Smart move Dunc.
No one has to hear a positive difference between the NDS and ND555, but there should be a difference.
Good luck tomorrow and let us know how you get on.
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With my recent experience with the NDS as posted I will be interested on your findings.
Trust you have a good time and come to a positive conclusion.
Just to be clear, i am not expecting a night to day difference as the nds is a great streamer and the nd555 does use the same dac to a degree.
But for the difference in price, i do expect to hear a difference and that difference be a better one and not just different, if that makes sense.
a lot of members here found the improvement very important, like @Darkebear, @BertBird, @RipVanRadio, @Michaelb, @Bart, @Yeti, @Gazzaā¦all have had an nds before.
I didnāt tried it at home, only at dealer place. So different, and not direct comparison with nds.
Anyway guys will let you know tomorrow night how we got on.
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Perhaps your findings also depends on the kind of music that you have used to compare the NDS to the ND555 and on your listening room?
These are aspects that, to the best of my knowledge, have not been very much discussed in this thread but could at least contribute to explain some of your findings: different people listen to different kinds of music and listen to music in different ways and in different environments.
Anyway, I am looking forward to read the outcomes of the comparison at the hifi lounge.
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Iāll be interested to hear what you think. Have you heard the ND555?
Actually I never had an NDS: I much preferred my CD555. Until the ND555 came alongā¦
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i will report of course. Yes, i heard it and liked it. However 11k more now to spend is too much for me. Maybe much later. I donāt know yet.
Have just bought recently the melco.
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I home-demoed the NDS a few years ago and liked it - but it was not for me better than the CD555 I had - it was slightly perhaps better in some areas but far worse in terms of dynamic rendering and overall clarity and insight - the best streamer Iād heard to date then but the CD555 bettered it.
Then I had the same demo with ND555 and it moved the bar significantly past what the NDS had achieved and in many areas I felt it was showing me things my CD555 did not - and that was a new ND555 compared to a well run-in CD555, so I decided I liked it enough to change-over to ND555 and rip all my CD music.
Over time the ND555 run-in and really opened-out and I think now is ahead everywhere over what I recall from my CD555 - although I have very fond memories of many years excellent no-fuss service from the CD555 so it was an excellent product to own.
ā¦the comment made above on music choice is pertinent - in that the strengths of the ND555 really reveal themselves in either older non-compressed non-bad-remastered music or good modern clean full dynamic-range music. On modern compressed music Iād not say there was much between the NDS and ND555 - the latter better still but its strengths really not being called upon.
DB.
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Chord Dave - with up-scaler - into Melco is and excellent system.
I demoed it against the ND555 before I purchased ND555 - the latter really only left it in the dust when it used 2x 555PS and hence also cost more. But since I already had the two supplies it was what was going to be available.
The Dave-upscaler-Melco was very clean and detailed and offered a natural acoustic and on a lot of simple music material was very engaging; the ND555 with 1x 555PS was similar in musical capability but was less lean and fuller and handled more complex music a bit better - but these two systems were close and I would not have easy said one was obviously better.
Then the 2x 555PS on the ND555 took it into another league or replay performance for me. In the old Vinyl days for me it reminded me of my first demo of the same arm and cartridge on a Riga vs Linn - except in this case the Arm and Cartridge was also a bit better - but the āfoundationā was rock-solid and the low bass as I like to hear it and rarely offered-up - just āthereā.
But on a budget extending to either the ND555 and one PS or Dave with up-scaler they are both very credible musical solutions. The Dave also works nicely with Melco.
DB.
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I am not following what you mean here DarkeBear, shouldnāt it be Melco into Mscaler/Dave? I use Core into TT2, soon to be Core into Mscaler/TT2
I mean the chain of flow : Melco via USB3 into Upscaler then on into the Dave.
Sorry if that confused - or still confuses! 
DB.
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I have no idea what the various Melcos do and donāt do, be they connected direct or not. I prefer to restrict my comments to the thread title and address directly the OPās dilemma.
I have heard NDS vs ND555 at dealers, shows and at home, and IMHO there is a clear and positive difference in favour of the ND555. But none of that should or could affect the OPās experience, other than to encourage him to dig a little deeper to get to the bottom of his disappointing experience of the ND555 so far, which he is indeed exploring with his dealer.
DB does however make a good point in that the ND555 does IMO also push the boundaries of recording excellence (or otherwise) on CD. Some ripped CDs sound wonderful on the ND555 but others sound average, and little better than on my old NDS. Thankfully, more is extracted from most CDs with the ND555, but I fear we are entering the limits of the excellence, or otherwise, of the recording.
āAhā¦.but what about hi res downloadsāā¦I hear you say. OK, yes many 24 bit recordings do sound wonderful on the ND555, but:
a. many of my favourite and newly discovered albums/artists donāt do hi res
b. some hi res downloads sound no better (and some even worse) than good old CD
Having said all of that, I very much value moving from my NDS to my ND555. The latter sounds better with most CDs, just engaging me and making more sense of performances through an enhanced transparency and beauty of the portrayal of what I assume the artist was trying to convey.
What I would add is that the next generation of streamers needs to accompany enhancements in recording and mastering of the medium, or playback technology might just outrun the quality of the stuff we listen to.
I could of course be hampered by the vagaries my monkfish of a system, and, all I need is a better power amp and speakers, but somehow that doesnāt seem to explain entirely my reservations.
OK, I may have had one Glenmorangie too many this evening, but I hope what I say resonates with some ND555 owners.
To the OP, please come back and report your findings from your explorations with your dealer.
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This exact reason is why I am completely on board with Chord, and Rob Watts. He is well aware of limitations of the recordings that we now use, and try to eek out every ounce of āreal musicā that we can out of them.He is working on an analog to digital recording technology that uses the same principal as his Mscaler, just in the recording field, rather than the playback field. I believe he calls it Davina, donāt quote me on that, that might be the name of his digital amp he is also working on.Point is, he is currently addressing the limitations of current recordings.Most Chord owners are aware of this, and patiently waitingā¦
The reality is that no matter what you listen, the ND555 is audible ahead of the NDSā¦
- Tonality
- Sounstage
- Timing
- Detail Retrieval
- Forward in your face character
- Bass extension
ā¦
So the only music where the difference might be less prominent is very bad produced music which is very low in DR.
I agree, I had a very long ND555 demonstration last year. I brought my music collection and the ND555 sounded outstanding, no matter what I threw at it.
Still, we do not know the kind of music and the specific albums/tracks that the OP has used for the comparison, the details of how the comparison has been made and what he has been focusing on.
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First off a big thank you must go out to paul, at HiFi lounge, for talking the time this afternoon to get to the bottom off this.
Right where to start.
First we used the demo nd555 and 555dr ps, running with a melco, super lumina din cable, 552, 300dr into pmc speakers( dont know which ones) anyway it sounded lovely.
Next we tried the nd555 that i had used and just swapped it over, it sounded the same, so obviously nothing wrong with it.
Next the nds went in, straight away i could hear a difference, not a massive difference, but it was clearly better. Sounded faster, more detail and more involving.
So the problem is my system then?, well before we go there, we also took the opportunity to try a few more things.
We swapped the super lamina cable for the hi line din and yes some off the nd555 sparkle disappeared and i will say if you have a nd555 leave the hi line in the box, this did bring the nd555 closer to the nds and i guess it hurts the nd555 more?
Also paul uses hi res tracks that he has down loaded onto the melco and with these the difference was greater than tidal streaming, but still the nd555 was better.
So where does that leave me?, well right now i am going to try and find out why my system didnt perform as it should have with the nd555, that means the purchase of a nd555 is on hold right now as its not worth spending out on it right now.
But once i get to the bottom of my problem, the nd555 will be on the list to get.
So anyone looking at upgrading from a nds to a nd555, i say do it.
Have a home demo 100% as it might highlight a problem in your system, just like me.
Budget for the super lamina cable.
Get the best streaming you can and try and use hi res down loads.
Sit back and enjoy.
Once again its been a journey but atleast i have sort off sorted it, or should i say not lol
Cheers dunc
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Dunc, so glad you appear to be getting to the bottom of your disappointment with the ND555 in your system.
Are you not tempted to try the ND555 again at home with a SuperLumina Interconnect in place of the HiLine?
Itās also worth bearing in mind that the introduction of the ND555 didnāt make the NDS broken. 
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