| First shown and demonstrated
at The Hi-fi and Home Entertainment Show, Heathrow 23rd-25th September
2005, Naim's current reference CD player, the CD555 with 555PS
delivers the ultimate musical performance from a CD.
The CD555 makes no attempt to play DVDs, DVD-As or
SACDs. It doesn't have a digital output. Nor does it have a variable
output. The CD555 simply plays CDs and at that it excels. We are
confident that is the best CD player ever.
Key features of this fabulous player include a separate
power supply from a transformer secondary winding, which is triple
regulated, right through to the critical master clock and dejittering
circuitry. Special attention has also been paid to reducing capacitive
coupling of high frequency noises from other supplies into this
super quiet clock supply through interconnect cables and wiring
looms. Two Burndy interconnects between the power supply and head
unit disretely carry the digital and analogue supplies extend
the principle of reducing capacitive coupling between power supplies
as far as possible.
The power supply incorporates significant upgrades
over existing designs. More regulators have been used to isolate
the supplies to various parts of the circuit, minimising their
interaction.
The CD555 Digital-to-Analogue Converters are mounted in
a "quiet room". Apart from ensuring that all critical signals reaching
the DAC have immeasurably low jitter the chips are inside a shielded enclosure
to keep their environment free of the varying electric and magnetic fields
that inevitably occur in a CD player, so enabling the converters to do
their work isolated from all external influences.
Other noteworthy features of the CD555 include:
- a machined, heavy, solid transport tray to reduce resonance and vibration amplitude.
- high mass design to improve suspension characteristics, providing isolation from the chassis and other components.
- low infra red reflective coatings around the CD to reduce eye pattern interference and noise.
- an extremely low inertia and low resonance CD clamp.
- a Philips Pro CD mechanism with a die-cast chassis.
- a very heavy brass sub-chassis - separate for digital and analogue electronics.
- analogue stages, I-to-V conversion, filtering and output driver are built from discrete components.
- seven-pole output filters.
- a separate low jitter clock circuit with its own multi-stage regulated power supply.
- post-digital filter de-jitter circuitry to eliminate jitter.
- DACs are isolated from electric and magnetic fields.
- a motorised top loading door.
Features of the 555PS include:
- seven regulated power supplies including separate one for the clock circuitry.
- five secondary windings on the transformer.
- a transformer that is 40 per cent larger than that in the XPS2
- separate dedicated analogue and digital output sockets (Burndy) to minimise high frequency noise modulation of analogue supplies.
- backward compatibility with the CDS3 and CDX2.
- a low resonance case with isolating feet.
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