CD Player/Transport Reviews

NAD 5425 CD player Aunt Silly Airy Gear

Sidebar 2: Aunt Silly Airy Gear

Just about the only change I've made to my system has been replacing VTL's Compact 160 monoblocks with their larger KT90-version Deluxe 225s; I need more juice than the 160s were able to swing, and the triode-wired Deluxe 225s are just the ticket. The new 225s extend the virtues of the Compact 160s (triode mode only for these amps) further in nearly every direction, with even clearer midrange textures and Amazing Space. And as the new VTLs are too big to fit on the books I had the 160s sitting on, I've got the 225s up on sky-blue plastic milk crates courtesy of the local Safeway one night when I went to steal them (footnote 1).

Other gear used to evaluate the CD players under review included my own buffered passive preamp, Spica Angelus speakers in cahoots with the Muse Model 18 subwoofer, and the Theta DS Pro Basic and Audio Alchemy DDE v1.0 digital processors for comparison.

Interconnects included Straight Wire Maestro, AudioQuest Lapis, and XLO type 1, while speaker cable remained the Straight Wire Maestro. All gear was plugged into the Audio Express NoiseTrapper Plus and NoiseTrapper 2000 AC line conditioners. The book most often read while listening in order to avert my attention and thus achieve the highest right-brain sensitivity was Greil Marcus's Dead Elvis (Doubleday).—Corey Greenberg


Footnote 1: I'm pretty confident none of our readers are audiophile grocers; if you had to listen to Muzak underlaid with subliminal "Don't Eat Those Ding Dongs And Then Shove The Empty Wrapper Behind Those Cans Of Cling Peaches" messages all day long, the last thing you'd want to hear at quitting time would be music.
COMPANY INFO
NAD Electronics International
633 Granite Court
Pickering, Ontario L1W 3K1
Canada
(905) 831-6555
www.nadelectronics.com
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COMMENTS
Herb Reichert's picture
Submitted by Herb Reichert on February 9, 2017 - 2:35pm

Cory Greenberg wrote 763 very good words BEFORE he even mentioned the NAD CD player . . . just saying! LOL

Anton's picture
Submitted by Anton on February 9, 2017 - 3:43pm

I will take your word(s) for it!

;-D

I would love to see how a rediscovered new-in-box one of these would hold up for comparison nowadays.

dougspeterson's picture
Submitted by dougspeterson on February 10, 2017 - 3:09am

His entertaining writing led to his editorship of Audio magazine last issues, then years as tech editor at NBC Today, last seen extolling the virtues of wet shaving. The trail goes cold. Corey where are you?

Allen Fant's picture
Submitted by Allen Fant on February 13, 2017 - 1:19pm

I was just about to ask the same- dougpeterson

I began my subscription to Stereophile in 1993 (still a subscriber to date) and really enjoyed Corey's writings as well. I am not clear why he left the Audio press and/or stopped writing?
Hopefully, he is still involved w/ Audio?

Stardust Emblem's picture
Submitted by Stardust Emblem on December 13, 2017 - 2:00pm

Great to read that young new audiophiles come to audioland.

I played my cd collection for years on Philips CD players with much satisfying hours.
Later on i went on collecting NAD equipment and enjoy even more from music. I knew the good sides and bad sites of NAD.
What atracks me to NAD is the sobergrey finish, and than i can forget the equipment and feel the music.

It’s so fine, it kepts me not going into high end. No bling, just good sound.
But if i went on, and when i go to high end, i want it with McIntosh. I heard already a MA5300 with Sonus Faber loudspeakers, and yes it is good sound. But i realy want Dali Callisto. Much cheaper than McIntosh, and a lust for my eyes.

martin corr's picture
Submitted by martin corr on April 3, 2023 - 2:55am

So this review is from 2017 but the NAD was from 1988 or thereabouts. like back to the future. anyway I just picked up one (7 bucks), front drawer had come off and it looked beat up, and had a rattle that turned out to be a CD that has escaped inside. But fixed that plugged it in and oh my, it is really good. smooth and detailed sound, simple to look at. added to my nad 3020e amp from same time. now i just need to replace a set of mission 707s that I blew out.

John Atkinson's picture
Submitted by John Atkinson on April 3, 2023 - 4:15am
martin corr wrote:
So this review is from 2017 but the NAD was from 1988 or thereabouts. like back to the future...

This review was posted to the website in 2017, but as the heading also indicates, it was originally published in 1992.

John Atkinson
Technical Editor, Stereophile

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