ND555 dilemma (or else)

Well if you couldn’t home dem, I wouldn’t buy. Absolutely ridiculous to spend that sort of money without seeing first if it would work in your system or home. Otherwise it’s a very expensive lottery ticket…yes a ticket with good odds, but certainly not a dead cert.

You need to be comfortable with high value Hifi purchases, not sweating over the anxiety of whether it will work for you

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how many time you have it?

well in history of forum nobody ever said 552 sound worse than 252.

but for the OP his ND555 sounds worse than his NDS… ?

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No but some preferred the CDS3 to the CD555.

And, for some, the anxiety can manifest itself in a (perhaps) spurious evaluation. Psycho-acoustics can be funny.

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wow, just one day gone and so much discussion.

So where I am now? The new cables seem to be better than the old ones, but the problem is still there. I wouldn’t describe it as bright sounding in general. It is about the voices. As long as the voices are mellow they are more in the background. To then get some excitement I tend to turn up the volume. But then when the voice is getting louder in the song it is unpleasant.

After a while today I switched back to the NDS. The first time in the combination NDS with the new cables. I had to do this to get a reference.
Result: I liked it. Even cold the voices issue was not as unpleasant and I wasn’t urged to turn up the volume that far to get excitement.
So again the NDS beats the ND555 in my system to my ears. :frowning:
Tomorrow I will asked my dealer to source another ND555 unit +PS for testing in my system. This will probably happen in about 2 weeks the earliest because of holiday saison.

I will try to answer a few questions you had in the last 40 replies:

Hi Analogmusic, as for the fridge I don’t think so. Regarding the surge protection devices, there is nothing close to the stereo.

It is not like this at my dealer :joy:. But to demo a 552 or a ND555 it has to be organized from the distributer (Musicline).

It also could be me and that’s where I get bad feelings to making such a fuss.

Hi Ken, I couldn’t be there. The unit + ps was tested at Musicline (distributor) which is about a 10 hour drive away.
And yes, when I put the NDS back in all is well (like I did today).

Hi Gunnar, I also tried to work with room acoustic. I worked with damping and diffusion and I can actually get the voices thing almost solved. But then the room is so over damped and all the life of the music is gone.

Thanks again to all of you and sorry if I forgot to answer anyone. Just remind me.
Stefan

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we follow you with interest Stephan.

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Stefan, you must not worry about making a fuss. The 555 cost you an awful lot of money and you should be completely happy with it. If you don’t like the second one you get to try, then see if you can return yours for a refund. The stereo should give you pleasure, not angst.

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Bart, you had an nds before i think to remember. Do you find the nd555 brighter sounding, like Clive?

one man’s bright…

is another mans’ lively
is another man’s strident
is another man’s immediate
is another man’s forward
is another man’s exciting
is another man’s fatiguing…

etc., etc., etc…

enjoy/ken

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I believe someone raised, earlier in the thread, that unless there is actually a fault with the ND555, the question of a refund may be problematic. I don’t know the position in the OP’s country, but in the U.K. the contract is with the retailer. Should there be no actual mechanical or electrical fault (bearing in mind the machine is now 7/8 months old) why should they take the financial hit on being lumbered with a second hand machine subject to usual depreciation.

It may be, perhaps, that Naim would, for the sake of their reputation, take this on the chin and cover the difference between the values, or they may decide to offer another new machine. Whatever, there is going to be a lot of goodwill involved here.

There will also be the danger of a precedent being set. After 6 months I’ve decided I no longer like the sound produced by my 272. Would I get similar treatment, or is it reserved for five series and above customers? All sorts of potential rats nests here, which I can’t help but think could have been avoided by a demo.

I do hope the OP gets satisfactory resolution, but can’t help feeling he’ll never trust this, or any other, ND555 in the future, and will want a full refund which I really am not sure he’ll get.

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I really don’t. I think of “bright” as indicative of an imbalance, that is, “too bright.” I have always found my ND555 to be balanced, and extremely pleasant to listen to.

Now for example I did a home demo of some Kudos 606’s and for some reason those sounded in my home really bright, as in an unbalanced way. Clearly not my ND555’s fault, as when I put my own speakers back in place all sounded “normal” and pleasant once again.

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I am sure Naim HQ and the dealer/distributor will want to get this sorted and learn any lessons if the ND555 is either faulty or off in some way. This could be an issue that could afflict either current ND555s (either now or in the future) or future builds, so Naim should be keen to get to the bottom of this.

Of course I am only guessing, but, as Stefan put the NDS back into his system today with the same Burndies and liked it immediately with no issues with voices, it does say to me there is indeed an issue (I won’t say fault) with the ND555 in the OP’s system/room. This would imply the remainder of the OP’s system is fine. I am particularly thinking about the finger being pointed at the 12 year old unserviced 552, and I don’t buy that the 552 could be reacting to the added high frequencies the ND555 delivers). I see little, if any, evidence from others upgrading from NDS to ND555 of such an issue, lending more wight to the argument of an issue with the OP’s ND555

At least Stefan is now getting a second ND555 tested in his system which will settle this. I would like to think that if the Stefan is still unhappy with the second ND555, Naim will take the original back and help the dealer/distributor fund the depreciation/loss in value on the OP’s ND555. It will of course be helpful if the dealer/distributor agrees that the ND555 does not perform as it should in the OP’s system/room.

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Bart, oh indeed, the whole of unconscious expectation or prejudice bias is an interesting one… but I totally agree spurious evaluations are of limited value, evaluating over a few days in a relaxed environment such as your home using familiar music in some sort of objective assessment should be more instructive…

I do think so much disappointment and frustration with higher value Hi-Fi is because there is a presumption or expectation of outcome… that after a while dissipates … certainly when I started this hobby / pursuit I tripped up over this… and I learnt in the end how to assess with a degree of objectivity.

I totally agree.

The ND555 doesn’t sound bright - not even OOTB. I find all these modern looking speakers are half the problem. Get a pair of ProAc speakers and the richness will ooze. I’m listening on a pair of D38’s and it’s incredible the level of detail from the ND555.

My initial impressions of the ND555 over the NDS on first switch-on was more analogue, bass much tighter and more controlled. No question that its a better product by leaps and bounds.

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Dear Stephan

The surge protector not being close to the stereo is not the issue.

Is there one at home plugged in at all ?

These devices can ruin the sound if plugged in anywhere at home !

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What do you mean by ‘more analogue’… do you mean slightly fuzzier, more organically noisy and more rounded as you normally associate with analogue recordings?.. to me the ND555 gives slightly more resolving power and clarity into the recordings to the point of hearing the the recordings more clearly (albeit subtly) compared to the NDS . so kind of the opposite.
I have heard the PCM1704K setup to sound quite ‘organic’ sounding, but I hear that more in the CDX2 and the NDAC/555PS (non DR) rather than in the ND555 and NDS.(and CD555)

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ok, there are some in the basement. I will try to disable them for a test.
thanks
Stefan

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But why would it impact the ND555 and not the NDS?

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Brightness in a digital source may indeed by a symptom of RF somehow making into the source… could be from the mains or from the Ethernet cable… or Ethernet over power-line or indeed from the router itself…

Since nd555 has more bandwidth in high frequencies it may sound different to how NDS reacts to any RF interference

Especially since they have completely different streamer boards.

Who knows…

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