Source First or System Synergy?

Whereas I seem to repeatedly see an argument in favour of CDs or vinyl. But as you say, it’s all down to personal preferences. It would be good if everyone could accept that so we could avoid any more threads descending into a streaming vs physical media debate, but I’m not hopeful.

Roger

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:rofl: no I meant twin 555psdr to supply the ND555… I have not fully upgraded my mains supply to hifi…I hope to do this maybe next year…by installing a 10mm radial to a dedicated socket together with 16mm earth…this should be a very nice upgrade over the existing house ring main…

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Oh yes, silly me.

I’ve done the exact radial that you describe above and it worked nicely.

Cheers Jim

Nice to hear…yeah it should be good. Have you used armoured shielded cable…or twin and earth…???

We went over to 100% streaming about two years ago, selling the LP12 and CD5 XS.

We listen to music all day and for background listening we play Jazz24 radio from Seattle. For what we would call a dedicated listening session, we use Qobuz and I must admit that we treat it the same, as if we were listening to a record or CD and always listen to the album in its entirety.

We do have a playlist of individual tracks, which we only use as a Test Playlist, if we want to try out a new bit of kit or cable.

One benefit, we have found is that as Jazz is our main music, if we hear a track on Jazz24 that we like it gives us an opportunity to explore that particular artiste. Consequently, we are listening to a wider breadth of Jazz since we got the streamer.

Previously, I was buying four or five records a month, but was finding that the quality of them was often very poor and, had to go through the rigmarole of exchanging them.

However, back to the OPs main question, I believe that the source is the most important element.

But the main thing at the end of the day, is to enjoy our hobby of listening to music and playing around with Hi-Fi.

DG…

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I used two different types of cable - one Lapp and one Belden - details are on the thread below:

Fortunately, Naim enthusiasts have the perfect cd transport in the form of the Uniti Core which complements the Naim streamers perfectly giving you the best of both worlds (sort of).

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Do many people use the core as a CD player into their Naim streamer?

It’s a nice idea, although I rarely see it mentioned here.

How is the sound quality compared to a dedicated Naim CD player?

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Ok, so it’s not strictly a cd transport , hence the sort of comment, but it allows a cd like experience along with a Naim streamer, either in a network use or via a BNC into the Naim streamer’s DAC.

In theory better because it extracts a bit-perfect copy, so it depends on the DAC played through.

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Thanks @Innocent_Bystander! I’ll have a look through that thread and see what my options might be. :smile:

I’ve been combining listening to CDs and streaming for many years now, and I think I’ll continue to do that, though it will be interesting to compare the performance of the NDX2 and the CD5 XS. Trading in the CD5i-2 just seemed like too good of an opportunity to miss.

I do enjoy the ritual of picking out an album and playing it, but I also enjoy the convenience of streaming. I should clarify that I’m just streaming music I’ve purchased (usually on CD, very occasionally downloaded from Bandcamp) via UPnP rather than using any of the subscription services, which pushes me towards listening to whole albums. I still like to have something physical where it’s available. :cd:

Absolutely, main thing here is we all get why music reproduced to an acceptable standard is important to our enjoyment, music first, source second, pays your money, make your choice. :grinning:

Whilst I have no personal experience I would all of Naims current streamers are better than the basic CD offering Naim now has. I took a risk on a CD555 using dual power supplies and to my ears, nothing is going to beat this, I would guess a ND555 is on par. If I had to stream, your approach would definitely be mine.

I think the trade is definitely an attractive proposition for those CD player owners where repair is no longer an option. I appreciate Naim direction of travel is of course streaming and this encourages a source shift to better align things but they have always impressed me with the ongoing support for products, where possible.

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I can understand the enjoyment of handling physical media, though personally, other than the practical size of opera libretti, I never found CDs and their inserts particularly enjoyable, the writing in particular often uncomfortably small – and that was when I had younger eyes! However, I struggle to see how that has any bearing whatsoever or whether one chooses to play a whole album or not! I Almost invariably play albums in their entirety - and indeed with the great advantage of not having to turn over halfway through as with vinyl, or change CDs on albums longer than 80 minutes, there is no temptation whatsoever to abandon and play something else at that point.

As for browsing, I find that just as easy with my playing software, ditto picking an album at random should I so wish. But what I never have is a lost album because it was somehow put back in the wrong place, or wrong case!

I understand what you are saying and it very much sounds like your listening habits are much the same as those who own physical formats, I have however seen the opposite, with constant changing of tracks. Owning a Naim CD Player, the whole ritual of opening the lid, using the puck etc. is all part of the experience for me. In terms of finding albums, yes sometimes it can be a task, especially when the collection gets large!

Perhaps people of the iPod generation, who habitually just bought individual tracks to be able to boast about the number ic songs they had? Or perhaps the younger generation who have grown up with streaming, and have never understood the concept of an album? Always just people who always listened randomly rather than albums? I can see no reason whatsoever why streaming would change your album listening habits, other than as already mentioned the absence of temptation to change at the end of a disk/side.

Burn the witch!

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Very true