ND555 Impressions

You need a 3.5mm jack for the 555, and a single RCA for the 552 end.

Yes but no need for anything fancy a cheap mono cable is all that is needed I purchased mine from Flashback Sales in the required length.

None of the above. RCA to 3.5mm. Look on the back of your 552; there is the “RC5” input. The RCA end of the cable you need goes there.

…like this:


Mine cost 65 pence.

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Ow mooch!

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Yes, it was extravagant, what with those gold plated plugs too! Not only that, but my dealer chucked in a free one when I bought my 282, but I bought this shorter (0.5m) one to make the cable dressing easier.

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Main thing is to get a Mono Cable.

If you happen to have a spare stereo cable, it will work through one of the channels. From memory, I think it’s the R channel you would connect. Obviously, if you’re buying one, get a mono.

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how the Melco n10 @Meni?

I didnt get yet,will have it by the dealer on Thursday,its already in his store.

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For anyone who’s been following my protracted experiments to get the most out of the ND555 in my system, here’s a quick update.

Following the positive comments about Blue Jeans Cable (BJC) products here and elsewhere, and in consultation with their very good support, I bought a set of their Cat5e and Cat6 cables to try. On their advice and that of other technical experts here (including the ever-helpful SiS), I did not try the Cat6a cables, partly also in the light of the fact that I did not get sonic results that I liked with any of the shielded high-end cables I had tried (AudioQuest Vodka, WireWorld Starlight and Sablon Panatela).

The BJC Cat5 cable using Belden bonded cable with solid core 24 AWG wire is significantly thinner but also less flexible than the Designacable Cat5e using Belden stranded AWG wire. Sonically, the burn-in is less of a rollercoaster and initially it sounded cleaner. After burn-in it is significantly less attractive in my system, comparatively lacking bass extension, detail and instrumental texture amongst other things. The mid-range is much thinner and less articulate. I could not recommend this cable, despite it’s having passed its Fluke test with flying colours.

The Cat6 cable is thicker despite using the same gauge solid wire, presumably because of the higher twist rate and more abundant insulation. It is still thinner than the Designacable Cat5e and quite a bit less flexible. This was , however, immediately a more satisfying cable than the BJC Cat5e, with greater detail, openness and bass extension. It had a similar smooth burn-in path to the BJC Cat5e. After burn-in, however, I found it lacking in bass extension, detail, openness, soundstage and instrumental texture compared with the Designacable Cat5e, which continues to be the most accurate I have thread so far, with greater resolution, dynamics and a broader, deeper soundstage than either of the BJC cables. It is by far the most natural and realistic sounding for classical music and does scale much better on big symphonic and choral works.

BJC are pretty categoric that there are no sonic differences between their cables, but that is not what I found. I would strongly advise their Cat6 over the Cat5e in an audio system, for not much extra in cost. I wouldn’t recommend it over the Designacable unless you have considerable problems with your system controlling bass in your room.

I had been intending to try the Supra Cat8 cables as well, not least of all because those describing why they don’t like them put forward very different and often diametrically-opposed reasons for doing so, which makes me think they could be a very neutral cable. I’d be grateful for the comments of anyone who has tried them in an ND555 Naim system.

I’m tempted to stop the journey here, however, not least of all because I am very happy with the sound I have got. There are three additional reasons for this:

  1. I have bought a Custom Hifi Cables DC3 power supply with Mundorf capacitors for the Roon Nucleus+. This power supply is designed and made by the company owner Sean Jacobs, who also designed the power supplies for the high-end two-box Innuos products. His power supply has brought a substantial lift in performance, with gains in resolution, detail, instrumental texture, soundstage and PRaT. There is probably more to come as it completes burn-in. It has quite restored my faith in the hi-fi world after the disappointing musical performance of so many of the hi-end Ethernet cables I have tried. I will soon be playing with his mains cables.
  2. I took a punt on an eBay broadband wall socket to router cable, 4 pair Cat6 terminated with RJ11 sockets at either end to replace the flat straight wire BT supplied with my Infinity connection. I was expecting to simply rule this out as having any sonic impact, but it has resulted in a worthwhile improvement in sound quality.
  3. A Powerline lifts the sonic impact of the Cisco 2960G switch, so I’ll be playing with some other cables, too, but probably not with a separate power supply: apart from the faff, I’m simply running out of space!

Collectively, the Nucleus+ with DC3, Cisco switch with Powerline and Designcable CatSnake Cat5e patch leads, all sited well away from the Fraim, have made a big difference to optimising the performance of the ND555 with 2xPSU and 552+500 in my Shahinian Diapason system in my room. Your mileage may vary, but all are solutions I would recommend trying if you have the time and patience.

Mike

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Thanks for a very thorough update Mike👍

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Forgot to mention the DC3 also has the high current module. It has more than doubled the performance lift of the Nucleus+ vs the QNap NAS it replaced.

I also found a very strong interaction with the Designacable Cat5e run I use from switch to Melco - with the floor isolation. This was a surprise but I find lifting the cable from the floor in a few places to preven long continuous runs on the carpet sort out the bass ‘heavyness/slowness’ aspect of performance that was bugging me.

I think floor type will impact on this - probably. Mine is a suspended floor with carpet where this cable runs. This was a ‘what the heck’ test again to ‘rule it out’ and it got ruled-in as very important in my system to have the cable off the floor of a few supports on its 4m run to the switch. A faster and more detailed presentation to my liking revealed itself as available.

I’d reinforce most of what Michael reports - we have slightly different systems and musical taste priorities but I feel a large degree of overlap in what we are looking for. In my case I want a free-flowing unrestrained presentation which melds well with what I’ve been seeking to attain with my Active system - but - it must not totally lose control and go wandering all over the place, as that also ruins the connection to the music for me.

A compromise is where I am and I’m happy with it all at present. I had a lot more success with the AQ Vodka cable short run between Melco and ND555, but if it touches the floor then I could not use it as it becomes too over-blown in my system, so a careful free-run not-touching anything between exiting Melco and entering ND555 were key to it doing a delightful job.

DB.

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Thanks DB

I use supports to keep my speaker cables off the carpet and have carefully sized the interconnects so that they do not touch the floor, but I have not been so diligent about the cat 5/6 cables running to things. Primarily because they are all too long. I will have to address this based on your comments. Thanks

Interesting. I couldn’t understand why you were finding that but it now makes sense. I have a 5m run from switch to ND555, but it is off the floor at several points and the floor is floated cement with wood on top.

Funny how practically everything makes a difference, and sometimes exasperating until it all clicks into place…

Does anyone know which power input on the ND555 is for the digital circuits and which one is for the analogue ones?

Digital is cable 1 (nearest digital Ethernet input) - and Analogue is cable 2 (nearest the ND555 analogue output).

DB.

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Many thanks!

Is it a fair guess that it’s socket 2 that carries the signal earth?