You have amazing kit @northpole with CD555, ND555 and top of the line Linn LP12. That’s extremely dedicated with 3 premium sources.
I went down to two and got rid of CDS2. Had CDS3 before as well. I take it LP12 is your favourite?
Lovely system.
Quad 67 as a transport into an ND555.
I had a CDS3 but when I got an NDS I found that I prefered the Quad into the NDS. I found the CDS3 a bit polite by comparison. So sold it (amongst other things) to fund the 555.
The Quad using its own dac is very tuneful but rather syrupy and lush!
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A lot of bass on that Sade Love Deluxe album 
The Hegel Viking looks interesting, and quite expensive too, did you buy new?
How do you rate it compared with the CD5 XS?
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I wish I kept my CD92. It was spec’d with a dCS ring DAC which I believe was the same DAC used in this FMJ (23?). At the time (early 2000’s) dCS was still quite new to the market and to my ears it was a great CDP.
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Well, yes nd no. The rip itself can’t, but the resulting file that encapsulates it can and does. It’s this file that one listens to, not the rip.
Well it depends. The legacy streamers coped better with raw WAV files rather than FLAC even containing the same data but if your server extracts and sends LPCM (as Asset can be configured to do) then whether the file was WAV or FLAC, or two WAVs packed by different software, only the inner LPCM is transferred and not the file at all.
It the process of deconstructing the file and extracting the rip is what creates the differences in sound from different files created by different ripping devices. It is an imperfect process which generates errors manifesting as noise and hence the differences in sound according to the different errors from different file constructs.
Any device which plays a digital audio file necessarily has to do this. So yes, only the RIP data is transferred to the DAC, but this has first to be accessed by the server and it is this accessing process which creates the sound differences.
That one was a CD33 
That is absolute rubbish. There are no errors in deconstructing and extracting data from a file. If there were, then my last 10 years spent as a enterprise storage appliance engineer and NAS engineer would have been in utter vain. Extracting LPCM and the libraries that supply that functionality are a precise and deterministic process.
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Yes, it was new when i bought it.
I had it for a week on home demo, so had plenty of time to listen to the Viking and CD5 XS side by side. In all honesty i didn’t really need it for a whole week, the difference was obvious within 30 seconds.
I have always liked the openness, detail and musicality of the CD5 XS. The Viking gives all of those, but in copious bundles that far surpass the CD5 XS. For instance, soundstage (depending on recording) easily seems to extend beyond the width of the room. The depth of the soundstage just goes back a lot further.
Yes, it is expensive, but worth every penny for the extra enjoyment it gives me.
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It’s a Moon 260D Transport.
Previous high-end player many years ago now was a CDS3 which I just didn’t get on with.
The original CDS is the most musical CD player I’ve ever heard.
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It isn’t actually. Let’s be clear. We are not talking about data errors, which is what you mean. We are talking about errors which cause noise which can modify the sound of an audio file played by a streamer. In the IT world this is of zero consequence - there are no resultant data errors. If there were then everything would fall apart.
You cannot directly relate all that applies in the IT world to digital audio. It is analogous to saying that a £1K mains cable improves the sound of a streamer but it will have zero effect on the performance of a computer handling for example financial data.
Enlighten me. What is a “error” that is not a “data error”? It’s done something wrong but not wrong enough to change data? I think you will need to explain that a bit. And how exactly the noise at the NAS end would reach a streamer over WiFi or even wired ethernet which provides isolation? Possibly if you connect the NAS directly to the streamer with a shielded cable you can cross contaminate the grounds. But with an grounded switch between them or over WiFi? No chance.
Now the fun begins 
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The process of deconstructing the audio file by the device in question is not a perfect one in the real world. This will result in the generation of out of band noise (ie. errors if you like) which will manifest to a listener as changes in audio quality. But yes the data from the RIP will still be bit perfect, if the RIP was bit perfect.
As far as the NAS goes it is not relevant here. It is the streamer that is actually deconstructing (ie. playing) the file. The NAS simply serves up the file to the streamer. You may be right that noise from the NAS cannot enter the streamer over wi-fi but that’s not relevant to the point in hand.
Anyway please just continue to believe whatever pleases you - there’s no problem. If you believe that I’m wrong then that’s OK, I don’t mind. Fortunately whatever you or I believe won’t change the sound of our systems one iota and it’s only the sound of my system that really interests me. Happy listening. 
It’s totally relevant if you configure Asset to serve up only LPCM and not pass the FLAC or WAV file at all that contained it - which is exactly what I suggested.
If your NAS is deconstructing the file containg the RIP then that’s where the noise will originate and affect audio quality as I described. It is a separate issue to any noise being transmitted from the NAS through the Network. The change in audio quality will happen within the NAS software. Anyway, as I said, please just believe what you like.
That whole paragraph is a contradiction in terms.
I see. Well it’s not really one of those things that you can explain to anyone. I mean you either understand it or you don’t! 
As my professor used to say, “If you can’t explain it clearly then you don’t understand it.”
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