emperor's new clothes

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The new Na8005 has appeared on the website and appears to cover all formats including DSD - gaining popularity in the States. I have been very happy with the SBT, it's interface and its surprisingly good DAC- now upgraded with an irDAC. Does anyone with experience of more expensive streamers think that the Marantz would improve on the SBT/irDac combo? Listen mainly to internet radio, Radio Paradise and others, and stream some downloaded High res music but generally prefer CD. I auditioned the SA/PM8005 and was impressed, but decided that I have probably already bought my last disc player.

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Polleke_CGC

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dogg5306 said:
Is it already available?!? What are the other choices in the same price range? Any decent review yet?

Yes : it's available. Have one in my living room...

Decent reviews : haven't seen one yet, but I like what I'm hearing when I listen to it... Read a review of the SA8005 and I think soundwise they are very comparable...

I don't use it as DAC (via USB), just as mediaplayer with all the music-files on NAS. Works perfectly, even the DSD-files...
 

adamrobertshaw

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I bought a DSD capable DAC and as yet I can't find a single DSD tune I'd want to download to try it out.

Any suggestions on where's best to look?

I've always thought that my streamer sounded like a decent CD player but not as good as my CD transport.

With a streamer, the ease of use from a sofa using an i-pad makes it such a convenience when all I want to do is hunt down favourite tracks but still get quality playback.
 

adamrobertshaw

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I keep thinking I've bought my last disc player but the little voice keeps saying I should upgrade my current model to what should then be the final purchase.

But in answer to your main question, my Cyrus Stream X2 gives 90% of the quality of my CD player. The 10% that is lacking is lost somewhere among the NAS drive, ethernet cables and network switch.
 

Frank Harvey

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adamrobertshaw said:
But in answer to your main question, my Cyrus Stream X2 gives 90% of the quality of my CD player. The 10% that is lacking is lost somewhere among the NAS drive, ethernet cables and network switch.

At the risk of bringing down a shower of s***, pop along to your local dealer (whoever that may be) and borrow an AudioQuest Vodka ethernet cable - see what you think.
 

adamrobertshaw

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I'm not a cable sceptic. My VdH interconnect upgrades have brought significant sonic benefits.

I have a gigabit switch / decent cat 6 cables and I run a fast(?) 500 mbps network round the ring main (for data transfer from the computers to the NAS drives).

I've wondered about upgrading USB cables. Audiophile ethernet cables could be a wonder too far. The one you mention is £200+ for 75cm.

To me the issues with network streaming is the hardware. Just what noise do £40 network switches and sub £100 NAS drives add to the signal path?
 

Frank Harvey

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adamrobertshaw said:
I've wondered about upgrading USB cables. Audiophile ethernet cables could be a wonder too far. The one you mention is £200+ for 75cm.

I only mention that one as that is the one that we've had better feedback from - this one seems to be the one that shows the biggest difference. Of course, they start from less than £30. With the quality of equipment you have, it's at least worth a quick audition.
 

Polleke_CGC

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What do ethernetcables have to do with a NA8005 ;) ?

A good network-player is able to isolate the needed signal from the "unwanted". For ethernet a better cable won't have a great influance. When you stream for example a flac-file, the player needs to do a "unzip" of that file. In that proces there is plenty of room to get rid of unwanted influences...

Here the NA8005 does a better job, than my "old" CD-player when I use flac-files of the same quality streamed from my NAS...
 

adamrobertshaw

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I've been posting on a thread in the hi-fi section regarding cables; what's in the box vs. ''audiophile upgrades". Full spectrum of polarised opinions!!

However, if my internet set up / cat 6 cables are capable of passing through a full OSX upgrade successfully, then I don't see why some £200 ethernet cable would ever be necessary to pass a FLAC data file from a NAS to a streamer or a PC / Mac.
 

Ishmael

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Any more reviews on the NA8005? Thinking about picking one up for network player/DAC duties. Wondering about how good the DAC is.....
 

jon2020

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I just brought a unit home 3 weeks ago. At US$1199 retail, it was worth a calculated risk since the first network player, the NA11S1 was well received by Stereophile. The NA8005 piqued my interest for 2 reasons - one, it could play native dsd and hi res pcm files from a USB flash drive, and two, it has a coaxial digital output.

Once unpacked, set-up was a breeze for my primary objective of playing hi res files from a USB flash drive. So, no more computer and usb cables. It was simply connecting the NA8005 to my Esoteric K-01 player's coaxial input.

Fresh out of the box, the sound emanating from the usb flash drive plugged into the front panel port, was in a word, glorious. If I was previously happy with hi-res via the Esoteric's own software for hi res audio called the HRA player, I must say I am completely floored by what I heard in the first few minutes. It was incredible! I had this sudden epiphany of what hi res is really all about. It is truly that jaw-dropping. All I can say is that with usb flash memory as source, coupled to the K-01's DAC section, there are gobs and gobs of detail, and yet, oh so silky smooth. Not only that, the soundstage opened up while notes floated effortlessly beyond the speaker boundaries in width, depth and height.

Bass is prodigious without being boomy, while highs are airier and more extended. As for the midrange, it's a "you are there" or "she is in your living room" sort of experience. Transients are as impactful as they should be while dynamic range between pianissimo and fortissimo is widened by a country mile. Finally, it all has to be musical and indeed it is - the complete antithesis of "analytical". The 8005 is not partial to any genre, serving out classical, jazz, blues or rock in equal measure. As the cliché goes, it doesn't get any better than this.

For this minimalist set-up, no computer or software interface is needed. The player just reads off the data from the flash drive and the artist, album, track, file type and sampling rate info are all shown on the display.
I do not intend to use the network/streaming function as that would entail the use of a computer with usb and ethernet cabling to the home broadband modem/router. Any of this along the signal path may introduce jitter to some degree.

One huge plus in ditching the computer is the handheld remote that allows you to scroll through all your music folders and files instead of having to get off the chair and use the mouse to open them. Of course you can use the app on your smartphone or tablet to control the player but then you need a wireless connection to your computer for this. I personally prefer to turn off all wireless connections during playback.

Caveats :-
Only usb drives formatted as FAT16/32 are supported. Unfortunately, NTFS formatted SSD/disk drives cannot be played by the NA8005. If you wish to play from an NAS or SSD/disk drive via your computer, you need to use the internal dac. All computer usb connections need to go through the internal dac and then via analog outputs to the preamp. To connect directly to your own dac, only usb flash drives plugged into the front panel port allow digital output.

To everyone into computer audio, try to bring an NA8005 home for an audition. You may just finally bid goodbye to computer interfaces, hard disk drives, background noise, usb/ethernet cables, etc.
 

dogg5306

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I'm just wondering what the NA8005 worths against a Cambridge Audio Stream Magic 6 v2 or Naim ND5 XS...
whatchutalkingabout_smile.gif
 

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