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Which of the NAIM olive CD players is the best ?

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,
I have a Naim nDac/XPS2 fed by a Squeezebox Touch with Teddy Pardo TTouch PSU which I feel is as good as anything, at any price. Personally, the Naim streamers do not appeal to me as they do not support Spotify (or any other internet based music service). I also feel that 99% of the sound of a streamer is due to the DAC implementation, so Naim have rather shot themselves in the foot by providing a DAC at a much lower price than their streamer.

I agree with you though, that the UnitiQute is great, I have two of the early 24/96 mkI devices and they are great.
John
 
Yes agreed, i have a UnitQute 24/96 which is a very special unit. Not presently being used but it will get integrated back into one of my systems soon.
 
Vuk,
I have a Naim nDac/XPS2 fed by a Squeezebox Touch with Teddy Pardo TTouch PSU which I feel is as good as anything, at any price. Personally, the Naim streamers do not appeal to me as they do not support Spotify (or any other internet based music service). I also feel that 99% of the sound of a streamer is due to the DAC implementation, so Naim have rather shot themselves in the foot by providing a DAC at a much lower price than their streamer.

I agree with you though, that the UnitiQute is great, I have two of the early 24/96 mkI devices and they are great.
John

Especially true with the Dac V1 and USB.
 
How do CDS3 and CD555 compare to the all-conquering (to some, at least) CDS (in muscial, rather than hi-fi terms)?

In my opinion, the later players were vastly superior, as you would expect, as a lot was learnt about digital replay in the intervening years. There seems to be a degree of revisionism going on at the moment, the first CDS was pretty average and typical of digital replay at the time.
 
Many years ago I hosted a shootout between the CDS, CDX (with and without the XPS) and the Linn CD12 which at $20,000 back in the 1990s set a new standard for price.

I had no problem choosing the CDS as the winner, although the CD12 did have an edge in crispness.
 
How do CDS3 and CD555 compare to the all-conquering (to some, at least) CDS (in muscial, rather than hi-fi terms)?

The only one I owned was a CDS, but I'm pretty sure that the CDS3 and CD555 were better in most respects. I didn't like the CDS2 much. I think the CD555 probably got as much out of CD as there was to be had, until rip and stream came along...
 
In my opinion, the later players were vastly superior, as you would expect, as a lot was learnt about digital replay in the intervening years. There seems to be a degree of revisionism going on at the moment, the first CDS was pretty average and typical of digital replay at the time.

Absolutely right. The number of rose tinted (pink?) hearing aids on here is something you get used to. :D
 
The Linn CD12 sounds rather peculiar. It has a noisy PS.

Naim CDS3 is a soporific player, and isn't Olive. It was hastily dropped after a short run. The CDS2 is the best Olive player.
 
Naim CDS3 is a soporific player, and isn't Olive. It was hastily dropped after a short run. The CDS2 is the best Olive player.

If I recall correctly, it was the CDS2 that had a fairly short run as the new style cases and CDS3 came out within a couple of years. I think, the electronics in the CDS2 and CDS3 were very similar, it was the new case and some mechanical improvements to the transport that differentiated the two. The XPS2 was also better than the XPS and I believe that was the main improvement.
 
How is 10 years a short run and hastily dropped?? and soporific..... Me thinks not.

I don't care what you think.

I compared the CDS3 with the CDS2 in my system over a period of three days, and the CDS3 was clearly inferior. If it had been better, I would have bought it. I have enough money.

In any case, it is not Olive.
 
If you are not interested, why are you commenting on it? The CDS3 is not an Olive player. And it isn't very good in any case.
 
If you are not interested, why are you commenting on it? The CDS3 is not an Olive player. And it isn't very good in any case.

You are the one that brought up the CDS3. Seems you can't talk about Naim CD players without bringing up your very minority view of S2/S3. Like i said, get your facts right about the 'short' lifespan.
 
No I didn't bring up the CDS3. Why would I? It's not Olive.

And I don't care if my opinion about it is minority. It's definitely not as good as the CDS2.
 
No I didn't bring up the CDS3. Why would I? It's not Olive.

And I don't care if my opinion about it is minority. It's definitely not as good as the CDS2.

You are right, you were commenting on a previous poster's comment, fair enough, didn't see that. Your opinion of the CDS3 counts for nothing however, like mine it's just an opinion.
 
You are right, you were commenting on a previous poster's comment, fair enough, didn't see that. Your opinion of the CDS3 counts for nothing however, like mine it's just an opinion.

No. I compared the two via a very high-resolution system over three days. The CDS3 was not as good as the CDS2. It wasn't close.
 


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