I have on audition and ND5 XS2. It’s in mint condition, from the looks of it. It is from 2020.
The price is excellent from my dealer as it is discontinued and also a trade-in. Basically I’d pay less than half price of the usual price.
The DIN-DIN interconnect was still in the bag, unused. I connected to my SuperNait 3, which I love, and holy smokes. Such an upgrade over previous streamers. The full range response is far far better than my turntable end as well. My ATC SCM 11 V2 now sound full range. Oh the bass. Yes, there it is. Going to burn in the cable over the coming couple of days.
Questions:
The DIN output on the unit has quite a bit of play to it. When I press it downwards lightly it has a bit of rattle. When not pressed, it doesn’t move on its own.
There is some word online that this is normal, and the dealer explained it to be a decoupling mechanism to reduce vibration to the board. Correct?
How do folks feel about buying this in 2025 when it was just discontinued and soon perhaps a new model may be on the way.
I bought a new (in 2024) ND5xs2 and it was an outstanding audio purchase.
It is now connected through a Naim nDAC (with PS555DR). I must say this combination is absolutely musical, refreshing and foot-tapping. There is much written in this community about ND5xs2/nDAC/powersupply vs NDX2/powersupply, either of these combinations will bring audio joy to you should you wish to pursue an improvement over a vanilla ND5xs2.
I believe for the indicative price you may be paying, it will be a great low-cost & highly musical and enjoyable streamer for your SN3/ATC combo.
I believe this is normal. I use a Witch Hat Morgana DIN DIN and I specifically asked them about the cable appearing to hang somewhat loose in the connector, or as you put it, with a bit of play. They replied telling me it was designed to be like this and not to worry.
Adding the best Furutech power cable and connectors you can afford. DPS4.1 likely overkill but the TCS31 and 21 with NCF connectors would be great. Same for the SN3.
As @JamesBKK mentions, it’s normal. On the ND5 XS2 the DIN and RCA sockets are mounted to the analogue output board rather than fixed to the case, and this board sits on stand offs which allow a degree of movement / decoupling. As you’ve found the DIN socket will feel a bit loose when you plug the interconnect cable into it.
You’ll find the same with the mains input socket, which although fixed to the cas, it still has a bit of movement to provide a degree of decoupling.
If you connect a system automation jack cable (they cost about £2) and set it up in the app, you can control the Supernait volume and input switching from the app. It’s really useful.
Everyone has their favourite mains lead, but if this is something you want to consider then Naim’s Powerline is excellent. There are usually used ones for half price available on eBay or Pink Fish.
If you are enjoying it now just listen for a few weeks before even considering any tweaks. You seem to have it set up ok and you sound like you are enjoying it already so sit back and relax. It would appear by some of the replies you will have to spend a significant amount of money to get a subjectively better sound.
Most likely, if a new model were to be released, I bet it would be pricey. I would suppose that there will be no direct replacement for the nd5 xs2 guy.
Consider buying Atom HE as a preamp, as it is quite fresh release.
Why are you suggesting he buy a preamp/streamer to feed an integrated amp? The Atom HE isn’t a better source than the ND5XS2 and he doesn’t need to add a preamp. Overall, this would be a backwards move for absolutely no reason.
An excellent streamer and I love mine. I do run it through an nDac/XPSdr which sounds superb. A great way of getting in to the world of HiRez streaming. Enjoy.
That’s a tough one…streaming has come so far in the last 5 years it’s now a competing format and the choices of music are pretty much unlimited…however, the Orbe set up still gets my vote. I run my Concept through a Star and have a cadenza bronze on it and it’s lovely too but the Orbe still wins the day
You say you love yours but you’ve added a DAC and a power supply to it so correct me if I’m wrong you only use it as a streamer with the sound signature coming from the DAC? Can you please explain this to me as I genuinely don’t understand why a cheaper, high quality streamer would not work just as well with the nDac? Also what makes the ND5 XS2 so special as a streamer only and what does it add to the sound signature? I’m genuinely curious as a lot of people use this configuration? Thanks
I was originally thinking of getting an NDX2 but already had the NDac and XPSdr but bought the nd5xs2 because I read it was excellent and would work through the DAC Xpsdr really well and without the significant extra cost. Out of curiosity I ran it straight to my pre amp for a few weeks to see what it was like as a stand alone…it really is excellent by itself but of course the dac/PSU combo is a noticeable uplift
Yes those wobbly sockets are normal on the XS range. Both my XS 2 & ND5 XS 2 had wobbly DIN sockets. PowerLines will most certainly bring some gains to the performance, at least it did when i added those to my units. Sounds like you got a great deal at grabbing one for half price, they seem to hold their value really well on the used markets. Enjoy.
