cambridge Audio UHD Bluray player and the later was well ahead. Indeed a CD through the UHD player outputting via coaxial to the NDX2 is on par with local streaming a rip of the same CD via local streaming. I find a hi-res WAV file better than a CD rip or CD via the bluray, so that is my preference for well recorded favourites.
Streaming has replaced CD, at least, streaming from one’s own store of music files, whether ripped from CD (or even vinyl), or downloaded at CD quality or higher resolutions. As a digital source streaming is at least as good sound quality (as good as the DAC), and potentially better, not just because of higher resolutions, but no Read errors due to damaged/dirty CDs or wear in the mechanism, and no need for error correcting interpolation.
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I assume, with a CDS2, you’ve a good selection of CDs. It just seems a shame to potentially give up any means of listening to them, but it’s your call, of course. Let’s hope a bit of TLC in Salisbury can get your CD player back to full fettle.
Roger
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I love streaming but Cd is my favourite format. My cd5si is very good but it is next in line for upgrade.If Naim no longer interested I have no problem in choosing different manufacture . Marantz and Cyrus are producing excellent machines. Don’t understand brand loyalty with companies who have no customer loyalty.Just move on.
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Nice to see a CDP thread. And entirely predictable the streaming brigade would decide to crap on it. It must be very insecure owning a streamer.
I can see why, product life and depreciation appear very challenging.
As to suitable Naim replacements - when the time comes - I’ve got Rega, Cyrus, and Marantz on the top of my list.
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No, you are simplifying this to just 1’s and 0’s. Hold on.
Digital data is not sent as a sequence of 1 and 0 bits but as a very high-frequency analogue waveform that encodes the digital 1 and 0 bits. Reading the file from disk in the server (either HDD or SSD) produces noise, processing the file (including decompression) produces noise of different levels dependent on how much processing is required and what processor and how much memory is used. Some of this noise is transmitted via the network to the renderer. This noise does not cause a 1 bit to be changed to 0 or vice versa but it does interfere with the sound quality that the DAC in the renderer is able to produce. Every system has a different combination of noise-producing components and any change that is made can make the sound quality either better or worse.
I use local streaming (own store) - but I ended up buying a digital music library box costing more than most CD-players before it started to sound o.k.
So CD-players have their place today. A good one delivers.
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Yes, I have an insane number of LPs and CDs. I suspect that, if I were to start to listen to them for, say, eight hours a day, I’d be turning up daisies before I got to the last. (That is assuming I have a working CD player, of course.)
And yet I have ordered the ‘new’ Revolver LP this morning.
Go figure, as our American friends say!
If Naim are able to fix the CDS II, even better.
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I listen to vinyl, CD and got a streaming setup but streaming is definitely the least plug and play option. There’s just so many more moving parts, internet network issues, wifi issues, apps, authentication to services, software versions etc etc. As a software dev I spend all day trying to get stuff like that to work so when I sit down to listen to music I want to relax and have the least hassle option and also a break from computers, tablets, phones, apps, algorithms, big tech…
And don’t get me started on managing a local collection of files, tagging etc 
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Your first paragraph there has described succinctly why streaming and I will never mix!
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However it is easy to rip them if you have a computer with a CD drive, or add an external drive costing maybe £25-30.
Streaming is great - not a hassle or in any way complex - and I’m not that bright. It is a wonderfully easy way to sample an infinite amount of music in very good quality. But I flit around.
Cd is great. And running a transport (6000cdt) into my Ndx2 produces excellent and comparable results for a relatively small outlay. I flit around less.
Vinyl is great. I sit and listen all the way through and get a bit of exercise changing sides. A good quality pressing in good condition rivals the above.
Naim have chosen to to go the streaming route. If a choice had to be made from a business perspective, then it has to be the right one. CD and vinyl will forever remain a niche, but marginally relevant market. To suggest otherwise is bold at best.
Aspiring generations of audiophiles will overwhelmingly enter the market through streaming hardware. Units like the Atom will appeal to those who want something ‘good’ and introduce them to a product upgrade hierarchy.
That’s exactly what happened to me, and I’m far from young.
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But not so useful if you have no means of playing the rips like Graham.
Roger
I must say from my techno-phobe perspective there is a simplicity which is the preserve of LP and CD replay that sits in an entirely different universe to the digital/ streaming world. Indeed I often wish I had never dipped my toes in things digital. I’m just not a computer savvy person - never have been and never will be. I have ‘all the gear and no idea’ Re networks, NAS drives, etc. I have managed to connect the router to the switch, replaced the switch for a swankier version, got a fancy innuos thing and a naim play back thing (with, I suspect, considerable overlap/ redundancy between the innuos and naim), plus all the faffing about with this and that interconnect cables. It does work, but the whole thing leaves me cold. Most of the time I’ll stick a CD on and less frequently I’ll get the record player spinning.
If my CD player were to implode, the shelf space would most definitely be replaced with a CD player and it is a shame that naim decided to abandon this segment. I do not accept that it is not viable for naim to maintain at least one CD player in their range - would have made a lot more sense to me than the distraction of that dreadful looking record player. I appreciate that the world is in a different place and suspect that a very large proportion of revenue may flow from the likes of the Atom etc which are sold via a much wider distribution chain. My naive hope was that this revenue stream, somewhat akin to Porsche with their Macan and Cayenne SUVs, would help fund the parts closer to the ethos of the brand ie 911’s and GT variants. Clearly the bean counters at hq don’t see it that way.
Peter
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