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Which of the NAIM olive CD players is the best ?

CDS - nailed vinyl. Just sold mine after 20 years.

CDS 2 very smooth but just not enough feeling and bottle.

Leema Antila II Eco fits the bill nicely now.
 
CDS: unbelievable when placed on a decent support which can be nothing more than a carpeted floor. My favorite hifi component of all time. This one nailed the coffin shut on vinyl for me.

CDS2: as good as my CDS is my CDS2 is considerably better with a cleaner top end and a complete absence of harshness in the upper mids which creeps up on occasion with the CDS. I'll be keeping mine until its wheels fall off.

CDS2 is better than any LP12, but vinyl doesn't end with the LP12.
 
CDS2 is better than any LP12, but vinyl doesn't end with the LP12.

I'd agree that vinyl doesn't end with the LP-12. I found one TT I liked as well if not better when I was searching hard and fast - Immedia's RPM1:

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However, I found the CDS better than both the LP-12 in any guise and the RPM.
 
CD3.5 + Flatcap or Hicap


Chris N

+1 I had one for over a decade as a second source as vinyl is king here. It saw off a CDX, CDS/XPS and a swish Meridian number (amongst others) and was only replaced when we moved to an NDS and the CDs went to the cellar.

Yes, those other CDPs were better, but the marginal improvement was so small as to not warrant the £££, or the change in presentation not to my taste. As an added bonus, I got back the best part of what I paid for the CD3.5 and FC when I sold them. I think they cost me about £35 a year all up.
 
The CD3 was superb player ... purchased 2nd hand ... used for at least 5 years ... never a glitch ... mostly used with small single ended valve amps into Reference 3a Royal Master Control loudspeakers.

Owned the CDS and matching power supply for about 18 months. Lordy that was a beautiful sound. I thought it somewhat colored ... but by analogy it was like Technicolor ... overly rich but so much fun.

This combination had two issues:

1. I had to play CDs from beginning to end ... it didn't like jumping to specified tracks;

2. The power supply took forever to warm up and reach its maximum fidelity ... like just silly long ... over a week to sound great and almost two weeks to maximize ... and I don't believe in that silly stuff ... but that was my experience.

WTS


My CDS power supply (the CDPS) when brand new took eight days to settle down. The swings during this period were rather shocking and never experienced to this extent before or since other than the first two hours or so after its one recap some sixteen years after first bringing it home.

I do get some small but consistent differences in sound quality around Day Four from a cold start. This was the case after a few power cycles during its first year and now two years after that recap. Boring but true.
 
+1 I had one for over a decade as a second source as vinyl is king here. It saw off a CDX, CDS/XPS and a swish Meridian number (amongst others) and was only replaced when we moved to an NDS and the CDs went to the cellar.

Yes, those other CDPs were better, but the marginal improvement was so small as to not warrant the £££, or the change in presentation not to my taste. As an added bonus, I got back the best part of what I paid for the CD3.5 and FC when I sold them. I think they cost me about £35 a year all up.


Interesting...my CD 3.5/HC is damn fine but still not up to par with my CDS or CDS2. I have heard from reliable sources a CD3.5/Supercap will beat a CDS in some areas but never owning a Supercap to test it....all good fun regardless;-)
 
Lou,

Level-matched and tested blind all CD players sound the same. Pick up a $30 DVD player from the grocery store. Don't fall for that audiophile nonsense, man.

From the frozen southwestern corner of Soviet Canuckistan, man.

Joe-ba-loo

__________________________
Independent suave dude and Trek aficionado

Joe-ba-loo,

Since you asked, I agree any old DVD player with a TOSLINK out run into any competent DAC will sound as good as any competent CD player regardless of price. I just think NAIM gear is cool and looks good on my shelf. The difference is that I'm not spouting psuedo science to justify the quality of any product.

By the way, I am very happy you have adopted the new "Joe-ba-loo" persona! Hopefully we can now say good bye to that dreary as dishwater "Joe P" persona.

Yours Truly from the slowly thawing Alberta foothills .....

The one and only Louballoo



SpockKirk1_zpsadfb4f21.jpg
 
I've used a CDI, CDS, CDS2 and CDS3. They are all good with slightly different sound.

You should be aware that the CDI/CDS transport has a nextel layer that wears out over time and disks will slip and skip. There is no real fix for this except to use pucks with more pieces of rubber (if you played with one, you'll understand what I mean). This may work but the sound does get compromised.

The CDS2 does not use the nextel layer so should be more reliable. Having said that, I've just replaced the transport in my CDS2 and it still skips on old disks! Think you just have to be prepared to deal with such issues if you are keen on an old CD player.
 
You should be aware that the CDI/CDS transport has a nextel layer that wears out over time and disks will slip and skip. There is no real fix for this except to use pucks with more pieces of rubber (if you played with one, you'll understand what I mean). This may work but the sound does get compromised.

Agreed, a double o-ring puck seems to diminish realism in a small but audible fashion compared to the single o-ring puck. Fortunately I never ran into those out-of-spec Warner Bros disks that required a double o-ring puck to track properly.

An explanation from a JV interview when asked about disk coupling to the transport mechanism:

"Yeah, because the motor, the actual turntable motor — and it's direct coupled, a direct drive — is being fed with all sorts of pulsing currents in order to keep it at the right speed and of course there's a lot of vibration. Now you feed that vibration straight into the disc, which again affects the clarity of the eye pattern. So what we do is to couple it at a frequency where you can drive the disc, but not so that all the energy from the motor is fed straight into the disc. Now obviously the tighter you clamp it to that the more vibration you're going to feed in there."
 
Lou,

louballoo said:
I'm curious, which of the NAIM olive CD players is the best?

louballoo said:
Since you asked, I agree any old DVD player with a TOSLINK out run into any competent DAC will sound as good as any competent CD player regardless of price.
Can't have best unless something else is worse.

Joe
 
Having owned both Naim players for extended period they are among the very best cd-players out there IMO
Admitted not many want/need a 2-box player
The original CDi and CDS was even better but sadly no serviceable, cool toploaders

Heard several Densen players and never came on with any of these, sorry can't share your optimism for Densen gear
Each to their own, but since you've not compared a B-400XS directly with Naim in your system, I'll take your opinion with a tablespoon of salt.
 
CDS2 is better than any LP12

Now you're just being silly - unless I had one of the Friday afternoon jobbies. CDS2 was a backwards step and didn't get close to vinyl. Boring player.
 
Had an CDS2 for 6+ years, an LP12 for 20+ years. CDS2 replaced by Rega Isis valve and LP12 has been boxed up for 3 years.
 
I don't necessarily understand the concerns around serviceability of the older top loaders - all you need is to either be handy with DIY, or have access to a decent engineer who is. As MJS alluded to above, the CDM9Pro lasers themselves are the same as the CDM9/44s - only the spin motor is different (and the bearings on it are substantial, I can't see it wearing out for a while), and it's pretty easy to swap out. Same goes for the earlier CDM4 based machines.

This year I guess I will source another known good 9/44 based player, so I future proof my CDI past the useful life of the NOS laser unit I transplanted into mine in 2007.

Fantastic player...I may even get around to bodging in the Flea I have had sitting here for years at some point :)

On the CDI vs my LP12 - it is mostly down to source quality - but if both CD and vinyl are good then I still prefer the LP12 (pre-circus with a Sole subchassis).

Richard
 
Agreed, a double o-ring puck seems to diminish realism in a small but audible fashion compared to the single o-ring puck.

My view has always been, that no matter how good the sound might be with the original puck, the fact remains that it doesn't work properly, and its use will almost always lead to premature transport failure.

In my early days of CDS ownership, I tried all kinds of experiments with pucks. The hub was already showing signs of advanced wear, and it was impossible to skip between tracks. On occasions, the transport would shudder, making the most horrendous noise as it tried to access the tracks. Once I had tried one of the later pucks, I never looked back; I find now, that the cd player works perfectly, and as far asI can tell, it sounds very good too, and what's more, wear on the hub appears not to have gotten any worse
 
Now you're just being silly - unless I had one of the Friday afternoon jobbies. CDS2 was a backwards step and didn't get close to vinyl. Boring player.
+1.

When I had the CDS2, I was forever looking for vinyl versions of new music by default, and would grudgingly buy the CD version if the LP isn't available. Given how much my second-hand CDS/XPS cost me, it was the worst buy ever.

I probably had the other Friday afternoon jobbies.
 
Lou,

Level-matched and tested blind all CD players sound the same. Pick up a $30 DVD player from the grocery store. Don't fall for that audiophile nonsense, man.

From the frozen southwestern corner of Soviet Canuckistan, man.

Joe-ba-loo

__________________________
Independent suave dude and Trek aficionado

Only if it is on 30 levels of Mana
 
I didn't like the original CDS particularly. The CD3.5 was rough as a badger's. The CDX was pretty good, but a bit hard and lightweight without the XPS. I've owned a CDS2 since 2001, but not used it in 4 years, due to the arrival of the nDac and SBT/TTouch.
 
john.

i'm about to shift from cdx/xps to a nain network player. what do you suggest?

i have a uniqute2 in the office and it is very, very good.


vuk,
 
My view has always been, that no matter how good the sound might be with the original puck, the fact remains that it doesn't work properly, and its use will almost always lead to premature transport failure.

In my early days of CDS ownership, I tried all kinds of experiments with pucks. The hub was already showing signs of advanced wear, and it was impossible to skip between tracks. On occasions, the transport would shudder, making the most horrendous noise as it tried to access the tracks. Once I had tried one of the later pucks, I never looked back; I find now, that the cd player works perfectly, and as far asI can tell, it sounds very good too, and what's more, wear on the hub appears not to have gotten any worse

My CDS is nineteen years old now, still has it's original transport and works without issues other than randomly accessing tracks is a thing of the past due to Nextel ring wear. I've only ever used the factory-supplied single o-ring pucks (six kept in rotation;-)
 


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