ND555 Impressions

Our ND555 went in as a straight replacement for the NDS. New Burndies, a redress, but nothing more past the head unit swap. I must admit that apart from asking for a new remote (still pending) it has never occurred to me to further refine my set up. I suppose I will get around to trying some things if I ever stop listening to my music collection for long enough.

Maybe next year…

Or the one after…!

Yeah :slight_smile:

Well very interesting with the ethernet cables. I will have to do some tweaking on my ND555 in that area. I have a CAT7 hi quality wire running about 4 meters downstairs to the comcast switch. Probably not the best but its been sounding so good I have not bothered–too busy listening to music.

However, I got up off my chair this afternoon and raised my ND555 about 65 mm–(the equivalent of a 180 mm Fraim shelf). It was above the PSU555 on a standard 115 mm level. There was about 16 mm between the power supply and the Fraim shelf above it. It never ran hot, nor did the ND555. I know that DB, Bert, and others have maintained the difference with some air around the streamer. Well I cannot believe how nice the system is sounding this evening after raising the Fraim. If you have not put some space between your streamer and the item below, you are in for a treat.

Thanks DB, Bert and others for harping on this. Now I join these harpers!:grinning:

Bailyhill

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My ND555 is on order… have an estimated delivery date of March 6th. Looking forward to seeing the improvements from the NDS which has served me well… hopefully brings that more “analog” sound what I loved from the CD555 - What is the typical run-in time for the ND555?

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i understood that your nd555 was above the 555 ps, so in the same rack. Is it that?
I followed too the recommendations of the forum and put all the power supplies in an other rack. Amp, pre, streamer, unitserve on one rack, all psu on the second rack. It raised very notably the sound quality of my system.

Thanks frenchrooster

I have two Fraims but have the power amp between them. That makes the Burndies too short, otherwise I would follow the brains and brawn approach. My wife insists that I not block the water view with taller racks. My racks are about less than 18 inches tall. We all have to live with some compromise.
Bailyhill

the smile of your wife is a priority here, so better to listen in happiness.

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Congratulations you will love it. The run in time for let’s say the end game is 600/700 hours. While the ND555 already sounds great from the start. It’s advised to keep your ND555 running over the night - in case you want to achieve the full potential as fast as possible.

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You will love it. I was unfortunate to have a rare faulty unit and am now on my second. I intently listened to all the burning in changes with the first, second time round I am just letting the wonderful sound wash over me…enjoy.

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@BertBird

Hi Bert,

Mine has been running 24h/24h since January the 27th, so I’m about half way. But not sure this is accurate in the context of my system. I have the NAC552 and the Super Lumina cables “running in” in parallel.

But everything sounds great already! :smiley:

Yes in that case it’s a different story, but you are in for a massive treat. Especially with some of the super high resolution chamber music…

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This is very much the ND555 effect presentation - a few words that describe one of its sonic signatures.

It retrieves a lot more information and in the run-in phase I found that extra information could at times ‘trip-over’ itself and sound either harsh or blurred until over the weeks and months it all settles-down into a seamless full-bodied musical presentation.

My previous Ethernet cable experiments were to bottom-out what I can get from this as I believe the connectors plugged into the ND555 - all of them - make a big impact from what I hear. I already have SL analogue interconnect so apart from the Power Burndies (I kept my old CD555 ones) it was the Ethernet connector in my case.

People have recommended very expensive cables here and they may be worth it but I have so far found CAT5 utterly slaughters CAT6 and CAT7 and at least another multi-thousand pound HiFi Ethernet I tried.
To be fair at my Dealers we only tried between two HiFi expensive Ethernet cables as it was somehow presumed a special expensive cable would be better - and compared to standard CAT6 or CAT7 it probably is - but going down to CAT5 made the largest improvement in performance in my system.

To be clear it is not a subtle thing - better detail and bass articulation and clarity throughout with better musical engagement and smooth integrated presentation is what the 1m CAT5 gives - the other cables all do something worse.

For now I’m staying with the CAT5 until I hear it bettered. I will from time to time experiment but I don’t really feel the need right now.

The ‘noise’ in the cable mainly comes from the generation of the Ethernet signal itself so putting it inside a containing tube (the screen) and making sure it all reaches the ND555 (and probably reflects and bounces back and forth down the cable) may not be the greatest of engineering solutions from what I’m hearing - perhaps.

DB.

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Do keep us up to date DB, my comments were aimed at myself not having expecting to go through the burn in twice. Second time round I am just listening to the music. It will change soon as I intend to pick up some interconnects to try as I am on standard Naim/ Hiline.

Just keep an open mind and try inexpensive things before immediately going to expensive was my aim. I already have spent enough where I found I needed too, so a bit of a surprising relief to not need to spend more on extra cable. Again - if and when I hear better is available that merits (to me) the outlay then great! :slightly_smiling_face:

The ND555 has a beautiful presentation of music, the more so once run-in I’m finding. By this I mean I find myself more emotionally engaged. There is a backdrop of so much extra acoustic and other low-level information that contains musical melodies I’d never realised were present before, as well a the feeling of reality to the whole presentation. Little inflections in vocals and reactions to audience and other musicians playing is more apparent and welcome.

DB.

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Really loooking forward to it and to be able to finally Roon!!

Having heard the S1 preamp, it’s a fantastic preamp, and I think it’s giving you a window on the music that I and others dream of. You have earnt it so enjoy, life is too short.
Had an email from where I used to work ( now retired) of a chap much younger than me who died recently. It spurs me on to enjoy my music and the Hifi hobby and experience. I play my music every day for many many hours, so it’s actually good value…for me any way. Take care have a good weekend DB.

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There was a reason I purchased it and it took a lot to persuade me my trusty 552 could be bettered, but it could at a cost. There is another thread discussing if a good Pre is needed these days and I wish the answer was no but I found it is yes. I’ve found it is best not to let what you want to be the facts or think should be the facts replace the actual facts of what you hear and prefer.

DB.

DB - did you ever consider dropping your active system and moving to full statement, but passive ?

No - I prefer Active as it sounds superior to me. If someone gave me Statement Power Amps to replace my NAP500DR set Active then I’d prefer that I’m sure, but otherwise what I have is the best I can achieve within my financial reach.

Once you get used to Active over a period of time you really can’t go back to Passive speakers no matter how good they are. Naim used to recommend the Active path but now just support it, which is fine as I understand the ergonomics of Passive in box-count reduction.

DB.

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