I’ve finally made the jump to an ND555. I managed to negotiate a really good deal on an ND and another 555DR power supply. To be honest I’ve been sitting on the fence for a long time. I sold my CDP555 about three months ago and have been very happy with a lowly Node, Core, Ndac and 555DR power supply. I’ve borrowed my dealers ND555 on a couple of occasions but couldn’t really justify the cost vs. SQ gain between the two. Yes, the ND was good but so, surprisingly, was the Node and Ndac.
However, an ND555 with two power supplies really is a formidable weapon. Even from cold I knew this was going to be something special. The additional weight in the bass, the extra texture and layering, the detail, the vocals, the dynamics, the width, the depth, the shear musicality just multiplied substantially. I’m only one day in but if things continue to improve I’m going to be very happy. It’s just unfortunate that these improvements cost so bloody much!
Really enjoyed this thread and its my turn to contribute.
My dealer offered me a great deal on the new 222 and NC250. Previously been very happy with my SU for the past 11 yrs.
I’ve only had the new setup less than a month and I had family visiting so not much time spent listening.
Biggest difference so far is far more detail and a bigger soundstage at a lower volume which I’m sure my neighbours are also happy about.
Gaia III are ON. Wow, I’ve experimented with different feet over the years but none have given me such a huge uplift is sound quality! Everything you read about them is true for my system and speakers. The bass improvements are huge and also better separation, clarity, imaging etc. Highly recommended.
Are the plugs FI-50 (R) NCF? Please report impressions, thanks. Do you have the FI-28(R)? Burn in for this thing is very long. 5-6 months but well worth it.
Yes, they are the FI-50 (R) NCF ends, no experience with the FI-28 (R), all my current non powerline plugs are Furutech gold based. I haven’t got to installing the new ends yet, I want to be sure the NCF receptacles have settled in before making additional changes. I first installed the one in the wall, it had some swings in performance but not too bad (the receptacles were burnt in from the dealer), when I installed the second one in my power distribution bar for my DAC & phono, I also installed the matching NCF IEC inlet in the bar. This times the swings were far more prominent, so I want to give things 2-3 weeks to settle down (IEC inlet wasn’t burnt in). The plan is probably to first install the FI-50 (R) NCF ends on the cord from the wall to power bar. I’m thinking I’m going to swap to the DPS 4.1 cable here. I then may add the FI-50 (R) NCF male ends on the cords for my DAC & phono, & thinking about swapping to one of the FP-S series of cables on these locations. Initially was just thinking FP-S55N but it may be overkill for this type of component (& heavy gauge wire isn’t the easiest to work with on components that are rather light, when installed on a Fraim, as I currently have). So thinking of trying the S032 &S022. Probably keep my current gold ends on the IEC end of the DAC & phono to start & try swapping one out further down the road. With their cost, I’d like to have normally spread the changes out over a longer period of time, but I believe Furutech is having a global price jump of 15%, my dealer is saying on Oct 1st, so trying to get the majority before the bump.
Very interesting and good luck with testing. I have also experienced that Furutech wall sockets need up to 200-500 hours burn-in time and there are sometimes strong fluctuations before that. Similar is also true for power cords with NFC plugs. I have heard that NCF and gold components should not be mixed. I have not tried this out, I only use NCF. Do you also use a power distributor?
I believe the pre burn in must have helped some, as I said the swings were much greater when the second outlet was installed with the non burnt in IEC inlet. I don’t believe its the NCF itself that takes time to burn in, I believe its the very thick Rhodium coating that Furutech uses (just so happens that most of their NCF components also use rhodium). As far as mixing NCF & gold, again as far as I know its not an issue with NCF & gold, though it is a possible issue if you mix the different plating’s at the same connection, ie you want the two mating connectors to ideally be the same (say outlet & male plug), but you can have two different platings at the other end of the cord, that again are ideally the same as each other (say IEC & IEC inlet).
I’m in Canada, currently using a DIY power bar which consists of a heavy duty aluminum extrusion for the housing, believe 12awg OCC solid core copper, star wired, with a mix of Hubbell cryo treated outlets, which I have now swapped one out with the GTX NCF. IEC inlet if the Furutech NCF, with some Stillpoints ERS fabric lining for EMR/RFI.
Yes you are right and i was not sufficiently accurate. I thought Furutech NCF (Nano Crystal Formula) products all contain rhodium. But that is not the case. It is about the burn in time of rhodium products and the mixing of gold and rhodium products.
Congrats from Lucerne to Basel to this wonderful system. I have heard it at my dealer (Audiovinyl - I don’t know if you have the same) and it sounded awesome. Enjoy!
Finally picked up an NDX 2 to finish up my system. I love it. The battle with album art on my USB SSD displaying in the app is real, but the sound is wonderful. This is endgame for me now. Well, probably
Good to know. the GTX-D NCF is very good but long burn-in. In my experience, as Wilfried says it’s about 300 hours minimum, to 500 hours. Fluctuations with poor sound from 100 to 200+ hours.
I recently bought the TCS31 with FI-28 (R). It only started to sound good after 2.5 months. It’s sounding pretty good now and people say it takes about 5 months to get to its optimal performance. The FI-50 (R) NCF may take a slightly longer time due to the NCF material.
The way the components are powered up is really important from dedicated lines, wall outlet and mains power cable to power conditioner(if any) and finally components. It makes a big difference. I don’t have dedicated lines but use a power bank conditioner which further adds to the improvement.
The Tontrager stands are very expensive. I do worry about exotic woods and the governance .
I have Eucalyptus for my Harbeth , when you see the huge Eucalyptus forests in South Africa when driving up to the Mozambican border, governance is not an issue
in South Africa when driving up to the Mozambican border, governance is not an issue
