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Thread: Naim Listing One CD Player - Sign Of The Times ?

  1. #51
    Join Date: Jan 2008

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    Quote Originally Posted by Beobloke View Post
    FWIW, though, not only did I think the CD sounded best in those demos, I think I've only heard one streaming setup that really captivated me (ironically, given how this thread started - it was a Naim streamer.). Other than that, streaming always sounds technically very precise but very sterile and soulless. As someone once said to me about a certain item of hi-fi equipment which shall remain nameless - "It's like it takes the music and then magically manages to remove all the music from it".
    Then you must not be doing it right, most likely in terms of using SMPS, on your computer-related gear, as opposed to the fully-regulated linear variety, which in my experience is what can give flie-based audio its "soulless" quality, and which I do agree is a problem until suitably rectified. You have to successfully combat the noise.

    Since I removed all cheapo SMPS units from my streaming set up, and powered anything computer-related from a separate mains block, to the components making up my system, it simply sounds as 'musical' as the music itself allows!

    It's also important to use a non-clinical sounding DAC, something with a bit of 'meat on the bone', to eliminate any likelihood of sterility. Also, always stream music direct from your own sources/hard-drives (using minimum FLAC-quality files), not from an external source, such as Spotify, or worse YouTube.

    Do all that, and steamed music NEVER sounds soulless!

    Dragging the thread back to its start, I'm gutted that the Naim CD-555 is no more. I always loved that thing - not only for the sound (I still maintain it's the best CD player I have heard to date) but mainly for the utterly delightful loading lid action!
    Yeah, I completely agree... Crazily expensive, but undoubtedly state-of-the-art engineering in a player, and the pinnacle of how to extract music most accurately from the humble compact disc!

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  2. #52
    Join Date: Nov 2008

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    Quote Originally Posted by alphaGT View Post
    The question remains, if Naim is going to limit their line to a single player, why didn’t they keep their top of the line player?

    Perhaps this model is the best selling? Or meets a price point? Quite often corporate decisions don’t rely on logic?

    Russell
    I think the answer is incresingly audio companies are finding it harder to find quality drive mechanisms. Esoteric/Teac no longer supply their drives to second party companies (so I have read) so it may be the case that the stocks of other drives are increasingly not available and smaller companies lack the resources to develop their own or modify other drives, DVD/Blu Ray.

    For a long while now computers, laptops etc are not coming with drives, with many more switching to streaming movies the supply of DVD/Blu Ray drives are drying up, at a guess, so less options to use to play back physical optical discs. This I think has led to some companies, the smaller ones stopping making CD players. In away we are back to the early days of CD, where it was easier to make a DAC, these days its a DAC, streamer, or file player, not a physical disc player. Of course sales of CDs are down and maybe that is a factor as well, or both, a perfect storm.

    The thing I find most disconcerting is the abandoning of wanting to own physical items, to have control over those, be able to collect, pass on etc (same to a degree with books) so increasingly people are paying money for nothing, nothing to show, no collection, nothing. To my mind this is the emperors new clothes.

    Re the sound quality, I am still a CD, SACD enthusiast, in my set up, files don't sound as good and I don't stream except the likes of You Tube.
    Regards Neil

  3. #53
    Join Date: Oct 2015

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    Quote Originally Posted by nonuffin View Post
    Maybe that Naim have the good sense to avoid using slot loading mechs in their players. They really are a bag of shite.
    I hate them too. Wouldn’t touch a player with one. I don’t like the way they make you handle the disk and I don’t trust them to avoid scratching my CDs either. Look and feel crap too.

  4. #54
    Join Date: Apr 2018

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    Quote Originally Posted by Scooby View Post
    I hate them too. Wouldn’t touch a player with one. I don’t like the way they make you handle the disk and I don’t trust them to avoid scratching my CDs either. Look and feel crap too.
    Auditioned two players with slot loading drives and both of them wouldn't unload the disc. One of them accepted a disc and said "NO DISC" in the display without playing at all, the other one would play a disc but not eject. With car CD players being so unreliable for that same reason, you would think the manufacturers would be as wary of them as we are.
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  5. #55
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    You get good and bad ones Had a few that marked discs but the o e in my car is excellent and not marked any in all the years Ive used it.
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  6. #56
    Join Date: Apr 2015

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dalek Supreme D L View Post
    I think the answer is incresingly audio companies are finding it harder to find quality drive mechanisms. Esoteric/Teac no longer supply their drives to second party companies (so I have read) so it may be the case that the stocks of other drives are increasingly not available and smaller companies lack the resources to develop their own or modify other drives, DVD/Blu Ray.

    For a long while now computers, laptops etc are not coming with drives, with many more switching to streaming movies the supply of DVD/Blu Ray drives are drying up, at a guess, so less options to use to play back physical optical discs. This I think has led to some companies, the smaller ones stopping making CD players. In away we are back to the early days of CD, where it was easier to make a DAC, these days its a DAC, streamer, or file player, not a physical disc player. Of course sales of CDs are down and maybe that is a factor as well, or both, a perfect storm.

    The thing I find most disconcerting is the abandoning of wanting to own physical items, to have control over those, be able to collect, pass on etc (same to a degree with books) so increasingly people are paying money for nothing, nothing to show, no collection, nothing. To my mind this is the emperors new clothes.

    Re the sound quality, I am still a CD, SACD enthusiast, in my set up, files don't sound as good and I don't stream except the likes of You Tube.
    All very good points. And I’m sure you’re right, the falling off of CD sales must relate to the falling off of player sales.

    And I agree with you on the new way of “selling” music, record companies have been whining for years about people copying their albums on to cassettes for use in their cars, calling it piracy, etc. so, this new method of renting the music solves it all nicely. They get paid per play, and while the record companies and artists are making less money then ever, they asked for it. And it is not lost on me that if an artist should voice an opinion that the corporate big wigs don’t agree with, their music can be squashed out of existence with the push of a button! If your music voices a political view that is not popular, no one will ever hear it. Big brother is bearing down on us. Or perhaps even worse, they will allow it, and watch who all listens to it, and mark you as an enemy of the state? Much like today, the cops run child pornography sites, and then go bust anyone looking at it. No one opposes busting child pervs, but who is next? It sets a bad precedence. But I am way off topic!

    I hear that some 7% of vinyl buyers don’t even own a record player. They buy them for the album covers, and just to own it. Many new “hi end”, vinyls include a free download. Why exactly? I have talked to my daughter and son in law, to be sure they take my vinyl collection and keep it in good condition after I pass, my son in law is a vinyl convert. I really shouldn’t care what happens to it once I’m gone, but somehow I do. My CD collection is not as extensive but I don’t want it thrown out either.

    I figure I’ll wind up streaming sooner or later, but for now my vinyl playback is still top dog. And CD is very close second, and gets more use than the record player, for convenience. Perhaps if I start streaming I’ll forget about both of them? Convenience will outweigh performance? Unless of course streaming starts sounding better than the others? I still will never part with my collection.

    Russell

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