The CD5si CD Player, especially when paired with the NAIT 5si integrated amplifier sets exciting new standards of musical performance in our entry level range. With so much attention paid to streaming audio and downloaded music it might be easy to forget about the humble CD. But at Naim we don't. After all the CD is still the most popular music format in the world and for many music lovers their CD collection is still the heart and soul of their music collections. This impressive machine, which replaces the previous CD5i, brings important benefits to the listener while maintaining the functionality and immediacy of use of the classic player. The CD5si was born to be best in class, including real technological improvements that allow for a truly immersive musical experience.
Characteristics
- Rigid cabinet in extruded aluminum which guarantees excellent resistance to external vibrations
- High-performance drawer and action, as in the premium CDX2 model, offer low-resonance, low-inertia operation
- Discrete analog and digital power supplies provide greater isolation to the most critical electronic parts
Technology and Construction
The CD5si player differs little in name from its CD5i predecessor but inside are many fundamental improvements and upgrades – each aimed at extracting greater musical enjoyment from every track. To start with, the CD5si's digital to analog converter chip has been replaced with a Burr Brown PCM1793 – a device very close to the one used in NDX's high-end streaming player. The CD5si also features a more stable DAC clock, higher voltage power paths, a redesigned analog filter, and all-new transport and laser optics. Naturally all these changes have been made to ensure superior reliability, better audio performance and sound quality, benefits confirmed in the many hours of listening to our tests. However, while changes may bring improvements, it's also not wrong to keep the good points of what you have, so the CD5si retains all the best features of its predecessor and its Naim hallmarks: the pivoting CD tray, laser tracking and digital read error correction software, discrete analog output electronics, a rigid, non-magnetic cabinet that allows the internal electronics to extract the most from each CD.