Fabulous, musical sound

Really needs the extra power supply to sing

Ok, must say off the bat that the steaming pile of crap from Sony canNOT compare to the CD5.

This is a terrific CDPlayer. Excellent timing, authoritative bass with great attack; it has an open, effortless sound. Very musical. Delivers plenty of slam yet has a deft, delicate touch.

Only the Arcam comes close, and even then it's a distant second. The Sony? Oh please. Hard and shrill, lacking in bass and sloppy above all. Great for inducing headaches after prolonged listening.

Adding an external powersupply like the hicap ups the ante even further - the CD5 really sings then, with greater smoothness and delicacy.

If you're interested in listening to music rather than the electronics, then start here.

Some minor quibbles: styling is a little controversial, some love it, some hate it. But hey, are you listening to music or watching the box? Also, you're really missing out unless you add the powersupply, which is a nontrival purchase ($900-$1500).

Music comes out; not bits.
Expandibility with optional power supply

A good 50 hours run-in is required to get the real sound of this amazing player.

My wife and me performed a blind test of this player on a CD record compared to a standard DVD player (half the price of the Naim) with the same album with DVD-Audio record (The corrs - In blue).

DVD-Audio player with CD : really bad. Violins are awful. Voices are "electronic". (10/20)
DVD-Audio play with DVD-Audio : much better about dynamics. But still lacking an analog feeling. (13/20)
Naim CD5 player with CD : far better. At last, it is music, with a 3D scene, liquid voices. (17/20)

The only CD player I heard which seemed better were the Naim CDS and YBA CD3.

Existing DVD-players that reach this quality for audio are around 4000$

At last, I can go back to my 60s verve recording of Ella Fitzgerald with an immense pleasure...

Laurent

Great Build Quality

Compressed sound

I was surprised that I was disappointed after auditioning this CD player. I really expected to keep this one. I found the sound to be compressed. When compared to the Meridian 566.24 DAC (Pionner Elite for transport), the Naim was geometrical (or boxy). However, the sound was much better for classical music than any other genre. It really gets down to matching systems, and this did not match mine.

Similar Products Used:

Meridian

musical, dynamic, it disappears and lets the music through

unknown

A brilliant design that when combined with the Flatcap power source improves in subtle yet satisfying ways. Classical and popular music play well; vocals and large barnburning opera are presented with intimacy, definition and a sense of space and place.
This is it for me. Well built, fast and balanced; even the clever swing door adds to the magic.

Similar Products Used:

Arcam 7,8,9 etc

Everything, as many know, naim is picky when it comes to burning in times, but this one is good out of the box, and can only get exceptionally better

for this price range, there is nothing that is significant

This cd player is truly awesome, the dynamics, transparency, to the rythm are all outstanding. The bass is defined and the mids and highs are sweet and clear. The timing is just amazing on this cd player. It goes exceptionally well with my Naim NAP 90 power and pre amp. There is nothing that will beat this cd player for the money, it is even better when paired with a flatcap and a naim amp with naim wire for everything. $2000 is a huge hunk of cash, but if you are a serious music enthusiast, it is well worth it. just make sure to keep it on always, and don't have your final say about it till about 2 or three months of burn in time.

Similar Products Used:

cambridge audio, linn, rega, yba, musical fidelity, classe, marantz, krell, mark levinson etc.

Excellent design and integrates well with my Naim Nait5 amp.

No optical output.
New price is too expensive for me!
Special Naim SNAIC interconnects sold at an unbelievable UKL 53 each!!!

Excellent image and clarity. Can't really fault it. It would be nice to have had an optical output so I could copy discs onto Minidisc for portable use.

I have just purchased a second-hand Flat-Cap 2 PSU which will supply the analogue stages of the CD5 and the pre-amp stages of the Nait5. It should arrive on Tuesday of next week and then there will be a further improvement.

Similar Products Used:

Various including Quad and Technics CD transport with external DAC.

Dynamics, Pace and Rythm

DIN Connector

This is a state of the art sounding CD player that does alot near perfect and very few wrong (more on this later). It has fast dynamics, very good resolution and timing. This makes most genre's of music involving from rock to jazz to classical. Meridian is a very good player especially the 588 but it does sound a bit slow compared to the CD5 though it tends to give a good insight into the music, it is beaten overall. Arcam FMJ didn't sound like it's DCS Elgar counterpart and again loses out on timing, dynamics and bass. No doubt the ML390's beats the NAIM but still a bit lacking on dynamics. It does make up for ease of music and pure enjoyment (of course not diminished returns given the 4x in price). My system here compose of :
ML 390s (reference CD player)
NAIM CD5
Jadis JA200
Jadis JP80MC
JM LAB Mini-Utopia
Kimber Select cables
Chang Lightspeed conditioner

5 STARS ON VALUE, 5 STARS IN SOUND QUALITY! HARD TO BEAT BELOW $4000!!

Similar Products Used:

Meridian 588, 508.24, 506.24, ArcamFMJ CD23T, Linn Genki and ML 390s

Analog sound, bass.

DIN Plug

Since the first bogus review has not been removed I will continue to post reviews that will bring this players standings up.

Similar Products Used:

Arcam FMJ CD23

Bass,midrange

price,Naim interconnect terminals

I auditioned both the Naim CD5 and the Arcam CD23 at the same store, on the same date, both using the same components. I like blues (if you can call Stevie Ray Vaughn blues), rock & roll, and heavy metal. So that is what I used to review these players.
What I found was that the Arcam FMJ CD23 was superior in the midrange and the treble. The bass was a bit lacking though. The Naim CD5 excels at this. After auditioning the two back to back I hooked up the Flatcap to the CD5 and was rewarded with an improved trebble and a slightly better midrange with greater coheriancy of all instruments when more than a couple are playing at the same time.
Without the flatcap the Arcam FMJ CD23 takes a slight edge, and I mean slight. With the Flatcap the Naim CD5 takes the lead, but adds another $900.
I am giving the Naim CD5 a 5 * rating because of the LAME first review that will continue to haunt its rating. Why aren't obvious bogus reviews removed?

Similar Products Used:

Arcam FMJ CD23

tank like build quality,never sounds dull

none as yet

i was useing a vrds 10 player and it sounded great but was unsure if the bass was right, i had it for a few years.
but i had a dem of the cd5 it was ok but not sure if it was any better, so i took it home and the difference was so vast in sound i was hooked,my own player was one note bass, not with this one, it sounded like someone opened the window and let all the sound come out i am playing all my old cd's like if they are new one's, by the way the price above is uk pounds, i would like to say to naim well done what a great player, so i got the power supply and it's even better sounding now
thanks naim

Similar Products Used:

teac vrds 10 cd player