ND555 curent wisdom - simple set up

[biddler66]

I have same problems and I am in Essex so not all oop north that’s why my main source is a turntable …

[Elfer]

@michelw

I would suggest that the OP could start with the basic (if a ND555 is basic) system which is already fantastic and then test by himself if he can hear a difference

For a variety of reasons, I want to incorporate ripping and local streaming capability so I hope to try ND with Innuos and ND with Innuos and PheonixNet on this coming Monday. There has been some great feedback and advice in this thread and between what I have learned here, from the internet at large and what happens on Monday, I hope to define the way forward.

[bruss]

Fair enough. Having a local store for everything is going to be the back up rather than the primary source though for the future, I feel.

[HouseholdNaim]

@Gromit1

1. Locally stored files can be saved as WAV rather than FLAC, which provided that the underlying recording is of sufficiently high quality can sound slightly better than the same recording played back as FLAC.
2. I’m obviously not privy to the contractual arrangements between Qobuz/Tidal and the recording companies, but local storage guards against the possibility of the streaming service losing the rights to a particular album.
3. This is a rapidly changing industry, which at least raises questions regarding the long term financial viability of any particular streaming company. While streaming is not going away, it is certainly possible that any of the current players may have issues.

1. Acc to many posts on here WAV v FLAC was only really an issue for streamers using the older tech. The newer stuff including the ND555 handles both types identically acc to all reports, so that’s not really an issue.

2. Is that really a problem? Any album that we must have access to at any time is surely one that we’d buy, either as a physical copy or a HQ download.

3. Individual streaming services may well come and go, but that doesn’t mean streaming itself will suddenly disappear. Maybe a failed service would have its customer base taken over in a similar way to how energy customers don’t suddenly find themselves without gas. Not saying it’s a cert, but regardless if Qobuz went under tomorrow I’d be back on Tidal within 10 minutes, and if not there seems to be enough other options like Apple (no, no idea), Amazon, Spotify with their pending HD offering etc. I find it unlikely in the extreme that HQ streaming will disappear overnight.

As for relying on the internet not going off… The internet grew out of the US Military’s need for an unbreakable comms network so it won’t suddenly go off if the Russians get stroppy. Like streaming, the internet won’t suddenly disappear, certainly not now. It’s as ingrained as having running water or an electricity supply. If individual providers cease to exist you’re back to the energy analogy. And if they go off for a day or so, insert Alan Partridge shrug gif. It makes me laugh when people post saying their internet is poor or slow as a justification for avoiding streaming. Tough. Move, or like us wait and eventually your damp string / copper line will be upgraded to fibre to your house. It’s currently on the right end of a massive shove from govt and the industry and will happen to most residences. If you live in the sticks or are in the 5% who’ll never get it, shame. Nothing is 100% universal - you make your choices in life.

[northpole]

@Jaf

In terms of simplicity, I am always curious why there is so much focus on ripping and storing cds. If you have a good internet collection, no data limits and a full Tidal and or Qobuz subscription, why bother ripping?

In my case I often listen to music whilst out and about. My choice of device is a Sony walkman-like wm-1z and I switch around the album choices on a large capacity memory card. I find the quality of sound from this much superior to my iPhone albeit I appreciate background noises often dilute much of that advantage.

Peter

[MIKEVET]

Or try EE 4G SIM card into a home router. Mine works wells as there is no fibre down our farm track. I have unlimited data and stream all day long. Get about 50-60 Mb too

[HouseholdNaim]

Good plan. My parents’ farm used to be on a really poor connection till I finally persuaded them to change to a provider offering decent speeds - talk about pulling teeth, it was as if they were dumping the family butcher for Tesco, but we got there eventually. Latest was that there’s an upgrade available for FttP to the farmhouse, that whilst not remote isn’t on the beaten track.

[Elfer]

@HouseholdNaim

you make your choices in life.

Like ripping CDs ?

[ChrisSU]

@TimOopNorth

Mobile reception not good in the house

Do you get reasonable 4G reception outdoors? Is so a strategically positioned antenna and 4G router would give you much better service than tethering off an iPhone.

[Michaelb]

It’s also worth remembering that finding an album on Qobuz today does not guarantee that all or even some of the tracks will be available for streaming tomorrow. That’s happened to me several times and I end up downloading as a result. Then of course there are the labels you can’t either stream or download on Qobuz, which have to be downloaded elsewhere.

[BertBird]

You would have the opportunity to improve your listening experience quite a bit…. Consider

• Music from a good NAS outperforms Qobuz
• Ethernet cable, just Cat 6 is ok, but there are better options…
• A good switch will make a significant difference
• I also still prefer to transcode my flac on the fly into wav and have the ND555 only playing wav

….and there are more options to further improve…

[TimOopNorth]

Think you may be replying to wrong person. I am not tethering anything to a phone! Tho 4g outside is rubbish too

[MIKEVET]

Which network Tim? EE is the fastest but not always available in every area

[Elfer]

Very Interesting morning at my dealers yesterday. He managed to put together a Supernait 3 and bare NDX2 to audition the Innuos Statement. Speakers were Focal Kanta 3.

We discussed cables right away and whilst he was disconnecting his recommended cable from another set up, I said I was keen to try the Vodka. It so happened they were exactly the cables he had in his hand.

We chose to audition using local storage as to my ears, local storage has generally sounded as good, if not better. My dealer agreed with this and given the limited time, I wanted to get straight to understanding what the Statement and Vodka could provide. I imagine there will be tracks and set ups etc that show little or no difference but I didn’t see the point in confirming that, I wanted to see what the posibilíteles were. To that end, most testing was done listening to (I think a CD rip) John Lee Hooker “Too Young” on the “Chill Out” album. It’s well recorded, and easy to focus on elements such as voice, instruments, ambience etc. or the flow of the track as a whole.

First off we listened to Naim and Statement with Chord “C” series Ethernet cables, as that was already set up. I’m not good at the “HiFi” speak, suffice to say it sounded fine.

Then we took the Statement out of the loop and there was a loss of timbre, a more dense, dark sound. Still very nice but lost some realism, truncated and compacted by comparison, as if the edges were rounded off.

Then we swapped the Chord for Vodka. I expected a subtle change but this really surprised me. More space, more open, more life to the sound. Space between the notes but no loss of cohesion. More expansive but not artificially bigger if that makes sense. Not subtle at all.

Then we added back the Statement. Now the timbre came through again, the nuances of the pluck and vibration of the guitar strings, the realism and emotion in Hookers grainy voice. This was surprisingly a less initially obvious step compared to adding the vodka but the differences were more profound. It seemed more transparent, not adding anything so much as allowing much more of what was on the recording to come through.

That was enough for me to clearly hear the benefits of both the Statement and Vodka in this system and given my system should reveal even more, I ordered a Statement. As soon as I confirm cable lengths I need, I will order Vodka too.

I hoped to test the PhoenixNet too but it hadn’t arrived so I’ll save that for another day.

[Gazza]

Nice review👍

[PeterR]

@Elfer

John Lee Hooker “Too Young” on the “Chill Out” album. It’s well recorded, and easy to focus on elements such as voice, instruments, ambience etc. or the flow of the track as a whole.

Hi Elfer, seems you are starting to make good progress Interestingly I was using that track too during the whole process of setting my room up. God speed Peter

[NigelB]

Very interesting. Thanks for reporting.

[TimOopNorth]

It’s O2

[Elfer]

Oh, and there happened to be one of these set up. I’m not a vinyl user so it was more of a curiosity and I didn’t have time to listen. It didn’t appear to be set up with any other Naim kit but my dealer was quite taken with it, especially the uni pívot arm - I know what it is but I’m sure it means more to others than it does to me. A great looking bit of kit in the flesh but shows the dust easily and no dust cover! image|666x500