perhaps you had compared an 2012 nds with nd555? i heard the nd555 and have a 2015 nds. I would not say night and day. More like cds3/ 555ps vs cd555. The last is more focused, with firmer bass and bigger sound. The former is a bit more elegant or softer.
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At least it is comforting that someone is not convinced by the ND555 over the NDS. That cheered me up nicely.
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i am convinced, but not for night and day difference. Pay 10k more to have something that will be outclassed in perhaps 5 years is a difficult decision.
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Maybe it’s the ears, after all…
maybe you heard a poor nds…My ears are specially accurate, from what the others say of me.
Well guys i dont want to cause upset for some, all i am doing is an easy test between 2 bits off kit.
Right now 4 younger ears have listened to the side by side switch test and i haven’t told them any info and they dont know what a nds or nd555 is and so far all have found it hard to tell much difference on many different tracks, but also the few times they have preferred one over the other it has been the nd555 every time, but at the same time they have said its very, very close.
I am hoping that as the days go by, i will hear a bigger difference.
But how anyone can really say that they can hear a massive difference between them, after playing a track and then having to disconnect cables, swap machines over, reconnect and then play the same track and say O yes much better, is beyond me right now, the difference would have to be huge and we all know that its not that big a gap.
I like doing the instant switch test and even more so when £1000’s is in the mix and for me the difference should be heard, maybe my system cant show the improvement? But i dont think so and if so fine.
But end of day 2 and still to close to call.
Both still switched on, nd555 in the rack still and lets see what day 3 brings
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Just to add what i said earlier, this afternoon i got to play a few tracks with 2 friends visiting this weekend, at the time the nds/chc555 was not in the rack or even connect.
While i was playing a few tracks, enjoying the sound and new display, i did think YES its sounding great and improved.
Then i did the switch test a few hours later, O no real difference still, what does that say?
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As myself and others have said there must be something wrong. The difference isn’t subtle.
Speak to your dealer.
Really? Naim do biased demos? This would be illegal.
i was referring of some dealers. I saw that in a paris hifi dealer in the past. Once for me but heard of by some peuple who observed the same.
Just had a thought, will try my headphones tomorrow, so then its just nd555 and 552 to headline/ hicap and see how that goes, as that will remove the amps, speakers and cables from it all, as the more i keep see people saying something is wrong, maybe your right?
As can still do side by side switch test and might make the difference more ?
Anyway bed time now, goodnight all
I have heard both in my system. My dealer brought an ND555 round last year for Music Night (seven of us take in it turns to host - music, beer pizza).
I was nervous about hearing it in my system and subsequently feeling dissatisfied with the NDS. My concussion was that the ND555 is a substantial improvement over the NDS, as it darned well should be. Is good enough to justify the cost? It’s a huge amount of money to spend in a market that is moving very fast. It has enhanced functionality but I’ve got round that using the Sonore UPNP Bridge on a Vortexbox product at a small fraction of the cost of buying an ND555 plus Nucleus, as advocated by the dealer.
There is the possibility of buying ex-demo but it’s still oh so expensive and all the above factors still apply.
I would side with those who hear a substantial improvement, as described in the early part of the long running ND555 thread. I would also add that it’s not difficult to find non-audiophile (sane?) people who say it all sounds good. On the other hand I do hugely value my wife’s opinion and wouldn’t be happy to spend big without her positive opinion. Also, I wasn’t able to do the quick A-B comparison in the way the OP has. When we did the A-B on Roon verses the Naim app we consistently preferred whatever was played second 
Keith
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I know of a manager of a well known speaker company who had a nd555 and thought it sounded poor compared to others he had heard. Naim eventually swapped it our for a new one, which was substantially better…so perhaps you have an “off” one.
We had a demo of the NDX way back in the early days (the app was portrait only) and we were underwhelmed. It was not a patch on the equivalent Linn and was diagnosed as not being right and so went back to Naim. The demo resumed a week or two later.
Keith
i agree with Gazza. If the differences are not night and day for me, they are enough significant and clear, so normally the OP should hear a difference between both. Maybe this nd555 is not a perfect batch one.
In line with what you mentioned…
The ND555 should be significantly better. I as owner of the ND555 and former owner of a NDS know it’s quite a bit of a difference. So either:
- You don’t appreciate it that much, so it’s apparently not for you…, the NDS is still a great streamer.
- Their is something wrong with the ND555 or it’s setup, please refer back to the dealer.
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Well it could be a bad one, as this one is a trade in and only just 6 months old, the guy before obviously didn’t get on with it.
some here have had a second nd555, the first one not sounding quite good. Or yours need to settle more…
Well tried listening through the headphones and comparing and through the system once again, still the same no great difference.
Almost ready to give up on it, if being honest.
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let it play continuously for about a week, without comparing. In after a week there’s still no differences, then probably you have a non 100% perfect sounding nd555.
Can the dealer come to your house also ?