ND555 dilemma (or else)

I am sorry to here that. I have had an NDS for years now and went to listen to the nd555 and was very disapointed it sounded just as you described.
One thing I will say is that your NDS is on 4.4 which is much better than 4.6 or even 4.7 the new firmware changes the sound of the player so it is too more like the nd555.
Get your money back is my advice and put the NDS back in with two 555 power supplies on 4.4.
I am not sure what has gone wrong at naim but they are becoming like other HiFi manufacturers and it is all detail detail detail with no musicality.

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was the nd555 well run in? what was the system? i have an nds and ask myself if i will buy the nd555 in some months.

Hi David and welcome to the madhouse.

Regarding 4.4 vs 4.6, I happen to prefer 4.6 by a significant margin but that is only my opinion and I know opinion is divided here having gone through the enormous thread at the time 4.6 was launched. And if 4.7 sounds more like the ND555 (which I have my doubts about) then the ND555 appeals even more to me.

I fear however that there is more to the OP’s issue than meets the eye. Fortunately he is getting a second ND555 tested in his system (I believe?) which will bottom this problem out.

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i preferred the 4.6 too on my nds. Heard the nd555 at my dealer place and was delighted. But i wonder if there are differences in the production of the nd555 items. Maybe they are not all the same?

Maybe you could expand a little on this thought FR….

i can expand Nigel if you want. For 4.6 vs 4.4, it’s a matter of preference i feel.
The nd555, at my dealer place, was sounding very good, not bright at all. But some are reporting the brightness for this nd555, and other find it wonderful sounding.
Some nd555 have the screen freezing, other not. Some are making a bit noise with the bouncing chassis.
All these differences make me wonder if all the nd555 produced are produced exactly the same way. Perhaps it’s there some hurry in the production, perhaps the staff working has not all the same skills…?
just wondering.

I see.

With the exception of the varying screen freezing, could it be though that the ND555 is so sensitive that it does indeed sound different is different systems, in different rooms with different speakers, with different set-up approaches, and yes, with different ears, that is, personal preference.

DB has found changes to the server used and even the ethernet cable can significantly affect SQ with the ND555. It seems that set-up is critical to get the best from this streamer.

Sorry guys, was gone to the Lake Garda for 4 days. Came home yesterday night.

Some interesting post since I’ve been here last. I will try to answer as much as possible.

First, what was going on the last few days. I had the NDS playing with the new burndies the last few days, so the burndies “burn” in. I had a listen with my wife
this afternoon. She brought it to a point. The NDS is just more involving for her and fun to listen. The ND555 leaves her cold and is sometimes annoying.

After that I changed back to the ND555, because I want to try a few more things (no surge plugs, plugging order …). Changing back the ND555 made the rattling noise again more obvious to me. Here is a link to a video recording the noise while I walking around in the room.

wow, ok I try to find an old AM radio in our house and will test that. It must be somewhere in the basement. Thanks Simon for the tip.

Hi Soundsfaber, the SL2 should be ok. One of the things I did to try to solve the problem was to try to set up the SL2 perfectly. It is level, it does bounce, the tweeters are flash and the torque is fine.

Hi Nick, I had a CDX2 with 555PS before the NDS. The CDX2 was fun and really good, but I preferred the NDS, because it was better to me.

Regarding the burndies, I guess these have not been the problem. The ND555 is playing now for 2hours again and I will know better tomorrow, but the characteristic stays the same.

Hi David, you are naming a issue I already thought about too. I prefer the 4.4 version of the firmware to later versions. But the later versions were kind of ok too. With the ND555 I feel, is just something wrong.
I could imagine there is the possibility that in the end I like the NDS more than the ND555 because of the firmware thing, but not find the ND555 unpleasant. But who knows.

Thanks again to all for your contribution
Stefan :slight_smile:

Hi Stefan
That was a pronounced “clunk” on the audio/video. Was that from simply walking around on a suspended floor?Did you amplify the sound?
I can hear some rattling when I walk around my suspended floor from the ND555 on Fraim but it doesn’t sound like that though.I would point that out to the dealer.

Stefan, is it possible to re-position the ND555 where it doesn’t ‘clunk’. I am assuming of course that when the dealer tested it. this issue didn’t come up at all and therefore that the location of the ND555 may be a factor??? This is just a guess of course – otherwise to me it sounds like something is wrong – but then you would have thought the dealer would have found this?? Hence my suggestion to somehow eliminate this clunking noise (which sounds to me like an off suspension – but again this is just a guess – don’t know for sure)

I really admire your patience and giving this unit the benefit of the doubt… I really hope that you will get tp he bottom of this issue. I don’t believe the issue is anything to do with setup of SL2’s by the way because if they were not set up properly, NDS would not sound good at all. (I know, I run NDS4.4 with SL2 in my system)

Good luck!

enjoy(?)/ken

Maybe, but the differences in set up are the same for the nds.
I experimented a lot of differences in sound quality using different ethernet cables, switches…
The problem is the brightness which is more and more reported. But other find the nd555 superb sounding, with a cheap ethernet or expensive one cable, with melco or uniticore, with a common switch or a cisco…
In the time of the cd555 and cds3, some preferred the cds3, but were not complaining on the sound of the cd555. Just preferred the presentation of the cds3.
All that makes me wondering if there is not an uniformity in the production of the nd555.
The problem existed already with the nova. There were a lot of differences in the sound of each nova. Some members had to replace it twice or even 7 times!

I obviously have no idea how your ND555 is performing, but equally have absolutely no doubt about the superiority of the CD555 to the NDS and of the ND555 to the former. That said, I also have ample personal experience of how everything from music servers to interconnects can influence the performance of the latter…

i have not the nd555…just nds for now.
I invite you to read this thread from the beginning, because the OP has tried a lot of things.

I would suggest not to make it bigger as it is. It seems to be an issue with an individual ND555, very painful, but still I haven’t heard about massive sound issues across multiple ND555, but perhaps I am just blind.
I am not downplaying Stefan’s issue, but I also would like to avoid that we make it worse as it is…

i hope you are right Bert. However i read it from perhaps 5 members here in the forum. But don’t know if all these nd555 were well run in.

Yes let’s hope so, so far I have been very happy with my ND555, hope this will remain in the same status. And I also hope for Stefan that it get’s resolved for him.

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I had 3 units with screen alignment issues and this was just cosmetic. So quite legitimately, it does make you wonder what else could go wrong here - that we can’t see without opening the case. I don’t like that rattling noise from the video.

What do you mean by “ i don’t like that rattling noise from the video “ ?
Can you explain, i am french… thanks

:small_blue_diamond:Frenchrooster,…In Stefan’s latest post there is a video clip… Watch, listen to it.

/Peder🙂

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Because of the way the video goes black, I’m not sure what is setting off that noise, but it definitely doesn’t sound right. When moving the unit carefully with transit screws it doesn’t make that racket, so certainly shouldn’t when a Fraim unless there’s an earthquake…

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