IIRC it’s alloy plate - same for the CDS2 and CDS3. The mech tray was sprung by leaf springs and had precision pins which sat in jewelled cups. A common issue is that someone moves the unit without due care and the pins bounce out of the cups and then rest on the leaf springs - this will adversely impact performance. The transit bolts should help avoid this, but even then, if the tray is not orientated just right, when you undo the bolts, the pins can misalign with the cups with the same result of poor performance. It can also damage the pin ends, necessitating their replacement. My CDS2 was a fairly hard-worked demo unit and replacing the pins brought an appreciable improvement to performance.
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At the last forum visit Jason told how any rubber in the feet negated the effect of the internal springs, all part of the design.
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What a great read – Thank you learnt so much from you guys.
Think it works differently, but the brass coupling technology reminds me of Sony’s WM1Z portable player, that the gold-plated OFC chassis contributes a lovely warm touch to the music. Now I wanna get a NDS to go with my ND5XS2.
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That suggests that posting an NDS is a grave error.
That’s why you have to have the transits bolts in place before shipping 
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Yes, so you might have originally written that turning NDS (or other brass plate constructions) upside down will cause great damage. NEVER DO THAT - unless the transit bolts are used in which case it’s fine to turn the NDS upside down.
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It is a work of art inside.
Lovely design and craftsmanship.
The odd thing is that in retrospect I enjoyed music on my system much more with the nDAC - and now with the ND555 - than with the NDS.
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And here you see the Chassis/Floating switch and its ground wire. There you see that you simply connect ground to the chassis pushing the switch. You also see RCA and DIN next to each other and their green ground wires. The RCA ground wire is shared between right and left channel.
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I also love the way the yellow/black cable travel hoovering the board in air Like its own mountain cable car/tramway. Details!
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Thanks - very lovely pictures
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I can’t sell this beauty. I will put it on the wall with locking screws in as a beautiful pcs of art 
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Some day you might even have it in work again. Promise!
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And a better Dac than the 333 ….maybe 
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I have seen people that have Naim internals framed, its something special.
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Now we are talking … let him warm up or someday try a second ps… 
Something tells me that nss333 into nds as DAC will be your next keep it combination. This could combine best of both worlds.
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You described it very well. Not surprising 
, you used the nds many years.
I completely agree - it’s very vinyl like. The inner detail is not served directly on a plate - it is presented coherent in the mids. Don’t forget the „breathing“ character inside - hard to describe.
When you switch back from nd555, nds sounds a bit dull - but this is a false impression. It’s not dull. Presentation is different. Let’s hope the 3.12 will do so that the comparison nds vs nd555 is fair again (for me, one whe prefers old school sound signature)
By the way - nds also looks nice from the outside. Nss more modern looking. Nds more solid looking.
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Lower is good… 
It is with digital recordings it is, lower = less compressed . Kidding
If you use XLR output on the NSS333 that would be expected.