Naim Audio CD555 Reference Quality CD Player
Review of this British High-End Manufacturer's Audiophile CD Player
Aug 8, 2009
Naim Audio have made few compromises for their flagship CD555 CD player, first shown in 2005. The player is a satisfyingly black anodised solid aluminium case with some of the usual Naim quirks. No motorised drawers here, the CD555 is a top loader - a beautifully damped lid rises to reveal the CD transport. The disc is placed on the spindle and held in place with a small magnetic puck instead of the captive plastic clamp that lurks within most CD players.
All this is part of Naim's attention to detail; the magnetic clamp is centred better and has less inertia that the common alternative. However, this engineering fastidiousness comes at a slight price to usability. The user has to place the puck down somewhere in between changing CDs, and it can be hard to remember where that was when the lights are low and the wine has been flowing...
Analogue and digital electronics have their own separate power supplies, and the circuitry is carefully mounted on spring suspension to reduce the effects of vibration on the parts - CD players after all are normally used in a noisy environment unless in a separate room from the speakers.
Finally, for the ultimate performance, an external 555PS power supply is used, which supplies many part of the internal circuitry with electrically isolated power supplies to minimise the remotest chance of disturbances in one part of the player feeding through to affect others. It is possible to upgrade this player with an extra 555PS power supply, using one to supply the digital circuitry and the other to supply the analogue parts.
Naim CD 555 Sound Quality
The owner of the CD555 used it with an active Linn Isobarik system and the sound was indeed first class - the Naim characteristics of pace, rhythm and timing were all there, along with a beautifully transparent sound where the many strands that made up the music were clear in their own right, especially on older CDs that had not suffered from the appalling compression and degradations of mastering for maximum loudness.
There is a school of thought that asserts that all CD players sound the same, as the measured differences in the players should be less than the ear can perceive. A NAD 5420 player was substituted. That player was a reasonably well thought of budget player in the 1990s, with an output level specified at the same level as the CD555 2Vrms for 0dBFS at 1kHz.
The difference was remarkably clear. Whether or not the difference is worth the price of a car is of course up to the buyer to decide, but certainly the CD555 has greatly enhanced its owner's enjoyment of his CD collection since getting it. Listening to a CD555 at a Naim Summer Sounds event in 2009, most of the listeners seemed to prefer the CD555 to the new Naim CDX2, though the new Naim DAC performed well at that event and it would be interesting to compare the Naim DAC with the CD555.
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