I dragged out the UK Decca box of the Beethoven Piano Concertos with Vladimir Askenazy, Georg Solti, and the…
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When I compared the Dark Side of the Moon SACD directly out of the dCS and then through the Naim, the preamp won hands down: more weight, more punch, more body, and, mostly, more control. Purists would argue that the preamp was "adding" these things, but what I think I heard was the NAC 552 allowing the power amp to get a much better grip on the speakers from top to bottom. If there was a slight loss of transparency, it was so minor I didn't notice it with this kind of music.
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Remote-controlled, solid-state preamplifier with separate power supply. Frequency response, S/N Ratio, THD: all not specified. Input impedance: 100k ohms. Input sensitivity: 75mV for 775mV output. Main output level: 775mV. Output impedance: ±50 ohms. Overload margins: 40dB (all inputs, all audio frequencies). Tape output level: 75mV, sourced from 600 ohms.
Dimensions: 16.8" (432mm) W by 3.4" (87mm) H by 12.2" (314mm) D (preamp and power supply). Weight: 42 lbs (19kg) each.
Serial number of unit reviewed: 185074 (preamp), 185076 (power supply…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog sources: Simon Yorke S7, V.Y.G.E.R. Atlantis turntables; Immedia RPM-2, Graham 2.2 tonearms; Lyra Titan, Audio Tekne MC-6310, Transfiguration Temper W cartridges; McIntosh MR-67 FM tuner.
Digital sources: Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 3D CD player; dCS Elgar Plus/Verdi/Purcell SACD/CD-to-DSD playback system; Alesis Masterlink ML-9600 hard-disk/CD-R recorder.
Preamplification: Hovland HP-100 preamplifier, Manley Steelhead phono preamplifier.
Power amplifier: Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 300.
Loudspeakers: Audio Physic Avanti III, Wilson WATT/…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
Measured using its RCA input and output jacks, the Naim preamp offered a maximum gain of 21.1dB, requiring just 88mV at 1kHz to give an output of 1V. (This is very slightly higher than the specified sensitivity.) The unity-gain position on its volume control was 11 o'clock. The NAC 552 didn't invert absolute polarity, and the input impedance was a more or less constant 38.5k ohms across most of the audioband, this dropping inconsequentially to 34k ohms at 20kHz.
The output impedance was a very low 3 ohms at middle and high frequencies, this figure…
Give an engineering team a blank page and a blank check and there's no telling what they'll come up with. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, for example, one company showed a $25,000 CD transport with laser-pickup mechanism that was separate from its disc drive—almost the cosmic equivalent of having the sun revolve around the earth.
This is not the kind of thing that Naim's cautious engineers would likely come up with, even if given a blank check. The company's products exude a quirky but fundamentally conservative approach to industrial design and…
George told me that Naim's listening and measuring confirmed that circuit-board design and parts layout are critical to controlling jitter. Thus, signal paths are kept short, ground planes are carefully considered, and the master clock—the heart of any CD player—is a special circuit originally implemented for the current top of Naim's CDP line, the CDS-II.
The onboard power supply has 12 individually tested voltage regulators, and a transformer with two secondary windings: one for the digital circuitry and transport, one for the analog circuitry.
I auditioned the CD5 as a…
I didn't play Ry Cooder and V.M. Bhatt's A Meeting by the River (Water Lily Acoustics WLA-CS-29-CD) without the Flatcap 2 installed, but with it, the CD5 kept me in my seat for the CD's entire length. I've heard the strings on Bhatt's mohan vina (his own design) and Cooder's slide guitar sound brighter and more convincingly metallic, and the percussion "pop" with somewhat greater relief, and I've heard a more persuasive rendering of the acoustic space (a chapel in Santa Barbara, California) and the air within it, but never had the overall presentation of this remarkable recording been so…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
CD5: Single-box CD player. Frequency response: 10Hz-20kHz, +0.1dB, -0.5dB. Output level: 2.0V RMS at 1kHz. Output impedance: 10 ohms max. Phase response: linear phase, absolute-phase correct. De-emphasis: ±0.25dB referred to main response. Distortion and noise: ±0.1%, 10Hz-18kHz at full level.
Dimensions: 16¾" W by 1 7/8" H by 11¾" D. Weight: Not noted.
Serial number of unit reviewed: 167496.
Price: $2250.
Flatcap 2: Outboard power supply for use with Naim components.
Dimensions: 16¾" W by 1 7/8" H by 11¾" D. Weight: Not noted.
Serial number…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog source: Simon Yorke turntable, Graham 2.0 and Immedia RPM2 tonearms, Lyra Parnassus D.C.t and Lyra Helikon cartridges.
Digital source: Camelot Technologies Round Table DVD player with HDCD.
Preamplifiers: Hovland HP-100, Ayre K-1x.
Loudspeakers: Sonus Faber Amati Homage, Audio Physic Rhea subwoofer.
Cables: DIN-RCA: Hovland Music Groove. Interconnects: Harmonic Technology Pro-Silway II; fitted with Naim DIN connectors, Chord, Nordost Blue Heaven and Quattro Fil. Speaker: Harmonic Technology Magic Woofer. AC: JPS Labs, Electra Glide.
…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I mostly measured the CD5's performance with the Flatcap 2 power supply, though I did repeat some of the tests without the external supply powering the analog stages. (I used the Chord Cobra DIN/RCA adapter cables supplied with the CD5.) The Naim's error correction was superb, the player not missing a beat until track 34 of the Pierre Verany Test CD, which has 2mm gaps in its data spiral. Its maximum output level was 0.7dB higher than specified, at 2.171V, and the output was non-inverting. The output impedance was a very low 2.5 ohms across most of the audioband,…