Having recently acquired a CD5si I was reminded of this forcibly. It’s so much more musical than our previous Moon 260D/Qutest DAC. It has an LP12 like tunefullness and communicates the musical message in a way that completely eluded the Moon/Qutest.
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Yes, I understand you’re not being nationalistic, but talking about quality-led engineering. But we also need to reflect on the inability of most people to be able to afford said quality. Loki-family are in the privileged position to be able to avoid purchasing Chinese goods, especially those with data-transferring software, but whilst we prefer a BMW to a BYD, we have to acknowledge the craftsmanship of a Swedish designed, Chinese-built Polestar, Salisbury-designed QB or Silicon Valley-conceived iPhone, also Chinese-built.
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To which you may add Rotel Michi, Quad, Arcam, Hegel, Acoustic Energy, Mission, Audiolab and many, many others, usually feted for their audiophile performances and faultless build quality.
This ship sailed quite some time ago.
ATB, J
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Nothing wrong with that.
Welcome to post-capitalism where smaller vendors with a specialty product cannot sustain a business. There is much to be uneasy about.
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Unlike the US/European manufacturers who build small batch/to order against the others who are shipping product by multiple 40 foot containers to Europe and the US……
Only the consumer’s choice is the active differentiator here and that’s being pounded by price in these straightened times.
Reasons to be cheerful, I wish I could find some.
ATB, J
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That’s a ringing endorsement. Kinda wants to make me pickup one of the various fire sale deals and add to SU!
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The CD5si, despite it’s relatively lowly status in the Naim hierarchy, is as musical as they come. Having owned a number of higher end very expensive Naim CD players in the past I can say that from memory it is every bit as musical and communicative as any of them. It may not have quite the authority and focus of the much more expensive players, which may be apparent in a direct comparison, but just listening to it on it’s own there’s nothing important missing. It beats our previous and much more costly Moon 260D/Chord Qutest DAC to a pulp. Just infinitely more engaging and enjoyable.
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Tempted. We have an old Micromega transport (1996) available which sounded fab into nDAC so any naim CD player would be a completely unnecessary vanity purchase.
Have been swithering on one of the many olive CDX available but that would just lead to a PSU 
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So pleased you like it Pete. I have had mine for a good while now and have never felt the need to upgrade. Beautifully built too and a simplicity that cuts short all those “what if” questions.
Interesting how it’s so widely derided on this forum by so many.
Enjoying it right now!!
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Agreed.
But, the CDX2.2 is significantly better in the main system; although there will be a rematch when the CD5Si is properly commissioned.
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Well my CD5xs sounds excellent but no way does it beat my WiiM/Chord Qutest “into pulp”. I enjoy both with my Nait 50, but they sound very different and with some material or in some moods I may prefer the CD spinner, but in other circumstances the Qutest. It’s all down to personal preference.
Roger
As Pete has said many a time and oft; and I echo the sentiment; he does not want to go down the streaming route. Yes, personal preference; just like I never want to own a Tesla; or Loki-wife is second only to Venus. Actually, Venus is not as cute.
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As it should be. The CD5si though is profoundly musical. Nothing obviously lacking, unless of course you go looking for something. And comparing to the much more costly CDX2.2 is doing just that! Academic for me anyway as I can’t buy a new CDX2.2! It’s a bit like saying a Rega 3 is excellent, which it is, but an LP12 is significantly better - which it is!
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And here I am contemplating a 3rd Fraim shelf. 
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When i had my CD5Si i enjoyed it very much so. It was like a modern version of the CD3, in terms of musical satisfaction & entertainment. I thought the CD mech was far slicker than anything that came before it, throughout the ‘i’ iterations (not counting the CD3, that thing was built like an out & out brick s*£t house) and yes, i went through all of them, the entry level players that is.
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Precisely!
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What a superb thought. You could get practically 3 for the price of the CD5Si
I’ve never heard a CDX2.2, but we had a CDX and then later added an XPS. It was a really excellent player. Later we got a CDS3 which never really did it for me. It was great in some ways, but just didn’t sound like a Naim player. Due to events in life we wound up with a CD5i-2 (if I’m remembering the model designations correctly - it all got a bit confusing with the 5 series CD players). I honestly thought I would have a big adjustment to make, but not at all. It was easily more enjoyable than the CDS3 IMO, and like the CD5si, nothing obviously lacking. That was with a Nait 5i-2 (again model No.?) and nSats. A great little system that was. Hugely entertaining. It lacked the sheer weight, authority and realism of the previous bigger system (CDS3/252/olive250/IBL’s) but IMO beat it for sheer musical enjoyment.
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I’m not familiar with the WiiM but certainly digital transports, whether CD or streaming, can have a very significant impact on the performance of some DACs. I actually used the Qutest with a Melco N50-S38 as well and we sold that because the the Moon CD transport bettered it for musical coherence. Now the CD5si betters both…