I have all Naim electronics and am thinking about purchasing a brand new CD5si. I hear and read different things from different people. I was told by a Naim store (in Canada) that Naim has stopped producing CD players and that they are simply letting their inventory fall to zero. Other retailers said that this is not true, that it can still, to their knowledge, be ordered, although inventories were at zero at the distributor at the time of my phone call. I also read several messages on this forum that parts for previous Naim CD players were no longer available and that essentially, from what I read, the player is therefore useless. This is pretty uncommon from Naim, given they often still have parts for very old equipment.
Can I have your opinion on the topic? Would you buy a Naim CD player brand new in 2025? I just love the Naim sound and cannot believe they would sell something without making sure that replacement parts are available for a long time. I find the CD5si pretty expensive to be unserviceable in a few years…
Thank you for your acumen and more clarity on the matter.
Nope.
I paid premium for a CDS3/XPS long ago.
Nowadays the headunit is worthless due to no stock of spares secured, when available.
This scenario is now real time and a true pity as the original Naim CD players were very good sounding.
As for a CD5Si - its an entry level player, I find its performance not up to price level.
I prefer a Rega player at less price - these are supported as well.
Although almost 20 years ago now, it’s worth repeating what happened with the VAM1250 which was used in both the CDS3 and the CDX2. Naim were informed by the supplier that it was being discontinued so, as was Naim policy, put in their lifetime buy to cover spares only to discover that production had already ceased and the stock cupboard was bare. The buying team bought everything available and scrambled to buy up as many as they could on the market but it fell well short of what was required, so a decision was taken to cease production of the CDS3 and for R&D to re-design the CDS3 and CDX2 to use the VAM1202, which was still being made at the time. Note that they re-designed the CDS3 even though production had ceased and would not re-start. This was just to support existing owners so they could have the player modified by Naim at time of mech replacement to run with a VAM1202.
The CD5si uses a Sanyo sf-hd 850 mechanism. I don’t know what supplies are like for it, but Naim have recent history in ceasing production of things when parts become hard to find, in favour of being able to service and repair existing units.
There haven’t been any formal announcements regarding the CD5si as far as I’ve seen, so I think you can take that to mean that at least for the moment Naim are confident they can still source parts sufficient for production, let alone repairing any units that might require it.
A factory visit in mid '23 saw lots of CD5si units being made as well. Plenty of forum people run them, and rate them. I can dig out the thread if you’re interested BertNaim?
I’m sure you can buy better, the Marantz mentioned above were end of line units drastically reduced to about the same price, but retailed for over twice the 5si price before the discounting. It’s not surprising they sound great according to the forum members who bought them. But they were definitely end of line, and I don’t know that the offers are still out there, or perhaps more importantly how long Marantz CD players are supported after production ceases! If you’re worried about the 5si supportability then I definitely wouldn’t buy another player that was already end of line!
I don’t know about the rumours you mention @BertNaim - but I think despite the upset about Naim’s inability to service the mechanisms on their old players, I haven’t heard many alternative manufacturers being mentioned that are categorically better able to service mechanisms in players out of production for as long as some Naim players have been.
If you bought a CD5si player today I suspect Naim could likely keep it running through any failures for a while.
If I was looking to spend £1500 on a new CD player, in current production, then I’d certainly give a 5si a listen.
Obviously other opinions are available, as you see above, just wanted to try and give another viewpoint
I had a loaner CD5si from my dealer when my CDX2 needed repair and was not really impressed at all with this unit. I realise people love it and are using it but certainly at 282 Naim level I found it was hopelessly out of its depth.
Major mech producers are ceasing production left right and centre. TEAC, Pioneer, Philips, the list goes on. And some the do still make mechs are not supplying them to OEM anymore and keeping them only for their own finished consumer products (TEAC).
There has sprung up recently, a market for refurbished and repaired mechs. It’s a bit of a black art and certainly Naim won’t do it because the end result can be so variable, preferring to swap out the mech entirely or refuse repair.
I have mechs open on my workbench as we speak hoping to bring back to life (not anything Naim related), but it’s a gamble every time. I would use the player as long as it works and if it develops a read fault, see if any of these mech whisperer workshops are local
If not, please do not consign the player to doorstop status. There is a market for good condition cases, drawers, transformers etc. Someone will repurpose the case into a music server or something.
Hello Bert, the CD5si, was seen at the Naim factory tour and they had a lot, so it is still happily in production.
I had one for two years and I think it is a reasonably priced product. It surprisingly does not have a digital output.
I moved mine on when I was able to put my CDX2 ( digital output only) back in the rack following the purchase of a ND5XS2 which has a lot of digital inputs.
I own a CD5SI
I have no real concerns for imminent “ brickage “
I bought it with the five year warranty.
So no biggy at the price it’s placed at with such a warranty it seems a bargain to me and the sound is super too.
Thank you very much, your opinion is very enlightening. The CD medium as a whole is slowly dying, but I do have a big collection, so as my vinyl collection, and it would be disappointing to no longer have access to all that music. I am very much tempted by the Naim CD5si, I just love their sound, always have. I do adhere to your comment regarding the Marantz at discount price. Of course a player twice the price reduced to the Naim CD price should sound better. I guess the main takeaway from your comment and what I must grapple with is that any CD player maker will discontinue them at some point and that parts may be scarce and hard to find whatever brand one buys. Thank you for your elaborate answer, this is the kind of quality answer I am looking for on this site.
Your electronics deserve a better source. The CD5i is more advised to go with Nait 5 or Nait XS3.
For money, Uniticore connected to Ndac , both discontinued, will give you a Cdx2 and more level. Around 2 k.
The Marantz SA 12 would be my choice.
I posted the link so people could read Naim’s view on how difficult it is to provide support for legacy players. They don’t seem to include the CD5SI in this list.
