Well, I’m pleased you at least found the ND555 to be “okay”…
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Is was a bit of a “tongue in cheek” comment, to go with my “over the head one”, thats why i added the lol, lol.
But as i said already on this thread, its still a good source, just lagging a bit behind now as things have moved on quite a bit and continues to do so in this sector.
Standing still is being left behind as i am sure everyone would like to see a new and better streamer/dac from naim, as why wouldn’t you.
If they had a new one coming out, or we got wind of a new one coming very soon, i would have held off getting my dCS upgraded, but nothing and so booked it in and can’t really see me coming back to naim for a streamer/dac now.
But on a positive i can’t see myself selling my 500/552dr combo, unless downsizing or we get a 500 plus integrated, or my superline. So not all bad really.
Would you sell your Thales and get the Solstice ?
Not a chance, it would be a big step down especially now.
It was the extensive benchmarking I did compared to the competition that led to that verdict Richard… ideally, I wanted so much not to have to change my NAIM streamer, but the gulf was too much.
How do you know ? The Thales Statement arm is indeed much more expensive. But without comparing, you can trust only the price difference.
But you even conceded that your ND555 wasn’t ideally set up for optimum performance, so I do wonder whether you’ve ever heard one anywhere even close to its best.
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There’s no amount of set-up that would have bridged the sound quality gap, Richard.
I understand that you’re being defensive of the brand, but have a listen for yourself, and let me know what you think. The 555 wasn’t at the races…
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Well, there are Porsche SUVs and modern 911s can be had or driven with lots of electronic help, and are by far not as difficult. 500 hp still, sure, but you have to be quite an idiot to crash it.
Of course, then there are the club racing models or toxic 911s from the seventies that require the driver to be up to it, but we don’t force chefs to use blunt knives because of some idiots, either
The ND555 is up there amongst the very best sources I’ve ever heard, bar none. I generally don’t talk about Naim vs. other brands as I don’t wish to do others down and I realise that not everyone gets what are Naim’s strengths. I do get to hear a lot of the competition though and I know DCS and their products very well.
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I should have said “optimally”, I remember the days when I had the 552/500, it was sometimes temperamental because of some small changes in the env or it was me trying to fiddling.
Yeah sorry, I was too much focused on the Porsches 
I don’t know about the 500, but people also keep talking about how temperamental the 252 is, but I set my 252/300 up 1.5 years ago, and did it well according to gospel, and it has sounded great ever since. When it doesn’t, it’s definitely me - I just don’t fiddle with anything, and lo and behold, it sounds great again the next day when I’m more relaxed
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If all there is, is a poor recording of an interesting work, you have to accept it, or miss out.
Surely the Porsche needs an excellent road surface to perform at its best, otherwise it’s potential won’t be fully realised?
I don’t get all this set up stuff thats talked about so much by naim, its almost like its a get out clause for it not sounding or being as good as one might expect.
No other gear i have ever owned has had these problems, you must not do this, or this etc.
If its such a problem then surely naim should design there products better.
Plus i say to ever owner just go and let that burndy cable hit the floor or touch a power cable and hear the night/day difference you get.
I stand her and say i bet if i blindfold you and start messing with your cables you wouldn’t have the foggiest idea i was even there.
I get that distance can and is important, but thats mainly down to the way naim does it power supplies, but cable dressing, i think its 99% ocd and 1% producted.
Obviously this is just me and also could be down to the fact i dont use many naim cables these days, but really trying to say the nd555 didn’t sound great because of cable dressing or it wasn’t sitting on fraim, etc is just silly, i sat my dcs rossini on the floor and ran the cables to it, in a thrown in way and it sounded fantastic.
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I was actually just thinking to myself why would Naim equipment be so sensitive to setup and cable positioning?
What is it that makes the difference vs other products that don’t?
Is it the external power supplies?
What makes other products less sensitive to this?
I am convinced it’s more a fan culture thing than anything else. These things develop arbitrarily differently in different ecosystems. In other areas you have people obsessing over their valves or VTA
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Agree to a point, but then Richard a few posts ago, says basically the reason it didn’t sound good was down to set up.
I have heard many times naim nd555 in naim dealers being demoed against others, yes some it can hold its own with, others it wiped the floor with and others that showed it the door, are we saying these dealers aren’t demonstrated it correctly then ?
IMHO there are so many objective and subjective variations going on that nobody can tell the difference with certainty. In these auditions vs apparently different opponents, maybe the ND555 was indeed factually better than some and worse than others - but maybe just in your ears and others would have made different choices. But then it was, I guess, not always the same room, the same speakers, nor the same you.
If you multiply these experiences for large numbers of people having them and discussing them, myself obviously included and not being immune, then you get, statistically speaking, some data in a lot of noise. Because our possibilities are very limited in statistical terms (nobody can blind test a thousand discerning listeners with 10 DACs with statistically significant rigor), the wealth of experiences are not much different to us than random noise.
When the brain experiences random or nearly-random data, its goal shaped by evolution is to make sense of it and find patterns of reason in it. This makes sense and the brain is very good in some ways at doing that. In other ways it’s also very bad at it, and some parts of it readily invent patterns to satisfy other brain parts. The imaginations can take many shapes and are further shaped by biases, previous outside influences, and whatnot. In different hifi ecosystems, they get shaped by the different lore in each area, brand, etc. And some brands shape their image as being immune to things that other brands make their core DNA, while others make make a play on how delicate they are. Different kinds of people are drawn to different brands as well. It becomes a self-sustaining loop in a way. People annoyed by the burndy shaking don’t go near Naim or leave it. Others find it fascinating. Same with, I don’t know, heavy metal chrome-plated lumps of German engineering brutalism like Burmester or something, and a thousand other brands.
That’s my take on it, anyway. It doesn’t mean that there is no valid data and real influences of anything from fundamental design to subtle tweaks, but it’s extremely difficult to keep it all apart.
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The kind of road for the Porsche is like room/ amp/ speakers matching. Who would drive a GT4 on an Arabian sand? Or listen to Magico M9 in a bathroom ?
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